Top 40 Christoph Waltz Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Facts can be so misleading, where rumors, true or false, are often revealing.”

— Christoph Waltz

2. “You can’t always do the extraordinary, in between you have to do the ordinary. Because if you didn’t, what would constitute the extraordinary?”

— Christoph Waltz

3. “I’m open to working anywhere, but not on anything.”

— Christoph Waltz

4. “Ten flashing lights are a nuisance but 500 are fantastic.”

— Christoph Waltz

5. “You need the villain. If you don’t have a villain, the good guy can stay home.”

— Christoph Waltz

6. “I’m not really all that familiar with comic book culture. Not because I’m such a high brow intellectual and bloody European. But it’s just something that I was never into. Not because of any superiority. I don’t know why.”

— Christoph Waltz

7. “Comedy is the result of what’s happening, not what people are doing. Because if people are doing comedy. It’s embarrassing. The individual elements have to be straight-faced, serious, realistic with a firm basis. What makes it comedy is a somewhat shifted way to put it together.”

— Christoph Waltz

8. “I’m very bad with improvisation. I hate it.”

— Christoph Waltz

9. “Just stick with it. When you keep going regardless, then that’s true perseverance right there.”

— Christoph Waltz

10. “If the shoe fits, you must wear it.”

— Christoph Waltz

11. “Becoming an actor is like becoming a father. It’s not hard to become one. Making a life of it is the challenge.”

— Christoph Waltz

12. “By looking into more details of American history, we can make more sense of what’s happening today.”

— Christoph Waltz

13. “I don’t say things straight into the other person’s face. I kind of like to make a joke or a remark and make it digestible or just give a little comment that voices my concern, but is not meant to be a critique, but just a comment so that he understands that I am thinking.”

— Christoph Waltz

14. “My agent is the quickest, sharpest man on earth.”

— Christoph Waltz

15. “I had to learn how to drive a cement truck because there is a whole car chase with cement trucks, so I had to learn how to drive a cement truck. I don’t like these things, but I’m not an idiot. I can do it.”

— Christoph Waltz

16. “I used to hate exposure situations. What is generally referred to as ‘red carpet.’”

— Christoph Waltz

17. “I think in Europe, movies are made like a commodity and then sold as art.”

— Christoph Waltz

18. “I take praise as not just a reward and a result but also as the beginning of a new process.”

— Christoph Waltz

19. “I’m not really all that familiar with comic book culture.”

— Christoph Waltz

20. “You know, I don’t talk about the characters that I play. Years ago, I was a little timid about it and I kind of squirmed when I was asked, ‘Could you tell us something about your character.’ Now with a little self-confidence that comes with the grey beard, I just flatly refuse.”

— Christoph Waltz

21. “For a while, I couldn’t decide whether or not I should pursue singing in the opera or acting. And I’m glad that I chose the latter because I wasn’t a very good singer.”

— Christoph Waltz

22. “I’m not into weapons. I’m not into cars. I’m not into explosions. I’m scared of all of that.”

— Christoph Waltz

23. “Stephen Sondheim I am in awe of.”

— Christoph Waltz

24. “I have my brain switched on and I might be thinking something else but we’ve come to an arrangement. That sort of play is maybe easier with someone who also thinks that way. But that is not necessarily a national thing, but maybe a little bit of a cultural thing.”

— Christoph Waltz

25. “It’s a wonderful narrative device to bring someone from the outside and look through his eyes if you want to describe the absurdity and preposterous reality that is accepted amongst the ones who are inside.”

— Christoph Waltz

26. “I worked next to an elephant. And considering that she could step on your toes, it’s a good idea to keep a certain distance. It’s also a good idea to befriend the trainer.”

— Christoph Waltz

27. “I’m trying to be very aware of not repeating myself.”

— Christoph Waltz

28. “You know, I don’t support esoteric approaches to acting.”

— Christoph Waltz

29. “I have nothing to do with comics. I know nothing about comics. I am aware of the importance of comics, but they’re not within my world. Not because I feel that I’m above it, but just that micro-surgery is not in my world either. Is that a deficit or is that an advantage?”

— Christoph Waltz

30. “I only do what I like to do.”

— Christoph Waltz

31. “Mine is studying script and being very academic and trying to be important.”

— Christoph Waltz

32. “I don’t like to read novelizations of movies.”

— Christoph Waltz

33. “I think Stephen Sondheim is a – and I hardly ever use this word – but this is as close as it gets to a genius.”

— Christoph Waltz

34. “I have always been so interested in film as a medium.”

— Christoph Waltz

35. “It’s the economics, that’s why opera is not dying but gets more and more difficult to put on.”

— Christoph Waltz

36. “There are plenty of people over there who understand the difference. And there are plenty of people over here who understand the difference. It’s still one world and it has been for a long time.”

— Christoph Waltz

37. “You’re always being cast for what you’ve been in last.”

— Christoph Waltz

38. “Just because you don’t have a burning passion for your job, does not automatically mean something is missing for you.”

— Christoph Waltz

39. “Not everyone can stick it, to live their passion. And secondly, not everything is connected to passion. And third, not everyone might have these kinds of passion, so you can’t just make them appear out of thin air.”

— Christoph Waltz

40. “You can be an anonymous observer all your life, but then you never get the platform to transform those observations into art, or whatever it is you want to transform it into. And that’s a lamentable paradox, because it’s the reason the entertainment industry is so hermetic. It closes itself off from the world it wants to talk about.”

— Christoph Waltz

41. “What keeps you going is stubbornness, economic necessity, or simply endurance. Passion will, at most, lead to frustration, but not to perseverance. For that, you don’t need passion, you need persistence.”

— Christoph Waltz