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 ju… - River Phoenix

It's not about career. It's about believing in something, it's about prosperity. And it's about caring and empathizing and wanting to create the best, the most true to life, the most real.

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.

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.