“Is that true? I feel so detached from the screen that I never get enough sense of someone to want to have sex with them. There are a few of them who are charming, but, no, I’d have to know someone for a long time before I did that. Our leading man/leading lady ideas are just so messed up. That’s why I define myself more as a character actor, not accepting the makeup that will make you look “right”. I want to see more different, interesting, real people onscreen. I could have more of a [laughs] sexual motive toward the screen if there were some real people up there. And there are a few, but not enough. I want to see more De Niros. I want to see more Spike Lees. I want to see more women, especially, up there.”

—	River Phoenix, 1991.Why do fans want to have sex with movie stars?

River with Calvert DeForrest and Frank Colangelo / PETA Benefit - Beacon Theater NY 1989

“Happy birthday (a day belated) to that beautiful soul called River Phoenix. He would have been 44 had his flame not dimmed so early. But while he burned brightly, I was blessed to cross his path several times, and he was every bit that delicate combination of earth-bound yet ethereal that can often weigh down those bestowed with greatness and purpose. And tragically, It proved too much to handle. I loved him as artist and human- and will PETA Benefit Concert in 1989 at the Beacon Theater in New York where River performed live for the first time with his band Aleka’s Attic- which was Seattle Alternative two years before ‘grunge’ was even a musical sub-genre. An unlikely lovely addition to the party was my dear late friend Calvert DeForrest (aka Larry “Bud” Melman) and his pal, character actor Frank Colangelo. Together we organized to bring attention to cruelty against gentle creatures. At the time, little did I realize dear River was the most fragile creature of all… and would be broken and gone a few years later. I miss him. I cherish him. “I’ll see ya when I see ya…” - Tim Sullivan

"I had gone down to Key West in 1987 to interview the whole Phoenix family who was down there since two of its children were filming a movie now long forgotten. It was called Russkies and Joaquin, who was still a chubby little boy, was in it when his name was still Leaf, not Joaquin. His sister Summer had a small part in it too. And Carole King was even in it - but that’s a whole other story. 

The real star of the family was then River and the two of us bonded during those four days I was down there. I also loved his mother. River was so sweet back then. So talented. So smart. Right before this photo he had pulled off his t-shirt and given it to me. “I want to give you the shirt off my back,” he said, smiling. I had this fedora from Paul Stuart on and gave it to him as a gift in return. And then gave him my black t-shirt to put on. 

I am thrilled to have just found this photo. I even teared up - for many reasons - when it fell into my hands just now from where I had forgotten I had stuck it inside this old Interview magazine. Thank you, universe.And, thank you, River for being so briefly and movingly in my life.” -  Kevin Sessums

leonmcgraw:

Who the Hell’s in It: Conversations with Hollywood’s Legendary Actors (by Peter Bogdanovich, x)

”If you love someone, it’s worth walking a million miles to see them.  If you love animals, then it follows that you’ll watch out for them. (…) Animal rights aren’t separate from other social, environmental or political issues. What do art and science mean if the Earth is falling apart, if we feel no responsibility to give it space to breathe? We’re very selfish with this planet, and the way we use animals is one of the symptoms of our selfishness. But when you love animals, you feel at one with the little bit of nature that’s left on Earth.”

- River in an interview for Sassy Magazine

(Source: jphoenixbrasil.com, via standbyphoenix)

Some people find security in routine, but I could never live that way. That’s why I could never be on a television series; that would call for routine, for getting up in the morning at a certain time, going to work, going through the same thing, playing the same character.

— River Phoenix, Sky Magazine September 1988

"He was always pushing how far he could go. He’d go, ‘Can I say I feel like jerking off? Why can’t I say that? Why? Why can’t I say that?’ If you said, ‘Not so loud!’ he’d think that was a funny reaction, like you were paranoid. He’d get into shouting matches with people, where they were both screaming `You fucking moron!’ but he’d end up liking them. He liked people who didn’t let him get away with things."

- Gus Van Sant

(Source: standbyphoenix, via standbyphoenix)

Music and the environment are equally important issues in my life. I couldn’t choose between them.

— River Phoenix

Observer-Reporter - Mar 29,

Observer-Reporter - Mar 29, 1989

“His eyes made him the focus of energy in every scene, the centrifugal force so strong you didn’t even try to duel him for control. The off-center eye [Phoenix’s lazy right eye] read as madness, and the other read pure sanity. In a close-up, from one side he was the guy next door, and from the other he was absolutely insane.”

After River’s death and while in London, Dermot Mulroney ran in to one of River’s drug friends, a screenwriter, and slammed him against a wall. “This is how I feel about River’s death,” Mulroney said. “How do you feel?”

He told me he didn’t have a sense of humor until he was mine and that he never really got its logic, the surprise of the unexpected. You know: An elephant and a hippo, go into a bar, something is introduced, punch line. And he’d be like, ~Yeah, so what happened then?~

— Gus Van Sant

River’s profound understanding of this situation [in A Thing Called Love] mirrored his own often painful relationships with the women he’d loved and who’d loved him. I didn’t know her, the young woman he had been going with just before we began preparing our picture. But the first evening we spent together, he told me of the dismay he felt at having just been told by her that she had been unfaithful. Of course, he said, he had been unfaithful to her, and she had known it - but the other way around really bothered him. He went right on, however, to justify her behavior, to see it from her point of view, how she was protecting herself from the pain of his acts. I didn’t say much, and River talked out his ambivalent feelings in a very mature way.

— Peter Bogdanovitch on River Phoenix, possibly (probably) referring to his relationship with Sue Solgot  (via virgineunuchother)

(Source: desaparecidos, via griever4leon)

“River was always doing things like saying, ‘I just love you,’ and lunging to hug me, I’d freeze, maybe because my father used to grab my knee in a certain way. River didn’t like that, so he’d hug me again, and I’d freeze again, and he’d yell at me.” - Gus Van Sant

“When he was being aloof I’d impulsively try to trap him in an emotional gesture by hugging him, and he’d flip out of my arms, ten minutes later he’d sneak up and hug me from behind. He wanted it to be his spontaneity, and more creative—he’d sidewind you, but you would consider yourself hugged.” - Alan Moyle

"Greenbaum and River spent hours sitting on the trampoline in the backyard, figuring out songs. They ate at the Falafel King and worked out together at the Gainesville Health and Fitness Club. Going to the gym was novel for River. ‘I’ve got more of a musician’s build than a gymnast’s’ he said."

Me and River used to play together. We had sort of communication that was intense, on just two guitars. 
- John Frusciante

River was one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. He would make up his own characters and come up with these original funny imitations. He loved getting attention and make people laugh. 
- Josh Greenbaum

"Animal rights aren’t separate from other social, environmental or political issues. What do art and science mean if the Earth is falling apart, if we feel no responsibility to give it space to breathe? We’re very selfish with this planet, and the way we use animals is one of the symptoms of our selfishness. But when you love animals, you feel at one with the little bit of nature that’s left on Earth.” - River Phoenix

"River was a product of his own goodness.It was almost like he was too good to be on this earth. Like, everyone else steps over the homeless people. River could not step over a homeless person, he had to rehabilitate them and give them a life. And he was incredibly honest- one minute I’d want to club him because he was driving me crazy and then he’d say something that was out there. I’d be like, ‘I have to go to my room and recover from that statement’. On set he’d throw himself on you and say ’ I like you so much’ and you never meet people like that. But when I met Keanu I was like ’Oh my god, this is exactly like River" - Sandra Bullock

“River Phoenix was a good friend of mine. He was someone who I’ll always hold very close to my heart. He was someone that understood a lot of things about me that no-one else has ever understood about me…probably the kindest person I’ve ever met in my life." -Flea

"I would love to see what kind of choices he would be making now if he was still around, some of the characters that he would have played. I mean, to me he was like a rock star, you know, he had it all: he had the looks, he had a great name, he had an attitude, an energy, an excitement about him. He was instinctively like a, he was a rebel, you know? He was kind of Bob Dylan to me, at times, and he had a lot to say. And I’ve never seen too many interviews by him, but the ones that I saw were pretty electric, pretty… he was switched on, definitely.
[on which actors inspired him] Definitely River Phoenix is somebody that I thought, ‘This guy is very cool.’ I wanted to be like him when I was a kid.” - Jim Sturgess

Reeves is the first to arrive for dinner at Suite 55 in the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard. He looks a bit dazed from a run-in with the paparazzi at a Hollywood screening. “I just stopped on my bike to ask the guard, like, what movie was playing,” he says. “And suddenly all of the guys around me are yelling ‘Keanu, look up!’” Did he? “No way, man. I beat it out of there. It was weird.” He grins, and then offers to grate some Parmesan cheese for the pasta, first asking what side of the grater to use. Soon Phoenix shows up. Immediately, he’s at Reeves’s side in the kitchen, peeling garlic. Within minutes, though, the two escape to the balcony. Phoenix lights up a Camel. He cocks an eyebrow: “Doesn’t figure, huh?” Then he exhales. “I know. I should quit.”

"The River Phoenix I will remember is the gentle young man I met three years ago at a grape boycott rally in front of a supermarket in Miami. He had already had a brilliant career as an actor, was on the cover of all the teen magazines and had just been nominated for an Oscar. His clothes looked fresh, his hair was creased—apparently from wearing a baseball cap—and he wore a small, St. Francis-style wooden cross around his neck.
I wondered what this Hollywood star was doing at a modest little rally in Miami on that day, with no sign of any young fans around, just a few dozen middle-aged do-gooders like myself. He had been fasting for the grape-picker cause, and he gave a little talk over a megaphone that ended with “God bless you.” He hugged a Mexican American next to him, to whom he passed along his fast.” - Richard Raleigh

“The agonizing thing is, I was witness to the greatness of a personality that never fully got to flourish. I will never see him play Hamlet, and he would have been one of the great ones. I wanted to see him do the most emotional work out there, and it still pains me that I never will. ” - Judd Hirsch

"I’ve got only very fond memories of River. We spent six weeks together in Utah, all day and every evening. I found him a remarkable young man and I can’t believe looking back that he was only 23 at the time. He was a very old head on young shoulders and was absolutely delightful, very committed and serious." - Jonathan Pryce

 ”I should see some of his films. I should, but in a way I just don’t want to spoil it, you know? I don’t want to let too much information into my head. I like the idea that the only Brando film I’ve seen is Streetcar Named Desire. One day I’ll see (some of these films) but I have to do a few more movies before I start getting involved in past things, because it probably can influence you very heavily.” - River Phoenix, about James Dean’s movies

"It’s just the expectation that you were going to work with him again. I recently thought of an upcoming project: Oh, there’s… No, there isn’t River. It’s his uniqueness that is gone. I think it was Billy Wilder who said when Ernst Lubitsch died, ‘Ach, no more Ernst Lubitsch films.’ They were just his films. Now it’s no more River Phoenix characters"  - Peter Weir

"The first thing that River said to me when we met was ‘I’m sorry, I took your role.’ I said ‘no, it’s quite alright’" - Mike Parker

River’s message on Bill Richert’s answering machine

“Hello, Bill. If you’re asleep, please, by all means, ignore this message. But, in fact, if you are awake, then you’d better not ignore me…I had the most amazing day. It was just beautiful, the things I learned, through the pain and misunderstanding, and through being displaced, discombobulated. I come out on my last day of work as a triumphant failure. I stand here; need not I die nor I need drink, for I know that my soul will keep. And, who’s to say he or she is the one, for I to know from where it has begun…Doctor Bill..Where am I coming from? Who cares? Do I need to know where they’re coming from to get along with them? No, I accept them. But, I come from a place that is foreign, a place where no other eyes see…The stuff is so vague…In case.

And, did you know that? There is. A wait. Not. No. Sure. But maybe. That doesn’t matter. All those words. All those broken phrases. They don’t mean anything. But, where was the point?

    [Then, through the speaker can be heard a little voice crackling, saying:]

      You have missed the point. But, don’t take it upon yourself. Don’t carry that weight. It’s not your fault…I would say that it’s safe to guess that people simply don’t understand.[Beep.]”

        “It’s sometimes hard to understand what he meant,” says Bill. But still, Bill relates that he [River] “understood”. 

"There was something gorgeous about us being old together. River will be missed — period. I mean now, more than ever, I wish I could talk to him." - Joaquin Phoenix

#river phoenix 

#tim sullivan 

#dark blood

"We moved around a lot. When I was four years old, I heard ‘Fire and Rain’ a lot. So we were in Mexico and I was playing with a flashlight that was going dead, and we couldn’t afford any more batteries. My father asked me to please stop, but I wanted to see how far I could push someone, so I kept on turning it on and off. He said, ‘Could you please stop this?’ with a stern voice and took it out of my hand, put it in the glove box and slammed it. I felt this tremble, this fear of authority, and I felt I understood that you have to respect people. That there was a reason behind it. That was the first concept of reality as far as relationships go. I saw that there was not just this world of vagueness that you can bounce off of." - River Phoenix

"Boy is someone in search for absolute, looking for solace in wide spaces. Someone surviving by eating rodents and snakes, drinking from rain and the blood of the animals he killed. I’m not eating any animal flesh and I don’t feel having the right to take the soul of any living creature. But the movie character, on his side, belongs to the natural food chain, like Native Americans or Inuit. He’s entitled to live on earth’s natural resources." - River Phoenix

“There are certain things that once they hit air, it makes it stale for you. If you had a thought that was so nice and encased in your mind and you leaked it somehow and read it in the papers somewhere, it would no longer be your thought. It would belong to the page.”  — River waxes lyrical on keeping some things safe inside

(Source: riversyellowsunflower, via griever4leon)

"Don’t bite the hand that heals your wounds and keeps you fed/Mother dear was always there to tuck us into bed…"- River Phoenix

RP Fact: River was an investor in the original House of Blues (founded by his good friend and Sneakers co-star Dan Aykroyd) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which opened its doors to the public after serving a group of homeless people on Thanksgiving Day 1992.

“I really admire River. He can play serious & very eccentric roles well. He won the Independent Spirits Award. Did you know? He’s great." - Keanu Reeves

"I like the story and the movie idea, and I knew River wanted to do the film so I decided to do it. It’s fun to work with River. He’s got a great sense of humor. When he gets frustrated about something, he really cracks me up." - Keanu Reeves on My Own Private Idaho & River

“It’s really great to be in the same place as Kevin Kline, Tracy Ullman, River Phoenix, William Hurt, all these big stars. I asked River, “It’s not a dream, is it? Pinch me a little. I am really here, aren’t I?”River laughed.” - Keanu Reeves

”It’s called Transcending and it’s about one of the kindest people I ever met in my life. When I think about River I don’t think about his death. I don’t get sad about it. I think how incredibly fortunate I was to be friends with a person who looked inside me and saw things that no one else ever saw before. And that song is a respectfully loving song for him.”

- Flea

"…I recorded my VO for the A&E Biography of River Phoenix yesterday…it was really tough. I had to stop a couple of times, because I felt like I was going to cry. I haven’t thought about him, really, for years. I didn’t know River when he was a messed up. I onlyreally knew him when we were kids, working on Stand By Me. I don’t know what drove him to be a drug addict, because it’s different for everyone…but I suspect that a big part of it was a desire to numb the pain that often comes with being a professional actor and celebrity. River hated celebrity, and had a very hard time with it…that I doknow. There are times when I don’t like celebrity, either, but I am lucky enough to have survived my teens and early twenties, and now that I’m almost 30 (!) I can put stuff into perspective.

I often wonder what would have become of River, if he’d lived. I think he’d be giving actors like Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt a run for their money, man.”

by Will Wheaton from alekasspirit

(Source: passion-fro0t)

(Source: planet-phoenix)

"He was a beautiful man, a beautiful brother, and I respected him greatly and I miss him so much. The thing I’ll always remember about him, was that no dream was too big." - Summer Phoenix

Who’s the best actress you’ve worked with?
River: Hands down it’s been Lili Taylor who I co-starred with in Dogfight. She is just an amazing actress and human being as well. Incredible working with her. She is so professional and so strong and she’s fearless. The character I played in Dogfight was very different than who I am in real life, I mean as an actor that’s what we do, but what Lili did, to me, was something really, really amazing. Here you have someone who can play a beautiful European actress’s life story and then she can do Dogfight and go through the gruelling make-up sessions, the padding, and the gaining of weight to transform herself into this ugly duckling.

riversyellowsunflower:

A really poor quality old Aleka’s Attic pic of River and Rain from my collection that I couldn’t seem to clean up any further without making it look too overdone, but River’s hair here cracks me up (hey Flock of Seagulls, lol), so posting it because I could use a laugh.

(via christopher-chambers)

Aleka’s Attic recording "Across the Way" at Reflection Sound in Charlotte NC by Mark Branch:

”They were really amazing. Just laid back and very humble people. If you did not know it you would have never knew Riv was a famous Movie star. The day they walked in I did not even know who they were at first.” 

(Source: standbyphoenix, via christopher-chambers)

Riv with a fan. She said: “I met River on the set for I Love You to Death & we actually hung out! People say I reminded him of Martha Plimpton & he was homesick. He got mad I ate a steak from craft services, he played his guitar for me, and let me ride around in his car. He was a good egg.”

About River, Steven & Marlon (from "In search of River Phoenix")

Aleka is a poet philosopher. The Attic is a meeting place where he lives and he has a secret society. They come and visit him and read his works. He then dies and they meet irregularly and continue the readings of his works, and from that learn their own, and become filled with this new passion for life. - River Phoeni

Aleka is a name River made up, a character from one of his fictional stories:

"Aleka is a poet philosopher, and the attic is a meeting place where he lives and has a secret society. People come and visit him and read his works, then he dies and they meet regularly and continue the reading of his works, and from that - learn their own, and become filled with this new passion for life, and they express it through music and form a band. We’ve put it in a fairytale setting."  - River Phoenix

"We weren’t a ‘big time’ band, just had a ‘big time’ actor in it." - Joshua Greenbaum on Aleka’s Attic

”River to Sky”: Valentine’s Day card he gave to Sky when he was around 7-8 years old

We lost something special when we lost Phoenix […] Watching him become a man, seeing how he followed his tastes and his interests, was something that I think most of his fans were looking forward to, and I still wonder sometimes when I see a film he could have starred in how it would have been different with him playing the part. There are lots of talented and eclectic actors working today, but no one who offers up that same combination of talent and charm and charisma that Phoenix had. I don’t consider every death tragic automatically, but considering it’s been two decades and this one still hurts like it’s fresh, I think this stands as one of the greatest sorrows I’ve seen this industry sustain in the time I’ve lived and worked in LA.”

—	"What if River Phoenix had lived?" by Drew McWeeny

”For those that knew him, you know that he was about as special a person that there ever was. I feel very lucky for the years of friendship that we had. The diners we loitered in, the movies we went to go see and the music we played together. All the things I learned about life, love and art from you. You filled me with blind confidence…telling me that I was a great actor (before I became an actor) and a great musician. You were a gift. The influence you had on me still lives…from the way I eat to the way I express myself. Today, I’m playing XTC songs and thinking about you. I miss you and wish you were here. Be free, my friend. Love-Zaza.”

"It's important to establish, a space for those who are not accounted for, speaking of people who don't fit into a stereotype. That leaves out a lot of people in this world, that aren't; the model, you know in the fashion sense, citizen, or, I just protest it.. I think it's important to have a film, that, stirs up that idea, that stirs up some sort of controversy."

riverphoenixislove:

- River Phoenix on -‘My Own Private Idaho’-(1991).

"River was a product of his own goodness. It was almost like he was too good to be on this Earth. Like, everyone else steps over the homeless people: River could not step over a homeless person. He had to rehabilitate them and give them life. And he was incredibly honest...I'd be like, 'I have to go to my room and now and recover from that statement.' On set he'd throw himself on you and say, 'I like you so much,' and you never meet people like that."

riverphoenixislove:

- Sandra Bullock ~(co-star, The Thing Called Love, 1993)