114 Quotes by Mike Nichols

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 true, and there isn’t a great play in the world that doesn’t have funny parts to it – as ‘Salesman’ does, as ‘King Lear’ does. The whole idea is to reflect life in some way, which means surely you have to have both.

Limitations are inspiring: they lead to thinking, so I don’t mind them.

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.

Comedy is brutal. It's powerful, though.

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

I'm anything but confident.