Quotes By Jack Nicholson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I don't even own a cell phone.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Acting is everybody's favorite second job.

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

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.

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.

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

I'm a good friend.

I have a lot of vanity.

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

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

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.