Jack Nicholson Quotes

I really like to experiment. That's the only way I can work. It's instinctive.

I think there are actors who are like, 'Okay, what am I doing, how am I doing it, what's the appeal? Tell me what to do, what are the exact lines from the script? Okay, I got it.' I am not that way. I would be a terrible bus driver. I'd want to be like, 'Oh, let's take this side road! Let's see what happens when we go down this back alley.'

I just throw it out and see what happens. If it sounds and feels right, then I continue.

Warren Buffet told me once and he said always follow your gut. When you have that gut feeling, you have to go with don't go back on it.

I think that's the thing I learned at 'Saturday Night Live' - any time I would try and strategize, I would always, always fall on my face. Things worked out when I tried to make it about what I was feeling at that moment and what I was into in that moment of my life.

There's actually something interesting about having no rehearsal time - you have to just walk in and go with your gut, which is exciting.

That's kind of like how jazz is sometimes. You're out there predicting the future, and no one believes you.

I've never been one to carefully calculate my career decisions, to sit on the outside looking in. I go with my passion and what moves me.

The worst thing you can do as a comedy director is be on set and think of something ridiculous, or an actor comes up to you with something ridiculous, and you say 'No, no that's too much.' Let's not worry if that's too much, let's shoot it, and then decide if that's too much when we see it.

Whenever I've done anything where I feel like, 'Oh, it would be smart to do that,' it's always been a mistake. Whenever I do the 'Oh, it would be fun to do that,' it's always paid dividends.

I think I get credit for my timing because most of the time, I really have no idea where I'm going with it.

I've never had a game plan. It's just if something comes along and it feels right in the moment.

I don't have much foresight, and I think that's an asset for an actor.

I fly from the seat of my pants, basically.

You have got to act on instinct; you've got to ride from your heart and let that performer come out. You can't over-think it too much because if you're thinking, the race is already over.

When I wrote 'Grand Illusion,' I was making it up as we went along. I wrote this stuff and tried to do the best job I could.

I completely work on the basis of my intuition. I don't think I premeditate a success formula. There is no formula to make a successful film.

I've found in the past that if we planned the show a night before, once we slept and woke up, we weren't in that mood anymore. Because I really think doing a live show means you should be exploring your live feelings, and planning is not good.

For as long as I've been making movies, I really don't know a lot of the technical side. I mean, I've actively and consciously tried to avoid learning that stuff. I just want to be open and receptive to what's happening in the moment, and I don't want to force anything.

The way I go about making a movie... even the ones that are interview-driven, I go into them not knowing what's going to happen, and feeling my way through.

you have to play it out sometimes.

I've never had a method of working. I change according to circumstances; I don't employ any particular technique or style. I make films instinctively, more with my belly than with my brain.

I just do whatever I feel. Whatever the beat makes me say, I do that and I run with that.

On 'There Will Be Blood,' I was cast at the last minute. I had 3 and a half to 4 days to get ready for the first day. I just went for it, threw myself in there and gave it everything I had. That was just guts and instinct, not a lot of preparation.

U2's best work has always been when we didn't know what we're doing.