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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? That's the first cheating in the theater. "
Mike Nichols
Interesting
You
Cheating
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" 'Catch-22' was a nightmare to make, and everybody was unhappy except me. "
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Everybody
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" I'm an enormous fan of 'The West Wing.' It was one of the very few shows I would watch every week. "
Mike Nichols
Fan
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West
" A play, after all, is a mystery. There's no narration. And as soon as there's no narration, it's open to interpretation. It must be interpreted. You don't have a choice... Each play can become many things. "
Mike Nichols
Choice
Open
Mystery
" The thing about being an outsider... is that it teaches you to hear what people are thinking because you're constantly looking for the people who just don't give a damn. "
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Damn
You
Thinking
" That seems to me the great American danger we're all in, that we'll bargain away the experience of being alive for the appearance of it. "
Mike Nichols
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Experience
Great
" I was standing right behind Marilyn, completely invisible, when she sang 'Happy birthday, Mr. President.' And indeed, the corny thing happened: Her dress split for my benefit, and there was Marilyn, and yes, indeed, she didn't wear any underwear. "
Mike Nichols
Birthday
Dress
Happy
" People, by and large, would rather be talking than listening. "
Mike Nichols
Than
Listening
People
" 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. "
Mike Nichols
Funny
Life
People
" 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. "
Mike Nichols
Fun
Easy
You
" Nerves provide me with energy... It's when I don't have them, when I feel at ease, that's when I get worried. "
Mike Nichols
Energy
Nerves
Feel
" Directing is mystifying. It's a long, long, skid on an icy road, and you do the best you can trying to stay on the road... If you're still here when you come out of the spin, it's a relief. But you've got to have the terror if you're going to do anything worthwhile. "
Mike Nichols
Stay
Best
Road
" Never let people see what you want, because they will not let you have it. Never let anybody see what you feel, because it gives them too much power. You're probably better off not showing weakness whenever you can avoid it, because they'll go for you. "
Mike Nichols
Power
Better
People
" As a little kid in a sometimes hard place, I went to the movies as often as I could. Movies - making them, seeing them - is not something that could ever lose its pleasure for me. That puts them on a short list of things that eternally give me joy - love, family, food, movies. "
Mike Nichols
Family
Love
Joy
" 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 radio that entertainment never goes away, it just changes. And more power to it. "
Mike Nichols
Know
Never
Power
" 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! "
Mike Nichols
Know
Want
Yourself
" 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. "
Mike Nichols
Love
Job
Safe
" Clay Aiken is amazing beyond that glorious voice. Turns out he is an excellent comic actor and a master of character. "
Mike Nichols
Actor
Amazing
Beyond
" I believed early and still believe that everybody who can act can do it already, just they don't know how and don't want to talk about it. "
Mike Nichols
Talk
Want
Early
" Stand-up comedy is a very hard thing on the spirit. There are people who transcend it, like Jack Benny and Steve Martin, but in its essence, it's soul-destroying. It tends to turn people into control freaks. "
Mike Nichols
Control
Comedy
Turn
" Oh my God, if I know anything, I know I'm gonna die! I never forget that. I know I'll be forgotten in a minute, and that's just fine with me. "
Mike Nichols
Never Forget
Die
Me
" If you're fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939 and you're a Jew, you don't think so much about relationships. People didn't have a lot of divorces during the Holocaust, for instance. "
Mike Nichols
Much
Think
You
" I am drawn to the mystery of marriage. You can never know what the contract is between two people, and that is a very strong subject. I think it may be my subject. "
Mike Nichols
People
Strong
Marriage
" I asked a shrink: 'Everything is so great. Why am I still so angry?' He said, 'Anger doesn't go away.' I always thought it was kind of a good engine. "
Mike Nichols
Great
Good
Angry
" There's nothing in the American dream about character. It's a serious flaw. "
Mike Nichols
American
Character
American Dream
" A movie is like a person. Either you trust it or you don't. "
Mike Nichols
Either
Like
You
" As a director, my job is, and always has been, divided into a number of things: dealing with the crew, the money and the studio, and the marketing and publicity. These are all different jobs that have to be learned and done as well as possible. The celebrity part rarely touches a director. "
Mike Nichols
Celebrity
Money
Job
" The greatest thrill is that moment when a thousand people are sitting in the dark, looking at the same scene, and they are all apprehending something that has not been spoken. That's the thrill of it, the miracle - that's what holds us to movies forever. It's what we wish we could do in real life. "
Mike Nichols
Looking
People
Moment
" I think the main thing about comedy and humor is that it's impossible and always was impossible to define. "
Mike Nichols
Comedy
Think
Impossible
" 'Streetcar' is no longer about the moment at all. There is no Blanche DuBois anywhere; south, north, east or west. We don't have Blanche DuBois at the moment. But we have Willy Loman; everywhere we look we see Willy Loman. We are Willy Loman. We're on Facebook; we need to be known; we're selling all the time. "
Mike Nichols
Need
Look
Moment
" I had a high school girlfriend whose mother gave us theater tickets, so I saw the second night performance of 'A Streetcar Named Desire.' My girl and I could not get up during intermission, we were so stunned. To this day it's the only thing I've seen on stage that's 100 percent real and 100 percent poetic simultaneously. "
Mike Nichols
Night
Desire
School