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.
— Jack Nicholson
The average celebrity meets, in one year, ten times the amount of people that the average person meets in his entire life.
A lot of people can't remember things because they weren't actually there to begin with - they don't take it all in.
Once I got started acting I loved 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.
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.
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 hate giving advice, because people won't take it.
If men are honest, everything they do and everywhere they go is for a chance to see women.
My motto is: more good times.
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!
In my last year of school, I was voted Class Optimist and Class Pessimist. Looking back, I realize I was only half right.
When I was in high school, I earned the pimple award and every other gross-out award.
With my sunglasses on, I'm Jack Nicholson. Without them, I'm fat and 60.
Just let the wardrobe do the acting.
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.
Most of the early part of an actor's career, you do the jobs you get.
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'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.
Almost everybody's happy to be a fool for love.
I wanted to be the best actor possible. I worked very hard at the craft of it.
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 like to not care that much about criticism, but I do care about it.
The camera photographs what's there.
I am a person who is trained to look other people in the eye.
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.
I would never complain about my life, even though I really would like to have a mate.
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.
There is no way you can get people to believe you on screen if they know who you really are through television.
Once you've been really bad in a movie, there's a certain kind of fearlessness you develop.
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.
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.
Well, a girlfriend once told me never to fight with anybody you don't love.
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.
You only lie to two people in your life, your girlfriend and the police.
I'm a good friend.
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.
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.
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.
I'm not a power person. I like everyone to be on an equal footing.
I don't think many people have a very good understanding of leisure and the importance it plays in our lives.
I'm definitely still wild at heart.
I can't hit on women in public any more. I didn't decide this; it just doesn't feel right at my age.
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.
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.
What's beautiful is all that counts, pal. That's all that counts.
The blues and jazz will live forever... So will the Delta and the Big Easy.
There's only two people in your life you should lie to... the police and your girlfriend.
Well, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I haven't been a rogue most of my life.
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.
