Christopher Walken
42 quotes
Biography
Christopher Walken is an American actor. His work on stage and screen has earned him accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and an Actor Award, as well as nominations for two Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe.
"There are people who are able to plan their career, their future, but I've never had any talent for that. I just do things and hope for the best. Say yes, take a chance, and sometimes it's terrific and sometimes it's not."
"I have this theory about words: There’s a thousand ways to say "Pass the salt." It could mean, you know, "Can I have some salt?" or it could mean, "I love you." It could mean "I’m very annoyed with you" – really, the list could go on and on. Words are little bombs, and they have a lot of energy inside them."
"Get these tubes away from me!"
"No, but way before that, I've been doing little dances in movies for years. Yeah, that was an amazing chance. You know, at my age to be able to do a music dance video, very unusual."
"There probably aren't a lot of actors my age who tap dance."
"No, but way before that, I've been doing little dances in movies for years. Yeah, that was an amazing chance. You know, at my age to be able to do a music dance video, very unusual."
"I'll tell you, Quentin Tarantino really writes the most amazing dialogue."
"I think early on I knew what I was going to do and it was based a lot on familiarity but it was also because I didn't have a lot of skills. There was nothing I wanted t be. I didn't want to be a doctor. I wanted to be in show business."
"I think that if I had grown up and had been in show business and the movies twenty five, thirty years earlier, I think I would have made a lot more musical movies."
"I think the fact that I was raised in show business, in New York City, in the '50s, that's affected my personality to the point that I'm a little different."
"Well, I was sort of a jack-of-all-trades in show business for a long time. I was a singer and a dancer and then I got a job as an actor."
"I've made movies that I thought were good. I've made movies that I thought were okay, but then I was very good. And sometimes you're in a movie and you think, I wish more people saw that - because you're good. And it just works out that the movie gets lost. But that's show business."
"Also for me it was different because I play a lot of villains and in this one I play a dad and I play a good guy, basically. He's the Secretary of the Treasury. I never had a job like that."
"Obviously an actor draws on his own experience."
"My hair was famous before I was."
"There's something dangerous about what's funny. Jarring and disconcerting. There is a connection between funny and scary."
"Some people can do things and get away with it. Comics are famously like that. Why is it that some guys can say the most horrible things and it's not offensive, it's funny?"
"I always like to watch comics and it's interesting that you can tell if someone's funny in 10 seconds."
"Laurence Olivier said in an interview once that when he plays a tragedy he always aims for the funny parts, and the other way around. Because in a comedy you look for what's serious. I think that's true. Sometimes things are really funny if you're absolutely earnest. If you're really serious, it's hilarious."
"I never know when I am being funny, and the other way too. I don't think you can think about that. I don't think you can try to be funny. Some people are just funny."
"I remember that. I was talking to him and I said how great it would be if actors had a tail because I have animals and a tail is so expressive. On a cat you can tell everything. You can tell if they're annoyed. You can tell whether they're scared."
"The best thing for me is, when I'm not working, is to be at home and to have a script or two scripts is better, and to be just walking around the house and just thinking about the lines."
"They have a kind of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby thing going on."
"I make movies that nobody will see. I've made movies that even I have never seen."
"No, but way before that, I've been doing little dances in movies for years. Yeah, that was an amazing chance. You know, at my age to be able to do a music dance video, very unusual."