Quotes By Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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 haven't signed anything giving people the right to do anything they want with my image, you know what I mean. I have the ultimate say.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Once I became a total buffoon, it was so liberating.

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

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.

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

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

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

I mean, I don't like sitting at a table with seven or eight people asking me questions and kind of listening to what I'm doing - scrutinizing my thoughts and things like that. I just don't like it. I can't understand how anyone would.

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.

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'm incredibly lazy!

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

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