Joaquin Phoenix quotes:

I had a really wonderful upbringing. We were a tight family. It was wonderful to grow up with so many siblings. We were all just a year or two apart, and we were always so supportive of each other. I learned everything from my older brother and sister and taught it to my younger sisters.

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

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

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 feel like everything you learn as an actor growing up is wrong. You're supposed to hit your mark, find your light and know your lines. Those are all things that just make things wooden, dull and boring.

When I look back I can't believe how my parents managed, but the cliche is true. We didn't have money, but we were rich in so many other ways.

Sometimes a character is really based on research that you do. Other times it's just based on your imagination or perhaps your conversation with the director. Or sometimes all of the above. It depends on the movie and character.

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

I've always loved music, but I never really played anything. After 'Walk the Line' and learning to play guitar, and having that sense of performing, I think that certainly opened the door for me, for music.

You see so many earnest characters in movies all the time, everyone has a purpose.

There are kids who get on a BMX bike when they're eight years old and they go, 'Whoa, this is incredible,' and grow up to do extreme sports. It's the same for me with acting.

The reason I keep making movies is I hate the last thing I did. I'm trying to rectify my wrongs.

When I decide to do something, I stick with it, total commitment.

No, I don't want to talk about River. I have nothing to say about it that I would want to be public.

With public figures involved in a relationship it seems that there is a machine behind their love so oftentimes.

There are kids who get on BMX bike when they are eight years old and they go,'Whoa, this is incredible,' and grow up to do extreme sports. It is the same for me with acting.

For me, I'd rather have an intense experience than not.

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

I've worked with a lot of people on music and often times those things don't work out.

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

Going out on a stage publicly and not knowing how people are going to react to you - once I experienced that, it made me feel much more comfortable about going into a scene.

It's an amazing feeling to go into a studio and really be alone.

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

I never prepare. I think that's completely overrated. It's a very simple job. All you have to do is hit this bright mark, stand in the right spot and say the line. So I don't really believe in preparation.

Every movie soaks into you for a certain amount of time.

You're always thinking, What's the next move - the career, the money.

I just I don't feel challenged by acting anymore. I don't enjoy the process anymore.

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.

There are certain aspects of acting that I don't like. I'm not a person who loves being on set. I mean, I know people that have their espresso machines in their trailers and they like being in there and they put pictures on walls. But I don't like it. I don't like sitting around.

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.

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.

I've been prepping for my role as Medusa.

When I go out with the ladies, I don't force them to pronounce my name. I tell them I like to go by the nickname of Kitten.

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 guess I had what you could call an unconventional upbringing.

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.

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

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

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.

Well, I think that you know, I threatened myself with quitting after every movie. But I think everybody does that, right?

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

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'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.

You can take that 'I'm an artiste' stuff to the wrong extreme, too.

I would try and sing along with bands that I like but it sounded so atrocious that I couldn't.

If you walk into a room and one hundred people say, 'You are a lovely, beautiful person', who isn't going to be affected by that? But you have to tell yourself not to value that. You have to tell yourself - or at least I do - to not become accustomed to hearing applause in any way, because I think that's dangerous.

I don't really make movies because I want to see my face on a billboard or because I want to get good reviews or have a big box office. That doesn't really matter to me at all.

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

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

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

It's hard for me to put my feelings into words.

We are all animals of this planet. We are all creatures. And nonhuman animals experience pain sensations just like we do. They too are strong, intelligent, industrious, mobile, and evolutional. They too are capable of growth and adaptation. Like us, firsthand foremost, they are earthlings. And like us, they are surviving. Like us they also seek their own comfort rather than discomfort. And like us they express degrees of emotion. In short like us, they are alive.

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

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.

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

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.

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 love doing the music. I love programming beats and kind of working on the music as much, if not more, than the actual rapping.

The offers were, like, a lot of money - maybe not for other actors, but definitely for me. But I don't want that power. I don't want $20-million power.

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

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

My personal life absolutely goes down the drain when I start working; that's something that I'm incapable of doing.

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.

The expectation is this low, gravelly voice for John, but I went through his early recordings and there were songs in there where the voice was so different, I wasn't even sure if it was him singing, ... So it was interesting to me that we would see him develop the Man in Black sound. I thought it was really important that his voice change as his persona slowly solidified. The music was really the doorway into the character.

I don't bring my life into a character at all.

I always have the fear that, if I don't commit 100 percent to my work, then it's gonna suffer.

Together, we can make a U.S. Department of Peace into a reality, and leave a gift of peace for generations to come.

The footage that you're about to watch of China's dog-leather trade is one of the worst things I've ever seen.

I still think that movies are amazing; I respect actors and directors.

I don't spend most of my life in front of the media.

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

The less someone knows about me, the better, because my intention is to play a variety of characters.

They tell you to memorize your lines, follow your light, and hit your marks. Those are the three things that you shouldn't do. You should not learn your lines, you should not hit your mark, and you should never follow your light. Find your light - that's my opinion. Everyone else will tell me I'm wrong, but that's my opinion.

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'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.

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

There is no need for fur - since there are compassionate alternatives.

I've never made $20 million. I'm scared. I don't know if you gave me The Ring if I could carry it and bring it to Ozamorph, or whatever you call it.

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.

Whether you think a film will affect society or it's plain entertainment, it's all excellent, it's all noble.

I like being an employee. I like making somebody happy - and if they're not, then I'm crushed.

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

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.

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.

Getting into the character is difficult and letting go of your life and the things that kind of define you, whatever it is in life that's your daily routine because you sort of find yourself in this other life and that's difficult and the other end is difficult.

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

I've made up so many stores about my name, I can't remember.

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

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 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 guess my experience with some stuff is kind of abstract.

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

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

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.