Quotes By Jack Nicholson

Acting is everybody's favorite second job.

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

If men are honest, everything they do and everywhere they go is for a chance to see women.

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.

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

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

I'm a good friend.

I have a lot of vanity.

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

The average celebrity meets, in one year, ten times the amount of people that the average person meets in his entire life.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The camera photographs what's there.

People who speak in metaphors should shampoo my crotch.

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

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

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.

I am a person who is trained to look other people in the eye.

I would never complain about my life, even though I really would like to have a mate.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Almost everybody's happy to be a fool for love.

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