Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980)

Werner Herzog: Self

Photos 

Quotes 

• Werner Herzog : Give us adequate images. We, we lack adequate images, our civilization doesn't have adequate images. And I think our civilization is doomed, is gonna die out like dinosaurs if it does not develop an adequate language or adequate images.

• [last lines] 

  Werner Herzog : Errol has set a good example. He's a landmark now. And I'm very proud of it. I'm very proud for him and I'm proud for me that I'm pushed him a little bit into, into this. And therefore to eat a shoe is a foolish signal but it was worthwhile. And once in a while I think we should be, we should be foolish enough to do things like that. More shoes, more boots, more garlic.

• [first lines] 

  Werner Herzog : If we speak of television it's just... ridiculous and destructive. It kills us. And talk-shows will kill us. They kill our language. So we have to declare holy war against what we see every single day on television, commercials and... I think there should be real war against commercials, real war against talk-shows, real war against Bonanza, Rawhide or these things.

• Werner Herzog : I'm quite convinced that cooking is the only alternative to film-making. Maybe there is also another alternative. That's walking afoot.

• Werner Herzog : I didn't mean to eat this shoe in public. I intended to eat it in a restaurant. But, I was pushed a little bit into it and it makes sense, to some extent, because it should be an encouragement for all of you who want to make films and who are just scared to start and who haven't got the guts. So, you can follow a good example...

• Werner Herzog : You shouldn't worry about it. We cooked it for five hours, but, its still more stiff than before. So, I brought - I brought some pair of poultry scissors and some sharp knives. You can have the same experience every single day, you just drop in at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. I have survived so many Kentucky Fried Chicken. So, it won't do harm to me.

• Driver : Is this anything like the time that you swore to throw yourself into a cactus plant at the end of "Even Dwarfs Started Small"?

  Werner Herzog : No. That was a different story. I had the feeling they were quite in danger. One was hit by the car, the car ran over him and the same little guy caught fire when we watered the flower pots with gasoline and set them afire. A flame they - he caught fire and I extinguished him with my body. I threw myself on him. And when he was extinguished I told him "I'm gonna jump into a cactus if you all survive."

• Werner Herzog : It's still a mystery. He borrowed money everywhere and he stole and he - I don't know how he did it, but, but that's the way to do it. If you want to do a film, steal a camera.

• Werner Herzog : I said to him, "You are a man who should make films and you are going to do that film now." And he said to me, "Well, there is - I don't have any money and so and nobody will give me money." I said that, "Money doesn't make films. Just do it and take the initiative." And I said, "I'm gonna eat my shoes if you finish that one." And that's a moment now.

• Werner Herzog : I don't like cowards.

• Werner Herzog : Ever since I have been in contact with audiences, and I have wondered what the value of films was and I think, I don't know, it gives us some insight. It's like - it doesn't change, people have thought it would, films could cause a revolutions or whatever and it does not. But, films might change our - our perspective of things and ultimately, in the long term, it may - it may be something valuable, but, there is a lot of absurdity involved, as well. As you see, it makes - it makes me - it makes me into a clown. And that happens to everyone. Just look at Orson Welles or look at, even people like Truffaut. They have become clowns.

• Werner Herzog : What we do as film-makers is immaterial. It's only a projection of light. And doing that all your life makes you just a clown. And it's almost an inevitable process.

• Werner Herzog : That's what I'm working on: a new grammar of images.