Last Night at the Viper Room Quotes

“River smiled sweetly at his tormentors and told them, "If you want to kick my ass, go ahead. Just explain to me why you're doing it."

After a confused pause, one of the skinheads said, "Ah, you wouldn't be worth it."

"We're all worth it, man," River said with a beatific smile. "We're all worth millions of planets and stars and galaxies and universes.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“We're all worth it, man. We're all worth millions of planets and stars and galaxies and universes.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“When it was Hearts turn, she related a vision she had: that River hadn't wanted to be born, preferring to stay with God in heaven. God had convinced him to go, and they haggled over how long, settling on twenty-three years.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“don’t think anybody’s necessarily ready for death,” Depp reflected. “You can only hope that when it approaches, you feel like you’ve said what you wanted to say. Nobody wants to go out in mid-sentence.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“We’re all worth it, man,” River said with a beatific smile. “We’re all worth millions of planets and stars and galaxies and universes.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“Love conquers all,” River said once. “Even the assholes that don’t want it.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“The human spirit is a mysterious thing: traumas that flatten some people bounce off of others.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“For River to discover himself in Rimbaud's life and Miller's prose was simultaneously self-aggrandizing and self-pitying. Tellingly, he was more interested in Miller's book than in Rimbaud's actual writing: he responded to Rimbaud not as a poet, but as a symbol.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“Every child starts out loving animals, identifying with them. But early on, adults start sending them contradictory messages. They’ll give a kid a stuffed animal to hug and love and sleep with. But at the same time, they’re serving them animals for dinner every night. It’s crazy, if you think about it. But when you’re young, you just accept what grown-ups tell you as the truth.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“The human spirit is a mysterious thing: traumas that flatten some people bounce off of others. Pain and hope get tangled into uncuttable Gordian knots.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“1:09 A.M.: EACH SEIZURE LASTED about twenty seconds. River’s arms would flail around, while his knuckles and the back of his head kept smacking against the pavement. Davis started hoping for more seizures—they were evidence that River was still alive.   1:10 A.M.: JOAQUIN CALLED 911, frantic but trying to keep it together as his beloved brother passed away before his eyes. “It’s my brother. He’s having seizures at Sunset and Larrabee. Please come here,” Joaquin begged. “Okay, calm down a little bit,” the dispatcher replied. Moments later, Joaquin said, “Now I’m thinking he had Valium or something. I don’t know.” His voice cracked with anguish. “Please come, he’s dying, please.”   1:12 A.M.: AN ACTRESS ON the scene remembered, “Outside there was a crowd of people, and I saw him—lying flat, totally ghostly white.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“In keeping with its code-breaking theme, the opening credits of Sneakers has the names of some of the film’s major players presented as anagrams before they get unscrambled: “BLOND RHINO SPANIEL” becomes “PHIL ALDEN ROBINSON,” while “FORT RED BORDER” turns into “ROBERT REDFORD” and “A TURNIP CURES ELVIS” reveals itself as “UNIVERSAL PICTURES.” Not all cast members got their names shuffled—if they had, the world might have discovered that one anagram for “RIVER PHOENIX” is “VIPER HEROIN X.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“Mostly, she tried to get on with her life, even as she carried around her loss and her horror. The lesson she took from River’s death was to be more selfish: since life is fleeting, don’t waste it with the wrong people.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“In 2008, Van Sant finally made Milk, his award-winning Harvey Milk biopic. Sean Penn starred instead of Robin Williams, while the role of Cleve Jones, which Van Sant had earmarked for River, was taken by Emile Hirsch, who was just eight years old when River died.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“That’s the end of the drugs,” he promised. “I don’t want to go down to the place that’s so dark it’ll annihilate me.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“River mostly contributed backing vocals and handclaps, although he may have played some guitar on “Rock Out with Your Cock Out.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“Although Ethan Hawke liked River Phoenix, he thought his defining quality was “naïve pretentiousness.” Hawke said, “To me, education helps you see that your weirdness is not unique. I doubt, though, that River, at age fourteen, had read a book. He thought his ideas on life and the environment were original. Because he’d never been to school, he had no social skills, and lacked a sense of what was appropriate conversation. And he had this peculiar way of anecdotalizing his past, living his life in the third person. You had the sense he was making his own mythology. I suppose we all do that, but River went to the extreme.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“If he had triumphed over his addiction-prone genes, River would have celebrated his forty-third birthday in August 2013. It's not hard to imagine him as an actor with dozens of movies of all stripes behind him, a powerful performer in full command of his craft.

Sluizer said, "His heart went a little more to music than acting, but probably he was more gifted as an actor.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“One minute you're on top of the world and the next minute you're gone you're gone and nobody can help you.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“No one was doing anything," Davis said. "They were all standing around like deer caught in headlights." He saw Mathis leaning against the wall banging her head.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“This was the crucial moment. River was clearly not in good shape, but the Cedars-Sinai Hospital was only one mile away. If an ambulance had been called right then, he might have been saved. But he also would have become a tabloid sensation, with his wholesome granola image destroyed. And he had survived other scary drug episodes before.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“While Mathis, Rain, and Joaquin were waiting at the elevator, River changed his mind- either because he wanted to keep partying or because he was falling into his usual paternal role, taking care of his younger siblings He ran down the hall, shouting, "I'm coming, I'm coming!" River grabbed his guitar, planning to get onstage with his old friend Flea, and they rode the elevator down.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“Slizer gave him permission to head back to L.A. a day early. Bidding Sluizer farewell, River told him, "I'm going back to the bad, bad town?”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“Bukowski confronted him, saying, 'I'd rather you just point a gun at your head and pull the trigger.
'I want to see you become an old man, so we can be old friends together.'

River started crying and promised to stop using. "That's the end of drugs," he promised. "I don't want to go down to the place that's so dark annihilate me.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“the world was shocked when River Phoenix overdosed, but the people working on this film should not have been . . . this performance should have been seen by someone as a cry for help.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“In 1997, Van Sant was doing a reading at a bookstore from his no Pink. Dedicated to River, the book starred a thinly disguised version him.) An audience member asked him who had hoisted River Phoen
body into the car.
"I was hoping that viewers would project themselves into the film and decide for themselves who it was," he told her.
"Okay, then," she replied. "Who picked him up in your version?" Van Sant paused. "In my version . .. in my version, I pick him up.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“River's long-standing dream was to use his money to buy land and set up a sanctuary for damaged children, "all sorts of homeless kids and kids from foster homes or kids who have been in and out of mental institutions" He envisioned a farm, so the children could help grow their own food, also populated by stray cats and dogs. "The kids would be assigned to an animal of their own and they would have this cycle of caring for something. The farm would have solar panels and be self-sufficient. It wouldn't be isolated because it would be a whole community in itself. There would be room for individual expression and creativity. It would be really wonderful.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“n 1997, Van Sant was doing a reading at a bookstore from his no Pink. Dedicated to River, the book starred a thinly disguised version of him.) An audience member asked him who had hoisted River Phoenix
body into the car.
"I was hoping that viewers would project themselves into the film and decide for themselves who it was," he told her.
"Okay, then," she replied. "Who picked him up in your version?" Van Sant paused. "In my version . .. in my version, I pick him up.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“A miserable Mike says haltingly, "I could love someone ever know, wasn't paid for it. And I love you, and you don't pay me." n a ball, he tells Scott, "I really want to kiss you, man." The scene of Scott gently holding Mike, stroking his hair.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind

“«We're all worth it, man," River said with a beatific smile. "Were all word millions of planets and stars and galaxies and universes.”
― Gavin Edwards, Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind