You can make a million excuses or you can make a million dollars.

I have to say that whatever decisions I make, I really do think that movie making is a director’s medium. They are the people that ultimately shape the film, and a director can take great material and turn it into garbage if they are not capable of making a good movie.

Everything comes to you at the right time. Be patient and trust the process.

I’ve changed. You can’t help it. Your mind starts working in a different way. You feel really scrutinised by people.

If you’re having your authentic self, you have no competition.

I figure life’s a gift and I don’t intend on wasting it. You don’t know what hand your gonna get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you… to make each day count.

I am not a scientist, but I don’t need to be.

I can remember getting rejected systematically by casting directors as a young kid. I felt like the biggest outsider there ever was; that I’d never belong in that club.

Work until you don’t have to introduce yourself.

Fall in love with the person who enjoys your madness. Not an idiot who forces you to be normal.

Dreams feel real while we’re in them. It’s only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.

I’m Really moved by all the people on the internet demanding that I should win an Oscar. but to be honest, I only do this job because i love it, not to win prizes.

The main thing for me right now is just to live my life with my family and friends. They treat me like Leo, not ‘Leonardo, Master Thespian’. That’s all I need to keep my sanity.

These things are … beyond your control. It’s in other people’s hands now.

Cheers to the ones who doubted me.

Pain is temporary, film is forever.

The bottom line is, when it comes to an actor and his performance, whether nominated or not, it simply has to do with whether that character had enough resonance with the audience. You know, to the filmgoers. And that something that you can’t control.

Either I will find a way or I will create a way, but I will not create an excuse.

I don’t watch anything of mine much. I haven’t gone to drama school, or college, either. I just like to watch other actors in action. I learned so much from working with De Niro. I’d be in a scene with him where I was supposed to be acting, and I was just watching.

Playing Arnie was fun because everything I did was spontaneous.

My father, George, has also affected the choices in my life regarding films. I like films that take chances or say something different or experiment. Growing up with him, I was surrounded by different artists – not just actors or film-makers but cartoonists, poets, writers.

Relationships are like electric currents.

Dear Dad, you always told me that an honest man has nothing to fear, so I’m trying my best not to be afraid.

It’s very, very rare in this business [moviemaking] where a script lands on your lap ready to go.

Most of the time I do feel like I need someone else when I’m alone. But I can still get by with just my own company and that makes me a stronger person.

The last thing I want to turn into is a fat Hollywood jerk. I was brought up without much money and I was happy. I don’t think that I will strive for money or success and end up greedy or big-headed. That only leads to unhappiness. I can still be down-to-earth and do this job as long as I enjoy it.

What I really wanted was to travel and see all the different animals that were on the verge of extinction.

It’s business! Leave your emotions at the door.

When I grew up, I lived in the ghettos of Hollywood; it was the most disgusting place to be. I was known as the crazy little kid. I did impressions. Then I realized that’s not what I want to do. I don’t want to be a comedian to please other people.

Hoover was incredibly ambitious as a young man. He was highly motivated to succeed in Washington, primarily due to his mother’s expectations of him.

Some people don’t get it when I’m being sarcastic.

Meryl Streep does things I would never have thought possible… Her presence on screen is outstanding.

Cheers to my Haters, There is so much more to come!

When people treat you like they don’t care. Believe them. They don’t.

I like doing things that scare me. I went bungee jumping, but sky diving is just the sickest thing.

You have to enjoy life in the process. It may sound corny, but it’s true. At the end of the day, we can’t always achieve everything that we dream of but you do have to enjoy life in the process.

Never let failure take control of you.

A clear rejection is better than a fake promise.

I’m shy, but when the time comes to be wild, I’m fun-loving, adventurous, and mysterious.

It’s a weird feeling when people are defining you, and you haven’t even defined yourself.

Dark green is my favorite color. It’s the color of nature and the color of money and the color of moss!

I’m still exploring in a lot of ways. I don’t know myself completely.

Sometimes I wonder will God ever forgive us for what we’ve done to each other? Then I look around and I realize God left this place a long time ago.

To be honest, I’m not really prepared to do a musical, simply because I think I have a pretty atrocious voice.

Climate change is real. It is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.

I still believe in paradise. But now at least I know it’s not some place you can look for. Because it’s not where you go. It’s how you feel for a moment in your life when you’re a part of something. And if you find that moment, it lasts forever.

I love being immersed in nature, going to places in the world that are pristine and untouched by man. It’s almost a religious experience when you go to a place like the Amazon, and there’s no civilization for thousands of miles.

When I was young I used to have this thing where I wanted to see everything I used to think ‘How can I die without seeing every inch of this world?

I got attention by being funny at school, pretending to be retarded, and jumping around with a deformed hand.

After I had success, it was great to not have to worry about money. It was on my mind often when I was growing up.

The argument is over. Anyone that doesn’t believe that climate change is happening doesn’t believe in science.

I’ve managed to keep a clear head and remain sane in this business because I remain a kid off-camera.

There is no element of genius without some form of madness.

We only get one planet. Humankind must become accountable on a massive scale for the wanton destruction of our collective home. Protecting our future on this planet depends on the conscious evolution of our species.

This created world really helped me as an actor. It heightened everything, which made it more dangerous, more interesting and more liberating.

I really don’t know what I’m doing… I don’t. It’s terrible. I go in there and I learn how to be like the character and do the best I can, and that’s all I really do.

I realize that I do not change the course of history. I am an actor, I do a movie, that’s the end of it. You have to realize that we are just clowns for hire.

The scientific community has been screaming out loud. Ninety-nine per cent of the scientific community is in agreement that man is contributing to (climate change).

This is not about just telling people to change their light bulbs or to buy a hybrid car. This disaster has grown beyond the choices that individuals make. This is now about our industries, and governments around the world taking decisive, large-scale action.

You can make history, or you will be vilified by it.

I grew up when I was 15 when I had my first opportunity in movies. I watched every great movie for a year and a half, and since then I’ve asked myself how I can emulate such artistry. That’s really my motivation. I want to do something as good as my heroes have done.

I don’t think I ever expected anything like an Oscar ever, to tell you the truth. That is not my motivation when I do these roles. I really am motivated by being able to work with great people and create a body of work that I can look back and be proud

I’m absolutely clean. I’ve never tried anything. That’s not a lie!

It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing all the hype that’s written about you… Who knows? In a couple of years, you might find me in the loony bin!

I like girls who are intelligent, somewhat funny, and pretty with a nice personality.

I respect the person, not the gender. I simply can’t respect a shitty person just because of his/her Gender.

I couldn’t deal with playing a character who rides motorcycles and has a leather jacket and is a tough kid, y’know?

When a role for a young guy is being offered to me, I think of River Phoenix. It feels like a loss.

People will always judge you because they feel dissatisfied with their own life.

I prefer ordinary girls – you know, college students, waitresses, that sort of thing. Most of the girls I go out with are just good friends. Just because I go out to the cinema with a girl, it doesn’t mean we are dating.

I dress to be as comfortable as I possibly can. Most of my clothing is either black, grey, or dark blue, and I don’t really wear a lot of colors. But I do like jackets. I have a little bit of an obsession with them.

Everybody has gone through something that has changed them in a way that they could never go back to the person they once were.

I don’t really have many extravagances. I don’t fly private jets and I don’t have bodyguards and I don’t buy crazy things. I have a couple of houses here and there. I bought a very expensive watch, and I am going to buy a really expensive movie poster, the original for The Thief of Bagdad (1940). I love movie posters.

If I want to go to a party with a few male friends, it doesn’t mean I’m gay.

With Romeo and Juliet, you’re talking about two people who meet one night, and get married the same night. I believe in love at first sight-but it hasn’t happened to me yet.

The first kiss I had was the most disgusting thing in my life. The girl injected about a pound of saliva into my mouth, and when I walked away I had to spit it all out.

Anywhere you go, desire is desire. The sun cannot bleach it, nor the tide wash it away.

I want you to back yourself into a corner. Give yourself no choice but to succeed. let the consequences of failure become so dire and so unthinkable that you’ll have no choice but to do whatever it takes to succeed.

Fame is not the worst thing. I went to dinner the other night, and the girls in the restaurant ignored me. It was so annoying.

When you develop an infatuation for someone you always find a reason to believe that this is exactly the person for you.

I am friends with Demi. Don’t believe anything you read.

I’ve never been Romeo who meets a girl and falls for her immediately. It’s been a much slower process for me each time I’ve gone into a relationship.

I didn’t know what types of movies I wanted to do. I want to do things that are different. I want to take my time with each role.

My dad’s probably one of the kindest people in the world. When I was younger that’s not how I was- I was a little spoiled brat.

Global warming is not only the No.1 environmental challenge we face today but one of the most important issues facing all of humanity. We all have to do our part to raise awareness about global warming and the problems we as a people face in promoting a sustainable environmental future for our planet.

I certainly don’t eat raw bison liver on a regular basis.

A man’s legacy is determined by how the story ends.

I like to help the whales, the otters, and the dolphins. When I’m acting and I take a break, the first thing on my list is spending time by the sea.

I’m 97% sure you don’t like me. But I’m 100% sure i don’t care.

I just want to keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully people will watch my movies.

Anyone I’m with has to give me freedom. I like to be with someone who has character and style and someone who is very understanding.

Drugs? Every one has a choice and I choose not to do drugs.

I just feel like everyone tries to do something different, but you always wind up doing the same damn thing.”

I just really love doing what I do.

I cheated a lot, because I just couldn’t sit and do homework. I usually sat next to someone extremely smart.

Smile, Nod, Agree, and do whatever you were going to do anyway.

Being dubbed as a hunk sort of annoys me. It gives me a yucky feeling.

I don’t see why I can’t have friends of both sexes without wild rumors being circulated. It’s crazy.

I play fictitious characters often solving fictitious problems. I believe mankind has looked at climate change in the same way, as if it were a fiction.

I want you to deal with your problems by becoming rich!

As a little kid growing up in Hollywood, I was called ‘a little crazy’. And now I guess I’m still that way.

If money isn’t everything work at McDonalds.

Hopefully I’ve gotten better as an actor as the years have gone on, but the type of work I want to do has never changed.

97% of the people who quit too soon are employed by the 3% who never gave up.

Money was always on my mind when I was growing up. So I was always wondering how we were going to afford this and that. Acting seemed to be a shortcut out of the mess.

The wind cannot defeat a tree with strong roots.

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I will succeed and nothing in this world is going to stop me.

I don’t know if I’m ever getting married. I’m probably not going to get married unless I live with somebody for 10 or 20 years. But these people took a chance and they did it. We don’t have the guts that Romeo did.

The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.

I love scuba diving, and I’ve been up and down the Amazon.

I want to be a jerk like the rest of my friends, and have fun, and not care about the consequences, but I just can’t now.

My mom, Irmelin, taught me the value of life. Her own life was saved by my grandmother during World War II.

And now it’s your turn – the time to answer the greatest challenge of our existence on this planet is now.

It’s business! Leave your emotions at the door.

You learn after you’ve been in the business for a while that it’s not getting your face recognized that’s the payoff. It’s having your film remembered.

I knew it was a great mistake for a man like me to fall in love.

I’m just starting to scratch the surface of what really makes me happy and it’s taken me a while to admit that acting like a little child and being a jerk and a punk is fun.

I really hate relaxing. I’ve done three movies in a row, worked for two years straight, and to me, idle time is the devil’s workshop. I like to focus on something.

Protecting our future on this planet depends on the conscious evolution of our species.

I’ve been a pretty lucky man.

I really am motivated by being able to work with great people and create a body of work that I can look back and be proud of.

Yes, I can play younger than my age. But I can play characters older than I am, too. I’m not an actor who can just play the kid.

Work until your bank account looks like a phone number.

I went to a concert once when I was a little kid and ran up onstage, started dancing, started saying anything that came to my head. I was like a little vaudevillian.

My career should adapt to me. Fame is like a VIP pass wherever you want to go.

To join the top 1% you have to do what the 99% won’t.

Honored delegates, leaders of the world, I pretend for a living.

I have learned from my experiences in this industry that there is absolutely no way to control people’s opinions on your performance in your movie. You go out there, promote your film and hope people like the work you did.

I like to be able to play a character and act out a lot of things which I can’t or don’t do in my normal everyday life.

We are all shaped from memories we have as young people.

I haven’t died in a movie in a while,’The Departed,’ ‘Body of Lies,’ ‘Revolutionary Road,’ ‘Shutter Island’ and ‘Inception.’ I guess I did die in ‘The Departed.

Everywhere I go, somebody is staring at me, I don’t know if people are staring because they recognize me or because they think I’m a weirdo.

My friends, this body – perhaps more than any other gathering in human history – now faces that difficult task.

As a kid, I was going to be a marine biologist or an actor. When I became successful as an actor, I said, Well, maybe I can lend a voice to this with an equal passion. You realize how lucky we are and how destructive we’ve been and what little regard we have for the natural world.

I was always the kid in school who tried to get attention, not necessarily the class clown, but I’d do little unexpected performances.

The great thing about turning 30 in this business is that you get to perpetuate being young or old as long as we want.

My Mother is a walking Miracle.

I love science fiction, but I have a hard time feeling for characters in a galaxy far away. Choosing movies is the one thing in my life where there’s no compromising.

I get unhappy doing things that I’m not passionate about. Because I feel like I’m squandering this incredible gift I’ve been given to finance films. As soon as my name alone was enough to make this happen, I vowed to myself that I was going to work with directors who were changing cinema, doing something important, you know?

Considering all that’s happened in my life, I feel like I’m a pretty levelheaded person that has remained happy and not let my shortcomings overtake the better part of me. I’m fulfilling the things I wanted to fulfill, and I’m still sane.

We only get one planet.

If you want to be successful, respect one rule. Never let failure take control of you.

I just really love doing what I do. I know every career is fleeting and there will be time periods when I don’t get the opportunities that I’m getting right now, so I am taking advantage of them.

Brothers don’t necessarily have to say anything to each other – they can sit in a room and be together and just be completely comfortable with each other.

You can either be a vain movie star, or you can try to shed some light on different aspects of the human condition.

Thirty is a very good age for an actor: you can play both young and old men.

I’ve always been spontaneous and outgoing… I’ve tried lots of things so I’ve got some good life experiences, which is great ’cause it means I’ve got lots of material to work with as an actor.

Women have been the most persecuted people throughout all of recorded history, more than any race or religion.

I get a friend to travel with me… I need somebody to bring me back to who I am. It’s hard to be alone.

When I was young, I used to have this thing where I wanted to see everything. I used to think, How can I die without seeing every inch of this world?

Don’t think for a moment that I’m really like any of the characters I’ve played. I’m not. That’s why it’s called ‘acting’.

I’ve been a rich man, and I’ve been poor man. And I choose rich every fucking time.

On working with Martin Scorsese in Gangs of New York (2002): He’s a perfectionist, obsessed with detail. That’s why he went over budget and over schedule.

Let me tell you something. There is no nobility in poverty. I’ve been a poor man, and I’ve been a rich man. And I choose rich every Time. Coz at least as a rich man when I have to face my problems, I show up in the back of a limo wearing a 2,000 Dollars suits and a 40,000 dollars gold watch.

I’ve never done drugs. That’s because I saw this stuff literally every day when I was 3 or 4 years old.

I’ve been planted here to be a vessel for acting… That’s why I’m really taking any part, regardless of how complicated it’s going to be.

School, I never truly got the knack of. I could never focus on things I didn’t want to learn.

I’m not the kind of person who tries to be cool or trendy, I’m definitely an individual.

Raising awareness on the most pressing environmental issues of our time is more important than ever.

The good thing about acting is that it always keeps you on your toes… It’s not like any other job where you can go in and do the same thing as yesterday.

A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules.

Pay close attention to people who don’t clap when you win.

People want you to be a crazy, out-of-control teen brat. They want you miserable, just like them. They don’t want heroes; what they want is to see you fall.

When you are given an opportunity to make a film like ‘Body of Lies’ – and I would put ‘Blood Diamond’ in the same category – of course you jump at these opportunities.

Portraying emotionally ill characters gives me the chance to really act.

Be thankful for the hard times, for they have made you.

Enough is enough. The truth is our planet’s alarm is now going off and it’s time to wake up and take action.

Kill them with success and bury them with a smile.

The best thing about acting is that I get to lose myself in another character and actually get paid for it. It’s a great outlet. As for myself, I’m not sure who I am. It seems that I change every day.

If you can do what you do best and be happy, you’re further along in life than most people.

Wrong connection will give you shock throughout your life.but the right one will light up your life.

I don’t know if I’m more confident than ever before, because I definitely had confidence when I was starting out. Maybe I have less confidence now that I did then.

To believe in love, to be ready to give up anything for it, to be willing to risk your life for it, is the ultimate tragedy.

If you have done the very best you can. worrying won’t make it any better. if you want to be successful, respect one rule.

I don’t think anyone really gets used to being recognized around the world. It kind of feels like a videogame at times, especially with paparazzi and people following you and things of that nature. But it’s part of who I am now.