82 Famous Quotes By Jack Nicholson That Will Serve As A Catalyst Of Inspiration

My mother never saw the irony of calling me a "son of a bitch

Me , Never

  

Almost everybody's happy to be a fool for love.

  

Just let the wardrobe do the acting.

  

Age is the first limitation on roles that I've ever had to encounter, and I hit that awhile ago.

  

I don't have any plugs or tucks but people do what they want. I look at it as mutilation.

  

I'm a New Wave baby, so I got very stimulated by foreign film.

  

I'm Irish. I think about death all the time.

Think , Time

  

I'm an actor who they said was wrinkled and balding and everything else when I was in my early 30's. Most of the people who wrote that who thought they were younger than me are now bald and wrinkled.

Me

  

I'm not hard to get along with.

  

I've been too many places. I'm like the bad penny.

Like

  

In other words, I wouldn't like to be an actor if I could only be real. I like to get wild, behaviorally wild, and it's crazy to think of any form where it's just one way.

Like , Think

  

Well, a younger woman is a type, but not necessarily a type for me. And what is a younger woman? I mean, I'm pretty old. Almost everyone is younger.

Me

  

It's a slight stretch of the imagination but most people are alike in most ways so I've never had any trouble identifying with the character that I'm playing.

Character , Never

  

We are going as fast as we can as soon as we can. We're in a race against time, until we run out of money.

Time

  

The blues and jazz will live forever... So will the Delta and the Big Easy.

  

My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch.

Me , Never

  

What's beautiful is all that counts, pal. That's all that counts.

  

With my sunglasses on, I'm Jack Nicholson. Without them, I'm fat and 60. -Jack Nicholson

  

There is no way you can get people to believe you on screen if they know who you really are through television.

  

A star on a movie set is like a time bomb. That bomb has got to be defused so people can approach it without fear.

Like , Time

  

I used to think that one of the great signs of security was the ability to just walk away.

Think

  

I would never complain about my life, even though I really would like to have a mate.

Life , Like , Never

  

I'm definitely still wild at heart.

  

If you think you’re attractive, you’re always attractive.

Think

  

Here comes Johnny!

  

I am a person who is trained to look other people in the eye.

  

There's a period just before you start a movie when you start thinking, I don't know what in the world I'm going to do. It's free-floating anxiety. In my case, though, this is over by lunch the first day of shooting.

  

I hate giving advice, because people won't take it.

  

Beer, it's the best damn drink in the world.

  

Never rub another mans rhubarb

Never

  

I'm a good friend.

  

Once I got started acting I loved it.

  

If I go into a restaurant there's a very good chance that I'm going to spend my time being the mayor. If I want to have a good time, I'm happier having dinner here.

Time

  

I can't hit on women in public any more. I didn't decide this; it just doesn't feel right at my age.

  

It's not like I'm starved for company - I have a few very good lady friends - but there's only a certain amount of times a woman wants to see you and never go out for dinner.

Like , Never

  

Once you've been really bad in a movie, there's a certain kind of fearlessness you develop.

  

When I am cast in a movie where I feel that the woman's part is more interesting, I usually start thinking about Spencer Tracy and Fred Astaire. They seem to be the most clear actors when working with women.

  

My whole career strategy has been to build a base so that I could take the roles I want to play. I'd hate to think that a shorter part might not be available because I was worried about my billing.

Think

  

Most of the early part of an actor's career, you do the jobs you get.

  

I'm the last guy in the world to feel overlooked by the Academy.

  

Financially, I've lost money and made money, but I know my way around financially.

  

There were points in my life where I felt oddly irresistible to women. I'm not in that state now and that makes me sad.

Life , Me

  

You only lie to two people in your life, your girlfriend and the police.

Life

  

The average celebrity meets, in one year, ten times the amount of people that the average person meets in his entire life.

Life

  

I'm content with the fact that I made a decent effort. That's what I've always worried about: that I wouldn't try hard enough.

  

I wanted to be the best actor possible. I worked very hard at the craft of it.

  

I've spent more time playing golf than anything else the last 18 years. Just wanted to be an 80s-shooter. Got there, too.

Time

  

Played tennis for years. But you can't improve at tennis after you're 50. You get to be in your 40s, and suddenly you're a doubles player.

  

I'm not a power person. I like everyone to be on an equal footing.

Like

  

The camera photographs what's there.

  

I don't think many people have a very good understanding of leisure and the importance it plays in our lives.

Think

  

If men are honest, everything they do and everywhere they go is for a chance to see women.

  

If you get an impulse in a scene, no matter how wrong it seems, follow the impulse. It might be something and if it ain't - take two!

  

I've never been able to say I've been influenced by a list of artists I like because I like thousands and thousands and I've been influenced in some way by all of them.

Like , Never

  

I sort of understood that when I first started: that you shouldn't repeat a success. Very often you're going to, and maybe the first time you do, it works. And you love it. But then you're trapped.

Time

  

I learned a long time ago in Hollywood that the only person I should vote for is myself.

Time

  

I don't have any fear of intimacy, but rather thrive on it, which is rare in a public person.

  

Frankly, I got into the movies because I like the movies a lot.

Like

  

Acting is everybody's favorite second job.

  

Early on, if I was alone two three nights in a row, I'd start writing poems about suicide.

  

Well, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I haven't been a rogue most of my life.

Life

  

In my last year of school, I was voted Class Optimist and Class Pessimist. Looking back, I realize I was only half right.

  

Well, a girlfriend once told me never to fight with anybody you don't love.

Me , Never , Relationship

  

I like to not care that much about criticism, but I do care about it.

Like

  

In this industry, there are only two ways up the ladder. Rung by rung or claw your way to the top. It's sure been tough on my nails.

  

When I was in high school, I earned the pimple award and every other gross-out award.

  

I'll tell you one thing: Don't ever give anybody your best advice, because they're not going to follow it.

  

I never had a policy about marriage. I got married very young in life and I always think in all relationships, I've always thought that it's counterproductive to have a theory on that.

Life , Never , Think

  

I know I can act. There aren't too many other jobs I know how to do.

  

I have a lot of vanity.

  

Because you know, down deep in my heart, when all is said and done, I still live under the illusion that basically people think of me as an up-and-coming young actor.

Me , Think

  

I don't want people to know what I'm actually like. It's not good for an actor.

Like

  

One of my school friends' parents owned a minigolf course, and a bunch of us kids would play there all day in the summer. Two-under deuces was a good score.

  

A lot of people can't remember things because they weren't actually there to begin with - they don't take it all in.

  

I just like art. I get pure pleasure from it. I have a lot of wonderful paintings, and every time I look at them I see something different.

Like , Time

  

The minute that you're not learning I believe you're dead.

  

I always knew there wasn't going to be anybody to help me and emotionally support me, that whatever I did I'd have to do on my own.

Me

  

My motto is: more good times.

  

There's only two people in your life you should lie to... the police and your girlfriend.

Life

  

When I come up against a director who has a concept that I don't agree with, or maybe I just haven't thought of it or whatever, I'd be more prone to go with them than my own because I want to be out of control as an actor, I want them to have the control, otherwise it's going to become predictably my work, and that's not fun.

  

I worry from the moment I take a job. I worry about how I'm going to do it, if I can do it... Then I walk on set and the director says, 'Roll', and all of a sudden, all of it disappears and it's all happening, and I relax, and I'm doing what I do, and I'm not even thinking about it.

  

I think that's what distinguishes Schmidt, really. In the movies now, so much of what is appealing to an audience is the dramatic or has to do with science fiction, and Schmidt is simply human. There's no melodrama; there's no device, It's just about a human being.

Think