Quotes from 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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

I'm incredibly lazy!

I love scripts about relationships, and I love to see puppy love evolving into this mature love and communication.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.