Austrian Quotes

As a kid - as a kid I saw socialist - the socialist country that Austria became after the Soviets left. Now don`t misunderstand me: I love Austria and I love the Austrian people. But I always knew that America was the place for me. In school, when the teacher would talk about America, I would daydream about coming here. I would daydream about living here. I would sit there and watch for hours American movies, transfixed by my heroes, like John Wayne. Everything about America seemed so big to me, so open, so possible.

Well, I think because a lot of people don`t know why I`m a Republican, I came first of all from a socialistic country which is Austria and when I came over here in 1968 with the presidential elections coming up in November, I came over in October, I heard a lot of the press conferences from both of the candidates, (Hubert H. Humphrey) and (Richard Nixon), and Humphrey was talking about more government is the solution, protectionism, and everything he said about government involvement sounded to me more like Austrian socialism. Then when I heard Nixon talk about it, he said open up the borders, the consumers should be represented there ultimately and strengthen the military and get the government off our backs. I said to myself, "What is this guy`s party affiliation?" I didn`t know anything at that point. So I asked my friend, "What is Nixon?" He`s a Republican. And I said, "I am a Republican". That`s how I became a Republican."

The Austrians are brilliant people. They made the world believe that (Adolf Hitler) was a German and (Ludwig van Beethoven) an Austrian.

He was an unbelievable human being. He is the last of the old Austrian ski instructors; it is the absolute end of an era.

About `Funny Games`, and Austrian director Michael Haneke: I didn`t want to do it. The film was fascinating, but for an actress, it`s just incredibly hard to play. I regretted my decision later because it`s a really great film. But at the time, I just didn`t have the courage to play in it. Later, he offered me a role in The Piano Teacher, partly, I suspect, as a challenge; he said to me: `You`ll see - it`s worse than Funny Games !` I read the script and I thought it wasn`t worse at all. But the scenario was in English, and perhaps there were some scenes I didn`t really read properly.

If I remain healthy, I can win more races, but I don`t think so much about setting new records. I`m already proud to have become the leading Austrian World Cup racer.

When I was a child, all I wanted was to enter the Austrian team and to compete on the World Cup tour. I had to fight hard to reach this. I wanted badly to win each race.

IN trying to recall my impressions during my short war duty as an officer in the Austrian Army, I find that my recollections of this period are very uneven and confused.

Although I`m Australian, I find myself much more in sympathy with the Austrian version!

In effect, I was asking that if Russia mobilized against Austria, the German Government, who had been supporting the Austrian demand on Serbia, should ask Austria to consider some modification of her demands, under the threat of Russian mobilization.

Maybe this is why so many serial killers work in pairs. It`s nice not to feel alone in a world full of victims or enemies. It`s no wonder Waltraud Wagner, the Austrian Angel of Death, convinced her friends to kill with her.