Phrases

01. There’s no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there’s no excuse for boredom, ever.

02. 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.

03. To be an artist, you don’t have to compose music or paint or be in the movies or write books. It’s just a way of living. It has to do with paying attention, remembering, filtering what you see and answering back, participating in life.

04. 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.

05. You should always do the things in life that are both interesting and make you afraid.

06. When you’re under stress as a human being, you behave oddly and your relationships with people become strained.

07. I think that every person has many, many people inside of them. We change our personality depending on who we are talking to or what situation we are in.

08. I have never been in a natural place and felt that it was a waste of time. I never have. And it’s a relief. If I’m walking around a desert or whatever, every second is worthwhile.

09. You know, real life doesn’t just suddenly resolve itself. You have to keep working at it.

10. 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.

11. It’s hard not to get depressed when you pay attention to the world and how strangely and corrupt the people in it sometimes behave.

12. If you’re not optimistic on some level, then you’ve given up.

13. 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.

14. I have friends who I get along with who I know get very uncomfortable being alone, unless they’re with people, talking all the time. Whether it’s on the phone, or in person, they’re never by themselves. Whereas I could be alone for months.

15. I think every family is dysfunctional, and some manage to control it better than others.

16. My job as an artist, as I see it, is to understand and in some cases to take on various ways of thinking about people and the world that are different from my own, sometimes radically different.

17. The money I earn from films means I can help the people I want to help – you can do a lot of good if you want to.

18. Joseph Campbell said the privilege of a lifetime is being yourself. That’s his feeling. And I guess it’s mine too.

19. 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.

20. People like to pigeonhole you. It’s easier.

21. You have a moral obligation to finish the job you said you would do.

22. You don’t have to make something that people call art. Living is an artistic activity, there is an art to getting through the day.

23. I’ve never been conscious of having any real career plan, and I do not have a wish-list of actors, directors, screenwriters, or cameramen I’m hoping to work with. Life, I feel, has a way of leading us to the right situations and people, or at least to interesting ones.

24. It’s easy to get depressed and think, “Well, what’s the point?” But it’s the same as, “Well, we’re all going to die, so what’s the point in brushing my teeth or even saying hello to anyone or obeying traffic lights.” You can do that, but that’s certainly not going to take you anywhere.

25. 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.

26. Even the implication that The Lord of the Rings is a mythic story about Western, white supremacy – regardless of the political leanings of anyone who tries to make that case – is a load of self-justifying, destructive horseshit.

27. If you don’t find some way to discuss what’s going on inside you, it can come out in other ways that are self-destructive.

28. I prefer the smaller acting than big histrionics. It’s about reacting and looks, which is often underestimated.

29. When I have a day off, I won’t spend it at a Hollywood party. I’d rather be at home with paints and a blank canvas.

30. Some people who like dogs don’t like cats, but I’m not like that.

31. As Martin Luther King said, “Passively to participate in an unjust system is to accept that system and to participate in its evil.”

32. One of the main ways that leadership stays in power is by, in various ways, convincing people that they should just let those who are in government govern: ‘Trust us. Trust me. Just let us take care of things. Stay out of it.’ Your opinions don’t really matter. You are isolated. You are insignificant.

33. You do need to get lucky, no matter how talented you are.

34. When people say that entertainers should “know your place,” they might as well say the same thing about plumbers and teachers and cab drivers. We all should be able to express our views.

35. I try to research or make up for myself what happened in any character’s life. From when he was born until the first page of the script. I fill in the blanks.

36. 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.

37. I’m not that involved in personal grooming. But I try not to be offensive to people.

38. There might be people out there who wouldn’t hire me because they thought I should keep my mouth shut, but I’m not aware of that. Even if I saw evidence of that, it wouldn’t really concern me.

39. I played Lucifer once, which is sort of a difficult character to research. I thought to myself, “We all have the potential to be selfish, to be cruel – at least to think evil thoughts, even if we don’t ever act out on them. Even if we don’t ever think we behave badly, we probably do more than we realize.”

40. I don’t like people who get into fights about football – or anything else.

41. ‘The Road’ is about that fear that all parents can have. What’s going to happen to your child if you’re not around? It takes those concerns to an extreme. In the film, without me the boy has no food, no shelter, no resources at all.

42. Ignorance breeds antipathy. Until I got to know how computers worked, I didn’t want anything to do with them. I said, ‘Well, why do I need them? I write letters.’ Which I still do.

43. I don’t have a BlackBerry or whatever you call it. And there is something to be said for being isolated and out of phone range, because you can fall into a habit to such a degree that you don’t even realise that you’ve lost something: silence.

44. We all have secrets, some secrets bigger than others, is a normal human thing.

45. I would literally climb out of the cradle while my parents slept, go and crawl off. I did this a couple of times apparently. I’d cross the road and into someone’s house, wake them up banging pots and pans in the kitchen.

46. Those who have the power and should be the most responsible are often the least responsible.

47. Further devastation of the air, land and sea is obviously a very real possibility, unless the attitudes of politicians and all who irresponsibly exploit our natural resources change significantly in the very near future and all collaborate and sacrifice for the good of the planet.

48. I want to see what the Green Party looks like. I think if people don’t start voting what they feel, if that’s something other than the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, then nothing’s going to change. You need more political parties that actually have a chance.

49. As regards Hillary C;inton’s foreign policy actions and the powerful vested interests she seems gleefully beholden to, including all the biggest players in the military-industrial complex, I feel that she would be no better an actor on the world stage than Trump and whatever coalition of managers he might cobble together.

50. As Aragorn said at Helm’s Deep, “There is always hope.”

51. Kids accept where they are because they don’t know the past. They know what they have; they know where they are.

52. It’s true that I have a wide range of interests. I like to write and paint and make music and go walking on my own and garden. In fact, gardening is probably what I enjoy doing more than anything else.

53. As you get older, you get stuck in your ways; just as you become stiffer physically, you also become stiffer mentally and more narrow-minded unless you make a conscious effort to keep yourself flexible.

54. Photography, painting or poetry – those are just extensions of me, how I perceive things; they are my way of communicating.

55. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from traveling, it’s that it is definitely more important how you are than where you are. You can say, ‘Oh, I hate X city, I hate that country, or I prefer this city,’ but it’s a little bit up to you to find some kind of happiness.

56. It’s just like with people. You’re going to get along better working with them – human or equine – if you ask politely rather than demand that they do things.

57. You can’t really divorce yourself and your life from the world you live in.

58. Here’s where we are, this is what’s happening. So do something, or get out of the kitchen.

59. I pursue the things I do because I’m interested in them.

60. I suppose a good director is like a teacher. I think that someone like David Cronenberg was very much like a teacher, because there’s an openness, but a certain set of rules of behavior, and a certain conduct expected. But there’s an atmosphere that’s relaxed and conducive to exploration, and that is created by someone like Cronenberg.

61. We often live in the past a lot more than we probably realize.

62. If you’re trying to please everyone, then you’re not going to make anything that is honestly yours, I don’t think, in the long run.

63. I have a multicultural background, so I tend to have an open mind about things, and I find other cultures interesting.

64. I hate divers, like Cristiano Ronaldo, who might be the greatest athlete in the sport, but he’s a big baby. If things are going well he’s great, but when things are going badly it’s the ref’s fault, it’s his teammates’ fault.

65. As far as money goes, there’s a saying in Denmark: ‘Your last suit doesn’t have any pockets.’ You can’t take it with you. You can make all the money you want, but who cares?

66. I like a twisted sense of humour. On ‘A History of Violence,’ David Cronenberg and I would be doing the grimmest scenes and laugh a lot.

67. With few exceptions, one ought always do what one is afraid of.

68. Nobody really knows anybody completely, even if they’ve been married to ’em for 53 years, you know?

69. Most actors can’t make any kind of living.

70. I like the detail work of telling a story in small pieces, as is done in movie-making, and also the long leap of faith needed to see a theatre performance through each night. Both require focus and self-discipline.

71. People talk about method actors, meaning someone that’s prepared very, very well, or whatever they mean when they talk about it. But the right method is whatever works for you. And what works for me on any given day is going to be different.

72. Usually the characters I play are men of few words, who communicate in non-verbal ways.

73. When we shot ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ we had special permission to film in wild areas of New Zealand that could be accessed only by helicopter. They would drop us off and we would work all day, and they’d pick us up and take us out again.

74. 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.

75. I’m optimistic about people and about the planet and about nature. I think it’s resilient, like people are.

76. I like stories that leave you wanting more, leave you wondering, but don’t tell you everything.

77. If I can get a day to myself, I won’t answer the phone, I’ll read or go for a walk. Simple, basic things. People think there’s always time to do that but there isn’t. Life is short.

78. 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.

79. Each time I make a movie, it’s like a paid scholarship to a different university course.

80. I have a publishing company of books by me and books of others. It drew people to poetry readings and photo exhibitions and painting exhibitions that I’ve been doing for years before that.

81. I know I said I wanted to live forever and I would never be bored, but the reality is, it’s probably kind of sad to live forever if you’re the only one sticking around.

82. 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.

83. 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.

84. 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.

85. Perceval Press a publishing house I founded in 2002 and it’s still going strong. Strong for us means not so many books per year, but each one we very carefully design and print.

86. It’s always interesting to play a character that obviously has a secret.

87. I have a work ethic. If I say I’m going to do something, I do it.

88. This basic thing I always do: ‘What happened between the character’s birth, and page one of the script?’ Anything that’s not in the story, I’ll fill in the blanks.

89. The Holocaust movie is almost a genre in itself these days.

90. I don’t speak up about something unless I feel strongly about it and until I’ve researched a subject extensively and have an informed decision about it.

91. I take my work seriously, but it’s not the only thing that exists in the world.

92. 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.

93. [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.

94. Captain Fantastic touches on that [division]. You meet this family that lives off the grid in the woods and you go, “Oh, it’s some kind of liberal utopian fantasy. The enemy is gonna be all these conservative types that they’ll probably run into, and that’s going to be the story.”

95. As [John] Tolkien himself said, the story [Lord of the Ring ] is not allegorical. He said so when people tried to make analogies to World War II and the fight against Hitler and his fascist coalition.

96. Anyone can identify with those moments in life where circumstances or people inform us that we’ve strayed from the path of our better nature and intentions. We know what that’s like, and we resist it – so as not to feel like we’re bad people.

97. Once you learn the idea of what a good guy is, you want your dad to be a good guy, and when your dad lets you down and doesn’t act like a good guy, it’s disappointing and can make you angry as you see it happen, which is beautiful and very believable.

98. That is to say, Hillary Clinton is not, in my mind, a satisfying or calming alternative to Donald Trump.

99. Like most people I can be lazy, so it’s nice to have a goal or deadline or reason to work out. I feel better when I get to exercise, or when I’m outdoors. I like to hike, swim and run, and I love to play soccer.

100. I think maybe because I do other things and they mean as much to me as movie acting, it takes the onus off me. It’s not the end of the world if I can’t get a film job, or if a movie doesn’t turn out well – even though I don’t like it when that happens.