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84 quotes by Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols (born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was a German-born American film and theatre director, producer, actor and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s with the improv troupe The Compass Players, predecessor of the Second City in Chicago, and as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. May was also in the Compass. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the...
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My first memory in the world is my gym teacher ripping my mother's necklace off her neck and throwing it out the window and her running... →

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You can always tell gifted and highly intelligent people as they always turn to the past. Any young person who knows anything that happened before... →

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We are being entertained all the time - in the bathroom, on the train, in our beds. Sure, there is a smaller audience for theater. But we know from... →

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I keep coming back to it, over and over - adultery and cheating. It's the most interesting problem in the theater. How else do you get Oedipus?... →

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

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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... →

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I never understand when people say, 'Do you do comedy or tragedy?' I don't think they're very much different. They both have to be... →

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

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Being with an insanely jealous person is like being in the room with a dead mammoth.

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The only safe thing is to take a chance.

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I was standing right behind Marilyn, completely invisible, when she sang 'Happy birthday, Mr. President.' And indeed, the corny thing... →

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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.

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

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