I learned a long time ago in Hollywood that the only person I should vote for is myself. Jack Nicholson More Quotes by Jack Nicholson More Quotes From Jack Nicholson I don't have any plugs or tucks but people do what they want. I look at it as mutilation. Jack Nicholson want people looks I used to think that one of the great signs of security was the ability to just walk away. Jack Nicholson ability used thinking I'm certainly not as tough as people think. I'm not a fighter and so forth. I'd just as soon go home. Jack Nicholson home people thinking There are many directors in the middle range who've made mostly successful pictures, and then there are a few great directors who've had some successes and some failures. I suppose my life would be smoother if I wasn't almost totally enamored of the latter category. Jack Nicholson successful would-be directors Life doesn't have to be about finding Osama bin Laden or becoming the president of the United States. Life is about the little things, which is one of the things you learn when you get older. Jack Nicholson united-states president life I didn't know that my sister was really my mother until I was thirty-seven years old. But life has taught me that there have been a lot of things that I didn't know. Jack Nicholson taught mother years I love the company of people. I always have and always will, it comes with my family. But earlier in life I might have got a little nervous if I was alone for a day or two in a row. I might think, "Where are they?" Now, I just go on doing naturally what I do. Jack Nicholson two people thinking I've always fought against being controlled and manipulated and stomped upon by circumstances. Jack Nicholson controlled circumstances I'd prefer if people had no impressions of me. As a kid, I had to tell my own family, "Please, just don't talk about me!" Because they always got it wrong. Always. I just didn't want them to tell anyone anything about me. Jack Nicholson want kids people 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 hate play thinking I eat breakfast 300 yards from 4000 Cubans, who are trained to kill me, so don't think for one second that you can come down here, flash your badge and make me nervous. Jack Nicholson yards breakfast thinking Almost everybody's happy to be a fool for love. Jack Nicholson fool love I envy people of faith. I'm incapable of believing in anything supernatural. Jack Nicholson envy believe people I've always thought basketball was the best sport, although it wasn't the sport I was best at. It was just the most fun to watch. Jack Nicholson basketball fun sports Women are sort of like motorcycle gangs with me. They get really shy and polite. I don't know why. Jack Nicholson get-real motorcycle-gangs shy 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. Jack Nicholson actors fun directors I assume most of the characters I play are exactly like me. Jack Nicholson assuming play character There is one thing I know about creative conflict: once my argument is exhausted, I am not going to be unhappy whether it moves in my direction or away. Jack Nicholson creative unhappy moving Staying together is a challenge. We all have to accept qualities in other people that aren't always exactly what we want or need. Jack Nicholson quality challenges people Once you've started a film you don't become a wet noodle. You must have that conflictual interface because you don't know, and they don't know. It's through conflict that you come out with something that might be different, better than either of you thought to begin with. Jack Nicholson noodles different might