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'Mother Nature is the first school. She makes you wise if you watch her. '

Viggo Mortensen
A Multi-talented Hero
Dominical, by J. A. - translated for V-W by NacidaLibre
27 August 2006



What skills do you think every man should possess?

What's that old adage? "To become a man you have to build a house, plant a tree, raise a child…" I can't recall the whole thing but I know planting a tree is one of them. I think that's true. If you live in the city you have to go to the park. In England you have four seasons so make the most of it. It's going to affect your mood, it's going to change the way you feel, but you may as well just go and explore anyway. I can only speak for myself, but I would go crazy if I couldn't get out of the city and go out into the forest for a little while.

Viggo Mortensen talks The Two Faces Of January, singing with Fassbender and throwing a nappy at Al Pacino
by Tom Ward
GQ
16 May 2014



"I'm an optimist. People are resourceful. I'd like to think ... you try to do the right thing and when you're really up against it, that in the end, you'll make the right choice, even if it's not the easy one. I'm optimistic about people and about the planet and about nature. I think it's resilient, like people are"

Viggo Mortensen sets the record straight about his acting career, 'The Road' and 'The Hobbit'
By Carla Hay
Examiner.com
25November 2009



Before, you were saying you are an optimist by nature. What are you doing to protect the environment and prevent the planet from becoming what it is in the movie?

Everything that's in my hands. I have a hybrid car, the first Prius that came out on the market; it still works great. My son shares it with me. I recycle everything I can. I try not to waste natural resources or to pollute. Small things that if done every day, serve to make a better world.

Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen Interview: "This film has made me feel closer to my father"
By Laura Sacksville - translated by Ollie, Rio and Sage
Cuore
13 February 2010



"I like to go to new places and, above all, in spaces in the middle of nature, whether it's sea or mountains. It soothes me. Even if it rains, even in bad weather, even if I'm on top of the most uncomfortable rock in the world. I feel happy in that setting."

Viggo Mortensen - Passage To Hell
By Ruben Romero - translated by Ollie, Rio and Zooey
On Madrid - El Pais
5 February 2010



"I think how you are is more important than where you are," he says sagely. "I can be at home walking around London as much as I am in the woods of South Island, New Zealand. But if I had to pick I would choose to be in nature, whether in the mountains, desert, or by the sea. I like places where there are very few human traces, places where I never feel time is wasted. If I'm stuck in a traffic jam in Los Angeles or waiting in a queue for the bank it's hard not to feel I'm wasting my life in that moment."

Viggo Mortensen is lord of all things
Chitra Ramaswamy
The Scotsman
24 May 2013



" A change of light, a sunset, a sunrise. Things you may never see again. You grasp those moments. You don't see a bear in the wild and walk on, thinking: Oh, I'll see another bear. You just wait and watch."

Viggo Mortensen
Sympathy for the devil
By Chrissy Iley
The Observer
19 April 2009



"When I'm out in nature it can be an inspiration. If I am going through a rough period, if I just go out for a walk, on some level everything is all right because I'm here, do you know what I mean?"

Viggo Mortensen
Sympathy for the devil
By Chrissy Iley
The Observer
19 April 2009



'...when you are wandering in a hardwood or in the mountains or stand in a big, cold, mirroring lake, fishing. Then you are close to being happy - and what more can a man want.'

Viggo Mortensen
Viggo from Hollywood
By Poul Hoi
August 2001
Source: M/S (Danish magazine)



"I am a loner who flees from stress, I feel good living close to nature, living with the same rhythm as animals and weather, no pressure, no constraints, no deadlines. I write poems, I paint, I read, I phone my friends, I plunge into thought and all of a sudden without my having seen the hours go by, night falls..."

Viggo Mortensen, Beautiful Savage
Richard Gianorio
Le Figaro
26 September 2008



At the end of a day of filming in the desert, the crew would pack up for the two-hour drive back to the hotel. Mortensen, however, would stay behind and sleep in the sand dunes, the rare Hollywood actor who is happiest when alone with a book, his thoughts and the stars in the sky.

Hot Actor - Viggo Mortensen
By G. E.
September 2003
Source: Rolling Stone (U.S.)



Like the philosopher Thoreau, Viggo likes to lose himself in the woods, into the wild, in a trip into nature to find beauty and freedom, and to find the essence of life, as he explains with a deep, quiet voice, between long pauses and a cigarette rolled by himself.

Viggo Mortensen, The Photographer Of Dreams
By Giovanni Valerio - translated by Cindalea
July 2008
Source: Panorama First



'The consequences of human interference with Nature speak for themselves, and so do trees. We just need to listen a little more. God Fornojeise!'

Skovbo Exhibition Brochure
May/June 2008



'I also like trees in their own right, to be honest, and photographing them is a way of paying them respect and and remembering them.'

Skovbo Exhibition Brochure
May/June 2008



"Every tree is something special, just like people are. All different, but...I look at them as I look at people. I get along well with most trees. I don't get into arguments with them, and if I do it's probably my own fault. If I don't watch where I'm going when I'm in the forest, it comes back and smacks me in the nose, and I only have myself to blame."

RUV Interview
Skovbo Exhibition, Iceland
Translated by Mums
30 May 2008



"I have never been in a natural place and felt that that 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."

Viggo Mortensen
The Brain Dane, by Ariel Leve, The Sunday Times, 2003



'As an individual, I try to take care of the places I go to whether it's where I live or hide. It's a cliche, but leave the place looking better than you found it... pack it in and pack it out. I try to do that-always.'

Viggo Mortensen
A Visit With Viggo
by Marianne Love
Sandpoint magazine, 2004



There's a UN patch on his sweatshirt and if you ask him where he's based, he says, hippyishly, "Planet Earth, mostly."

'My mother is very happy about it'
By Harriet Lane
The Guardian
February 22, 2008



Even Mortensen's memories of early childhood are deeply spiritual. He tells me about the time he crawled into the woods and fell asleep. "I was sleeping under a tree, and it was very peaceful," he says. "And then a dog started barking, and that's how my parents found me."

You are always escaping, I say.

Yeah, he says. He calls his mother - on my cell phone, because he doesn't have one - to double-check his recollection. "Hi, it's Viggo. Sorry to be calling so late," he says. "Oh shit. You're in the middle of it? That's funny. Is it the tape? [She was watching a tape of The Two Towers.] O.K., sorry, it's just a quick question and then I'll let you get back to what you're doing. Remember there were a couple of times I ran away? And the time the dog came and found me in the woods? How old was I then? About one and a half. O.K. But, anyway, the dog came and found me and I was sitting under a tree? Happy? Sleeping, right?"

Big look of consternation.

"I was sitting in the middle of the woods crying? I thought I was sleeping. Are you sure?"

Finding Viggo
By Alex Kuczynski
Vanity Fair magazine
January 2004