Leonardo DiCaprio Quotes - Page 5

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.

That's an inspiration for all women to see a woman thinking and moving differently from those around her.

I've been in the business since I was 16, so I've had a 14-year career. I've always had acting in my blood. Doing this, whatever it is, was something I was drawn to since my earliest memories. Ironically, I lived in Hollywood, but never understood that all it took was getting an agent and being persistent.

If you're gonna let the character be the story, you better set a tone that allows the actors to do the best work they can do.

I didn't worry about what DeNiro thought... I went in, looked him in the eye, and got the part. I was confident, even though I'd never done anything like it before. Now I realise it was ignorant confidence-I had no idea.

I think it's much more interesting when people say, "I love being famous. I love the attention and getting laid and having people I respect admire me," than when they pretend it hasn't had an effect on them.

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 of.

(Acting) certainly comes-100 percent-from the need to be loved. Any actor who says this isn't true is lying.

I remember when I first started having these interpretations of these images, these clichés of what movie stars are and this and that, and they're egomaniacal pricks and tyrants, but in general, for the most part, they're nice people to tell you the truth.

When I can't immediately define the character, and there's an element of mystery to it and still a lot to be explored, that's when I say yes.

I always wanted to be an actor and I'd never dreamt that not only would I be able to do this for a living, but also on top of that I'd be able to choose and steer the course of my own career.

My parents know I was outgoing as a child, and whenever people came over I'd automatically do impressions of them as soon as they left; it was my mom's favorite thing.

It's amazing to completely focus on something for four, five or six months, have it completely consume your life and be constantly thinking about somebody else's set of circumstances and how they would react to something. I find it fascinating. It's rewarding and on a professional and personal level.

If you can unify the public mind saving an iconic species like the tiger, like they did with the panda, that means you have to protect their habitat and everything that they hunt. And that means saving massive, thousands of acres for them to be able to roam and breed. So it's more of a land effort.

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 sometimes have to look back and say, "Wow, this is amazing what has happened to me. I have been able to fulfill a lot of these dreams that I had when I was very young." It's a pretty amazing feeling. But at the same time it becomes addictive!

These types of films that are psychologically sort of dark at times, I find extremely exciting to do because there's always something to think about. There's nothing more boring than to show up on set and say a line and know that your character means exactly what they say. It's interesting to have an unreliable narrator in a film and that's what both of those films have been.

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.

Marty [Scorsese] knows that when an improvised moment comes out of a real situation, it's gonna have more life and more going on than anything you can imagine and that's how the character can become the story

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 like to prepare as much as possible beforehand, but there's definitely that element of fear when you're on set, and you have to be conscious of it and use that fear to drive you to work harder.

The truth of the matter is this - I never look for films specifically, because ultimately if the fundamentals of the character and the script and the director aren't there, it makes it a moot point.

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.

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

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.