Austrian Culture Quotes

My heroes were people like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I've always liked the Krampus character, and I've always been fascinated with him, especially the tradition that he was such a part of the holiday season in Europe, in Germany, Austria, northern Italy, various other places.

... the Austrians are quite the stupidest people in Europe … and there is a brutality to their mode of performance …

I had been a student in Vienna, and one of the neat little things I had found out was about that zoo. It was a good debut novel for me to have published. I was 26 or 27 when it was published. I already had a kid and would soon have a second.

In the old country [Austria] I would have been a tailor.

Everything I write, I've written the first draft in Austria.

The Austrians are brilliant people. They made the world believe that Hitler was a German and Beethoven an Austrian.

I actually speak fluent German. And I live in Vienna, and I'm married to a Viennese woman.

When I started in government, I said that children who come here should take German classes before they start regular classes so they can follow what the teachers say. I said it should be possible to be a believing Muslim and a proud Austrian at the same time.

I did a ski festival in Austria once. I was struck by how friendly Austrians were, before gradually realising it's more that Glaswegians are awful.

I never dreamed I would receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, mostly because my style is so typically Austrian.

Here, waltzes are called works! And Strauss and Lanner, who play them for dancing, are called Kapellmeistern. This does not mean that everyone thinks like that; indeed, nearly everyone laughs about it; but only waltzes get printed.

I've always wanted to go to Austria.

Although I'm Australian, I find myself much more in sympathy with the Austrian version!

I grew up in a small Austrian village, a quite conservative one, and I was the weird little boy always dressing as a girl.

If I would have listened to the naysayers, I would still be in the Austrian Alps yodeling.

My parents were not born in Vienna, but they had spent much of their lives there, having each come to the city at the beginning of World War I when they were still very young.

Kids go crazy for the Krampus tradition and dress up as little monsters - they have beautiful masks, handmade from wood. Our village in Austria puts on a special play in which the creature tells an old beggar to repent his sins; when he refuses, he's beaten up by lots of Krampuses at once.

But yes, I really feel great in Austria, I love my home and Vienna is just the best place to be.