Quotes By Nicolas Cage

Hollywood didn't know if I was an actor or a nut or if I was this crazy character I was playing. I had developed an image of being a little bit unusual, different and wild.

The biggest problem for me was feeling that as I became more balanced and a better man that I wouldn't have the fire to create from.

I am not a demon. I am a lizard, a shark, a heat-seeking panther. I want to be Bob Denver on acid playing the accordion.

Disney has a great tradition of enchanting children and giving them something to behold.

At a young age, I was interested in comic books, which was really how I learnt to read. The name Cage came from a comic book character called Power Man.

I'm an enormous admirer of Christopher Lee. He's somebody, along with Vincent Price, who I celebrate, and I wanted my movies to show that celebration and that honoring of these great film stars that were unafraid to go into horror and Grand Guignol and the macabre.

I would definitely return to Austria. They were all good experiences for me, but definitely Austria because there were some ancient Celtic, sacred sites that were in the forest that were quite beautiful.

I came out of independent film, that's my roots.

How do you rebel in a family of rebels?

I think what makes people fascinating is conflict, it's drama, it's the human condition. Nobody wants to watch perfection.

My mother was a dancer, so I like to use the body as part of the instrument of acting.

I don't want a perfect character, I want a character who has, as strange as it sounds, some humanity, some flaws, some needs.

I do like to move and get physical in my movies.

I was always shocked when I went to the doctor's office and they did my X-ray and didn't find that I had eight more ribs than I should have or that my blood was the color green.

To be a good actor you have to be something like a criminal, to be willing to break the rules to strive for something new.

I think I jump around more when I'm alone.

I wanted to make an image for myself as an outlaw type. A kind of rock 'n' roll sensibility.

I try to do as many stunts as they'll let me do. I think it's important for an audience to feel that the actor's really doing it.

I may be alone in this, but I do sense the power of film, in that movies have the ability to literally change people's minds. That's pretty powerful stuff when you consider that.

My father was always getting excited about something. It's genetically inside me somewhere.

I want to make all kinds of movies. I do want to make big movies that are a lot of fun to go to, but I also want to make movies that are going to stimulate some thought and maybe raise some awareness.

I'm sad about this, but we shouldn't have been married in the first place.

I bought a Yamaha-1 and I was doing 180 miles per hour home on the 405 and that's really, really crazy but I did it.

As I got older, with my work, I became aware of the responsibility of film, and I feel one of the best ways I can apply myself as an actor, is to go beyond movie stardom and celebrity.

Actors have an opportunity to use storytelling as a way to solve pain.

For me, acting was a way of taking destructive energy and doing something productive with it, and in that way it was quite a life saver.

I care about the connection with the audience. Film is such a powerful medium. Movies can change the way people think.

I'm the first to admit that I like going to, or my memories at least of going to Clint Eastwood movies or Charles Bronson or James Bond.

All of my characters have a glint of madness.

Shock is still fun. I won't ever shut the door on it.