Klaus Kinski Quotes

On working with director Werner Herzog: I have to shoot without any breaks. I yell at Herzog and hit him. I have to fight for every sequence. I wish Herzog would catch the plague.

I would have been better than Adolf Hitler. I could have delivered his speeches a lot better ... that's for certain.

I sell myself for the highest price. Exactly like a prostitute. There is no difference.

It is true what Rimbaud said; If you think a book is strong enough, try it at the ocean, in the wind, at the waves. If the book can resist the ocean, then it exists. Otherwise, throw it away.

You leap over the wall of one ghetto and find yourself in another ghetto.

Why have I had this life? If I knew, I wouldn't have done it.

I am not the Jesus of the official church tolerated by those in power. I am not your superstar.

Why do I continue making movies? Making movies is better than cleaning toilets.

I make movies for money, exclusively for money.

You don't need a framework. You need a painting, not a frame.

I am dying of hunger.

One should judge a man mainly from his depravities. Virtues can be faked. Depravities are real.

I didn't choose solitude.

About 25 years ago, I was in an apartment, and next door, they put on the radio, so I struck the wall with my fist, but they did not put the radio down. I took a tool and banged until I made a hole through the wall. It was like a comedy movie.

Once, I took a taxi. I hate those limousines. They stink and their drivers have been driving dead people to the cemeteries.

But words - words are not enough!

If I hadn't refused Ken Russell, Fellini and Spielberg and made their movies when they asked me, my life would be no different. It is not my fault that I accepted one movie and turned down another. I don't see any point in defending myself, either.

Where a beast would have claws, I was born with talent.

Working with a great director is wonderful for an actor because it means that you're not forced to take the advice of an idiot.

When you are there, you are. With words, you aren't.

I don't need anybody to tell me how to be alive.

The flamenco of the Gypsy has nothing to do with the flamenco for tourists. Real flamenco is like sex.

The dimensions of my feelings are too violent.

People who do not see the terrible things therefore do not see the beautiful things, either.

In a way, everything concerning a movie leaves me cold.

I have to shoot without any breaks. I yell at Herzog and hit him. I have to fight for every sequence. I wish Herzog would catch the plague, more than ever.

Fun? There is no fun.

Sometimes my heart hurts so much, I beat it with my fists. I try to run. But you cannot run from this. It waits for you. Even when you think you have escaped it, it is there.

You have to protect yourself, your body, your being. You cannot treat it badly; you have to keep it, make as sensitive as possible.