River Phoenix Quotes

1. The business always goes for what you do best and I've just made myself do best in the way I've wanted to. So, if (my movies) get recognition, like, at the Venice film festival, the Toronto film festival, wherever it is, you know? In France, in Holland: When critics start speaking up and they believe in something then you have the power to get blow-jobs basically, from the corporate leaders. I mean, I've found myself being blown by America's film corporations. It's nice. I cum in their f... lens.  

2. I just always loved the names Helen or Ashley, I don't know, they seem familar to me, like I need to be with them…

3. It's really designed, I think, to strip you and blend you. It's like feeling like the invisible man. You just stand there, and you start disintegrating, and you can't see yourself, and you just feel like you're being absorbed into this big blob of glitter. 






4. Rich kids gave us their old clothes. They were the best clothes we ever had. We were these very pure, naive, poor children. The rich kids called us a lot of names but it never bothered us because we didn't know what the words meant.

5. I wish sometimes that I wasn't as conscious as I am.


6. Everything is ironic to me. There are moments I find hysterical, but I'm probably the only one who would find that, except for a few people.

7. I love Sam Shepard, he is like a father to me. We don't even have to talk, we communicate without words.

8. I can't on my own change the regime in South Africa or teach the Palestinians to learn to live with the Israelies, but I can start with me.

9. Fame doesn't affect my relationships with people much because I've got my head on straight, but there is some sort of undertone that has a weird effect when you're trying to walk through life - I'm not interested in seeing "the media" manifest itself in my life. I don't even like to call acting a career. I prefer to think of it as a project, or else I'd start worrying about things like money. I like contributing to causes, people and the world around me. Just kind of sharing it all, that's what's important. 

10. Animals are not our playthings. We are on this earth to protect them. It's our duty.




11. When I was old enough to realize all meat was killed, I saw it as an irrational way of using our power, to take a weaker thing and mutilate it. It was like the way bullies would take control of younger kids in the schoolyard.

12. I project a definite innocence. A lot of that is just the way I grew up.





13. Fame is what gets people to go watch your film. I'm just glad to be in a film I believe in. And if it take's fame to get people there, then it's my job. But I'd rather be a ghost writer than have my name down. 

14. I have a lot of chameleon qualities, I get very absorbed in my surroundings.

15. We respect our parents and they respect us. Even when we were younger, it was never: "Well, I'm the parent and you're the kid." You wouldn't be held back because of your age. Just the opposite. My father used to say: "The youngest gets to yell the loudest because they're never listened to!" My father talks to Summer (sister Summer Phoenix), who is the youngest, the way he talks to my grandfather or anyone else. They always gave us a fair shot.

16. We are taught to consume. And that's what we do. But if we realized that there really is no reason to consume, that it's just a mind set, that it's just an addiction, then we wouldn't be out there stepping on people's hands climbing the corporate ladder of success.




17. In simplicity there is truth.

18. I consider myself an atlas. Sort of an Arnold Schwarzenegger with a Nigel Tufnel twist. I walk close to edges; I kiss them with my toe.

19. I did my best work in The Mosquito Coast. I know it wasn't such a big hit, but for me it was more meaningful than anything else I'd ever done.

20. We all have our distinct things. Leaf (brother Joaquin Phoenix) was the family clown - very witty, very smart. Mom had to work a lot, so Rainbow (sister Rain Phoenix) was the mother and the older sister and trendsetter. Liberty (sister Liberty Phoenix) was always the most physical, like an acrobat, very nimble and strong, a really beautiful girl. And Summer (sister Summer Phoenix) was the youngest, the baby of the family, with big brown eyes and blonde hair, more American-looking.

21. I don't want to die in a car accident. When I die it'll be a glorious day. It'll probably be a waterfall.

22. In "Stand by Me", I realized that what I was creating was going to live on far longer than anything of me as a person. The characters are more powerful than the person that creates them.

23. Acting is like a Halloween mask that you put on.

24. One of the things that was introduced to me at an early stage in life was to try to make stuff happen. But nothing ever worked that way for me. What I learned on my own was that to try and play God with your life will wreck your brain and your nervous system, and mess up your natural direction in the course that's already there...But look, I just don't want to read about me being made into a basket case because of my work. It's self-pity that I hate. I mean, it comes with the territory. An actor with any conviction goes the extra mile. 

25. When you see the name "River Phoenix" everywhere; you gotta, like, joke about it. 


26. I'm having a kind of hard time keeping my head above water in this crazy business.

27. I wouldn't eat a hamburger for 40,000 dollars.

28. I want kids, a family of my own. I'd like to give them the first eight years of their lives in the country. Then I'd want them educated, which I wasn't formally, although I had a tutor once when I was twelve. At times I miss a formal education, but at others I thank God for everything else I have now. What I have got from my childhood aren't toys, but memories. And happy memories are better than any toy.

29. It still strikes me as strange that anyone could have any moral objection to someone else's sexuality. It's like telling someone else how to clean their house.

30. I would get songs sung to me, like "Old Man River," or kids would call me Mississippi and things like that. At the time, I wished I had a name that blended in more with my surroundings. Now, though, I've really learned to love it. From fifteen, I really liked it. It felt appropriate. Before that, I don't think it quite fitted me. I had to grow into it .



31. Oh Yeah, we really are great people. I think Keanu and I are the nicest guys on the planet…with the exception of George Bush and Ronald Reagan.

32. I sometimes lie, especially about personal things, because what does it matter? I am a kind of minute commodity, my name is no longer my own.


33. Sometimes I hear stuff like "Hey man, wheres your skateboard, dude?" from people who think I'm Christian Slater.

34. I would never, never do anything unless I believed in it.

35. We need an extreme movement because what is happening to animals is so extreme. Some misinformed people claim that animal rights activists are terrorists, but these people are simply ignorant of who the real terrorists are - the companies and industries that torture literally billions of animals each year.



36. I'd like to play every type of character, but only once. I like to experience things.

37. Addiction is not just for bad people or scumbags - it's a universal disease.



38. I don't see any point or any good in drugs that are as disruptive as cocaine.


39. Music is a whole oasis in my head. The creation process is so personal and fulfilling.

40. I remember we'd roll into gas stations in our beat-up van and I'd tell the attendant: "I'm going to be an actor!"

41. I never tried heroin. I tried alcohol and most of the others when I was 15, and got it out of the way - finished with the stuff. 




42. I'm really normal. I play football, go to the beach, drive. We have dogs. I can imagine people calling me a character, but I'm Joe Straight.

43. I have twenty personalities on top of the ten I already have. So now I have thirty people in my head!

44. Most actors possess an intuitive side. Actually, the further away I am from the character, the less work I have to do. It takes so much more energy to detach yourself from your own life references that might cross wires with your character's. I think it's cheating for me to ever use my life references in conjunction with my characters. It's my reaction transferred to the character, which isn't good. What I have to do is erase those things and then find something else. I can't stand in front of a camera and let anything of myself come through or I'm betraying the character's complete trueness. There are some actors who just use themselves. They can wear their ego on their sleeve and it looks great. I can't do that.

45. It's a great feeling to think that I can be a friend to so many people through my movies.

46. I like girls who are natural because I am natural in everything I do. If I meet a girl who is snobby and wants special treatment, she's not going to get it from me because she hasn't earned it. But I've been basically lucky because I've met mostly nice girls - and that's what attracts me.

47. Vegetarianism is a link to perfection and peace.

48. (last interview Premier - October 1993) Quite often, when actors have such a strong charisma in real life, eventually it has to affect the characters they play. For myself I'm not charismatic in that way. I'm not a "performer". Ideally I would stay mute as River. That's the reason why, for a long time, I've said the opposite of what I really thought. In interviews, I've also played characters that I wasn't. I've lied and often contradicted myself to dumbfound people. It's all over now, because I have nothing left to hide. Eventually, I'm quite an ordinary person.

49. Music is a hobby, because I'm not making any money out of it, but I put just as much conviction into that as I do into my acting.

50. I woke up from a nap the other night. Everyone is cranky when they wake up. I thought to myself: "I have no right to be cranky. I'm so lucky." On my way to go to a restaurant, I get out of the car and I see this person on crutches. His sign says that he has AIDS and that his immune system is low. You know, he's broke, and his family won't talk to him because they can't eat because of the hospital bills. He didn't do this. The system did it - so that when someone has a chronic disease, it sucks him dry. He could have been in that same restaurant two years ago, eating and tipping big. I felt blessed that I could drop a fifty on him.

51. I'm a minor, stupid talent compared to my brother (Joaquin).





52. When I was younger, I was worried about how others viewed me and if I was good enough. I realize now that you can't mold an image or try to be something that you are not. As far as being an actor is concerned, your work really speaks for itself.
 
53. (on "My Own Private Idaho") It might take a few of these films before there's, like, a natural stride with the whole issue and then maybe one day it won't even be an issue, which is what I'm hoping.

54. I try to lie as much as I can when I'm interviewed. It's reverse psychology. I figure if you lie, they'll print the truth.

55. (on "My Own Private Idaho") It was very personal. Political comes from the viewing process. Nothing is ever political if it's genuine. In the reaction, yes, it can be political. But the motives were based completely on a deep need to communicate and share information. The film language has evolved enough that you should get people interacting with the film. It's exciting for us to exhibit it, and it's exciting for people to watch it…I think it's very important for the gay community to have random characters that represent nothing more than people… think it's part of a wave that will set a precedent of some sort so that you will no longer need a label.

56. When I was younger, I was dressed up like a model, told to pose in certain ways; to tilt my head, push my lips out, suck in my cheeks. And I'd be tired at the end of the day so I'd just give the damned photographer what he wanted. It was the most mortifying experience. And the photographs were the ugliest, the most contrived…it wasn't me. Then all the outtakes that you never want to see again in your life go through the teen magazines forever. 

57. (on "My Own Private Idaho") It might take a few of these movies before there's a natural stride with the whole issue. Then one day, it wont even be an issue - which is what I'm hoping.

58. I've been wanting to go into music ever since I can remember. I mean even before I became an actor. I just thought it would be a tough field to break into, so I became an actor instead.

59. Commercials were too phony for me. I just didn't like selling products I didn't believe in.





60. I really like acting because you can create a character. You can make someone who has never existed before. That's neat.

61. (on his feelings about "My Own Private Idaho" just after the film's release in 1991) Every day of my life since I finished "My Own Private Idaho", at some point in the day, I find the conversation somehow goes back to that film, because it was just such a great experience. I just start getting all joyous and start babbling about it.

62. Music is my main goal, but I'm not going to rush a record out. There are so many actors who have come out with albums these days. I don't want to do it because it's the thing to do. I want to wait until the time is right.

63. I don't want to get so lost in thinking about me and talking about me all the time in interviews. It's so nice to unwind and just look at other things and get out of yourself. It's hard to detach myself from myself without neglecting myself. You know what I mean? I don't want to get in to the habit of thinking about my career because when it comes down to it, it's not really that important. I could die tomorrow and the world would go on. 

64. It really upsets me and I'm basically upset at myself for being so naive and gullible as I have been in the past as far as being intimidated by the stylists with the wardrobe and the hair-do's and the poses and the this and that and all that stuff that isn't me. What it does is it makes you an image, and they plaster you on all these magazines and sensationalize and they're all very nice and sweet and goody-goody but still, it's just false as far as, you know, the image that's portrayed; it's not me. 

65. It's not about career. It's about believing in something, it's about prosperity and it's about caring and emphasizing and wanting to create the best, the most true to life, the most real.

66. If I have some celebrity, I hope I can use it to make a difference. The true social reward is that I can speak my mind and share my thoughts about the environment and civilization itself. There's so much shit happening with people who are exploiting their positions and creating a lot of negativity.

67. People wonder if I'll always be a part of this family and the answer is yes. My family has a lot of good energy going in one direction and because of it, we get a lot of things done. That's why I'll always spend a lot of time at Camp Phoenix.



68. The press is always looking for a little twist to a story and what I've learned is that it all turns out very superficial. So you need to become what they want, you need to give what they put out. 

69. (on his Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for "Running on Empty" in 1989) I feel that there are great minds up there who would like to see what I can do with an Oscar nomination. I guess many people would change after a nomination in the way they see things. In my case it's really irrelevant in terms of what I do. Still, it was an incredible experience which I will put in my memories, like everything else.

70. We were constantly moving to different countries and adjusting to new things. It was such a free feeling. I'm glad I didn't have a traditional upbringing.

71. (on his interpretation of a young Indiana Jones in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade") I would just look at Harrison (Harrison Ford); he would do stuff and I would not mimic it, but interpret it younger. Mimicking is a terrible mistake that many people make when they play someone younger, or with an age difference. Mimicking doesn't interpret true because you can't just edit it around.

72. When I was in first grade, everyone made fun of my name, of course. I think it's kind of a big name to hold up when you're nine years old. It seemed goofy. I used to tell people I wanted to change the world and they used to think: "This kid's really weird".

73. I would rather quit while I was ahead. There's no need in overstaying your welcome.


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