Werner Herzog
Visionary filmmaker and profound quotable figure
Most quoted
"There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization."
— from Minnesota Declaration, 1999
"I don't think there's any such thing as 'nature' in the abstract. There's only the nature of this particular jungle, this particular desert, this particular mountain range. And they are all hostile."
— from Various interviews
"I don't think there's any such thing as a natural born filmmaker. I think you have to be a little bit crazy to want to be a filmmaker."
— from Interview
All quotes by Werner Herzog (379)
The world is a wonder. And I am exploring it.
I am not interested in making films that are unoriginal.
The world is a dream. And I am living it.
I am not interested in making films that are unchallenging.
The world is a mystery. And I am discovering it.
I am not interested in making films that are unadventurous.
I don't want to live in a world without lions.
Civilization is a thin veneer over the abyss.
I am not afraid of death, but I am afraid of a life unlived.
The truth is not always beautiful, but it is always necessary.
One must be willing to walk into the unknown.
The jungle has its own logic, its own madness.
I seek not to entertain, but to illuminate.
The greatest stories are found at the edges of human experience.
Fear is a good teacher, but a bad master.
The landscape speaks to me in whispers and roars.
I have always been drawn to the outsiders, the dreamers, the madmen.
Cinema is not about showing, but about revealing.
The world is full of miracles, if only we have the eyes to see them.
My films are my children, each with its own soul.
Contemporaries of Werner Herzog
Other Film & Theaters born within 50 years of Werner Herzog (1942).