The Joker, the rogue, the icon. Here’s what Jack Nicholson has had to say…
Once you’ve been really ‘bad’ in a movie, there’s a certain kind of fearlessness you develop.
—Jack Nicholson
I only take Viagra when I’m with more than one woman.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
In my last year of school, I was voted Class Optimist and Class Pessimist. Looking back, I realize I was only half right.
—Jack Nicholson
I know I can act. There aren’t too many other jobs I know how to do.
—Jack Nicholson
I’ll tell you one thing: Don’t ever give anybody your best advice, because they’re not going to follow it.
—Jack Nicholson
I used to think that one of the great signs of security was the ability to just walk away.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
When I was in high school, I earned the pimple award and every other gross-out award.
—Jack Nicholson
There’s so much darn porn out there, I never got out of the house.
—Jack Nicholson (on why he was giving up using the Internet)
I wanted to study comedy, to go over and join the clowns, and now coincidence has presented me with comedic material.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
Financially, I’ve lost money and made money, but I know my way around financially.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
I’m not hard to get along with.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
Frankly, I got into the movies because I like the movies a lot.
—Jack Nicholson
I don’t have any plugs or tucks but people do what they want. I look at it as mutilation.
—Jack Nicholson
I’m the last guy in the world to feel overlooked by the Academy.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
With my sunglasses on, I’m Jack Nicholson. Without them, I’m fat and 60.
—Jack Nicholson
The minute that you’re not learning I believe you’re dead.
—Jack Nicholson
I’m Irish. I think about death all the time.
—Jack Nicholson
I’m an actor who they said was wrinkled and balding and everything else when I was in my early 30’s.
—Jack Nicholson
Most of the people who wrote that who thought they were younger than me are now bald and wrinkled.
—Jack Nicholson
Acting is everybody’s favorite second job.
—Jack Nicholson
Early on, if I was alone two three nights in a row, I’d start writing poems about suicide.
—Jack Nicholson
Just let the wardrobe do the acting.
—Jack Nicholson
Beer, it’s the best damn drink in the world.
—Jack Nicholson
People who speak in metaphors should shampoo my crotch.
—Jack Nicholson
Age is the first limitation on roles that I’ve ever had to encounter, and I hit that awhile ago.
—Jack Nicholson
Americans don’t like sexual movies – they like sexy movies.
—Jack Nicholson
There is no way you can get people to believe you on screen if they know who you really are through television.
—Jack Nicholson
My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-b*tch
—Jack Nicholson
There’s only two people in your life you should lie to…the police and your girlfriend.
—Jack Nicholson
I have a lot of vanity.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
Well, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I haven’t been a rogue most of my life.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
I’ve been too many places. I’m like the bad penny.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
Most of the early part of an actor’s career, you do the jobs you get.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
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
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.
—Jack Nicholson
I learned a long time ago in Hollywood that the only person I should vote for is myself.
—Jack Nicholson
I don’t have any fear of intimacy, but rather thrive on it, which is rare in a public person.
—Jack Nicholson
Our generation are the new old. I remember what someone of 60 looked like when I was a kid. They didn’t look like me.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
I don’t want people to know what I’m actually like. It’s not good for an actor.
—Jack Nicholson
If you suck on a t*t the movie gets an R rating. If you hack the t*t off with an axe it will be PG.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
Well, a girlfriend once told me never to fight with anybody you don’t love.
—Jack Nicholson
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.
—Jack Nicholson
What’s beautiful is all that counts, pal. That’s ALL that counts.
—Jack Nicholson
I’m pretty precocious as a person.
—Jack Nicholson
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