Quotes By Robert De Niro

I love to find new people. It's not for the sake of their being new; it's because if you find someone who perfectly fits a part, that's such a great thing.

I didn't have a problem with rejection, because when you go into an audition, you're rejected already. There are hundreds of other actors. You're behind the eight ball when you go in there.

If it's the right chair, it doesn't take too long to get comfortable in it.

Movies are hard work. The public doesn't see that. The critics don't see it. But they're a lot of work. A lot of work.

You draw on whatever's relevant to the part you're playing; it makes it more personal.

I think it's important to have had at least a few years of obscurity, where people treat you like everybody else.

In acting, I always try to go back to what would actually be the real situation, the real human behavior in life.

I mean, the actors that I admired were Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, an actress named Barbara Harris. And Greta Garbo. They were great actors.

I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, 'There's no place like New York. It's the most exciting city in the world now. That's the way it is. That's it.'

I always go back to how people behave. If you watch how people actually behave in a situation, it's very simple and honest and contained. You don't need to use as much expression, as much feeling. Some characters will boil over, and that's another thing, but a lot of times I think you can just do very, very little.

The talent is in the choices.

You'll have time to rest when you're dead.

There is a certain combination of anarchy and discipline in the way I work.

I'll work with a director if I think I'm going to get into a comfortable situation, and if it's someone I respect and who respects me, even if they're not so well known. Movies are hard to make, and you have to work toward a common ethic and do your best.

I've never been one of those actors who has touted myself as a fascinating human being. I had to decide early on whether I was to be an actor or a personality.

I think Hollywood has a class system. The actors are like the inmates, but the truth is they're running the asylum.

My definition of a good hotel is a place I'd stay at.

The hardest thing about being famous is that people are always nice to you.

Leonardo DiCaprio is a very serious young actor.

When I was 15, 16, I studied with Stella Adler at the Conservatory of Acting, then I stopped again and went to the Actors Studio when I was 18.

I always tell actors when they go in for an audition: Don't be afraid to do what your instincts tell you. You may not get the part, but people will take notice.

Italy has changed. But Rome is Rome.

There's nothing more ironic or contradictory than life itself.

I don't like to watch my own movies - I fall asleep in my own movies.

My mother worked for a woman, Maria Ley-Piscator, who with her husband founded the Dramatic Workshop, which was connected to the New School. My mother did proofreading and typing and stuff or her, and as part of her payment, I was able to take acting classes there on Saturdays when I was 10.

It's important not to indicate. People don't try to show their feelings, they try to hide them.

One of the things about acting is it allows you to live other people's lives without having to pay the price.

When you make a drama, you spend all day beating a guy to death with a hammer, or what have you. Or, you have to take a bite out of somebody's face. On the other hand, with a comedy, you yell at Billy Crystal for an hour, and you go home.

Time goes on. So whatever you're going to do, do it. Do it now. Don't wait.

If it's a very emotional scene, you're kind of relieved when you've done it, kind of spent. And there are times when you can be rattled, certain characters if they're hyper, that can carry over, the residue of that. But I try to leave it on the set.