Best 64 quotes of Joaquin Phoenix on MyQuotes

Acting is real important to me. I love it, and it's something I care about.

Animal rights is a part of my everyday life. When you live by example, you create a certain level of awareness. Friends of mine - people I have never discussed animal rights or vegetarianism with - are adopting vegetarian habits because they see it.

As a nation, this is the moment to start seriously investing our time, energy and resources into proven methods of reducing violence, both within our nation as well as internationally. The cost of violence to our culture and our children is simply not sustainable.

Do I have a large frog in my hair? I have the sensation that something is eating my brain.

Every single movie that I've ever done has affected my life; I always feel more changed by a character than I affect them or change them, always. I mean, that's just kind of the way it is.

For as long as I've been making movies, I really don't know a lot of the technical side. I mean, I've actively and consciously tried to avoid learning that stuff. I just want to be open and receptive to what's happening in the moment, and I don't want to force anything.

For me, I guess I'm the acting equivalent of somebody that jumps off buildings and parachutes.

How can you work in film and still see the overt racism that exists in film and not just be furious all the time?

I becan acting when River was doing this TV series and they needed two kids for the show, so they got me and my little sister, Summer, to do it. After that I did some really weird guest spots with orangutans and stuff.

I didn't know much about him, and I wasn't a big country music fan. I listened to the Beatles and David Bowie, so I didn't know a lot about him.

I do like to collaborate, and I like hearing other people, and I like how somebody's performance will affect my own.

I don't believe in god. I don't believe in an afterlife. I don't believe in soul. I don't believe in anything. I think it's totally right for people to have their own beliefs if it makes them happy, but to me it's a pretty preposterous idea.

I don't have the slightest desire to speak over my dead brother. It gets on my nerves to always be compared with him. My brother was a magnificent person and an outstanding actor.

I don't know a single person in life that doesn't have conflict. I don't really enjoy acting enough to not want to experience something that feels like it really affects things. It's like, if you were a surfer, would you want to surf where there was like two-foot waves, or would you want to surf on like ten-foot waves. To me, the more kind of dramatic stories are more exciting for me, to play with.

I don't know a single person in life that doesn't have conflict.

I don't know why I always get to play these guys who have few redeeming features. But don't knock it. Villains are much more fun.

I don't think one should be comfortable standing on a stage with people applauding and laughing at every stupid thing you say.

I don't walk around like I'm a movie star because I don't think of myself as a movie star. People usually don't even notice me.

I'd see child actors and I'd get so jealous, because they're just completely wide open.

I enjoy humour more than anything, I don't really sit around banging my head and crying all the time.

I enjoy writing rhymes and sitting alone in a room listening to beats. It's pretty amazing.

I guess my experience with some stuff is kind of abstract.

I have this horrible sense of humor where I think discomfort is funny - partly because I experience discomfort a lot, and it's a way of laughing at it and getting a release.

I know if I'm lost in the moment or not.

I like working all the time. I hate taking breaks. I don't like the weekends.

I loved hip-hop. The first stuff I heard was Public Enemy, and I couldn't believe it. It was amazing, and I've always loved hip-hop.

I love having a master. I have no problem serving my director. That's my job. I want to make them happy.

I love scripts about relationships, and I love to see puppy love evolving into this mature love and communication.

I'm going to sound a little weird here, but I like to spend a lot of time on my own in the woods. I don't exactly sneak off in the middle of the night, but I like to be in a place where no one can reach me by phone or e-mail.

I'm like the kid that crams for tests and never remembers anything.

I'm proud of my brother. I would never not want to be associated with him.

I'm very thankful for the people that I've had the opportunity to work with. I have a good life. It's been amazing. I'm not complaining. It's not like acting has ruined me so I have to leave. It's not that. I'm just done with it.

I'm vomiting days before I start shooting a new movie.

In every film, whether it's a fictional character or not, you create an idea of the character and for me I always do a bad impersonation to start with.

In most films - especially in regards to the protagonist - really from the get-go they set up some scenario that endears that character to the audience. Or imbues him with some nobility or heroism or something.

I once told a journalist that girls call me 'Kitten,' but I couldn't have been more sarcastic, and no matter how many times I've said that it was a joke, it still doesn't go away.

Is it that your dream is unattainable or is it that you have the wrong dream?

I still have a hard time saying who Johnny [ Cash ] is in one sentence. He seemed so contradictory in his actions, and I think that's probably what is most fascinating about him and what made him such an interesting character to study.

I think the day that I become comfortable doing interviews and going on talk shows is the day that I don't know what it is to be a human being anymore.

It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.

I've always loved hip-hop, since I was a kid, that's the music that I loved. I think everyone of our generation kind of fantasized about hip-hop in some ways.

I've been in clubs. I don't like being in an enclosed place with really loud music, and a lot of drunk people. It's not my idea of a good time. It's just such a miserable life.

I was 3-years-old - to this day it is a vivid memory. My family and I were on a boat, catching fish. As one fish was caught, he was writhing, then he was thrown against the side of the boat. You couldn't disguise what it was. This was what we did to animals to eat them. The animal went from a living, vibrant creature fighting for life to a violent death. I recognized it, as did my brothers and sisters.

I wish I had fair justification for not being as informed as I should be, but I don't.

I wouldn't feel satisfied being on set every day doing a romantic comedy - I'd be bored to death.

Might I be ridiculous? Might my career in music be laughable? Yeah, that's possible, but that's certainly not my intention.

My dissatisfaction with acting has nothing to do with being uncomfortable or vulnerable or feeling like people are going to criticize me. That's not the problem.

My music is going to be true. I'm not out to sell records. I'm experiencing something, and it's what I feel.

My significant other right now is myself, which is what happens when you suffer from multiple personality disorder and self-obsession.

That to me was really, certainly, the gateway into discovering John, ... I feel I found the speaking voice through the singing voice.