I think of a man and I take away reason and accountability.
Jack NicholsonRead
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.
Interpretation
The pressures of fame can be intense and must be managed carefully to prevent negative consequences.
Jack Nicholson's quote compares a movie star to a time bomb, suggesting that the intense scrutiny and pressure of celebrity can lead to dangerous situations if not handled well. Just as a bomb must be carefully defused to avoid disaster, public figures need to find a way to cope with their status to ensure a safe and healthy environment for themselves and those around them.
In practice
During a discussion on the challenges of public life, one might reference Nicholson's quote to emphasize the need for mental health care for celebrities.
I think of a man and I take away reason and accountability.
I sort of understood that when I first started: that you shouldn't repeat a success. Very often you're going to, and maybe the first time you do, it works. And you love it. But then you're trapped.
Almost everybody's happy to be a fool for love.
In my last year of school, I was voted Class Optimist and Class Pessimist. Looking back, I realize I was only half right.
I was particularly proud of my performance as the Joker. I considered it a piece of pop art.
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.
When I'm working, I'm so narrowly focused on sound, language, rhythm, flow, that I rarely feel the emotion of the text. It's only after - long after - I've finished a piece that I can experience in any way its emotional charge.
The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it... try to fake three laughs in an hour - ha ha ha ha ha - they'll take you away, man. You can't.
I can't think of a single one of my plays that does not represent a coincidence between an external and an internal event. Something outside of me, outside even my own life, something I read in a newspaper or witness on the street, something I see or hear, fascinates me. I see it for its dramatic potential.
Individual writers have different postures, different stances, even different physical attitudes as they stand or sit over their blank paper, and in a sense, without doing it, they are crossing themselves; I mean, it's like the habit of Catholics going into water: you cross yourself before you go in.
I have heard it said that a complicated childhood can lead to a life in the arts. I tell you this story of my father and me to let you know I am qualified to be a comedian.
Writing stories is my way of scratching that itch: my escape from the claustrophobia of individuality. It lets me, at least for a while, live more than one life, walk more than one path. Reading, of course, can do the same.
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