Joaquin Phoenix

For me, I'd rather have an intense experience than not.

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

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

I feel an obligation to set the record straight. Actors that say they're affected by something, that it changes their life, that they take it home with them, they're just trying to get nominated for an Oscar!

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

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

I wouldn't feel satisfied being on set every day doing a romantic comedy - I'd be bored to death.

I have this horrible sense of humor where I think discomfort is funny - partly because I experience discomfort a lot, and it's a way of laughing at it and getting a release.

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.

Well, I haven't signed anything giving people the right to do anything they want with my image, you know what I mean. I have the ultimate say.

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

You're always thinking, What's the next move - the career, the money.