Top Mike Nichols Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Mike Nichols Biography

Mike Nichols (born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theatre director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and an aptitude for getting the best out of actors regardless of their acting experience. Nichols began his career in the 1950s with the comedy improvisational troupe, The Compass Players, predecessor of The Second City, in Chicago. He then teamed up with his improv partner, Elaine May, to form the comedy duo Nichols and May. Their live improv acts were a hit on Broadway resulting in three albums, with their debut album winning a Grammy Award.

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Mike Nichols Quotes

Yes. The whole point about laughter is it's like mercury: you can't catch it, you can't catch what motivates it - that's why it's funny.

Laughter, Mercury, Whole, Point, Like

If you want to be a legend, God help you, it's so easy. You just do one thing. You can be the master of suspense, say. But if you want to be as invisible as is practical, then it's fun to do a lot of different things.

Different, Easy, Fun, Legend, Suspense, Things

All the theories that acting is reacting to imaginary circumstances as though they are real, and directing is turning psychology into behavior, those are all stabs at something that can't be taught. All the great actors can't talk about what they do, and they don't want to begin to talk about it. They just do it.

Psychology, Reacting, Real, Stabs, Theatre, Theories

There’s nothing better than discovering, to your own astonishment, what you’re meant to do. It’s like falling in love.

Astonishment, Fall, Falling In Love, Love, Meant

The only safe thing is to take a chance. Play safe and you are dead. Taking risks is the essence of good work, and the difference between safe and bold can only be defined by yourself since no one else knows for what you are hoping when you embark on anything.

Bold, Chance, Differences, Essence, Play, Risks

I have never understood people dividing things into dramas and comedies.

Comedies, Comedy, Drama, People, Things

It's not a filmmaker's job to explain his technique but to tell his story the best way he can.

Jobs, Technique, Stories, Job, Tell

Any good movie is filled with secrets.

Filled, Good, Good Movie, Secret, Secrets

A movie is like a person. Either you trust it or you don't.

Like, Movie, Person, Persons, Trust

I love to take actors to a place where they open a vein. That’s the job. The key is that I make it safe for them to open the vein.

Actors, Jobs, Key, Keys, Vein, Veins

In making movies, time is so short-because it is so expensive-that we tend to neglect the place from which the best ideas come, namely that part of ourselves that dreams. The unconscious is our best collaborator.

Come, Dream, Dreams, Ideas, Time, Writing

There's nothing in the American dream about character. It's a serious flaw.

American, Character, Dream, Flaw, Serious

No doubt you are as alarmed as I by the tragic decline in America's language skills. If 10 people read the following sentence: Two tanker trucks has just overturned in Alaska, spilling a totel of 10,000 gallons of beer onto a highway. two would find an error in subject-verb agreement, two would find an error in spelling, and six would find a sponge and drive north.

Beer, North, Six, Skills, Trucks, Two

I love the editing process of making movies. I just wish that life had one.

Editing, Making, Process, Wish

The only safe thing in filmmaking is to take a chance.

Chance, Filmmaking, Safe, Take A Chance, Thing

I was just trying to make a nice little movie. . . It wasn't until I saw it all put together that I realized this was something remarkable.

Make, Nice, Remarkable, Saw, Together, Trying

I came to love silence, because it's so rare, and it's now my favorite aural condition.

Came, Condition, Conditions, My Favorite, Silence

Nerves provide me with energy. . . It's when I don't have them, when I feel at ease, that's when I get worried.

Ease, Energy, Nerves, Provide, Worried