Quotes from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

They was givin' me 10,000 watts a day, you know, and I'm hot to trot. The next woman takes me on's gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars.

If Mr. McMurphy doesn't want to take his medication orally, I'm sure we can arrange that he can have it some other way.

Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.

He knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.

They can't tell so much about you if you got your eyes closed.

Which one of you nuts has got any guts?

Good writin' ain't necessarily good readin'.

In one week, I can put a bug so far up her ass, she don't know whether to shit or wind her wristwatch.

All I know is this: nobody's very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down.

Why don't ya shut your goddamn mouth and play some music?

The stars up close to the moon were pale; they got brighter and braver the farther they got out of the circle of light ruled by the giant moon.

Is that crazy enough for ya? Want me to take a shit on the floor?

The truth doesn't have to do with cruelty, the truth has to do with mercy.

People don't want other people to get high, because if you get high, you might see the falsity of the fabric of the society we live in.

The trouble with super heroes is what to do between phone booths.

I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph.

You've got to get out and pray to the sky to appreciate the sunshine; otherwise you're just a lizard standing there with the sun shining on you.

There's only two people in your life you should lie to... the police and your girlfriend.

Well, a girlfriend once told me never to fight with anybody you don't love.

With my sunglasses on, I'm Jack Nicholson. Without them, I'm fat and 60.

Beer, it's the best damn drink in the world.

Time travel is a fantasy we all have. The 'Back to the Future' series really exploits that wish.

It was 1976, and I was acting off-Broadway with a pair of Canadians: Victor Garber and Gale Garnett. The play was called 'Cracks,' and Martin Sherman, the man who wrote it, went on a few years later to have a giant hit with 'Bent.' But not this time around. Opening night was a disaster.

Every role I get is always a challenge. I can read a script and say, 'Oh, I can do that!' and then when I start working on it, I suddenly realize that I had no idea what I was getting into. Then I have to really work hard!

We were all such odd characters, even though we were a really functional family, in a way, as eccentric and crazy as we were. And it was such a wonderful feeling amongst us of being a family almost. We were "The Addams Family!"

There's something overwhelming about being in raw nature. It's got an aura about it is that is really kind of majestic and spiritual.

Save one life, and you're a hero. Save 100 lives, well then, you're a nurse.

The way to show strength is actually to show mercy.

I sent a man to do what was clearly a woman's job.

You've given me more life than I ever deserved.

All I was guilty of, was showing these men mercy when no one else would.

I believe there are some things that are worse to feel than simply feeling nothing.

You are not sorry, but you will be!

Bucket: "What the hell is this?"
Mildred: "Handled."

I don't feel quite free from the past the way you might.

And when the time comes, we'll be sitting on a balcony. A hacienda on the beach, margaritas in hand. And I could just slip away, While the sun sets over the ocean.

We could be free from whatever you and I did in our past. We wouldn't have a past. Only the future stretching out ahead of us as far as we can see.