Jack Nicholson
There's only two people in your life you should lie to... the police and your girlfriend.Collection: Dating
Well, a girlfriend once told me never to fight with anybody you don't love.Collection: Relationship
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.Collection: Marriage
Beer, it's the best damn drink in the world.Collection: Best
I'm Irish. I think about death all the time.Collection: Death
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.Collection: Sad
My motto is: more good times.Collection: Good
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.Collection: Imagination
I can't hit on women in public any more. I didn't decide this; it just doesn't feel right at my age.Collection: Age
The minute that you're not learning I believe you're dead.Collection: Learning
If men are honest, everything they do and everywhere they go is for a chance to see women.Collection: Women
With my sunglasses on, I'm Jack Nicholson. Without them, I'm fat and 60.
Almost everybody's happy to be a fool for love.
Well, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I haven't been a rogue most of my life.
Just let the wardrobe do the acting.
I'll tell you one thing: Don't ever give anybody your best advice, because they're not going to follow it.
Early on, if I was alone two three nights in a row, I'd start writing poems about suicide.
When I was in high school, I earned the pimple award and every other gross-out award.
The average celebrity meets, in one year, ten times the amount of people that the average person meets in his entire 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.
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.
What's beautiful is all that counts, pal. That's all that counts.
I don't think many people have a very good understanding of leisure and the importance it plays in our lives.
I don't want people to know what I'm actually like. It's not good for an actor.
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.
I would never complain about my life, even though I really would like to have a mate.
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.
I'm not a power person. I like everyone to be on an equal footing.
I'm definitely still wild at heart.
I don't have any plugs or tucks but people do what they want. I look at it as mutilation.
I am a person who is trained to look other people in the eye.
I like to not care that much about criticism, but I do care about it.
I hate giving advice, because people won't take it.
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!
Financially, I've lost money and made money, but I know my way around financially.
Acting is everybody's favorite second job.
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.
The camera photographs what's there.
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 learned a long time ago in Hollywood that the only person I should vote for is myself.
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.
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 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.
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've spent more time playing golf than anything else the last 18 years. Just wanted to be an 80s-shooter. Got there, too.
Most of the early part of an actor's career, you do the jobs you get.
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.
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 used to think that one of the great signs of security was the ability to just walk away.
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.