Robert De Niro Movie Quotes

Robert De Niro has been nominated for 7 Academy Awards, 5 were for Best Actor and 2 Best Supporting Actor.

De Niro took home one Best Actor Oscar. Here are some quotes from that film:

As Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980)
“I’ve done a lot of bad things, Joey. Maybe it’s comin’ back to me. Who knows?
“Look at that. Look how they make me look. Like a bum, like a mammalucco.”
“I’m a jinx maybe. Who the hell knows?”

Here are quotes from Best Actor roles he was nominated for but did not win:

As Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976)
You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talking… you talking to me? Well I’m the only one here.
“Hey, I’m not square. You’re the one that’s square.”
“Thank God for the rain to wash the trash off the sidewalk.”

As Michael in The Deer Hunter (1978)
“You have to think about one shot. One shot is what it’s all about. A deer’s gotta be taken with one shot.”
“Every time he comes up, he’s got no knife, he’s got no jacket, he’s got no pants, he’s got no boots. All he’s got is that stupid gun he carries around like John Wayne.”
“Those are sun dogs. It means a blessing on the hunter sent by the Great Wolf to his children. It’s an old Indian thing.”

As Leonard Lowe in Awakenings (1990)
“Read the newspaper. What does it say? All bad. It’s all bad. People have forgotten what life is all about. They’ve forgotten what it is to be alive. They need to be reminded. They need to be reminded of what they have and what they can lose. What I feel is the joy of life, the gift of life, the freedom of life, the wonderment of life!”

As Max Cady in Cape Fear (1991)
“It’s not necessary to lay a foul tongue on me my friend. I could get upset. Things could get out of hand. Then in self defense, I could do something to you that you would not like, right here.”
” Every man… every man has to go through hell to reach paradise.”

Here are quotes from the roles he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. He won for his portrayal of the earlier life of Vito Corleone, Marlon Brando’s role in the original Godfather. Brando won a Best Actor Oscar in The Godfather (1972). They are the only two actor to ever win separate Oscars for playing the same character.

As Vito Corleone in The Godfather: Part II (1974)
Robert De Niro spent four months learning to speak the Sicilian dialect in order to play Vito Corleone. Nearly all the dialogue that his character speaks in the film was in Sicilian.
translated quote: “My father’s name was Antonio Andolini… and this is for you.” (stabs Don Ciccio who ordered the deaths of his father and older brother)

As Pat Sr. in Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Let me tell you, I know you don’t want to listen to your father, I didn’t listen to mine, and I am telling you: you gotta pay attention this time. When life reaches out at a moment like this, it’s a sin if you don’t reach back. I’m telling you, it’s a sin if you don’t reach back! It’ll haunt you the rest of your days like a curse.”
“I guess his sixth sense forgot to tell him the cops were coming.”