Quotes By Joaquin Phoenix

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

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.

I'm incredibly lazy!

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

I guess I had what you could call an unconventional upbringing.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.