Top 257 Quotes & Sayings by Jack Nicholson

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

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.

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.

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

Just let the wardrobe do the acting.

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

Acting is everybody's favorite second job.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

I'm not hard to get along with.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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 have a lot of vanity.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

My motto is: more good times.

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.

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.

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