Quotes from Jack Lemmon

I think luck is a great part of it because I think that the particular makeup of the person that you are attracted to, and that you fall in love with, is very important. Even down to that old bromide of a sense of humor and all of that.

I have been fortunate to be able to have a career playing comedy and drama. And it's awfully hard - it's like apples and pears to compare the two.

If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable. You must reach the emotional and intellectual level of ability where you can go out stark naked, emotionally, in front of an audience.

In general, I think comedy is more difficult to write, to direct, and to act successfully.

I'll tell you God's truth: I think that this script that Neil has written - 'Odd Couple Two,' I think, is superior to the original one - to the first one.

If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable.

I had no desire to be in the movies. All my training had been in the theater, thank God.

It's hard enough to write a good drama, it's much harder to write a good comedy, and it's hardest of all to write a drama with comedy. Which is what life is.

Nobody deserves this much money - certainly not an actor.

I don't think Ed Horman could be dishonest if his life depended on it.

In very simple language, Morrie always seems to be able to explain something that other people would take a chapter for, you know.

I remember trying to be funny, and both of my parents were terribly funny. My father was also very dignified, but my mother was an absolute ding-a-ling, a ripper.

Success is always somebody else's opinion of you; but it doesn't amount to a damn compared to your own opinion of yourself.

I would rather play Hamlet with no rehearsal than TV golf.

I think it's great fun sometimes when I am playing golf, just to give it a little uch, is to bet the other guy five bucks a hole or something like that.

When I'm reading material, if I'm a little bit afraid of a part and I'm willing to admit that to myself, then I'll do it, definitely. If I'm worried about being able to do it, to get it - I absolutely just love it.

My career has been full of remarkable coincidences that have nothing to do with me.

I have lost someone I loved as a brother, as a closest friend, and a remarkable human being. We have also lost one of the best damn actors we'll ever see.

Once I had started film, I suddenly said, 'Wow, I love it.' I moved there from New York. But I've always gone back to the theater, and it is more satisfying, really, because you get to give a continuous performance - no sequels.

If you think it's hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.

I had already played a lead on Broadway before I ever did a film. I had had three, four seasons of stock with good, fat parts, good supporting and leading parts. And I had done, oh, God, over 400 live TV shows.

If I'd been bright, I'd have realized that I was horribly uncomfortable, amazingly frustrated, and like any sensible person, I'd have quit. But it never occurred to me that I wouldn't be successful eventually.

I have never lost a total passion for my work.

I'd rather make the cut in the Crosby than win another Oscar.