Biografia

His films contain animals doing unusual things

His films contain long, extended landscape shots

Frequently worked with Klaus Kinski

Screeching cellos and violins in musical scores

Driven protagonists who often seem to be on the brink of madness

Joaquin Phoenix was in a car accident on a winding canyon road where his vehicle flipped over. Shaken and confused, he heard a tapping on his window and a voice said, "Just relax." Unable to see the man, Phoenix replied, "I'm fine. I am relaxed." When he managed to see the man, he realized it was Werner Herzog, who then replied, "No, you're not." After helping Phoenix out of the wreckage, Herzog phoned for an ambulance, then vanished.

In late 2005, during an interview with BBC film critic Mark Kermode regarding O Homem Urso (2005), a sniper opened fire on them with an air rifle. Kermode panicked when Herzog calmly said, "Someone is shooting at us." One of the pellets then hit Herzog. An unmoved Herzog said that the bullet was 'not a significant one' and insisted on continuing the interview.

Herzog once promised to eat his shoe if a young American film student went out and actually made the film he was always only talking about. The young student was Errol Morris, who met the challenge with his off-beat 1978 pet cemetery documentary Portais do Céu (1978) (and went on to make A Tênue Linha da Morte (1988) and Rápido, Barato & Fora de Controle (1997)). Herzog makes good on his promise in the film Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980), directed by Les Blank.

Was scheduled to fly on the same ill-fated plane as fellow German teenager Juliane Koepcke in 1971, but was bumped from the flight at the last minute. On Christmas Eve, the plane crashed in the Amazon jungle, and 17-year-old Juliane was the only survivor, after enduring 11 days alone. Her tale was told in 1974's Dez Dias de Agonia (1974).

Herzog is admired for being the only director who was able to work with the late and very eccentric Klaus Kinski.

TV uses landscapes. I transform landscapes - I direct landscapes.

[on the ending of Stroszek (1977)] When I saw the dancing chicken, I knew I would create a grand metaphor - for what, I don't know.

[on working with Klaus Kinski] I had to domesticate the wild beast.

Perhaps I seek certain utopian things, space for human honour and respect, landscapes not yet offended, planets that do not exist yet, dreamed landscapes. Very few people seek these images today.

So, you have to be daring to do things like this, because the world is not easily accepting of filmmaking. There will always be some sort of an obstacle, and the worst of all obstacles is the spirit of bureaucracy. You have to find your way to battle bureaucracy. You have to outsmart it, to outgut it, to outnumber it, to outfilm them - that's what you have to do.