"De Niro was it. He was who everybody in my acting class wanted to be. He was the ideal. He was the focus the way Brando was the focus, and his work affected you in very much the same way. People idealised him, and the way young filmmakers now want to be Scorsese, that's the way actors felt about De Niro. You ran to see his new movie."

JACKIE BROWN DIRECTOR, QUENTIN TARANTINO

"When Robert De Niro says yes, you'd better be on your game to act with him. If he smells sentimentality he gets squirrelly. He hates it."

ANALYZE THIS CO-STAR, BILLY CRYSTAL

"De Niro has a way of using his star charisma and immersing it in the character to make that character charismatic. There is no other actor quite like that."

GREETINGS DIRECTOR, BRIAN DE PALMA

"He has a certain stature — plus the compassion to play characters who are flawed and dangerous and still find the humanity in them."

MARTIN SCORSESE

"Bobby is always pictured as this very reclusive guy with angst, and he isn't. A lot of his fooling is done among friends. He's a terrific mime."

GOODFELLAS CO-STAR, JOE PESCI

"Bobby De Niro is a director's dream. Considering his incredible talent, he is one of the most humble people in the business."

RONIN DIRECTOR, JOHN FRANKENHEIMER

"He has a concentration level that goes into the stratosphere."

THE DEER HUNTER CO-STAR, MERYL STREEP

"De Niro moved in and never left Jake alone, until my husband lost track of reality, started reliving his whole life a quarter of a century ago and left me. Mr. De Niro is a pest."

THE EX-MRS, JAKE LA MOTTA

"What makes his work so moving and so complicated is that it doesn't go througnhis head first. It goes through every other part of his body."

TAXI DRIVER CO-STAR, JODIE FOSTER

"I learned so much from working with De Niro. I'd be in a scene with him where I was supposed to be acting and I was just watching."

THIS BOY'S LIFE CO-STAR, LEO DICAPRIO

"The man made the blank stare into an artform."

ANGELHEART DIRECTOR, ALAN PARKER

"If you dance, he'll come and dance with you. A man of finesse, depth, contained violence but also... of perversity. A very secret guy. He'll give you what he thinks you need to work with him and
Sou will discover exactly what e wants you to."

RONIN CO-STAR JEAN RENO

"Meet The Parents for me was about working with Robert De Niro. He's just a warm, funny, goofy guy who loves his kids. And he's got a great sense of humour. Even if the movie had sucked, I'd have still thought, 'You know what? I don't care. I got to work with Robert De Niro."'

MEET THE PARENTS CO-STAR, BEN STILLER

"Bob... is just great, he's one of those people who live up to the hype in the best way. He's serious and meticulous and he's maintained] just an incredibly impressive level of discipline about his approach to the work after so many years of doing it."

THE SCORE CO-STAR ED NORTON

"He only exists when he is in somebody else's skin."

TAXI DRIVER WRITER, PAUL SCHRADER

"I like him. There's a tendency with actors when they're asked to play a villainous part to send little signals to the audience that say, 'I'm not really like this' De Niro doesn't."

THE UNTOUCHABLES CO-STAR, SEAN CONNERY

"Robert De Niro is the reason I became an actor."

WERE NO ANGLES CO-STAR, SEAN PENN