A Quote by River Phoenix

When I was in first grade, everyone made fun of my name, of course. I think it's kind of a big name to hold up when you're nine years old. It seemed goofy. I used to tell people I wanted to change the world and they used to think, 'This kid's really weird'.
Kids used to tell me I was weird all the time. When I got older, I wanted to embrace my name and I put it on everything. And I also wanted to embrace being weird.
My mom used to be a basketball player so I was really into it. Plus of course my height made it easier for me to decide what kind of sport I wanted to play, so at the age of nine I went to my first basketball practice.
My uncle Claude was my favorite uncle he was also my godfather. He and I were really, really close. He used to take me to see cowboy movies all the time when I was a little boy because I loved cowboy movies. He got a cowboy name for me, which was Smokey Joe. So from the time I was three years old if people asked me what my name was I didn't tell them my name was William, I told them my name was Smokey Joe.
My grandfather is from Ireland. His name is Florence McCarthy. He moved to New York in 1920. They used to beat him up because his name was Florence. He had to switch his name to Frank. And then this Christmas, he made an announcement - he goes, 'I'm switching me name back to Florence.' And we beat him up, 'cause it's a dumb name and he's old and weak and it was easy.
When I first discovered it it was so weird because I was doing all these positions, they're called Asanas, and I was thinking 'But I used to do this when I was a kid. I used to do shoulder stands and upside down positions.' So I think I used to do it as a child subconsciously, but not knowing what it actually was.
Growing up, people always told me my name had a ring to it. People always remembered my name and so I wanted to think of something that was very similar to it. I just stuck an 'E' between the 'B' and the 'L,' made it from Bianca Blair to Bianca Belair. That's where that name came from.
I tried to change my name for the fights, but the only way they could pay me money was if I used my own name. I wanted to change my name to, like, Romeo something-or-other, and they said, "No, we can't do that. We've got to use Mickey Rourke." Because they paid me a lot of money to go over to Europe and Asia to fight.
I wanted to use some kind of name so people would know where I was from. So I took the name "bluegrass." There is not a prettier name in the whole world.
Manchester United is a huge club. When I was young, it was a name I used to hear and it was a name I used to see on computer games and I used to play with the team.
I could name a few songs and say exactly what summer they came out and what boy I thought I was in love with when I was fourteen years old, but I think that music used to be really more a part of the culture when people went out dancing in a different way than they do now.
It's funny to be discovered by a lot of people who didn't know you before. People always used to say, 'Do you shop at Home Depot?' or 'Does your kid go to such and such school?' They want to know why they know me, even if they don't know my name. I don't think that's a bad thing, by the way; I think it's nice to be kind of anonymously famous.
When your name is Twinkle, you are a bookworm, and a fat child, then you have to be ready to be made fun of. As a child, I used my fists a lot, but then the tongue seemed like a better option. So I started using words as a sword to jab fun at myself.
I think the worst lie I ever told was, because my last name is Goth, I used to tell kids at school that I used to be related to 'Van Gogh' and when I turned 18, I would inherit all the fortune from the sunflower painting.
My first wife kept calling me Sal, and I finally said to her, 'Why do you think I changed my name, honey? I really didn't like the old name.'
I've always had different diet kicks. I grew up in a big Italian family, kind of grew up a chubby kid, then went vegan in fifth grade. I did that for three years, then I went raw in high school. It's always been extreme, but in the last few years I've gotten into balance. I don't restrict myself like I used to.
People aren't making as many movies as they used to, so youve got a lot of really big-name actors who are coming in, and they want to do pilots, so things kind of disappear for those of us who kind of have to still get in the room and audition and read for it.
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