Robert De Niro Quotes
"The talent is in the choices."
"It's important not to indicate. People don't try to show their feelings, they try to hide them."
"I don't like to watch my own movies - I fall asleep in my own movies."
"Don't talk it (shooting a scene) away, do it!"
"Some people say that drama is easy, and comedy is hard. Not true. I've been making comedies the last couple years, and it's nice. 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."
"I think Hollywood has a class system. The actors are like the inmates, but the truth is they're running the asylum. You've got to look at the whole studio structure. There's these guys. We call them suits. They have the power to okay a film. They're like your parents, going, 'We have the money.' But at the same time they say to us actors, 'We love you. We can't do without you.' You know, I've been around a long time. I've seen the suits run the asylum. I think I can do it as good or even better. Let me try it. That's why I have TriBeCa." --Chicago Sun- Times, January 8, 1998
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've never been one of those actors who has touted myself as a fascinating human being. I had to decide early on wether I was to be an actor or a personality."
"The whole thing is for younger people who are sexy and youthful." - on acting
"The characters that I play are real. They are real so they have as much right to be portrayed as any other characters. There are other characters I have played, other than those ones that have been called stereotypes or whatever. So." (His thoughts on the 'mobster' characters he portrays in a lot of his movies)
"People treat me with a bit too much reverence. Look at Dustin Hoffman. I always envy the way he can speak and be smart and funny and so on. I just can't do that."
"Al, over the years we've taken roles from one another. People have tried to compare us to one another, to pit us against each one another and to tear us apart personally. I've never seen the comparison frankly. I'm clearly much taller, more the leading-man type. Honestly, you just may be the finest actor of our generation - with the possible exception of me." (talking about Al Pacino)
"One of the things about acting is it allows you to live other people's lives without having to pay the price."
"I am part Italian, I'm not all Italian. I'm part Dutch, I'm part French, I'm part German, I'm part Irish. But my name is Italian and I probably identify more with my Italian side than with my other parts."
"If there is a God he has a lot to answer for."
"You'll have time to rest when you're dead."
"After my first movies, I gave interviews. Then I thought, what's so important about where I went to school, and hobbies ... what does any of that have to do with acting, with my own head?"
"There is a mixture of anarchy and discipline in the way I work."
"I love Italy and I have a deep tie with my Italian roots. I stand for Kerry, I hope he will arrive at the White House. We need a different Government to represent America. The change of presidency would be a clear and international sign to say that we are approaching again to the rest of the world. I don't want any prize that can influence this election. I stand for Kerry." (2004)
(On Taxi Driver's infamous line) "You have no idea that years later, people in cars will recognize you on the street and shout, 'You talkin' to me?' I don't remember the original script, but I don't think the line was in it. We improvised. For some reason it touched a nerve. That happens."
"Some people say, 'New York's a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.' I say that about other places."
"It's true: I spent lunchtime in a grave during the filming of Bloody Mama. When you're younger, you feel that's what you need to do to help you stay in character. When you get older, you become more confident and less intense about it -- and you can achieve the same effect. You might even be able to achieve more if you take your mind off it, because you're relaxed. That's the key to it all. When you're relaxed and confident, you get good stuff."
"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. When I'm directing a great dramatic scene, part of me is saying, 'Thank God I don't have to do that.' Because I know how fucking hard it is to act. It's the middle of the night. It's freezing. You gotta do this scene. You gotta get it up to get to that point. And yet, as a director, you've got to get the actors to that point. It's hard either way."
"When I was a teenager, I went to the Dramatic Workshop at the New School. The school had a lot of actors under the GI Bill -- Rod Steiger, Harry Belafonte, the generation ahead of me. I went in there and the director said to me, "Vy do you vant to be an acteh?" I didn't know how to answer, so I didn't say anything. And he said, "To express yourself!" And I said, "Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's right."
(On witnessing 9-11) "I left a meeting right after they hit the World Trade Center. I went to my apartment, which looks south, and I watched it out my window. I could see the line of fire across the North Tower. I had my binoculars and a video camera - - though I didn't want to video it. I saw a few people jump. Then I saw the South Tower go. It was so unreal, I had to confirm it by immediately looking at the television screen. CNN was on. That was the only way to make it real. Like my son said, 'It was like watching the moon fall.'"
"The hardest thing about being famous is that people are always nice to you. You're in a conversation and everybody's agreeing with what you're saying -- even if you say something totally crazy. You need people who can tell you what you don't want to hear."
"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. At this point in my career, I don't have to deal with audition rejections. So I get my rejection from other things. My children can make me feel rejected. They can humble you pretty quick."
"Money makes your life easier. If you're lucky to have it, you're lucky."
I only go to Los Angeles when I am paid for it.
