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.
Acting is everybody's favorite second job.
Age is the first limitation on roles that I've ever had to encounter, and I hit that awhile ago.
Back in the days when I thought of myself as a serious academic writer, I used to think that the only real theme was a fear of death, and that all the other themes were just that same fear, translated into fear of closeness, fear of loneliness, fear of dissolving values.
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.
Early on, if I was alone two three nights in a row, I'd start writing poems about suicide.
Financially, I've lost money and made money, but I know my way around financially.
Frankly, I got into the movies because I like the movies a lot.
I don't have any fear of intimacy, but rather thrive on it, which is rare in a public person.
I don't have any plugs or tucks but people do what they want. I look at it as mutilation.
I don't want people to know what I'm actually like. It's not good for an actor.
I have a lot of vanity.
I know I can act. There aren't too many other jobs I know how to do.
I learned a long time ago in Hollywood that the only person I should vote for is myself.
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 only take Viagra when I'm with more than one woman.
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 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 used to think that one of the great signs of security was the ability to just walk away.
I wanted to study comedy, to go over and join the clowns, and now coincidence has presented me with comedic material.
I'll tell you one thing: Don't ever give anybody your best advice, because they're not going to follow it.
I'm a New Wave baby, so I got very stimulated by foreign film.
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'm Irish. I think about death all the time.
I'm not hard to get along with.
I'm pretty precocious as a person.
I'm the last guy in the world to feel overlooked by the Academy.
I've been too many places. I'm like the bad penny.
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.
In my last year of school, I was voted Class Optimist and Class Pessimist. Looking back, I realize I was only half right.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Just let the wardrobe do the acting.
Most of the early part of an actor's career, you do the jobs you get.
Movies where 50 to 60 minutes are devoted to nostalgic rock 'n' roll hits of the '50s and '60s.
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.
My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch.
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.
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.
Now comes the part where I relieve you, the little people, of the burden of your failed and useless lives. But remember, as my plastic surgeon always said: if you gotta go, go with a smile.
Once you've been really bad in a movie, there's a certain kind of fearlessness you develop.
One thing I really feel is that if I could think of a short film, I would be very proud of myself. I love shorts.
People who speak in metaphors should shampoo my crotch.
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.
The blues and jazz will live forever... So will the Delta and the Big Easy.
The minute that you're not learning I believe you're dead.
There is no way you can get people to believe you on screen if they know who you really are through television.
There's only two people in your life you should lie to... the police and your girlfriend.
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.
Well, a girlfriend once told me never to fight with anybody you don't love.
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.
Well, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I haven't been a rogue most of my life.
What's beautiful is all that counts, pal. That's ALL that counts.
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.
When I was in high school, I earned the pimple award and every other gross-out award.
When you do a movie that's not pandering to what you imagine people want to see at this given moment in life, that's the real chances you take in making a movie and I think this group has stuck their neck out a little bit.
With my sunglasses on, I'm Jack Nicholson. Without them, I'm fat and 60.
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.
You loved Rossellini, and you found out why. I like his work because his camera is always the perfect distance from the scene. You think about that, and you start seeing it a tremendous amount.
Jack apologised to Nicole Kidman after he tried to chat her up at an awards night - in front of fianc? [now husband], Keith Urban.
Jack lives on the infamous "Bad Boy Drive" a.k.a. Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills, California. It's nicknamed so because its residents have included former Hollywood bad boys Warren Beatty, and the Godfather himself Marlon Brando.
He turned down the role of 'Gordon Gekko' in the 1987 movie Wall Street.
He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute (1994).
He is ranked #12 on the 2006 Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time List for his performance as Billy "Badass Ass" Buddusky in "The Last Detail" (1973).
Jack loves jokes at his own expense so much that he showed up at every Academy Awards hosted by Billy Crystal, who in a way did that.
In 2004, he attended his 50th high school reunion at Manasquan High School in Manasquan, New Jersey. His classmates were surprised and delighted that he attended.
For his role as 'The Joker' in Batman (1989), Jack earned a whopping 60,000,000 dollars in total earnings.
Jack is one of the rare actors who've won both a Best Supporting Actor Oscar after winning a Best Actor Oscar.
Jack is well known for his shark grin and his sunglasses.
As she was a teenage mother, Jack's mom decided that Jack would grow up with her being his older sister and her mother being their mother. A reporter unearthed the truth many years later.
Jack is the most nominated actor in the Academy Awards.
Jack never does televised interviews.
In 1994, in an apparent bout of rage, Jack smashed a man's car window in with a golf club. The incident puzzled most people. Jack later filmed the movie Anger Management where he played an anger therapist.
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