Frases de River Phoenix

“Puede que se necesiten unas cuántas películas como estas antes de que haya, digamos, una manera natural de llevar todo este tema y quizá un día ni siquiera será un problema, que es lo que espero.”

“Fue muy personal. Lo político viene en el proceso de visualización. Nada es nunca político si es genuino. La reacción, sí, puede que sea política. Pero los motivos se basaron completamente en la profunda necesidad de comunicarse y compartir información. El lenguaje de las películas ha evolucionado tanto que debes conseguir que la gente interactue con la película. Es emocionante para nosotros exhibirlo y es emocionante para la gente verlo… Creo que es muy importante para la comunidad homosexual tener personajes aleatorios que sólo representen a la gente, creo que es parte de un movimiento que sentará algún tipo de precedente, para que así no se necesiten etiquetas.”

“Me considero un atlas. Algo así como Arnold Schwarzenegger con un toque de Nigel Tufnel. Camino cerca de los bordes, los beso con mis dedos de los pies.”

“La fama es lo que hace a la gente ir a ver tus películas. Estoy contento de estar en una película que me gusta. Y si necesito la fama para conseguir que la gente vaya a verla, entonces ése es mi trabajo. Pero preferiría ser un escritor fantasma que tener mi nombre escrito bajo los carteles.”

“El negocio siempre va a por lo que haces mejor. Y yo solo me he hecho hacer lo mejor del modo en el que quería hacerlo. Así que si consiguen reconocimiento en el festival de Venecia, o en el de Toronto, dónde sea, en Francia, en Holanda, cuando los críticos empiezan a hablar y a creer en algo, entonces tú tienes el poder de conseguir mamadas de los líderes empresariales. Quiero decir, que veo a todas esas empresas de cine americanas haciéndome mamadas. Está bien. Me corro en sus putas lentes.”

“La mayoría de actores poseen un lado intuitivo. De hecho, cuánto más alejado estoy del personaje, menos trabajo tengo que hacer. Se necesita mucha energía para separarte de aquellas experiencias que quizá sean como las que vive tu personaje. Creo que sería un engaño si alguna vez usara mis experiencias personales junto con las de mi personaje. Serían mis reacciones transferidas a las del personaje, lo cuál no es bueno. Lo que tengo que hacer es ignorar eso y encontrar otra cosa. No puedo pararme delante de una cámara y dejar que traspase algo de mí mismo o estaré traicionando la verdadera autenticidad del personaje. Hay algunos actores que utilizan sus propias experiencias. Ellos pueden dejar ver su ego pero yo no puedo hacer eso.”

“Cuando era más joven, me vestían como a un modelo, me decían que posara de ciertas maneras, que inclinara la cabeza, que me mordiera las mejillas. Y al final del día estaría cansado así que le daría al maldito fotógrafo lo que me pedía. Era una experiencia mortificante. Y los fotógrafos eran lo peor, los más artificiales, ése no era yo. Entonces todas las fotos que tú jamás querrías volver a ver en tu vida, recorrían las revistas adolescentes para siempre.”

“Si tengo un estatus de celebridad, espero usarlo para cambiar las cosas. La verdadera recompensa social es que puedo hablar y compartir mis pensamientos sobre el medio ambiente y la civilización. Están pasando muchas cosas por culpa de gente que se aprovecha de sus cargos y eso crea mucha negatividad.”

“Necesitamos movilizarnos porque lo que está pasando con los animales es una barbaridad. Algunas personas desinformadas dicen que los activistas por los derechos de los animales son terroristas, pero todas ellas son personas ignorantes que no saben quiénes son los verdaderos terroristas, las compañías e industrias que torturan millones de animales cada año.”

“Yo solo no puedo cambiar el régimen en Sudáfrica ni enseñar a los palestinos a vivir con los israelís, pero puedo empezar cambiando yo.”

“Realmente me preocupa y estoy decepcionado conmigo mismo por ser tan ingenuo y crédulo como lo he sido en el pasado en lo que se refiere a ser intimidado por los estilistas con el vestuario y los peinados y las poses y esto y aquello y todas esas cosas que no son yo. Lo que hacen es construirte una imagen, y te imprimen en todas esas revistas sensacionalistas y todos son muy amables y dulces y buenos pero aún así, es todo tan falso… Ya sabes, la imagen que dan, no soy yo.”

“La prensa siempre está buscando un giro en la historia y lo que he aprendido es que todo resulta ser muy superficial. Así que necesitas convertirte en lo que ellos quieren, tienes que darles lo que publican.”

“A veces me gustaría no estar tan concienciado. Todo resultaría más fácil.”

“No quiero perderme pensando en mí o hablando de mí todo el tiempo en las entrevistas. Está bien relajarse y mirar alrededor y salir de uno mismo. Es difícil desprenderme de mí mismo sin dejarme de lado a mí mismo.¿Sabes a lo que me refiero? No quiero entrar en el hábito de pensar en mi carrera porque a la hora de la verdad, no es tan importante. Podría morir mañana y el mundo continuaría.”

“El vegetarianismo es un vínculo con la perfección y la paz. Pero es un pequeño vínculo. Hay muchos otros problemas: el apartheid, la vivisección, los prisioneros políticos, la carrera armamentista. Están pasando muchas cosas en el mundo, hay mucha ignorancia entre la gente y la verdad es, ¿qué podemos hacer ahora? De eso trata el vegetarianismo, es una decisión individual y es algo de lo que tienes control. ¿De cuántas cosas realmente tenemos el control?.”

“And they say he's too young to surrender
And they cry out, and they call him by name.
Their graffiti tells how he's remembered.
Still, the River runs on just the same. Run River, run.”

“I'm on the drug
I'm on the drug
I'm on the drug that killed River Phoenix”

“Most actors possess an intuitive side. Actually, the further away I am from the character, the less work I have to do. It takes so much more energy to detach yourself from your own life references that might cross wires with your character's. I think it's cheating for me to ever use my life references in conjunction with my characters. It's my reaction transferred to the character, which isn't good. What I have to do is erase those things and then find something else. I can't stand in front of a camera and let anything of myself come through or I'm betraying the character's complete trueness. There are some actors who just use themselves. They can wear their ego on their sleeve and it looks great. I can't do that.”

“Fame is what gets people to go watch your film. I'm just glad to be in a film i believe in. And if it take's fame to get people there, then it's my job. But i'd rather be a ghost writer than have my name down.”

“And they told me
The times have changed
Cause' our parents had Hendrix, Janis and Jim
But what about River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain.”

“I welcome an end to this all if that's what should be, I don't mind that. In fact, I would rather quit while I was ahead. There's no need in overstaying your welcome.”

“It's really designed, I think, to strip you and blend you. It's like feeling like the invisible man. You just stand there, and you start disintegrating, and you can't see yourself, and you just feel like you're being absorbed into this big blob of glitter.”

“I don't want to get so lost in thinking about me and talking about me all the time in interviews. It's so nice to unwind and just look at other things and get out of yourself. It's hard to detach myself from myself without neglecting myself. You know what I mean? I don't want to get in to the habit of thinking about my career because when it comes down to it, it's not really that important. I could die tomorrow and the world would go on.”

“There's a River born to be a giver
Keep you warm, wont let you shiver
His heart is never gonna wither
come on everybody time to deliver.”

“Oh Yeah, we really are great people. I think Keanu and I are the nicest guys on the planet.. with the exception of George Bush and Ronald Reagan”

“We didn't know Jackie O
She was one of the people that we did not know
Nor did we care about her hair,
Her pillbox hat or her savoir faire.
But still we thought we knew
Maybe you did too
River Phoenix
River Phoenix
Ian curtis
and River Phoenix and me and you”

“When I was younger, I was dressed up like a model, told to pose in certain ways; to tilt my head, push my lips out, suck in my cheeks. And I'd be tired at the end of the day so I'd just give the damned photographer what he wanted. It was the most mortifying experience. And the photographs were the ugliest, the most contrived…it wasn't me. then all the outtakes that you never want to see again in your life go through the teen magazines forever.”

“I don’t see any point or any good in drugs that are as disruptive as cocaine. I never tried heroin. I tried alcohol and most of the others when I was 15, and got it out of the way—finished with the stuff.”

“I can't on my own change the regime in South Africa or teach the Palestinians to live with the Israelis, but I can start with me.”

“It was very personal. Political comes from the viewing process. Nothing is ever political if it's genuine. In the reaction, yes, it can be political. But the motives were based completely on a deep need to communicate and share information. The film language has evolved enough that you should get people interacting with the film. It's exciting for us to exhibit it, and it's exciting for people to watch it…I think it's very important for the gay community to have random characters that represent nothing more than people…I think it's part of a wave that will set a precedent of some sort so that you will no longer need a label.”

“I'm a minor, stupid talent compared to my brother”

“I woke up from a nap the other night. Everyone is cranky when they wake up. I thought to myself: 'I have no right to be cranky. I'm so lucky.' On my way to go to a restaurant, I get out of the car and I see this person on crutches. His sign says that he has AIDS and that his immune system is low. You know, he's broke, and his family won't talk to him because they can't eat because of the hospital bills. He didn't do this. The system did it - so that when someone has a chronic disease, it sucks him dry. He could have been in that same restaurant two years ago, eating and tipping big. I felt blessed that I could drop a fifty on him.”

“It really upsets me and I'm basically upset at myself for being so naive and gullible as I have been in the past as far as being intimidated by the stylists with the wardrobe and the hair-do's and the poses and the this and that and all that stuff that isn't me. What it does is it makes you an image, and they plaster you on all these magazines and sensationalize and they're all very nice and sweet and goody-goody but still, it's just false as far as, you know, the image that's portrayed; it's not me.”

“One of the things that was introduced to me at an early stage in life was to try to make stuff happen. But nothing ever worked that way for me. What I learned on my own was that to try and play God with your life will wreck your brain and your nervous system, and mess up your natural direction in the course that's already there…But look, I just don't want to read about me being made into a basket case because of my work. It's self-pity that I hate. I mean, it comes with the territory. An actor with any conviction goes the extra mile.”

“No…Please don't go…No…Please don't leave yet
You haven't heard my band yet
You haven't seen my house
You cannot understand yet
What it means to be old
River run
River deep
River come, So I can sing you to sleep.”

“Vegetarianism is a link to perfection and peace. But it's a small link. There are lots of other issues: apartheid, vivisection, political prisoners, the arms race. There's so much going on in this world today, so much ignorance among people. That's not to say I'm not standing amongst everybody. But the point is, what can we do now? That's the thing about vegetarianism; it's an individual's decision and it's something you have control over. How many things do we really have control over?”

“Heroines followin' Marilyn hoppin' over the edge just like Janis Joplin,
River Phoenix, Jimi Hendrix, James Morrison
All of them ended by Hollywood.
Thank God for Hollywood,
Hollywood, Sure you want this baby?”

“We are taught to consume. And that's what we do. But if we realized that there really is no reason to consume-that it's just a mind set, that it's just an addiction, then we wouldn't be out there stepping on people's hands climbing the corporate ladder of success. I have my reasons why I want to be filthy rich. It's so I can buy the last first growth forest and turn it into a permanent national park. I just bought 800 acres on the border of Panama and Costa Rica.”

“It might take a few of these films before there's, like, a natural stride with the whole issue and then maybe one day it won't even be an issue, which is what I'm hoping.”

“The press is always looking for a little twist to a story and what I've learned is that it all turns out very superficial. So you need to become what they want, you need to give what they put out.”

“I consider myself an atlas. Sort of an Arnold Schwarzenegger with a Nigel Tufnel twist. I walk close to edges; I kiss them with my toe.”

“I remember I was In the tanning salon
When I heard that River Phoenix was gone
They say that only the good die young
But that ain't true where I come from
California, California”

“They had a crush on you, River
Blue suede jacket and boots, River
And your face shaped like a moon, River
You were like my own James Byron Dean
Private idaho was my east of eden
Hit me like a stone when you passed away
On Halloween”

“We need an extreme movement because what is happening to animals is so extreme. Some misinformed people claim that animal rights activists are terrorists, but these people are simply ignorant of who the real terrorists are - the companies and industries that torture literally billions of animals each year.”