Christopher Walken quotes

Christopher Walken is an American actor known for his distinctive voice and intense screen presence. His diverse career spans film, television, and theater, with memorable roles in productions such as "The Deer Hunter" and "Catch Me If You Can." He continues to captivate audiences with his unique style and versatility. Here are 135 of his quotes:

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

Christopher Walken

I'm a better actor now than I ever was, I wish I could have hurried that up, but there's no way. Anyway, I always wanted to be around for a long time. Like a European actor, I hope I live a long time and that I'm acting until I finish.

Christopher Walken

Well, I don't play heroes obviously. I never played the guy who gets the girl. It might be interesting to do a part where I was a father in a functional family.

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

It's a natural aspect of the marketplace. It's always been that way in storytelling. The guy who was good at playing the lover plays the lover, the funny guy gets the comic role. Movies are so expensive, when they put them together they want to have a couple of solid blocks in what they're building. I accept that. In theater, though, I tend to look for other things, I think I tend to be best in comedy.

Christopher Walken

Careers are not often as chosen as people think they are. People talk to me about my choices. I don't make choices, hardly. Things happen, and you say yes or no - usually 'yes', because it's always better to do something. What's the choice? Somebody will say, 'Don't do that part, you don't need to do that part.' And I'll say, 'Why not? What am I going to do? Sit around the house? I'd much rather go to work, and see actors, and have fun.

Christopher Walken

I have the easiest job in Hollywood, because I get paid to be me. What's the role? A milkman? 'Hey, I'm a milkman. Here's your milk.

Christopher Walken

I think it's sort of a compliment. Jay Mohr does it in front of me all the time. I've got another friend who does me on his answering machine. When I call him, I hear myself.

Christopher Walken

I'm not a big fan of other people's punctuation. When I read a script I've got a sort of automatic eraser. I don't see punctuation or capitals or instructions. I want to decide when the sentence is over. Who's to say when a sentence ends and the other one begins? Sometimes it begins in the middle of the next sentence.

Christopher Walken

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

Christopher Walken

No, improvising is wonderful. But, the thing is that you cannot improvise unless you know exactly what you're doing.

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'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

As an actor you become that lighting rod between the person who made the play and the audience.

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

My favorite characters are the ones that are the most successful movies.

Christopher Walken

My father was a lesson. He had his own bakery, and it was closed one day a week, but he would go anyway. He did it because he really loved his bakery. It wasn't a job.

Christopher Walken

My father passed away a couple of years ago, but he was very old. He was almost a 100 years old. And, you know, he had a very good life. He came to America and he had a good life.

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

When I was a kid, my parents gave me piano lessons and guitar lessons for a while, but I was never very good at it. I have big, sort of awkward hands. It's hard to keep going when you don't get any better.

Christopher Walken

An actor really is a kind of intermediary between an audience and the piece, whether it's a play or movie.

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