Quotations and phrases - Jack Nicholson

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

Acting is everybody's favorite second job.
-- Jack Nicholson

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

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I have a lot of vanity.
-- Jack Nicholson

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

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

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

I only take Viagra when I'm with more than one woman.
-- Jack Nicholson

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

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

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

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

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

I'm Irish. I think about death all the time.
-- Jack Nicholson

I'm not hard to get along with.
-- Jack Nicholson

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

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

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

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

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

Just let the wardrobe do the acting.
-- Jack Nicholson

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

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

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

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

People who speak in metaphors should shampoo my crotch.
-- Jack Nicholson

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

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

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

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

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

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

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

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

What's beautiful is all that counts, pal. That's ALL that counts.
-- Jack Nicholson

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.
-- Jack Nicholson

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

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

All quotations and phrases said by Jack Nicholson including famous quotes