82 Amazing Jack Nicholson Quotes From The Actor And His Most Iconic Characters

Jack Nicholson is one of the most iconic actors of the last 50 years whose charisma has transcended him from being actor to living legend.

Born in the middle American culture of New Jersey, Nicholson wanted to be an actor from a very young age. Now, after a career spanning over six decades, Jack Nicholson is a screen icon and legend with 12 Academy Award nominations, the most for any male actor.

Let us dive into the career and mind of this great artist and read some of the greatest Jack Nicholson quotes from his interviews and his movies.

For more quotes, take a look at Cary Grant quotes and Leonardo DiCaprio quotes.

‍

Famous Jack Nicholson Quotes

Let us take a look at this list of well-known Jack Nicholson quotes.

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

- Jack Nicholson.

2. "I'm not a power person. I like everyone to be on an equal footing."

- Jack Nicholson.

3. "I like to not care that much about criticism, but I do care about it."

- Jack Nicholson.

4. "Things that even the wildest comics might be afraid to find funny...destroying a masterpiece in a museum, not this character. And I love that!"

- Jack Nicholson.

5. "I think people think I'm more physical than I am, I suppose. I'm not really confrontational."

- Jack Nicholson.

6. "I'm Irish. I think about death all the time."

- Jack Nicholson.

7. "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.

8. "Just because you're a perfectionist doesn't mean you're perfect."

- Jack Nicholson on film director Stanley Kubrick.

9. "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.

10. "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."

- Jack Nicholson.

11. "My only emotion is gratitude, literally, for my life."

Jack Nicholson

12. "I hope that I just add to the other person's life."

- Jack Nicholson.

13. "I've always been a romantic. I'm a deep, sentimental romantic."

- Jack Nicholson

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

- Jack Nicholson.

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

- Jack Nicholson.

Best Jack Nicholson Quotes

These are some of the greatest Jack Nicholson quotes.

16. "When you look at life retrospectively you rarely regret anything that you did, but you might regret things that you didn’t do."

- Jack Nicholson.

17. "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."

- Jack Nicholson.

18. "Most of the early part of an actor's career, you do the jobs you get."

- Jack Nicholson.

19. "Most times, for every part I play, I can think of other actors who would be better. I worry from the moment I take a job."

- Jack Nicholson.

20. "Age is the first limitation on roles that I've ever had to encounter and I hit that a while ago."

- Jack Nicholson.

21. "A question you always ask in acting is, Where were you going if this scene didn't interrupt the movements of the character?"

- Jack Nicholson.

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

- Jack Nicholson.

23. "I look at every character I play on the screen as being completely separate."

- Jack Nicholson.

24. "Star quality is if you're on stage and a cat walks on and they still watch you."

- Jack Nicholson.

25. "...it's hard today to think of any character in a film who isn't an outsider. All I ask is that they relate to the truth in some way."

- Jack Nicholson.

26. "The real pro game of acting is after you're known - to 'un-Jack' that character, in my case, and get the audience to reinvest in a new and specific, fictional person."

- Jack Nicholson.

27.  "My career doesn't depend on explosions and pyrotechnics."

- Jack Nicholson.

28. "My whole career strategy has been to build a base so that I could take the roles I want to play."

- Jack Nicholson.

29. "I don’t want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me."

- Jack Nicholson.

30. "I can't look into the eyes of everyone who wants to look into mine; I can't emotionally cope with that kind of volume."

- Jack Nicholson.

Funny Jack Nicholson Quotes

Jack Nicholson is known for his sense of humor. These quotes are a testament to that.

31. "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."

- Jack Nicholson.

32. "I hate advice unless I'm giving it. I hate giving advice, because people won't take it."

- Jack Nicholson.

33. "Sunglasses are part of my armor."

- Jack Nicholson.

34. "Well, I may be one of the few people you know who actually did receive coal in his stocking for being a bad boy for Christmas."

- Jack Nicholson.

35. "You only lie to two people in your life: your girlfriend and the police."

- Jack Nicholson.

36. "I'm an actor who they said was wrinkled and bald and everything else when I was still in my early-30s. Most of the people who wrote that are now wrinkled and bald..."

- Jack Nicholson.

37. ''Mind you, I was a wild man. I still consider myself youthfully vital."

- Jack Nicholson.

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

- Jack Nicholson.

39. "When I was in high school, I earned the pimple award and every other gross-out award."

- Jack Nicholson.

40. "I'm so rich that I'm going to sell myself like an ordinary person. I'm not into money at all."

- Jack Nicholson.

Great Jack Nicholson Quotes From ‘The Shining’

Stanley Kubrick's classic horror 'The Shining' is where Jack Nicholson shone as Danny Torrance. Here are some 'The Shining' Jack Nicholson quotes from this astonishing performance.

41. "Wendy, let me explain something to you. Whenever you come in here and interrupt me, you're breaking my concentration."

- Jack Nicholson.

42. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

- Jack Nicholson.

43. "Nurse: Who's Tony?

Danny Torrance: He's the little boy that lives in his mouth."

- 'The Shining'.

44. "I think you have some very definite ideas about what should be done with Danny and I'd like to know what they are."

- Jack Nicholson.

45. "I like you, Lloyd. I always liked you. You were always the best of them."

- Jack Nicholson.

46. "Do you have the slightest idea what a moral and ethical principle is? Do you?"

- Jack Nicholson.

47. "I want you to like it here. I wish we could stay here forever... and ever... and ever."

- Jack Nicholson.

48. "Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in. Not by the hair of your chiny-chin-chin? Well then I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in."

- Jack Nicholson.

49. "A momentary loss of muscular coordination. A few extra footpounds of energy per second, per second."

- Jack Nicholson.

50. "Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya."

- Jack Nicholson.

Awesome Jack Nicholson Quotes From 'Batman'

Jack Nicholson's performance as the Jack Napier or Clown Prince of Crime in Tim Burton's 'Batman' is still fondly remembered by fans.

51. "Hello, Vinny. It’s your Uncle Bingo. Time to pay the check!"

- Jack Nicholson.

52. "Vicki Vale: What do you want?

The Joker: My face on the one dollar bill.

Vicki Vale: You must be joking.

The Joker: Do I look like I'm joking?"

- 'Batman'.

53. "We have a flying mouse to kill, and I wanna clean my claws."

- Jack Nicholson.

54. "Where does he get those wonderful toys?"

- Jack Nicholson.

55. "My balloons. Those are my balloons. He stole my balloons! Why didn’t somebody tell me he had one of those…things?!"

- Jack Nicholson.

56. "I have given a name to my pain, and it is Batman."

- Jack Nicholson.

57. "I was in the bath one day when I realized why I was destined for greatness."

- Jack Nicholson.

58. "You can call me…Joker. And as you can see, I’m a lot happier."

- Jack Nicholson.

59. "At midnight, I will dump twenty million in cash on the crowd. Don't worry about me, I've got enough."

- Jack Nicholson.

60. "Tell me something, my friend. You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

- Jack Nicholson.

Wonderful Jack Nicholson Quotes From 'As Good As It Gets'

Jack Nicholson's role as Melvin Udall, a writer with obsessive-compulsive disorder, in this movie won him the Academy Award for best actor. For Jack Nicholson quotes, 'As Good As It Gets' is a pretty great option to entertain you.

61. "You make me want to be a better man."

- Jack Nicholson.

62. "I might be the only person on the face of the earth that knows you're the greatest woman on earth."

- Jack Nicholson.

63. "You're a disgrace to depression."

- Jack Nicholson.

64. "I don't get this place. They make me buy a new outfit and let you in a housedress. I don't get it."

- Jack Nicholson.

65. "Dr. Green, how can you diagnose someone as an obsessive compulsive disorder, and then act like I have some choice about barging in here?"

- Jack Nicholson.

66. "I will tell you why the dog prefers me, now. It's a trick. I carry bacon."

- Jack Nicholson.

67.  "Some of us have great stories, pretty stories that take place at lakes with boats and friends and noodle salad."

- Jack Nicholson.

68. "I'm drowning here, and you're describing the water."

- Jack Nicholson.

Terrific Jack Nicholson Quotes From 'One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'

Jack Nicholson's performance as Randle McMurphy propelled this movie to be considered as one of the greatest films ever made.

69. "Dr. John Spivey: Do you think there's anything wrong with your mind really?

Randle McMurphy: Not a thing, doc. I'm a goddamn marvel of modern science."

- 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'

70. "You're not an idiot. Huh! You're not a goddamn looney now, boy. You're a fisherman!"

- Jack Nicholson.

71. "Jesus, I must be crazy to be in a loony-bin like this."

- Jack Nicholson.

72. "I ain't talkin' to him, I'm talkin' to myself. You know what I mean?"

- Jack Nicholson.

73. "Hit me, Chief, I got the moves!"

- Jack Nicholson.

74. "How are ya, Nurse Ratched? I'm happy to be back."

- Jack Nicholson.

75. "Jesus, I mean, you guys do nothing but complain about how you can't stand it in this place here and you don't have the guts just to walk out?"

- Jack Nicholson.

76. "Get out of my way son, you're usin' my oxygen."

- Jack Nicholson.

More Jack Nicholson Quotes From Movies

Here are some Jack Nicholson quotes from his other iconic movies.

77. "Relatively soon, I will die. Maybe in 20 years, maybe tomorrow, it doesn't matter. Once I am dead and everyone who knew me dies too, it will be as though I never existed."

- Jack Nicholson on death, 'About Schmidt'.

78. "What can I tell you, kid? You're right. When you're right, you're right, and you're right."

- Jack Nicholson, 'Chinatown'.

79. "You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall."

- Jack Nicholson, 'A Few Good Men'.

80. "Well, to tell you the truth, I lied a little."

- Jack Nicholson, 'Chinatown'.

81. "My life, I mean... Most of it doesn't add up to much that I could relate as a way of life that you'd approve of."

- Jack Nicholson, 'Five Easy Pieces'.

82. "We live, we die, and the wheels on the bus go round and round."

- Jack Nicholson, 'The Bucket List'.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Jack Nicholson quotes then why not take a look at Tom Hardy quotes, or Joker quotes.

Main Image Photo Credits: Featureflash Photo Agency  /Shutterstock

Secons Image Editorial credit: Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com