“If I didn’t think I could be a part of a movement that could influence, and be a part of helping and change, if I couldn’t help that through what I’m doing, I wouldn’t do this. But I’m seeing that through this position -in this career, and where I have these magazine interviews- I can be an example, and I think that’s important. In all the interviews I do, I say something about being vegan. I don’t want to come off as if I’m a savior. I’m only a very small part of anything, but I think it’s important to be involved. I’m interested in meditation and finding spiritual fulfillment. But for me to just go off and devote my life to monkhood in the jungle would be ultimately abandoning the world, and the consciousness would be on a selfish level. I think I can do a lot more good for this planet if I am out there."
- River on an interview for Vegetarian Times, March 1988.
“He knows his mind and speaks it, even if what he says doesn’t fit in with his peers. You could call River the ultimate individualist. A vegan in the day of McDonalds, a pacifist in the era of nuclear weapons” — Teen Beat, 1988
PET PEEVES: War, cruelty, materialism
BELIEFS: Being good to other people, working for world peace, not eating meat
— Excerpt from a teen magazine, 1987
being insane is just a part of my charm
creative writing’s just like yeah sure i can deal with my issues i just need to cover them in several layers of metaphors first
“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
não fui criada em águas rasas, e sempre dei mergulhos profundos
mas vou passar a noite velejando no azul esverdeado de teus venustos olhos
pedindo aos céus que desta vez eu não me afogue
— tentativas
"you can't stop the love — and the rock'n'roll"