Christopher Walken Quotes & Sayings

For me, in movies, it's always a mixed bag. I've never made a movie where I thought, "You were really good in that movie; you were good all the time." No. It's always, "You didn't get it, you didn't do it in that scene, but the other scene is pretty good." So I just hope that in balance there's more good scenes than not. — Christopher Walken

Everybody has to be a little lucky, I think. — Christopher Walken

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. — Christopher Walken

I'd love to do a character with a wife, a nice little house, a couple of kids, a dog, maybe a bit of singing, and no guns and no killing, but nobody offers me those kind of parts. — Christopher Walken

I'm better off not socializing. I make a better impression if I'm not around. — Christopher Walken

I make movies that nobody will see. I've made movies that even I have never seen. — Christopher Walken

It's very bizarre though when you get hired and then the director will say, "I know how this goes." And you're thinking, "Wait a minute, I thought that I was doing this" but basically what they really want, especially if they wrote it, is they want you to do it as they imagined it. It's virtually impossible. — Christopher Walken

I don't have kids. Maybe that's kept me young. I have a wife for almost 50 years and she looks after me a little bit like I was seven years-old. — Christopher Walken

I don't have a lot of hobbies. I don't play golf. I don't have any children. Things that occupy people's time. I just try to take jobs. — Christopher Walken

I don't like flying at the best of times. And as I get older, I like it less and less. I don't much like driving, either. I prefer to be driven. And, when I'm in London, I don't even like walking on the street. I can never get used to looking the right way when I cross the street. — Christopher Walken

Movies are terrifically optimistic enterprises. — Christopher Walken

I grew up in the '50s, in New York City, where television was born. There were 90 live shows every week, and they used a lot of kids. There were schools just for these kids. There was a whole world that doesn't exist anymore. — Christopher Walken

I became an actor by accident. I suppose I figured since I was in musical comedy from the time I was a teenager, I suppose I figured that I'd always been in that world to some extent. — Christopher Walken

There are certain directors where you know you're going to be good or you're not going to be there. There are people where you kind of know that if you miss the mark then it'll probably not be in the movie and that's very reassuring. — Christopher Walken

I have always refused to do something that has offended me. I have been offered potential roles that are totally vulgar. — Christopher Walken

In England, and all over Europe, and all over the world, actors act until they die. They get old, really old, and they're still working. They just keep doing it. — Christopher Walken

I like to go to work, and also, I don't have any kids. I don't have any hobbies. I don't like to travel. So going to work is kind of it. — Christopher Walken

Acting has to do with saying it as if you meant it, so for me the words are always very important. It's very important for me to know my lines, know them so well that I don't have to think about them. — Christopher Walken

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. — Christopher Walken

Both my parents had heavy accents, and so did everybody they knew. It's a rhythm thing - people who speak English where they have to hesitate and think of the right word. And I think it rubbed off. — Christopher Walken

My life is really quite conservative. I've been married nearly 50 years. I don't have hobbies or children. I don't much care to travel. I've never had a big social life. I really just stay home, except when I go to work. — Christopher Walken

One of the difficult things about being an actor is to stick around. — Christopher Walken

I tend to play mostly villains and twisted people. Unsavory guys. I think it's my face, the way I look. — Christopher Walken

To be honest, I was never very ambitious. And I still am not. — Christopher Walken

There are movies that I've made where I thought I was going to be good, but when it was cut it together it wasn't. And there are a lot of movies that, for one reason or another, just don't become popular. So to me it's always been a little bit of a roll of the dice. That's the way it goes. — Christopher Walken

I think all men when they get older, they look at the mirror and they probably see their father a little bit. — Christopher Walken

I've been married for 46 years, and I live in a nice house, my grass is always cut, I pay my bills, and my cat loves me! — Christopher Walken

And I think that when I play these villains, maybe what is different is that the audience sees me play these and they know that that's Chris and he's having fun and he knows that and he knows that and you know that and everybody knows that. — Christopher Walken

I think the fact that I grew up in show business had a real effect on my personality. If you were born in New York during the golden age of television, and you grew up on Broadway, that marks you. — Christopher Walken

I like to be cast well and then I like to be left alone. And good directors, that's generally what they do when they hire you because you have something that's useful to the part, and then they leave you alone. The times that I've run into trouble is when, very rare actually, but you get hired and then there's some sort of makeover involved. — Christopher Walken

Death is wonderful because you can't think about it. How are you gonna think about it? — Christopher Walken

Well, you know what they say. A bullet always tells the truth. — Christopher Walken

People think that my favorite roles to do are villains, but I find comedy to be the most challenging and rewarding. — Christopher Walken

I live sort of in the country and I like that. It's very quiet, it's beautiful. — Christopher Walken

Acting is a bit like being an athlete. You spend all your time getting ready to do something for two minutes. All the things that made my career in the movies happen took two or three minutes, which is the time that it takes for a 'take'. In that time, something happens. That's what people know you for, just like someone running the hundred metres. — Christopher Walken

I've never made a movie I wasn't surprised to see. — Christopher Walken

In the theater you rehearse in order to do the performance. And in the movies the rehearsal and the performance are kind of the same thing. You're figuring it out and hopefully the camera is pointed at you when you're doing it. — Christopher Walken

I'm an angel. I kill firstborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. I even, when I feel like it, rip the souls from little girls, and from now till kingdom come, the only thing you can count on in your existence is never understanding why. — Christopher Walken

I think if you do something effectively whether you're the lover or the comic or the action guy or the villain like I play; movies are very expensive to make. Chances are you'll get asked to play that part again. — Christopher Walken

I have a friend of mine who does me on his answering machine, and when I call him, I answer. It's pretty strange. — Christopher Walken

I don't think I'd be a good director because people would ask me, you know, "What is it? What's going on here? Where should I put the camera?" Or, "What's my motivation?" And I would say, "Do whatever you want!" — Christopher Walken

I think that a good movie creates its own world, and that world needn't refer to anything that's real. If it's consistent, if it's entertaining, if it's interesting, it justifies its being there. — Christopher Walken

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. — Christopher Walken

If you play a king, it's better if everybody treats you like a king. — Christopher Walken

I have a lot of trouble with scripts. I have a lot of trouble imagining things while I'm reading them. — Christopher Walken

Is typecasting really a problem? — Christopher Walken

There's an impression that actors make a lot of choices. I just take what's there. — Christopher Walken

Somebody said to me that I speak English almost like somebody for whom English is not their first language. — Christopher Walken

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. — Christopher Walken

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. — Christopher Walken

I think that sometimes when they see me in a movie they expect me to be something nasty. I mean, I play a lot of villains and you show up and they think maybe ... That's why it's good to defy expectations sometimes. — Christopher Walken

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. — Christopher Walken

I've always played comedy. My background is musical comedy theatre, and that's really where my training is. — Christopher Walken

I love spaghetti. And I like to cook spaghetti. And I used to eat it every day. I weighed thirty pounds more than I do now. You can't - you can't do that. — Christopher Walken

I think I'm getting a little bit of Alzheimer's. Just a little. — Christopher Walken

When I was a kid, I worked in the circus. It was a touring circus that was owned by a man named Terrell Jacobs. It was just one big tent, and he was a lion tamer. He didn't have any kids, but the bit was that I would dress up as his son in an identical outfit. — Christopher Walken

I don't even like holding them. Whenever I hold a gun, I want to get it out of my hand as quick as possible. — Christopher Walken

My background is in musical comedy. — Christopher Walken

You hear about things happening to people - they slip in the bathtub, fall down the stairs, step off the curb in London because they think that the cars come the other way - and they die. You feel you want to die making an effort at something; you don't want to die in some unnecessary way. — Christopher Walken

When I'm on the road making a movie in another city, on my day off, I always go to the movies. I love going to the movies. You get a ticket and sit there, and it's very interesting to be around people who aren't personally invested in you, in any way. They're just going to the movies — Christopher Walken

I look for good possibilities in movies. I don't look for perfection. — Christopher Walken

I have made a number of movies that I have never seen. It's not a matter of ego. It's a matter of being disappointed. It's really a shame. It's just as difficult to make a movie that no one cares about as to make a hit. — Christopher Walken

Sometimes a certain innocence is good, but not about yourself. — Christopher Walken

I became very critical of zoos and circuses and keeping animals in captivity. I wish it was against the law. — Christopher Walken

I've never crashed a wedding. When I was a kid I, of course, used to crash parties. Crashing a wedding is difficult though because you have to have the suit, and you have to have information in case someone catches you. You have to know at least some names and something. — Christopher Walken

I don't need to be made to look evil. I can do that on my own. — Christopher Walken

Emotional power is maybe the most valuable thing that an actor can have. — Christopher Walken

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. — Christopher Walken

I remember a few years ago I was sitting at home with my wife watching the Oscars. I was sitting on the couch and suddenly heard my voice. It's thrilling. It's interesting that a lot of guys do me. I have a friend who does me on his answering machine so when I call him I talk to myself. I don't really know what that comes from. It doesn't seem to me that I speak in a strange way. My wife says Kevin's (Spacey) the best. — Christopher Walken

Yeah, well I've always played comedy. My background is musical comedy theatre and that's really where my training is. As an actor, that's my training. — Christopher Walken

I don't play lovers. I wish I did. At least once I'd like to have a crack at one of those guys. A heartbreaker. Some people are born to it. I'm not. — Christopher Walken

I've made one or two movies that I haven't even seen, because they were never released. I have made things that I never even saw. But I will always go see the movie I'm in. — Christopher Walken

Can I confess something? I tell you this as an artist, I think you'll understand. Sometimes when I'm driving on the road at night I see two headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion. The sound of shattering glass. The flames rising out of the flowing gasoline. — Christopher Walken

It's what actors call a big, juicy part, when you're a leading man. I don't get a lot of those. I get a lot of supporting things. — Christopher Walken

I have been in movies that I thought I wasn't very good in. — Christopher Walken

Quite often, I'll be sent a script for a movie. And I find that I like it, so I say I'll do it. But then they rewrite it for me. They make it quirky. Odd. I find that rather annoying. I call it Walkenising. — Christopher Walken

A good actor is like a racehorse or a Ferrari. If a cylinder is missing on a Chevy, it's doesn't matter that much. But if something's not working right on a Ferrari, it makes a big difference. It's the three percent that makes the difference between good and great. It's a fine line. If you're not there, it's very painful. — Christopher Walken

I'm scared of everything. I think it's only sensible to be that way. — Christopher Walken

Early on, I played one or two disturbed people, and I guess I must have been good at it, because it stuck. But, you know, I'm a regular guy. I stay home a lot, I make an effort to keep a distance from the whole social thing, the openings, the parties. I try to live in a calm way. — Christopher Walken

At its best, life is completely unpredictable. — Christopher Walken

When I was a kid I joined the circus. I did that. It is true. But it's not like you think. There was a guy, he had his own circus. His name was Carol Jacobs and he owned it. It was a small thing. — Christopher Walken

I know that whenever I think about death, I come up against a stone wall. — Christopher Walken

I grew up listening to people speaking broken English. I probably picked that up. And I probably speak English almost as a second language. — Christopher Walken

I feel like you are this or that because other people say so. I wouldn't know how to play a psychopath. I don't think about it that way. You think about playing the scene but if the other people say that guy is crazy, then you are. — Christopher Walken

Obviously an actor draws on his own experience. — Christopher Walken

Bear suits are funny - and bears as well. — Christopher Walken

I don't much like being directed. I enjoy being allowed to play. — Christopher Walken

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. — Christopher Walken

I've made a couple of movies in the jungle, and I don't want to go back to the jungle. — Christopher Walken

I don't usually get to play fathers or grandfathers or uncles. Now that I'm older, maybe I can play people closer to myself. I'd like that. — Christopher Walken

My hair was famous before I was. — Christopher Walken

They have a kind of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby thing going on. — Christopher Walken

If you're an actor, a hard thing is to stick around, to stay viable. I try to do that by taking the opportunity to do something different every once in awhile. — Christopher Walken

I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. — Christopher Walken

Usually in the first performances I'm completely panicked. And I pull myself together. By the time you get to the end of the play, you really start to have fun. — Christopher Walken

Improvising is wonderful. But, the thing is that you cannot improvise unless you know exactly what you're doing. That's a kind of paradoxical thing about improvising. — Christopher Walken

I used to love Danish. My father used to make a Boston cream pie. You never see that anymore. — Christopher Walken

Because if I don't know my lines, I really don't know what I'm doing. — Christopher Walken

One thing that's happened to me is I've been around a long time and I've played a lot of villains and so forth. I think it had to do with, well one thing is that I looked younger than I was for a long time. Now I think I'm suddenly starting to play people's father. — Christopher Walken

I try not to worry about things I can't do anything about. — Christopher Walken