Quotes

[accepting his award at the 2000 Golden Globes] In the spirit of Ving Rhames, I'm going to give this award to Jack Lemmon.

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

The worst part about being me is when people want me to make them laugh.

I won't quit until I get run over by a truck, a producer or a critic.

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.

[on Marilyn Monroe] Difficult? Yes. But she was a wonderful comedienne and she had a charisma like no one before or since.

[on Judy Holliday] She was intelligent and not at all like the dumb blonds she so often depicted. She didn't give a damn where the camera was placed, how she was made to look, or about being a star. She just played the scene -- acted with, not at. She was also one of the nicest people I ever met.

[on Billy Wilder] I've had directors who were marvelous at breaking scenes down and handling people. But when you would string all the pearls together, they wouldn't make a beautiful necklace. But Billy is the kind of picture-maker who can make a beautiful string of pearls. He makes the kind of movies that are classics and last forever.

[on Walter Matthau] Walter is a helluva actor. The best I've ever worked with.

[on Shirley MacLaine] She hated rehearsals and had a bad habit of ad-libbing, which didn't set well with Billy Wilder. But we got used to each other, because mainly she's a helluva girl.

(On comedic roles in 1970) I really can't be funny unless it's part of the character. It really bugs me when someone thinks of me as a comic. If I read 'comedian Jack Lemmon,' I gag. That means I'm not an actor - which I am.

(In a 1984 interview) "I've worked with great actors, great directors, and had some marvelous parts. Oh, my God, I don't know any actor who has had more tremendous parts! I really don't. I don't know of one, and I think it's why we're sitting here. I think it's why I'm still around.

(on Judy Holliday) She was one of the greats, and her early death was one of the great tragedies. She was also one of the nicest people I ever hope to meet. She was hardly the dizzy blonde. If she were alive today, she would've zipped right through the Mensa puzzles. God, I was sweating gumdrops, on the plane coming here trying to do those those suckers.

(On Marilyn Monroe) ... a good light comedienne, unique. She wasn't that enormously talented, but her gift was knowing how to use the special kind of talent she had to great advantage... I really couldn't get to know what was inside her. She would put up a glass window and never let anyone in.

It's better to work with a Billy Wilder once or with a John Ford once than to work with four other directors who do not have that touch of genius.

Wilder goes for the home run every time, and sometimes he strikes out. So did Babe Ruth, but Ruth was the greatest of them all, and, in my opinion, so is Billy.

Failure seldom stops you. What stops you is the fear of failure.