Top 279 Quotes & Sayings by Nicolas Cage

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

There were two movies that asked me to go to Australia or New Zealand for long periods of time. One was 'Lord of the Rings' and one was 'The Matrix.' But I was actively involved at that time raising my family, and I couldn't really take that time out.

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.

Nobody wants to watch perfection.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

When I'm in England, I know I'm a visitor, but being a white man in England with ancestry that's German and Italian, I have a history with the Romans and the Saxons. I feel some connection and ancestry here, as weird as that sounds.

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.

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

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

I'm the first to admit that I like going to, or my memories at least of going to Clint Eastwood movies or Charles Bronson or James Bond.

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

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

I'm an enormous admirer of Christopher Lee. He's somebody, along with Vincent Price, who I celebrate, and I wanted my movies to show that celebration and that honoring of these great film stars that were unafraid to go into horror and Grand Guignol and the macabre.

Every great story seems to begin with a snake.

Look, I happen to still like really dark, dramatic, fractured characters.

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.

One day, one of my dreams is to someday get to do Nemo in '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.'

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

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.

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

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

I love England - it's no secret.

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.

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

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.

I'm one of those people that feels that Americans that shouldn't do Shakespeare... The rhythms of the English language and the mannerisms of the English speech seems to work effortlessly with William Shakespeare, but when Americans do it, something seems stuck.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Children, to me, are of the utmost importance. They're really the future, aren't they?

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

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

All of my characters have a glint of madness.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Everything we do impacts someone else's life.

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.

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

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