“It Really Upsets Me That We’re Trained From An Early Age To Aspire To Be The Ideal Man Or The Ideal

“He was a teen idol with a message. He signed his name with a peace symbol”

“River Phoenix was often mocked in his day. As the vegan environmentally aware actor who made careful film choices based on his personal politics, he was seen as a little wacko, an eccentric still suffering the psychological effects of growing up in the cult, Children of God. Now he seems ahead of his time. Not only that, an exemplary figure to be revered more than ever, both for his film work and his messages. […] He remains an inspiration for those of us looking for a new masculinity. This wasn’t a man set out to compromise what was in his heart and mind to fulfil any expectations of what a young man must be” — “River Phoenix remains the antidote to Toxic Masculinity”, The Book of Man, Oct 2018

one of my favorite things about human physiology is the way our eyes change when we look at someone we love. our pupils dilate automatically like they do when it’s dark outside and they’re trying to let more light in. except now it’s the light of your favorite person. the edges of our eyes soften a little and they sometimes even get watery which we also can’t control. tears of joy. we tend to raise our eyebrows as if we’re trying to make our eyes bigger. trying to get a better vision and seeing all the details. we tend to blink less than usual just to make the moment last a bit longer. even if it’s just a second. or when you smile at someone with your entire face involved and your eyes just crinkle and create a sparkle in them. and it all happens so effortlessly and universally.

before sunrise (1995) // norwegian wood, haruki murakami

“We are the last generation of human beings who will have a choice whether or not to save the earth. If we don’t do something to protect our environment, it will be too late for our children to try” — River Phoenix, 1991

“He grew up as a naive little kid saying, ‘I want to save the world’. As he got older he started to realize that it was impossible to do. Nobody can. A lot of people go nuts because they feel the pain and they want to do something about it and they can’t. I think River felt that very intensely”

— Josh Greenbaum

“It was River Phoenix who wanted his character to be gay, or to be in love with Keanu’s character. Originally the characters were both straight. River wanted there to be this affection, this love, and to have his character tell Keanu that he loved him. [smiles] Maybe he wanted to tell Keanu that…" — Gus Van Sant

“Although I can’t stop all cruelty to living creatures on the planet, I can be kinder to every living creature in my life.”

— River Phoenix

The Craft (1996) dir. Andrew Fleming

““How come no one ever talks about how great River Phoenix was how he was not homophobic or a racist and love everyone. He cared about animals by becoming vegan, didn’t take life for granted. He basically took care of whole family.He was very humble and never thought he was better than anyone.Now all they talk about is how he died of an overdose but not how he lived. ””

— Riverphoenixlove33333