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.

I have mainly been interested in acting. I think it's a great job, a fine way to live your life.

I wasn't a babe in the woods. I'd watched a lot of stars, from James Dean to Brando, and I'd seen everybody alive work at MGM. I had a certain old-timer's quality, even though I was young and new, and drew on what I believed before I made it.

A lot of people manage to find common ground and not let disagreements or tensions build up and destroy them, and other people break up or get divorced. I don't think anything is ever going to change that situation. You simply try to find an accommodation and an understanding with another person and work from there.

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

I'm very fortunate in the sense that outside of cohabitating relationships and so forth, I've always got on just as well with women.

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