Val Kilmer on New Mexico

Kilmer's Thoughts on New Mexico

"I think spiritual perception comes from a natural and healthy relationship to the land and I've had that. I get an easy, automatic sense of myself in nature, a wholeness I feel nowhere else. I think people should live where praying is most immediate. That`s why I live in New Mexico. The physical terrain, the feeling, the environment and culture improve my life just by waking up there."

"There’s a wonderful combination of feelings that comes with this altitude–this high-mountain desert and the arid air make it more special, and the smell of it–this is the place where God makes oxygen."

"I really don’t believe that I would’ve been able to own this, to be a caretaker for this place( his ranch), if I hadn’t gotten something lined up in my life where I was given the chance to blow it. I’d rather spend money on creatures and plants and birds than a Ferrari. I’d rather watch the foxes eat. "

"Imagine it, being able to ride a thousand miles, and all you experience are those thousand miles. There’s nothing man-created to move through. It’s just the land; I find that extremely moving. I live in the US’s fifth largest state, yet there are less people there than in Central London. There’s still quite a bit of space. And it just does something for you. It creates a spirit that I find quite noble."

"I feel more creative here. I’m more in touch with myself. It’s something about the space. The outdoors makes you feel young. You walk into a forest, and you want to throw a rock. It’s a world that I grew up hearing about from my father but thought didn’t exist anymore."

"I live outdoors here. I wake up and I’m outside the house. It’s that way with animals. You’re out with them early, working a young horse. And my kids are like that too. They’ll spend all day in the river."

"Retreating to my home in New Mexico relieves my tensions. Then I’ll go outdoors to hike, ski or just do something with my kids. That really removes me from the craziness of this business. The sun is going to set today, and if we’re not going to live and take advantage of it, well, we miss out."

"There is something grand about living in nature, being part of it. I did it the other day. It was 9:30, and I hadn’t showered and I’m wondering. Is my next appointment here yet? All that stuff. And I realized that I wasn’t going to be involved with this river that day. And I just got right up, before I could talk myself out of it, and took a bath in the river instead. I thought, here’s the answer: If you want to get the sleep out of your eyes, why don’t you sit in the river for a couple of minutes? You don’t really need the coffee, do you? The river’s kind of cold!"

"For a while, people can successfully avoid confronting themselves. viciously, judging from the popularity of alcohol and drugs, people are still trying to convince themselves that there’s some way out. . .some way to escape. But there’s something out here that encourages you to see yourself. There aren’t many distractions. I love to backpack, camp, and ride. I ride and ride and then come across one Ponderosa pine. In Colorado, you may pass a million pine trees just driving to where you’re going. Here, when you encounter a tree, you know that it deserves to survive – it’s made it. There’s nothing to detract from simple beauty here, no giant payoff with a lot of tourists trampling through to see it. There’s a kind of humor in the terrain out here, like the tough , shaley rock with a perfect purple bouquet growing out of it."

"I’ve lived in Tesuque since 1983. It’s a small town, so it’s kind of vivid when someone comes in and spends a lot of money and throws a bunch of parties. Everyone will go and drink their champagne, but they’re not interested unless the newcomers have something to offer besides money."

"Celebrities have been coming to New Mexico since the turn of the century. Sure, there are movie stars here, but to the locals the bottom line is still, “Are you a good person?”

"It really doesn’t matter here if you have money or you don’t. It’s really your character. Are you a good person?"

"Sure, there are people who have gotten away with it. . . who have brought that kind of greed and attitude, and they’re still here, but it’s really not what this town’s about."

"We used to come here when we were kids. There’s a calmness here, a very healthy environment."

"There’s something really positive about the tri-cultural community. Everybody’s been getting along for quite a long time now. There are racial issues here like everywhere else, but the artists, Native American, white and Hispanic, all get their inspiration from each other, and that’s a feeling that I really enjoy."

"Native people represent a kind of fearlessness. Forgot your parka, the car died, it’s 80 below, but you’re gonna be all right, because nature is not an enemy, it’s a challenge."

"New Mexico, they don’t care about acting. For anybody out there, it depends on what you do in the community whether you are held in any regard. It’s always been that way; it’s an artistic, tri-cultural community. That’s what I find most appealing about it. There are a lot eccentric characters out there that also make a lot of contributions of their time to the community."

"I love filming in New Mexico just because of the variety of the landscapes and the character of the people."

"The worst you can say about New Mexicans is that they know how to live, so they’re relaxed."

"This place has something magic about it."

"I live in New Mexico because I feel a kinship with the desert and the land."

"We enjoy the serenity of the desert. I need to keep myself in tune with who I am. That’s why I like to keep as much mystery in character as I can because it’s always more interesting to discover the unknown element inside us. I like to think of myself as essentially unknowable because that’s probably what audiences see in my work. There is no single, fixed self. We’re all fragmented and evolving through time. If you stare into the desert, you can see that."

"There’s a sophisticated culture and community here, and I really respect it."

"I’ve lived in three major US cities and I don’t like it at all. It’s just the desert I love. I live there, and my mother lives there – just a couple of hours away from Tombstone, in fact I spend most of my free time in deserts, either in the US or someplace."

"I function better and focus better when I have a bit more quiet time, like in New Mexico, or in Bali."

"I had a friend who moved out here, and the first time I came to visit I was – and still am – a little speechless."

All Images by Shelli Carlisle 2009

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