"My mother never saw the irony of calling me a "son of a bitch"

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

"Just let the wardrobe do the acting."

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

"I don't have any plugs or tucks but people do what they want. I look at it as mutilation."

"I'm a New Wave baby, so I got very stimulated by foreign film."

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

"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 not hard to get along with."

"I've been too many places. I'm like the bad penny."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"The blues and jazz will live forever... So will the Delta and the Big Easy."

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

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch."

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

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

"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."

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

"I'm definitely still wild at heart."

"If you think you’re attractive, you’re always attractive."

"Here comes Johnny!"

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

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

"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. In my case, though, this is over by lunch the first day of shooting."

"One of my school friends' parents owned a minigolf course, and a bunch of us kids would play there all day in the summer. Two-under deuces was a good score."

"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."

"My motto is: more good times."

"My motto is: more good times."

"I don't have any fear of intimacy, but rather thrive on it, which is rare in a public person."

"A lot of people can't remember things because they weren't actually there to begin with - they don't take it all in."

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

"Beer, it's the best damn drink in the world."

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

"Never rub another mans rhubarb"

"I'm a good friend."

"Once I got started acting I loved it."

"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."

"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."

"Once you've been really bad in a movie, there's a certain kind of fearlessness you develop."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"Financially, I've lost money and made money, but I know my way around financially."

"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."

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