"I just want to keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully people will watch my movies."

"The best thing about acting is that I get to lose myself in another character and actually get paid for it."

"The movies I'm doing are basically my drama school."

"Playing Arnie [in What's Eating Gilbert Grape?] was fun because everything I did was spontaneous."

"I like to be able to play a character and act out a lot of things which I can't or don't do in my normal everyday life...It gives me a legal excuse to go nuts with the character. The more nuts I go and the more I show, the deeper I get into the depression or the happiness or the anger of the character and the more real it is."

Where will Leonardo be in ten years? --
"I'll probably be acting. But if I get tired of it I may go into directing. I'm interested in staying in the movie business."

"I've been planted here as a vessel for acting..."

"I wanted to be an actor so all the girls would see me."

"My first commercial was for Matchbox cars [at age 14]. I played a young Mafia lord with a new Matchbox suitcase collector's set."

"That's the cool part of this business, going to different countries with your friends and having everything paid for by the studios."

"Don't think for a moment that I'm really like any of the characters I play. That's why it's called ACTING."

"Portraying emotionally ill characters gives me the chance to really act."

"I like to be able to play a character and act out a lot of things which I can't or don't do in my normal everyday life."

"Playing Arnie was fun because everything I did was spontaneous."

"I wouldn't have done [Romeo + Juliet] if I had to jump around in tights."

"It's important to remain a normal person and not take the movie business all that seriously."

"Traditionally, Hollywood has spun out such garbage when it comes to larger-budget films, so I was nervous about doing Titanic. When I look back, I learned a lot making Titanic. It was good for me to do at the time. But I figure that [doing] something like it again isn't for me. I may go back on that decision sometime, but for now I want to do things that really appeal to me."

"I'm passionate about working with really good directors."

"I really don't know what I'm doing, I don't. It's terrible. I go in there and learn how to be like the character and do the best I can. That's all I really do."

"I hope to have a long career and keep doing and trying new things."