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
I'm the last guy in the world to feel overlooked by the Academy.
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 used to think that one of the great signs of security was the ability to just walk away.
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 have a lot of vanity.
Frankly, I got into the movies because I like the movies a lot.
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.
Beer, it's the best damn drink in the world.
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.
I'm not hard to get along with.
I'm a New Wave baby, so I got very stimulated by foreign film.
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.
I learned a long time ago in Hollywood that the only person I should vote for is myself.
I don't have any plugs or tucks but people do what they want. I look at it as mutilation.
Financially, I've lost money and made money, but I know my way around financially.
Age is the first limitation on roles that I've ever had to encounter, and I hit that awhile ago.
I don't want people to know what I'm actually like. It's not good for an actor.
I've been too many places. I'm like the bad penny.
I'm Irish. I think about death all the time.
I'll tell you one thing: Don't ever give anybody your best advice, because they're not going to follow it.
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 know I can act. There aren't too many other jobs I know how to do.
I don't have any fear of intimacy, but rather thrive on it, which is rare in a public person.
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.
The minute that you're not learning I believe you're dead.
