52 Jack Nicholson Quotes

Jack Nicholson quotes

1. Now comes the part where I relieve you, the little people, of the burden of your failed and useless lives. But, as my plastic surgeon always said: if you gotta go, go with a smile.

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

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

4. 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.

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

6. I'm not hard to get along with.

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

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

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. It's hard enough to get to know yourself and as most of you have probably found, once you get to know two people in tandem it's even more difficult.

12. My daughter Jennifer has a clothing shop she's opening and she's in her own business now so I don't get to talk to her as much as I did a year or so ago.

13. My public image isn't much about how I determine roles. I've always felt this way as a director that almost anyone can give a good or representative performance when you're unknown. It's just easier.

14. You can't handle the truth!

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

15. People who speak in metaphors should shampoo my crotch.

16. Where do they teach you to talk like this? In some Panama City sailor wanna hump-hump bar, or is it getaway day and your last shot at his whiskey? Go sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here.

17. She was fifteen years old, going on thirty-five, Doc, and she told me she was eighteen, she was very willing, I practically had to take to sewing my pants shut. Between you and me, uh, she might have been fifteen, but when you get that little red beaver right up there in front of you, I don't think it's crazy at all and I don't think you do either. No man alive could resist that, and that's why I got into jail to begin with. And now they're telling me I'm crazy over here because I don't sit there like a goddamn vegetable. Don't make a bit of sense to me. If that's what's being crazy is, then I'm senseless, out of it, gone-down-the-road, wacko. But no more, no less, that's it.

18. Sometimes, when you have success, it traps you - and this is something that I think is really specific to the movie business. You don't even know it until you're in it, really.

19. 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.

20. You know, in all honesty, we all have our favorite forms. I would have to say, as a young person tasting material, O. Henry, with all those weird, paradoxical twists, really hung me up. The world's full of ideas.

21. 'All you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules.'

22. (On receiving Best Actor in a Drama) 'I don't know whether to be happy or ashamed, because I thought we made a comedy.'

23. 'You only lie to two people in your life: your girlfriend and the police. Everybody else you tell the truth to.'

24. 'If one is born with talent, one can have a wonderful life.'

25. 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.

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

27. My point of view, while extremely cogent, is unpopular. ... That the repressive nature of the legalities vis-a-vis drugs are destroying the legal system and corrupting the police system.

28. The average celebrity meets in one year ten times the amount of people that the average person meets in his entire life. (in an interview on making 'The Shining')

29. 'Jesus Marimba!' (From Batman)

1. Never rub another man's rhubarb.

2. “Never rub another mans rhubarb”

3. Freedom in every sense but primarily political sense, a rise in repression that stems from a repression of sexuality. It's AIDS, it's herpes, it's this, it's that. Ask any saloon owner what's happened to social life in America in the past 12 years and they'll tell you it's a different world and these people are strongly misinformed by the media, peer pressure.

4. Women are sort of like motorcycle gangs with me. They get really shy and polite. I don't know why.

5. I love writing, but I stopped because I felt I was more effective approaching filmmaking from a different vantage point.

6. I was invited to join the MGM cartoon department. But if I'd started work in animation I'd have had to take a cut in salary, so I didn't.

7. I don't play golf competitively. I tell everybody that I cheat so they won't gamble with me. That's why you can't watch football. Everybody's gambling. They don't want to watch the game; they watch the spread.

8. I'm such a perfectionist. I always feel overpraised or whatever. In the abstract, I know I'm a good person, a good professional. But it's nice to be noticed a little bit, ain't it?

9. Men dominate because of physicality, and thus they have mercy where women do not.

10. I think it's good if a man gives a woman some time to herself because I think we all need that and we can all benefit from that. It doesn't imply a rejection of the other person, just a sense that because we do have our separate identities, sometimes you have to be less involved in another person's life or need to have that other person be less involved in your life.

11. The most difficult thing about being well known? Getting out of a hotel room at 4am.

12. He [Castro] is a genius. We spoke about everything.

13. I've always had an urge to feed my need to have fun and feel free. I don't see any interesting alternatives.

14. Take caution in your tone, commander. I'm a fair man, but this -- heat is making me absolutely crazy.

15. The stage has a certain discipline. But the ultimate standard is more exacting in film, because you have to see yourself and you are your own toughest critic.

16. Comedy is much harder, it's a lot more exacting. You can't just be real and you can't just use the same kind of techniques you use to fill up a regular scene.

17. I'd prefer if people had no impressions of me. As a kid, I had to tell my own family, "Please, just don't talk about me!" Because they always got it wrong. Always. I just didn't want them to tell anyone anything about me.

18. I don't believe in God now. I can still work up an envy for someone who has a faith. I can see how that could be a deeply soothing experience.

19. 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!

20. I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace.

21. 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.

22. Having kids is the most innately positive thing that anyone can do.

23. This town needs an enema!