in loving memory

“Guys are tough because I’m pretty free as far as my emotions and being honest and a lot of guys aren’t like that. They have this little role they play. Guys are afraid of sensitivity and they’re paranoid about the whole sexual thing and so you get a lot of that.”

River Phoenix poses with a video camera during photo portrait session in Los Angeles, California

“As a young person, there were always other threats that seemed much greater to me along the way - nuclear war, the many hand-to-hand wars all over the planet, famine, poverty, crime, drugs, political prisoners, and an overall lack of compassion for every living thing.” 

“River came over to my house on Christmas Eve. He decided to hang out, and went to see what was in the fridge. It was empty, of course, as I was broke at the time. Without saying a word he left, and about an hour later he returned with two bags of groceries.” 

River Phoenix photographed by Erich Einila

“I, too, was very affected by River Phoenix’s death. I read an incredible article about him in one of the magazines. I have it in my scrapbook. I saved it. I wrote a long poem about it, relating it to all the people I had known that had just gotten way beyond themselves on drugs, and not being able to get to them in time to save them. I circled parts of it, read parts of the article out loud to my mom, and to a couple of my friends. I called my brother... I thought, if I could have met him, I could have saved him. I know that. And I thought about it for days. He reminds me of someone I know really well.” 

“On October 30, 1993, actress Patricia Arquette—then best known for True Romance—was at home with her younger brother Richmond, who was staying with her. When he asked her who she most wanted to work with, she said River Phoenix. The next morning, Richmond was woken up by Patricia, who tearfully told him the news: while they were sleeping, River had died on the Sunset Strip. The world had changed overnight, and its possibilities had diminished.”

"Becoming a character is a slow process," says River Phoenix. "I start off just by stripping myself from who I am, by neutralising myself, and then I fantasise about what the character would do and play a lot of mind games."

“I feel that there are great minds up there who would like to see what I can do with an Oscar nomination. I guess many people would change after a nomination in the way they see things. In my case it’s really irrelevant in terms of what I do. Still, it was an incredible experience which I will put in my memories, like everything else.”

River Phoenix at the Waldorf Astoria, New York