Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog Stipetić, known as Werner Herzog, is a German screenwriter, film director, author, actor and opera director...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth5 September 1942
CityMunich, Germany
CountryGermany
stupid doing-the-right-thing right-thing
It's not because nature is angry, it's rather that we are stupid. We're not doing the right thing with our planet.
stupid film responsible
Clive [Oppenheimer] and I figured out that I'm the only one probably in the film industry who is clinically sane. I say that as a joke, but there's a grain of truth to it. I'm not a stupid daredevil who jumps into the crater of the volcano to get the closest close-up, I'm not one of those. And you have to be aware that you have a crew with you and you are responsible.
achieved deeper dignity ecstatic fleeting gives meaning moments remains short strive tried truth whether work
ecstatic truth. I've always tried to strive for a much deeper truth in the images, in cinema, in storytelling, on a screen, so whether I've achieved it or not remains to be seen. . . . There are short fleeting moments when I know that I have achieved it. And to work for that and to strive for it and to try, gives at least some dignity and some meaning to my existence.
fit hope small travel
I just hope it's a small one. I only travel light. It's got to fit in my hand-held luggage.
develop love movies
I love my movies as they are. I let them develop their own lives.
trying speak realistic
I couldn't roam wildly and speak secretly with villagers [in North Korea]. No way you could do that. And honestly, I didn't even try. I was realistic of what I could do and yet persuaded them into accepting numerous things that I shouldn't have filmed.
defending disturbing element harmony human jewel meaning universe
We had some ranting about the meaning of nature, ... And Jewel is more defending Treadwell's position, that there is harmony in the universe and the only disturbing element is human beings. I don't see it that way.
lion odd usual
We are still doing somersaults for it. It's the usual pandemonium that makes moviemaking an odd profession, and I am the lion tamer.
bigger build men pyramids
Yes, the pyramids have been built, but if you give me 300,000 disciplined men and give me 30 years, I could build a bigger one.
filmmaking filmmaker ifs
Read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read...if you don't read, you will never be a filmmaker.
intellectual film kung-fu
Someone like Jean-Luc Godard is for me intellectual counterfeit money when compared to a good kung fu film.
boys eight rocks
You have to realize that, about 20,000 years ago, there was a cataclysmic event when an entire rock face collapsed and sealed off the cave. It's a completely preserved time capsule. You've got tracks of cave bears that look like they were left yesterday, and you've got the footprint of a boy who was probably eight years old next to the footprint of a wolf.
dream ocean sleep
What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.
years dating radio
You are confronted with abysses of time that are, in a way, unfathomable. You see a painting in charcoal of raindeer and it was left unfinished and somebody else finished it. But through radio carbon dating we know that the next one completed the painting 5,000 years later. You're just blown away by the notion of passage of time. We have no relationship to that kind of depth of time.