114 Quotes by Mike Nichols

A great thing is happening on cable TV. You see characters change in stories over years, like in Tolstoy. That's a whole, thrilling new form that I really enjoy. They are Tolstoy-an in their endless character development and narrative changes... a show like 'Breaking Bad' is astonishing.

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

It’s the hardest thing on earth to like yourself, and then when you do, it’s a catastrophe. I mean, the people I know who like themselves – I don’t want to see them!

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.

Take off all your clothes and walk down the street waving a machete and firing an Uzi, and terrified citizens will phone the police and report, There’s a naked person outside!

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

That seems to me the greatest American danger we’re all in, that we’ll bargain away the experience of being alive for the appearance of it.

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

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