Joaquin Phoenix Quotes & Sayings

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

I'm incredibly lazy! — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

I'm not technical. — Joaquin Phoenix

The only reason why I would like to be accepted? Because if your movies don't do well, after a while you don't get to make any more movies. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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

I feel an obligation to set the record straight. Actors that say they're affected by something, that it changes their life, that they take it home with them, they're just trying to get nominated for an Oscar! — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

There was a time when I read a script and I just got excited about the possibilities. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

Morgan, this crop stuff is just about a bunch of nerds who never had a girlfriend their whole lives. They're like thirty now. They make up secret codes and analyze Greek mythology and make secret societies where other guys who never had girlfriends can join in. They do stupid crap like this to feel special. It's a scam. Nerds were doin' it twenty five years ago and new nerds are doing it again. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

I've been prepping for my role as Medusa. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

My parents were just searching for an alternative way of raising their children. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

Things are rarely as exciting or dramatic as we make them out to be in the press. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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. — 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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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

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

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. — Joaquin Phoenix

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