Viggo Mortensen Quotes

Dig into life with wild roving abandon, opening your mind to the delicious possibilities that perplex the mind, entice the heart, and excite the spirit.

There is that romanticized idea of what a bookstore can be, what a library can be, what a shop can be. And to me, they are that. These are places that open doors into other worlds if only you're open to them.

I think the foundation of everything in my life is wonder.

I've always been inspired by small details that make me wander. My mother would ask me, 'What are you looking at so intensely?' I would answer, 'Everything and nothing.' She really supported my wanderings, called me Marco Polo.

I'm ever curious about the world. I'm driven to go out and find new things to write about. Having a vivid imagination is also a plus.

I don't write about things that I have the answers to or things that are very close to home. It just wouldn't be any adventure. It wouldn't have any vitality.

We never had books at home, but my dad, seeing how keen I was to read, took me to Islington Library when I was about eight and we pulled out two - a Biggles and a science fiction novel. I never got the ace fighter pilot but fell in love with all things to do with the future and space. Isaac Asimov soon became my guiding star.

Growing up, I never gave a thought to being a writer. All I ever wanted to be was a traveler and explorer. Science-fiction allowed me to go places that were otherwise inaccessible, which is why I started reading it. I was going to be a lawyer, but I got saved.

No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.

I can create countries just as I can create the actions of my characters. That is why a lot of travel seems to me a waste of time.

When I was a kid, I read the science-fiction shelves, and I read the fantasy shelves.

Nothing much interested me other than playing with language and telling stories and doing something with the wonders of the world around me.

As long as there are things to wonder about, there are stories to be written about them. That makes me happy, because writing about things seems to be my thing.

Fuel your kids' dreams. Sometimes, that means letting them stay up past their bedtimes.

When I was thirteen, I was in a supermarket with my mother, and for no reason at all, I picked up a science-fiction book at the checkout stand and started reading it. I couldn't believe I was doing that, actually reading a book. And, man, it opened up a whole new thing. Reading became the sparkplug of my imagination.

All the things worth writing about are outside me. I'm a lens, not a source. And even if it's not always a comfortable journey, it's always a stimulating one.

I'm inspired by many different things. Often, I'm inspired by experiences I've had, books I've read, people I've met, stories I've heard.

Science fiction let me do both. It let me look into science and stick my nose in everywhere.

Kids need stuff which is different than what their life is that they can kind of live through.

I'm driven to go out and find new things to write about.

Fear of the unknown is a great creative partner.

Art flourishes where there is a sense of adventure.

I write about all manner of things: a guy fighting aliens in the New York State Library, Antarctica, Inca civilization in Peru, the Great Pyramid at Giza, and people often ask me, where do I get these ideas from? They come from reading widely, watching a lot of documentaries, and increasingly, as I was able to, travelling around the world.

On the road and traveling - that's when people are at their most creative.

Today I continue with my science-fiction reading habit and find it very mind-expanding. Always makes me think.