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At The End Of The 19th Century And The First Half Of The 20th Century In Austria, There Was A Lot Of Anti-semitism. Anti-semitism In Austria Was Much More Pervasive Than In Germany. And Austrians Took To Nazi Ideas And Anti-semitism Much More Readily Than Germans Did, Really.

-Viggo Mortensen

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Viggo Mortensen

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At The End Of The 19th Century And The First Half Of The 20th Century In Austria, There Was A Lot Of Anti-semitism. Anti-semitism In Austria Was Much More Pervasive Than In Germany. And Austrians Took To Nazi Ideas And Anti-semitism Much More Readily Than Germans Did, Really.

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Those Who Have The Power And Should Be The Most Responsible Are Often The Least Responsible.

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Awards For Arts, Where You Make Comparisons, Don't Make Much Sense.

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I'm Sort Of Contrary And Stubborn Sometimes. When Everybody Says, 'you Have To Read This Book! You Have To Read This Book!' I'm Like 'oh, I'll Get Around To It.'

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I Pursue The Things I Do Because I'm Interested In Them.

Can You Join, Ask Sincerely For Affection Without Sweaty Hand Of Expectation, Understanding And Accepting If It Never Is Given?

It's Always Interesting To Play A Character That Obviously Has A Secret.

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It Doesn't Matter How Bad Things Are, Something Good Could Happen Always. And It Doesn't Matter How Many Excuses You Have For Behaving In An Unkind Manner Towards Others. There's Never Any Excuse For Not Being Kind And It's Always Better To Be Kind Even If It Seems Pointless And That In Fact Is The Highest Wisdom - Being Kind. It Sounds Like A Very Noble, Ethereal, Simplistic Idea But It's True.

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I'm Not Afraid Of Death, But I Resent It. I Think It's Unfair And Irritating. Every Time I See Something Beautiful, I Not Only Want To Return To It, But It Makes Me Want To See Other Beautiful Things. I Know I'm Not Going To Get To All The Places I Want To Go.

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Speaking More Than One Language And Living In A Multicultural Family And Environment Did Not Seem Like Anything But What It Was: The World I Lived In.

I Have To Say That I Think Bernie Sanders Is The First Politician Since Dennis Kucinich That I've Been Truly Inspired By. Where You Actually Are Truly Speaking Truth To Power, In A Legitimate Way And In An Unpretentious And Very Straightforward Way.

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Life Is Short And The Older You Get, The More You Feel It. Indeed, The Shorter It Is. People Lose Their Capacity To Walk, Run, Travel, Think, And Experience Life. I Realise How Important It Is To Use The Time I Have.

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When I Land In A Country And They Ask For 'occupation,' I Always Just Put 'artist.' I Think That Covers All Of It.

A Little Recognition Is Not A Bad Thing Because It Means People Appreciate Your Work. The Only Problem Is When You Can't Walk Down The Street Or Have A Meal Without People Looking At You. I Want To Be The One Looking At People.

In The End, The Actor's Main Power Is The Power To Say, 'no.'

Perhaps The Itinerant Upbringing My Brothers And I Had Has Something To Do With My Continued Interest In Perspectives Different From My Own.

I Don't Like People Who Get Into Fights About Football - Or Anything Else.

I Know People Who Prepare Their Roles In Such A Way That They Technically Look Ahead And Memorize Their Gestures, And Then They Stick To It. Those That Are Technically Proficient Enough Can Make It Seem Natural, But They Do That And Don't Really Take In What Other People Are Doing.

It Is Important To Keep Protesting, To Keep Forcing A Conversation In The Public Arena. In Any Case, When You Know What The Right Thing To Do Is, Or That Something Must Be Said, It Can Be Immoral And Dangerous Not To Act.

If You Daren't Enter The Forest, Or Cannot Find It, Then Perhaps You Might Find One Tree, Or A Place Where A Tree Could Be, And Just Stop For A Quiet Moment To See What Happens.

Pinochet And Barack Obama Both Have The Same Primary Goal, And That's To Be President And Stay President As Long As Allowed.

I Now Realize That I Was Very Fortunate To Have Grown Up In Many Different Places, Surrounded By All Kinds Of People, All Kinds Of Points Of View.

I Don't Think Special Attention Should Be Given To An Actor Or A Singer Or A Baseball Player Or A Soccer Player More Than Anyone Else, But They Do Have An Opinion Like Anyone Else.

Here's Where We Are, This Is What's Happening. So Do Something, Or Get Out Of The Kitchen.

With Few Exceptions, One Ought Always Do What One Is Afraid Of.

I Have No Idea What 'method Actor' Means.

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America Is An Empire In Decay. But We Don't Have To Lash Out And Do Damage On The Way Down. We Can Reverse Some Of The Damage We've Done. It's Possible.

Jung Viewed Freud As A Mentor, But He Never Wanted To Be Anybody's Disciple.

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When There Is Conflict, It's Good To Step Away, Even For Five Minutes, Because You Could Say Terrible Things That You Can't Take Back, So It's Best To Walk Away.

I Think We're On The Wrong Path In This Country And Have Been For A While. People Are In Their Camps Divided By Region, Economic Situation, Race, Religion, Ideology. And There's A Lot Of Just Staying In Your Camp Using Technology To Bolster Your Case Without Actually Debating With Other People, Without Discussing.

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To Find A Good Story, You’re Generally Going To Find It In Independent Or Lower Budget Movies... I Wouldn’t Mind Doing A Big Budget Movie If It Had A Great Story.

Be Kind. It's Worthwhile To Make An Effort To Learn About Other People And Figure Out What You Might Have In Common With Them. If You Allow Yourself To Be Somewhat Curious - And If You Get Into The Habit Of Doing That - It's The First Step To Being Open Minded And Realizing That Your Points Of View Aren't Totally Opposite.

If In My Twenties I'd Gotten One Of The Two-dozen Roles That I Did Screen Tests For And Almost Got, I Think I Would Have Become Bored With The Awards Circuit, The Whole Hype Machine.

Each Time I Make A Movie, It's Like A Paid Scholarship To A Different University Course.

You Know, Real Life Doesn't Just Suddenly Resolve Itself. You Have To Keep Working At It. Democracy, Marriage, Friendship. You Can't Just Say She's My Best Friend. That's Not A Given, It's A Process.

Every Once In A While, Someone Would Call Me A Foreigner Or A Yankee, Or Whatever. In The United States, Someone Might Say Something, Like How Kids Do, To Point Out That You're Different. That Would Come As A Surprise To Me. As You Get Old, You Either Get Defensive About It Or You Accept It And You Reach Out, Because You Realize The World's Full Of People Like That.

[captain Fantastic] It's A Great Story. It's One Of The Better Scripts I've Read, Ever, As Far As Being Great From Beginning To End. It Handles A Variety Of Characters. You Have Six Children Who All Stand On Their Own, They're All Individuals. And It Touches On A Very Real Issue, Which Is The Lack Of Cohesion And Communication In America Right Now.

You Can't Really Go Back To Where You Came From. I Don't Think Any Of Us Can.

I've Been Naked Physically In Movies - But It's A Whole Other Thing To Be Naked Emotionally In A Way That's Not Just A Distraction Or A Character.

I Have A Roof Over My Head. I Had A Breakfast, And A Lot Of People In The World Can't Say That. I'm Not Going To Complain About Being Interviewed.

Every Year I Hear People Complain That The Quality Of Screenplays And Movies Is Declining. In My Opinion, The Vast Majority Of Scripts Written - As Well As Most Movies That Are Released - Are Not Very Original, Well-written, Or Interesting. It Has Always Been That Way, And I Think It Always Will Be.

Life Is Short And The Older You Get, The More You Feel It. Indeed, The Shorter It Is.

If You Tell The Story Emotionally In A Truthful Way, Then You Start Naturally Looking At The Landscape And Thinking "wow, We Have To Watch Out."

I've Never Played A Dane In A Movie. I've Had Offers To Be In Danish Movies, Including For Some Good Directors, But I Either Had A Job At The Time Or, When I Was Available, The Movie Just Didn't Happen. Hopefully Someday I'll Do One.

There's No Sense In Doing Something, Especially If It's A Hard Job, If You Can't Have A Little Fun.

Kids Accept Where They Are Because They Don't Know The Past. They Know What They Have; They Know Where They Are.

With Any Character I Have Played There’s Infinite Possibilities For How They Might Behave, Depending On Who They Are Talking To Or How They React To Things.

I Campaigned For [dennis] Kucinich In 2008. I Continue To Be In Touch With Him And I Really Admire Him. I Think He's Very Brave And Honest - Unusually So For A U.s. Politician.

I'm Not A Great Fan Of Monarchy In General, But I Have To Say The Danish Monarchy Is Closer To The People; It's Not As Stuffy As The English One.

I Wrote A Letter To The Magazine [time Magazine] Pointing Out That [richard] Corliss's Comparison Of Christopher Lee's Saruman To Osama Bin Laden, And The Vastly Outnumbered Defenders Of Helm's Deep United Against The Orcs To The "coalition Of The Willing" Fighting The Good Fight Against Muslim Hordes, Displayed The Simplistic, Xenophobic, And Arrogant Worldview That Makes The Government Of The United States Feared And Mistrusted Around The World. The Editors Claimed They Had No Space To Print My Brief Letter, Which I Felt Was Dishonest And Cowardly.

What Art Does Is It Makes You Feel Alive And Makes You Feel Like You're Connected.

I Trust Hillary Clinton About As Far As I Could Throw Donald Trump.

One Of The Best Pieces Of Advice I Ever Got Was From A Horse Master. He Told Me To Go Slow To Go Fast. I Think That Applies To Everything In Life. We Live As Though There Aren't Enough Hours In The Day But If We Do Each Thing Calmly And Carefully We Will Get It Done Quicker And With Much Less Stress.

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Henri Frederic Amiel

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