Nicolas Cage Quotes:

Some things are true whether you believe in them or not.

source: - "Fictional character: Seth". "City of Angels", www.imdb.com. 1998.

Topics: Believe, City Of Angels

I think that movies can help guide us through those experiences [the problems that are happening in our daily lives, the stresses between countries, the economy and global warming]. I think all art tries to grapple with, redefine, come to terms with, express what's happening now when it's working. You can be entertained, but you can also be stimulated to think about things.

Topics: Country, Art, Stress

I'm going to steal the Declaration of Independence.

Topics: Independence, Declaration Of Independence, Stealing, National Treasure

When I work, I really try to get absorbed in the character. Unless I want to do something playful with the camera, I'm not too worried about where the camera is or positions.

Topics: Character, Trying, Want

I like both Blu-ray and DVD, but Blu-ray gives you more options.

Topics: Dvds, Giving, Rays

When you have 400 people watching you making a movie, it doesn't go where you want it to go. It's a lot of pressure.

Topics: People, Pressure, Want

To be a good actor you have to be something like a criminal, to be willing to break the rules to strive for something new.

source: - "Out There with Nicholas Cage". Interview with Lawrence Grobel, movieline.com. May 1, 1996.

Topics: Acting, Actors, Criminals, Good Actors

I got a little tired of movies where I had to shoot people. I got to thinking about the power of film and what that power is. The power is in fact that it really can change people's minds.

Topics: Tired, Thinking, People

Those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.

Topics: Responsibility, Action, Ability, National Treasure

Without impending on your own personal choice, there are going to be those that wear the hat of religion and those that wear the hat of science. I still don't really understand why they can't wear both hats, because personally, I think that they go beautifully together.

Topics: Thinking, Choices, Together, Personal Choice

I am not a demon. I am a lizard, a shark, a heat-seeking panther. I want to be Bob Denver on acid playing the accordion.

source: - "The Heat-Seeking Panther" by Dana Stevens, www.slate.com. July 22, 2010.

Topics: Sharks, Panthers, Lizards, Accordions

I generally enjoy the rehearsal process because that's where you can share your ideas, get your thoughts and feelings out and see whether or not they're going to land, whether or not people are going to agree with them, particularly the director. So you can sort out in that process any elements that need to be sorted out before you're on the set, and of course that saves time and it also makes everyone more comfortable working together.

Topics: Land, Ideas, People

I think it's no secret that I've tried to take chances in my career and also in my life, and I believe to not live in fear.

Topics: Believe, Thinking, Careers

My father used to say to me, "It doesn't matter what the profession is, but if they're the best in their field, it will always be fascinating to watch." And I said, "Really, dad? Even like someone who makes pencils?" "Even someone who makes pencils, it will be fascinating to watch."

Topics: Dad, Father, Watches

Passion is very important to me. If you stop enjoying things, you've got to look at it, because it can lead to all kinds of depressing scenarios.

Topics: Depressing, Passion, Important

I see myself as a student. I would never call myself a master or a maestro. If you take the path of the student, that means that you have to try a little bit of everything in the hopes that you're going to learn something or strike some kind of new note or new sound or new expression in the process. I'm not going for grades. I'm going for an education. That means I'm going to continue experimenting and trying new things to try to evolve and learn.

Topics: Mean, Expression, Trying, Maestro

Every great story seems to begin with a snake.

Topics: Snakes, Stories

I always say, "Well if you think it's over the top, then tell me where the top is first. I don't think anyone can, but if you can tell me where the top is, then I'll tell you whether or not I'm over it."

Topics: Thinking, Firsts, Wells

Most of my favourite moments in film have been when I've had an opportunity to say something from scratch, something original, whether I jotted down a few lines or it came out in improvisation.

Topics: Opportunity, Lines, Scratches

If you have people that totally support you and have your back, I feel like you have all the confidence in the world, and you believe that you can do things that most people can't achieve. I feel that's really important.

source: - Source: www.moviesonline.ca

Topics: Believe, People, Support

Actors have an opportunity to use storytelling as a way to solve pain.

Topics: Pain, Opportunity, Actors

I like to work with young people because young people haven't had their dreams kicked out of them yet. They're full of confidence and imagination and vision and when they score, that all get's empowered.

Topics: Dream, Imagination, People

I've always had a soft spot for comic books. I learned to read from them. The words in them were so interesting.

Topics: Book, Interesting, Comic

I've always maintained that I see myself as a student. There's always something to learn and be challenged by and hopefully grow from.

source: - Source: www.digitalspy.com

Topics: Students, Grows, Hopefully

I care about the connection with the audience. Film is such a powerful medium. Movies can change the way people think.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: Inspirational, Powerful, Thinking, Inspirational Celebrity

I love all animals. I have a fascination with fish, birds, whales - sentient life - insects, reptiles.

Topics: Animal, Whales, Bird

I wasn't any good at romnace. I was a total nerd. My thing is, I was just too romantic. I was the romantic goofball. I wasn't cynical enough or harsh enough. I cared too much, so I always made a fool out of myself.

Topics: Cynical, Nerd, Too Much

We do see Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi and Chow Yun Fat, but it's very rare to see the Chinese male actor in Hollywood movies, which is something I take great umbrage with. You know, my son is Asian. He may want to direct one day; he may want to be an actor like his father - and I want that to be open to him.

Topics: Father, Son, Chinese, Gongs

My definition of a father is someone who empowers their children.

Topics: Children, Father, Empowering

I would like to find a way to embrace what Led Zeppelin did, in filmmaking.

Topics: Way, Zeppelins, Embrace

Well, good science fiction is intelligent. It asks big questions that are on people's minds. It's not impossible. It has some sort of root in the abstract. So automatically you're getting closer to potentially divine sources of interest because it is abstract. It's one of the only ways that a film actor can express himself in the abstract and have audiences still go along for the ride. They don't contend it. They accept it, that they're going to go places that are a bit more of the imagination, a bit more out there, and that's more and more where I like to dance.

Topics: Intelligent, Roots, Imagination, Good Science, Film Actors

There's a fine line between the Method actor and the schizophrenic.

Topics: Acting, Lines, Actors, Schizophrenic, Method Acting

One of the great bonuses of being a film actor is that I get to go to different places, meet inspiring people and learn different things. So all those details add up.

Topics: People, Different, Add, Film Actors

I do enjoy animated movies. I really love anime and movies like 'Spirited Away' and 'Howl's Moving Castle.'

Topics: Moving, Anime, Castles, Animated Movies, Howl's Moving Castle

I don't find the same things funny that many other people seem to find funny. I don't really respond to sex jokes and things like that. Some of my friends look at me and go, "Come on, Nic, that was my best joke. Why aren't you laughing?" I go, "I really don't know why I'm not laughing. I'm sort of out of sync with it." So I'd have to find something that was really about weird human behavior for me to laugh.

Topics: Sex, Laughing, People, Sync

In the beginning my energy and passion for acting came from an almost punk rock need to express a lot of anger wherever that may have come from. As I got older, it became or is coming more from a place of wanting to use the craft to help others in some way, to hold a mirror up to the situations that we're going through, to actually be more cautious about the way that I use the power of film and to see if there's anything that I can do in the performances that will resonate in the public a similar string that's on people's minds and is on my mind. That way we have that relationship.

Topics: Passion, Helping Others, Mirrors

More than ever, movies reveal themselves as healing, as helpful, as encouraging, as escapist - anything that makes someone get through their day in these times. It's the best form of entertainment, and it's still arguably the most inexpensive form of entertainment.

Topics: Healing, Entertainment, Helpful, Inexpensive, Escapists

I think that the best characters are the ones who both manage to be attractive and repulsive at the same time.

Topics: Character, Thinking, Attractive, Best Character, Center Of The Universe

I was thinking about being more global in my work, which means trying more foreign countries and working with foreign filmmakers, hoping they would give me a new take on my work, a new point of view, reinvent me in some way.

Topics: Country, Mean, Thinking

I think anything that opens my mind and triggers my imagination I'm reading. I like to read science fiction and imagine the character. Anything that keeps my imagination flowing.

Topics: Reading, Character, Thinking

Remakes are always a challenge and they always are sitting ducks.

Topics: Ducks, Challenges, Sitting

I think a good movie is a good movie whether that falls into a genre or not.

Topics: Fall, Thinking, Good Movie

I do like characters that have flaws, some sort of pathos to them that they are trying to sort out.

Topics: Character, Trying, Flaws

All movies on some level can aspire to be more than just whatever the label is of the movie.

Topics: Labels, Levels

I think I've become more relaxed throughout my career. I don't feel the need to jump up and down and make a big noise to get people to pay attention to me. I don't need to do punk rock gestures or eat a cockroach or do something weird to say I exist.

source: - Source: www.cnn.com

Topics: Thinking, Rocks, Careers

Movies work, in my opinion, on the best level when they're more enigmatic, when we don't say it's this or that and where it raises more questions than answers.

Topics: Answers, Levels, Opinion, Enigmatic

People often say that you should never work with child actors. I think that's all wrong. Children have not had the imagination kicked out of them by life experience and adulthood. So, they still are very much alive with that kind of magical thinking which enables an actor to believe they're in these circumstances and make them real to you.

Topics: Children, Real, Believe, Magical Thinking, Child Actors

I find children inspiring. The way they look at the world. The magical world they live in, to me, is inspiring.

Topics: Children, World, Way

I don't want to sit around by the pool luxuriating with a margarita. That's just not what I want to do.

Topics: Want, Pool, Margarita

I don't want to just do independent movies and I don't want to just do adventure films. I enjoy both, and I think both are cogent.

Topics: Independent, Adventure, Thinking

I have a love/ hate relationship with the city of New Orleans, which is the strongest kind of relationship.

Topics: Hate, Cities, New Orleans, Love Hate Relationship

God bless my father, but he always spoke in this continental, literary accent, probably because he was a professor of comparative literature and he made the decision to speak with distinction.

Topics: Father, Decision, Literature, Comparative Literature

I have eclectic tastes in the movies I want to do.

Topics: Taste, Want, Eclectic, Eclectic Style

I know what it's like to meet someone you admire and have them be a complete jerk.

Topics: Jerk, Admire

I don't think movies are the reason why this violence exists, I think it's going to happen whether movies are there or not.

Topics: Thinking, Violence, Reason

I don't drink blood, and last time I looked in the mirror, I had a reflection.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Addresses Rumors He’s A Vampire On ‘Late Show With David Letterman’". www.huffingtonpost.com. February 10, 2012.

Topics: Reflection, Blood, Mirrors

I happen to still like really dark, dramatic, fractured characters. They're the reason I got into movies.

Topics: Character, Dark, Dramatic

I think I've spent more time in front of a camera than off camera. That's just the way it is.

Topics: Thinking, Way, Cameras

Science fiction is a way that I can go into the abstract, go into the imagination, and audiences are still willing to go along for the ride.

Topics: Imagination, Way, Fiction, Along For The Ride

Picasso said, 'Art is a lie that tells the truth.' What if you just want to tell the truth and not lie about it?

Topics: Art, Lying, What If

Personally, my interests are ancient history and ancient civilizations. In my own life, I'd like to go to places like Easter Island.

Topics: Easter, Civilization, Islands, Easter Island, Ancient History

One of the pluses of getting older is you set some limits.

Topics: Getting Older, Limits

Sometimes people think I'm wearing a wig when I'm not wearing a wig, and then sometimes they think I'm not wearing a wig when I am wearing a wig.

source: - Screen Junkies Interview, www.screenjunkies.com.

Topics: Thinking, People, Wigs

The fact that 'Astro Boy' appealed to me as a boy in America was proof that the story and character transcend cultural stereotypes.

Topics: Character, Boys, America

The movies I cannot go without and that I watch annually are 'A Clockwork Orange,' 'Scarface' and 'Fantasia.'

Topics: Orange, Watches, Fantasia, Scarface

I will promise you that if I can give you two good scenes -- which is what I always try to do in every movie -- then I feel like I'm doing my job.

Topics: Jobs, Work, Two

I think the paparazzi might have chased me out of Los Angeles.

Topics: Thinking, Might, Los Angeles

I think that if you go about making movies to win Oscars, you're really going about it the wrong way.

Topics: Thinking, Winning, Way

Someone like Vincent Price or somebody like Christopher Lee, they never won an award, and it doesn't matter. They're cool.

Topics: Awards, Matter

I do enjoy animated movies.

Topics: Enjoy, Animated

I guess it would fall into the stalker category more or less. I was being stalked by a mime - silent but maybe deadly. Somehow, this mime would appear on the set of Bringing Out the Dead and start doing strange things. I have no idea how it got past security. Finally, the producers took some action and I haven't seen the mime since. But it was definitely unsettling.

Topics: Fall, Past, Ideas, Mime

Hollywood didn't know if I was an actor or a nut or if I was this crazy character I was playing. I had developed an image of being a little bit unusual, different and wild.

Topics: Crazy, Character, Nuts

I don't want a perfect character, I want a character who has, as strange as it sounds, some humanity, some flaws, some needs.

Topics: Character, Perfect, Humanity

I try not to be proud. I try to actively attack pride.

Topics: Pride, Trying, Proud

Nobody wants to watch perfection.

source: - "You've got to be able to break the wall". Interview with Dorian Lynskey, www.theguardian.com. February 16, 2007.

Topics: Perfection, Watches, Want

My father once said, 'If you're in the desert and you're dying of thirst, are you going to drink a glass of blood or are you going to drink a glass of water?' I think what he was trying to say, interesting coming from my blood father, is sometimes there are people in your family that can be toxic.

Topics: Father, Thinking, Glasses

I was always shocked when I went to the doctor's office and they did my X-ray and didn't find that I had eight more ribs than I should have or that my blood was the color green.

Topics: Doctors, Eight, Blood

Don't lose the best thing in your life just because you are not sure.

Topics: Family Man, Not Sure, Best Things

Nobody ever thinks clearly at the airport.

Topics: Thinking, Airports, Family Man

I always add a year to myself, so I'm prepared for my next birthday. So when I was 39, I was already 40.

source: - "Nicholas Cage talks National Treasure!". Press conference in Los Angeles, movieweb.com. November 16, 2004.

Topics: Years, Age, Add

If you're really special, meaning you're doing something unique and original, it could scare people.

source: - Press conference with Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan and David Gordon Green, www.moviesonline.ca. April, 2014.

Topics: Unique, People, Special

You can't make your choices based on what critics think. You have to make your choices based on what's honest for you.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Criticizes Hollywood's Lack of Opportunities for Male Asian Actors" by Patrick Brzeski, www.hollywoodreporter.com. October 22, 2013.

Topics: Thinking, Choices, Honest

I do like to move and get physical in my movies.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Exclusive Interview SEASON OF THE WITCH". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. January 3, 2011.

Topics: Moving

I don't know if my wife left me because of my drinking or I started drinking 'cause my wife left me.

Topics: Drinking, Wife, Causes

I'm sticking my tongue out in scenes to try to make that work in 3D. I'm thinking I'll try to get my tongue all the way out to the second row of the audience.

Topics: Thinking, Trying, Way

You aren't a true internationalist until you've supplied weapons to kill your own countrymen.

Topics: Weapons, Countrymen

Everything we do impacts someone else's life.

Topics: Impact

The end of the world is on people's minds. We have the power to destroy or save ourselves, but the question is what do you do with that responsibility.

source: - "Nicolas Cage, Single Dad On and Off-Screen". PARADE interview, parade.com. March 11, 2009.

Topics: Responsibility, People, Mind

I always say, if you think it’s over the top then tell me where the top is first. I don’t think anyone can. But if you can tell me where the top is then I’ll tell you whether or not I’m over it.

source: - "Nicolas Cage is No Ordinary ‘Joe’". Interview with Angela Dawson, frontrowfeatures.com. April 10, 2014.

Topics: Thinking, Firsts, Wells

My best takes are my first two takes.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Interview BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS". Interview with Steve Weintraub, collider.com. November 17, 2009.

Topics: Two, Firsts

I cry a lot. My emotions are very close to my surface. I don't want to hold anything in so it festers and turns into pus - a pustule of emotion that explodes into a festering cesspool of depression.

Topics: Depression, Want, Emotion, Festering

I'm legally unable to ride motorcycles. It's a contract that I have with my life insurance, so whenever I get a chance to do a movie and ride a bike I go for it.

source: - "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance - Nicolas Cage interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

Topics: Motorcycle, Chance, Contracts

To begin... To begin... How to start? I'm hungry. I should get coffee. Coffee would help me think. Maybe I should write something first, then reward myself with coffee. Coffee and a muffin. Okay, so I need to establish the themes. Maybe a banana-nut. That's a good muffin.

Topics: Coffee, Writing, Thinking

It's important to keep the eccentric spirit alive, because when that goes, the work will go.

Topics: Important, Alive, Eccentric

I remember once imagining what my life would be like, what I'd be like. I pictured having all these qualities, strong positive qualities that people could pick up on from across the room. But as time passed, few became qualities that I actually had. And all the possibilities I faced, and the sorts of people I could be, all of them got reduced every year to fewer and fewer until finally they got reduced to one - to who I am. And that's who I am.

Topics: Strong, Who I Am, Years

Shock is still fun. I won't ever shut the door on it.

Topics: Fun, Doors, Shock

I want to always find new ways of reinventing myself.

Topics: Want, Way, New Ways, Reinventing

I think I jump around more when I'm alone.

Topics: Thinking

I think what makes people fascinating is conflict, it's drama, it's the human condition. Nobody wants to watch perfection.

source: - "'You've got to be able to break the wall'". Interview with Dorian Lynskey, www.theguardian.com. February 16, 2007.

Topics: Drama, Thinking, People

It's always exciting when you can go into a mode where you can be both spontaneous and choreographed. Sort of in control and out of control at the same time.

source: - "Nicolas Cage On Set Interview DRIVE ANGRY 3D". Interview with Steve Weintraub, collider.com. July 19, 2010.

Topics: Spontaneous, Exciting

We've become so glorified in the movie-star system that it's become this artificial royalty. The truth is that we're circus clowns.

Topics: Stars, Complaining, Circus, Circus Clowns

I like being at that place where you can either fall or stand. That's where I think you really have a shot at doing something truthful.

source: - Source: www.aboutfilm.com

Topics: Fall, Thinking, Truthful

I don't like it when people on the street say "smile" or "cheer up." It's a real cheap line. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling real grateful for everything. It's a solid time in my life. When people say I look sad, they're wrong.

Topics: Thank You, Cheer, Real

I believe that there's a way to question authority with manners, with dignity. There's no reason to be rude about it.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Interview - NATIONAL TREASURE: Book of Secrets". Interview with Steve "Frosty" Weintraub, collider.com. December 19, 2007.

Topics: Believe, Rude, Way

I'm a seeker. I'm very much a believer in science. But I do think there are times when science and mysticism intersect.

source: - "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance - Nicolas Cage interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

Topics: Thinking, Believer, Seekers

My mother was a dancer, so I like to use the body as part of the instrument of acting.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Interview BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS". Interview with Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub, collider.com. November 17, 2009.

Topics: Mother, Dancer, Acting

The only way the devil really exists in my opinion... is in interactions with people who don't walk the walk and talk the talk; people who act one way, or talk one way and then do another. Those are the deals with the devil. I don't see the devil as somebody who is a horned, goateed guy with a fork in his hand that's there to continuously stab me and send my soul to hell. I don't see it that way at all.

source: - "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance - Nicolas Cage interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

Topics: Hands, People, Guy, Deals With The Devil

I believe that everybody has the right to believe what they want to believe and to knock somebody's faith and religion is foolish, whatever it may be - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism.

source: - "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance - Nicolas Cage interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

Topics: Believe, Buddhism, Islam

Snakes are sometimes perceived as evil, but they are also perceived as medicine. If you look at an ambulance, there's the two snakes on the side of the ambulance. The caduceus, or the staff of Hermes, there's the two snakes going up it, which means that the venom can also be healing.

Topics: Healing, Mean, Snakes, Ambulance, Hermes

When I was eight, I would look at the cover of the 'Ghost Rider' comic book in my little home in Long Beach, California, and I couldn't get my head around how something that scary could also be good. To me it was my first philosophical awakening - 'How is this possible, this duality?'

Topics: Beach, Book, Philosophical, Duality, Long Beach

I'm at the point now where I know I'm doing something right when a movie gets mixed reviews, because then I'm not in the box. I don't want to make it too easy for people and I don't want to make it too easy for myself. I want to try something unusual.

source: - "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: People, Trying, Want

I'm always going to judge somebody on their work ethic, and whether or not they made me feel something, or whether or not I felt they did a good job. To me, it's important to try to block anything personal out and look at the performance, in any field.

Topics: Jobs, Block, Judging

I think on some level, all of us have a little bit of belief in the possibility of different energies and forces and things like that. Otherwise, we wouldn't be afraid of them. Or there wouldn't be so many movies about them.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Is '2 Percent Open' to the Existence of Ghosts" by Matt Patches, www.esquire.com. September 25, 2015.

Topics: Thinking, Energy, Different

You can choose your family sometimes. You can choose people, it could be a teacher, it could be a professor, it could be someone you work with that actually genuinely cares about you and wants you to succeed.

Topics: Teacher, People, Care

Tattoos to me are the outward symbol of the inward change within my soul.

Topics: Tattoo, Soul, Inward

I hit the ground running, without a lot of training, so I had to do whatever I could do to survive as a professional, and if that meant being that character 24/7 and acting out, I was going to do that. I lived those characters, I brought them home with me.

Topics: Running, Character, Home

Well, Amber [Heard] is still raising her eyebrow at me because I said that I've been 180 miles per hour on the 405 freeway on a motorcycle and she doesn't believe me but it's a true story. I did it coming home from work at 3 in the morning on another movie I made about cars called Gone in 60 Seconds. I bought a Yamaha-1 and I was doing 180 miles per hour home on the 405 and that's really, really crazy but I did it.

Topics: Morning, Crazy, Believe, Yamaha

I needed to change my name just to liberate myself and find out I could do it without walking into a Hollywood casting office with the name Coppola.

source: - "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Names, Office, Hollywood

I haven't made anything I don't believe in. I've always started a movie with a song in my heart, and even when I'm a little unclear about it, something magical happens and it comes into focus in a way that I'm feeling good about.

Topics: Song, Believe, Heart

Picasso said art is a lie that tells the truth. What if you just want to tell the truth and not lie about it?

source: - "'You've got to be able to break the wall'". Interview with Dorian Lynskey, www.theguardian.com. February 16, 2007.

Topics: Art, Lying, What If

I'm not afraid to play ugly - look at 'Adaptation.' I looked like a turd that a cat had coughed up.

Topics: Cat, Play, Looks, Turds

I use technology for communication, but I don't have a Blackberry or an iPhone. I use an outdated cell phone, but I'm fine with it.

source: - "Interview with Nicolas Cage from "G-Force"". Interview with Julie Bonner, www.alloy.com. December 8, 2009.

Topics: Communication, Technology, Iphone, Outdated

As I got older, with my work, I became aware of the responsibility of film, and I feel one of the best ways I can apply myself as an actor, is to go beyond movie stardom and celebrity.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Interview BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS". Interview with Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub, collider.com. November 17, 2009.

Topics: Responsibility, Actors, Way

I always see America as really belonging to the Native Americans. Even though I'm American, I still feel like a visitor in my own country.

Topics: Country, Native American, Visitors

I've always had an interest in Louisiana, especially New Orleans.

source: - "Interview with Nicolas Cage from 'G-Force'". Interview with Julie Bonner, www.alloy.com. December 8, 2009.

Topics: New Orleans, Louisiana, Interest

I never studied dance, but if you look at 'Wild At Heart,' my mother saw that movie and said, 'You are a dancer. Look at how you're moving: all that strange energy is like modern dance.'

Topics: Mother, Moving, Heart, Modern Dance, Wild At Heart

It's a family that's loaded with grudges and passion. We come from a long line of robbers and highwaymen in Italy, you know. Killers, even.

Topics: Passion, Long, Killers, Loaded, Highwaymen

All of my characters have a glint of madness.

Topics: Character, Madness

Zoology has always been interesting to me. Nature is fascinating.

Topics: Interesting, Zoology, Fascinating

Actors work with their look. I come from the Lon Chaney Sr. school of acting. I'll wear wigs, I'll wear nose pieces, I'll wear green contact lenses in my eyes. I'll do whatever I need to do to create a character.

Topics: School, Character, Eye, Contact Lenses

I have a love-hate relationship with New Orleans, which is the strongest sort of relationship. I've had some extraordinary, beautiful, poetic experiences in this city and I've had some terrible experiences in this city. I'm drawn to New Orleans, in many ways feel I grew up in New Orleans, even though I'm from the West.

Topics: Beautiful, Hate, New Orleans, Love Hate Relationship

I love it all. I don't want to go through my career with one hand tied behind my back. I love making kids happy. I love the midnight audience. I like intense dramas. And I like high-adrenaline action films.

Topics: Drama, Kids, Hands, Behind My Back, Hands Tied

I wanted to make an image for myself as an outlaw type. A kind of rock 'n' roll sensibility.

Topics: Rocks, Rock N Roll, Kind

Yeah, my real name is Coppola. I changed it because they'd think I was some nepotism-oriented kid.

Topics: Real, Kids, Thinking, Nepotism

There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is, how do we arm the other 11?

Topics: People, Twelve, Arms, Firearms

With my name in cement, I feel actualised. - On cementing his hand prints on Sunset Boulevard

Topics: Sunset, Hands, Names, Sunset Boulevard, Boulevard

Peter Fonda is the reason I became a motorcyclist. I saw Easy Rider and I bought a motorcycle the next day, and I rode it all the way from LA to San Francisco.

source: - "Ghost Rider - Nicolas Cage interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

Topics: Next Day, San Francisco, Motorcycle, Easy Rider

One of the first signs of being depressed is that you lose interest in things. That's why I think it is important to stay passionate.

Topics: Passion, Thinking, Important, Being Depressed

I've been lucky to work with some of the most creative people and it's true that I enjoy filmmaking and I'm an enthusiast.

Topics: People, Creative, Lucky

I'm not a trained actor. I'm someone who is autodidactic and learned on my own.

Topics: Actors, My Own

It may come as a surprise to people, but I'm actually quite boring and normal. What do I do? I read books. I drive my kid to school. I have lunch with my wife. I pick my kid up from school. I go home.

Topics: Book, Home, School

Often you hear stories about never working with children. I disagree because children still have that residual magical thinking. They haven't had their imagination knocked out of them by turning into adults and life experiences.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Interview - KNOWING". Interview with Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub, collider.com. March 18, 2009.

Topics: Children, Thinking, Imagination, Magical Thinking, Working With Children

I'm not really interested in playing famous people. I prefer to create characters. And I hope I have an exciting enough life that somebody might make a movie about that one day. I don't want to make movies about other people. I was once approached about playing Salvador Dali, which I thought would've been fun until I found out that he was proud of kicking a blind man across the street. So, I decided, I didn't want to play that guy. So, I think I'll just keep it the way it is.

Topics: Fun, Character, Men

My direction as a person working in film has been to never get comfortable with anything I was doing. At the time that I decided to do action films, people were telling me, "Well, you can't do it. You're not that type. It's not going to work." And so obviously that made me think, "Well, that's not comfortable. Maybe I should try it. What can I do with it?" So I did that, and I'm glad I did it. I'll probably do it again, and I did other kinds of things that seemed like challenges for me, because I like being on the high wire.

source: - Source: www.aboutfilm.com

Topics: Thinking, People, Challenges

When I won the Oscar, I made a point of actively going against that and doing adventure films like 'Con Air' and 'Gone in 60 Seconds,' not what would be expected.

source: - "Berlin Interview: Nicolas Cage Explains Why ‘Wicker Man’ Is Misunderstood, His Career Choices & More". Interview with Jessica Kiang, www.indiewire.com. February 20, 2013.

Topics: Adventure, Air, Would Be

There is a misperception, if you will, in critical response or even in Hollywood, that I can only do exaggerated characters. Or what they would call over-the-top performances. Well, this is completely false.

source: - "Nicolas Cage: 'People think I'm not in on the joke'". Interview with Emma Brockes, www.theguardian.com. July 20, 2013.

Topics: Character, Hollywood, Misperception

How do you rebel in a family of rebels?

Topics: Rebel

I didn't play the Ghost Rider in the first movie. That was a stuntman. In this film, the Ghost Rider feels much more alive because I did put some thought into how he should walk and into how he should move. I was so into the character, in fact, that I would paint my face with white and black makeup to look like a skull. And I put on blacked-out contact lenses, so I almost looked like an Afro-New Orleanian voodoo icon by the name of Baron Samedi. Oh man, I would walk around the set without saying a word to anybody, and I could see the fear in my co-stars' and co-directors' eyes.

source: - Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

Topics: Moving, Character, Eye, Ghost Rider

Guy Pearce is very precise and clear about understanding the rhythm and the music of a scene.

Topics: Guy, Understanding, Scene

If I could have been a marine biologist I would have, but I didn't have that kind of intelligence. Numbers were never my strong point.

Topics: Strong, Marine, Numbers, Biologist, Marine Biologist

With the advent of this kind of TMZ culture, it sadly seems to have infiltrated the vanguard of film commentary. I see these reviews sometimes where I think, well, you have a right to say whatever you want about my work, and I will listen whether it's good or bad and see if there's something that I might work with, but personal issues don't have a place in film commentary.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Chooses His Favorite Movie Roles, Weighs In On State Of Film Criticism" by Kevin Jagernauth, www.indiewire.com. August 14, 2015.

Topics: Thinking, Issues, Culture, Personal Issues, Vanguard

First of all the criteria that I have that goes into any career decision is whether or not I have the life experience, emotional resources to play the part truthfully or the imagination. Second, would be the director.

source: - "Knowing - Nicolas Cage interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

Topics: Emotional, Play, Careers

You get dinged for wanting to do a comedy, then wanting to do a big-budget action film, and then wanting to do an indie. But you can't let other people trying to label you get in the way of trying to do something artistically.

source: - "Toronto Film Festival 2013 Q&A: Joe's Nicolas Cage". Interview with David Fear, www.timeout.com. September 9, 2013.

Topics: People, Trying, Labels, Action Films

Without mentioning any names, I looked at pretty much every story that may come to your mind about a politician on the rise who was stopped short or dragged down by personal flaws and then became just a media storm. I see this as a thing that continues to happen in America and I wanted to say something about that.

Topics: Media, Names, America

I try to do as many stunts as they'll let me do. I think it's important for an audience to feel that the actor's really doing it.

Topics: Thinking, Important, Trying

Mel Blanc is a hero because of what he could do with his voice for all the Looney Tunes, the Warner Brothers cartoons, to be the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig. To me, he's a great actor.

source: - "Not much rattling Nicolas Cage these days". Interview with Andrea Mineo, www.cnn.com. July 24, 2009.

Topics: Brother, Hero, Pigs, Mel Blanc, Warner Brothers

For me, acting was a way of taking destructive energy and doing something productive with it, and in that way it was quite a life saver.

source: - "'You've got to be able to break the wall'". Interview with Dorian Lynskey, www.theguardian.com. February 16, 2007.

Topics: Acting, Energy, Way, Destructive

I like fantasy. I like horror, science fiction because I can get avant-garde with those performances in those movies.

Topics: Avant Garde, Fiction, Fantasy

I want people to discover my movies, and however they choose to receive it is their business.

Topics: People, Want

As a teenager I was more of an anarchist, but now I want people to thrive and be harmonious.

Topics: Teenager, People, Want, Harmonious

My father was always getting excited about something. It's genetically inside me somewhere.

Topics: Father, Gmos, Excited

I have dogs, and it's no secret that I find reptiles interesting, but the thing about reptiles is that they really just wanna be left alone, and I understand them. It's, 'Don't pick me up, stop holding me, don't look at me, just leave me alone.' I have to admit, sometimes I feel like that.

Topics: Dog, Interesting, Pick Me Up, Just Leave Me Alone, Me Alone

Having been a father for 19 years I realise fatherhood has changed me.

Topics: Father, Years, Changed

Feel like real time unfolding. It's going to smack of reality and feel as real as it can ... The buildings themselves aren't (shown) ... The movie's about what happened amongst this handful of men when the buildings came down.

Topics: Real, Men, Building

'Knowing' is one of those movies where you're going to get the spectacle, and you're going to have the entertainment in the grand science fiction tradition. But also, it will perhaps stimulate some discussion to help you sort out on your own where you might choose to go in terms of your own needs. Now, I say that without preaching.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Interview - KNOWING". Interview with Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub, collider.com. March 18, 2009.

Topics: Knowing, Needs, Fiction

At a young age, I was interested in comic books, which was really how I learnt to read. The name Cage came from a comic book character called Power Man.

Topics: Book, Character, Men, Comic Book Characters, Power Man

Actors, their greatest tool, their greatest resource is imagination. You can take things, power objects, you can recruit your dreams, you can access your memories and get there. So the idea is not to act but to just be.

source: - "TIFF 2013: Nicolas Cage & David Gordon Green on Joe". Interview with Fred Topel, www.craveonline.com. September 13, 2013.

Topics: Dream, Memories, Ideas

Acting is always at the core of my life, but I'm also excited about producing. I'm excited about directing, and I have a life in the filmmaking world, and so I want to explore all aspects of it, not just the acting, but acting is the root.

Topics: Roots, Acting, World

As a child, these colourful superheroes that could fly, or were horrifying like Ghost Rider and the Hulk, with this tremendous rage or these supernatural powers, provided an escape for me from my mundane existence, from my lack of friends or my inability to communicate well with people. They liberated me.

Topics: Children, People, Superhero, Supernatural Powers, Inability To Communicate

I'm not an anarchist any more. I still love the Sex Pistols, but I don't want to be a punk rocker all the time, but I do want to carry on exploring new forms of acting.

Topics: Sex, Acting, Want, Rockers, Sex Pistols

And what I like about it is it makes me happy and I think it makes a lot of people happy to go to the movies and to not think about the problems of the day or the problems of tomorrow or the yesterday and just go on for the ride and have the fun of losing oneself in a fantasy.

source: - Interview with Jeff Otto, www.ign.com. November 17, 2004.

Topics: Movie, Fun, Thinking

When I act, I hear it like music. In my head, I hear the dialogue like music.

Topics: Dialogue

I've acted professionally since I was 16.

source: - "'You've got to be able to break the wall'". Interview with Dorian Lynskey, www.theguardian.com. February 16, 2007.

One of my goals is to have a base near mainland China. I think Hong Kong would be a good match for me. I like being in Hong Kong.

Topics: Thinking, Goal, Would Be

I'm not really gadget oriented. I'm not into technology or computers. I'm not good at interfacing with that sort of gear.

Topics: Technology, Gears, Gadgets

I would love to work with Tim Burton. I think we would be very good together.

source: - "Nicolas Cage On ‘Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance,’ Almost Starring In ‘Dumb and Dumber’ And Why He Is Led Zeppelin" by Mike Ryan, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 14, 2012.

Topics: Thinking, Together, Would Be

Film acting is one of the only industries where you're criticized for working hard. In any other industry, it's considered a quality and something to behold.

source: - "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Quality, Acting, Film, Film Acting

Film has lost something in the translation to high tech. It's become so super-real. It's with digital this and stereo that, and everything's like a CD.

source: - "Cage relishes operatic role in tragic `Leaving Las Vegas'". Interview with Roger Ebert, www.rogerebert.com. November 5, 1995.

Topics: Real, Cds, Digital

I would definitely return to Austria. They were all good experiences for me, but definitely Austria because there were some ancient Celtic, sacred sites that were in the forest that were quite beautiful.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Exclusive Interview SEASON OF THE WITCH". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. January 3, 2011.

Topics: Beautiful, Austria, Sacred, Good Experiences

I want to make all kinds of movies. I do want to make big movies that are a lot of fun to go to, but I also want to make movies that are going to stimulate some thought and maybe raise some awareness.

source: - Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

Topics: Fun, Want, Kind

I think that 'Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance' was mentally taxing, if only because I had to go to a Christmas party shortly after I had wrapped photography in Romania at two in the morning as the Ghost Rider. The invitation had a Christmas ornament on it with Ghost Rider's face on it as a tree.

Topics: Photography, Morning, Party, Christmas Party, Romania

I loved 'Fantasia' as a kid because it filled me with wonder, enchantment and awe. It was my first real introduction into classical music. It was totally inspiring to me.

source: - "Nicolas Cage, Single Dad On and Off-Screen". "Parade" Interview, parade.com. March 11, 2009.

Topics: Real, Kids, Enchantment, Fantasia

I like movies where you feel like you're going into another world, and no matter how many times you watch it, you're gonna see something new in that world. That level of detail really inspires me.

source: - "Not much rattling Nicolas Cage these days". Interview with Andrea Mineo, edition.cnn.com. July 24, 2009.

Topics: Inspire, World, Levels, Another World

I know there's been a lot that's been said about animated voice work, as though it's 'you can do this in your jeans and there's no camera and no pressure there. It's no big deal. It's easy.' The truth is, it's really a great test: how deep is your ability is to access your imagination?

Topics: Jeans, Voice, Imagination

It's kind of a unique concept, but it's totally real, isn't it? ... I mean, these paramedics put themselves in incredibly stressful situations, are killing themselves to save our lives and they're not really regarded or appreciated.

Topics: Real, Mean, Unique, Paramedics, Stressful Situations

Helen Mirren is someone that I have really admired ever since I saw her in Excalibur. That was the first thing I said to her. "I loved you as Morgan Le Fay."

source: - "Nicolas Cage Interview - NATIONAL TREASURE: Book of Secrets". Interview with Steve "Frosty" Weintraub, collider.com. December 19, 2007.

Topics: Saws, Firsts, I Loved You, Helen

I do tend to apply myself to projects that make me uncomfortable because usually when that happens I try to find a way of existing in the project that is more creative.

source: - "Nicolas Cage On Set Interview DRIVE ANGRY 3D". Nicolas Cage On Set Interview DRIVE ANGRY 3D, collider.com. July 19, 2010.

Topics: Creative, Trying, Way

I always say to myself that if I can make a movie that makes a kid smile or gives them some hope or something to get excited about, then I'm applying myself in the best way that I can. I don't think that just goes for kids. I think that it goes for adults, as well, and for families.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Interview - KNOWING". Interview with Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub, collider.com. March 18, 2009.

Topics: Kids, Thinking, Giving

How do you say one actor is better than another actor? You can definitely say that in the Olympics if it's the same race and someone wins the race. The only way to really do it and have it be sincere would be if you get all the actors together, and they're all playing the same part, and then you rate which one made you feel the most.

Topics: Winning, Race, Together

Hopefully as a result of 'The Frozen Ground,' more and more people will be aware of the horrible things that happen to ladies all over the world and give them respect. This movie is a love letter to those victims.

Topics: Giving, People, Frozen

I love England - it's no secret.

Topics: Secret, England

I'm not contractually obligated to sequels on anything.

source: - Interview with Stax, www.ign.com. April 26, 2007.

Topics: Sequels

I try to make two movies a year. To me, that's not too much. On top of that, I like to work.

Topics: Years, Two, Trying

Just because you're a man doesn't mean that you can't raise your kid. I think that families should stay together, but if you are a single father, don't give up no matter what they say.

source: - "Nicolas Cage Interview - KNOWING". Interview with Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub, collider.com. March 18, 2009.

Topics: Giving Up, Father, Don't Give Up, Single Father

Mike Myers as Austin Powers makes me laugh - that was genius - and Daffy Duck makes me laugh, but I like odd behavior. I don't like hip dialogue and one-liners and all that sort of cool, sophomoric comedy. It's just not for me.

source: - "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Ducks, Laughing, Daffy Duck

Disney has a great tradition of enchanting children and giving them something to behold.

source: - "Not much rattling Nicolas Cage these days". Interview with Andrea Mineo, edition.cnn.com. July 24, 2009.

Topics: Children, Giving, Tradition, Enchanting

The biggest problem for me was feeling that as I became more balanced and a better man that I wouldn't have the fire to create from.

source: - "'You've got to be able to break the wall'". Interview with Dorian Lynskey, www.theguardian.com. February 16, 2007.

Topics: Men, Fire, Feelings

One of the things that's interesting to me is I find things like caffeine and stunts actually relax me. When they're putting a bit of gel on my arm and lighting me on fire, or when I'm about to go into a high-speed car chase or rev a motorcycle up pretty fast, I find everything else around me slows down.

Topics: Fire, Interesting, Car

Acting is like any other art form, in that you have the option to go very big or go very small.

source: - "Toronto Film Festival 2013 Q&A: Joe's Nicolas Cage". Interview with David Fear, www.timeout.com. September 9, 2013.

Topics: Art, Acting, Form

My house is basically a trailer. I live a circus lifestyle. I'm always moving. It's not always easy for people that live with me, but that's the path I chose.

Topics: Moving, People, House, Always Moving