Tommy Lee Jones

As an actor to watch an audience of people howl together in a single mind as a result of work you've done together with friends is a privilege.

I do not have a sense of humor of any recognizable sort.

I know a lot of cowboys and I've done a little work on ranches with cattle, and those people become your friends, and keep their word.

I don't analyze things like titles.

No, I don't think about the myth of the West. It's not the kind of thinking I do. That's more suited to people who live in big towns on the West Coast or East Coast, people who stay under a roof, in a room, all the time.

Characters with no integrity are just as interesting as characters with lots of integrity.

I want to photograph what I see and put it in a dramatic context. I'm an actor and a writer, and I want to tell these stories and present these shapes, colors and movements as I see them, as I see them serve a narrative. As I see that narrative serve an audience. That's what I want to do.

I have worked on very good movies that have been buried, and I've worked on some resounding mediocrities that have been paraded through the marketplace like they were masterpieces.

My idea in terms of managing a narrative, or in thinking in my creative life, is that you could easily argue that the past, the present and the future all occur simultaneously, and if you can postulate that, then you're not strictly bound to a linear narrative.

The quality of one's emotional life changes over the years, doesn't it? But the basic instincts and desires, greed and hope, seem to remain constant. In the larger scope of things, there's a sense of fulfillment to living a creative life. So I guess that's what keeps me going.

Al Gore has been one of my closest friends since the day we met, on the first day of college, 35 years ago.

Partnerships are good engines for narrative.

As a child of West Texas, I identify with Hispanic culture every bit as much as I do North American culture.

You know, I don't really think you have to play nice guys.

The tactic of leading people into... a war that doesn't make any sense by telling them they are under attack, and if they raise any objection they're unpatriotic, is a very old tactic. And it doesn't intimidate me.

The world's not a very comfortable place if you have a nightmare to face.

I've never really known what glamour is.

I've worked with more than 50 directors ,and I've paid attention since day one. That's pretty much been my education, apart from studying art history and shooting with my own cameras. I've seen 50 different sets of mistakes and 50 different ways of achieving. You just leave the bad part out.

I want to make movies about my country from my point of view.

You can't instruct an audience to laugh, but what you can do is read well and understand the spirit and subtleties, if there are any, in the dialogue.

I don't fight anybody anytime or anywhere.

I enjoy acting more and more than when I was 17.

I think any thinking person should be worried about climate change.

Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. They’re underused.

Football was a wonderful experience for me. It was a means of, oh, I don't know, sustaining for much of my youth. In times of trouble, I've always had football. I always knew I was a football player. And that was a comfort on many occasions.

Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. They're underused.

I'm always happy to have a job.

I still think probably the only thing I'm suited for is being a boy from Texas.

I look upon pride as a sin.

How do you play someone in a movie? How do you do that? It's impossible - unless you know how. How do you cut somebody open and take out their appendix and sew them back up and watch them get well? That's impossible - unless you know how.

I love cinema.

The entire elementary school in Rotan, Texas, presented a theatrical production of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.' And the part of Sneezy fell to me.

I'm an introspective guy when there's money in it.

As an actor I want to do as many takes as I can. I wanna shoot the scene... or shoot the shot 'til they make me quit.

I'm a believer in belief. Faith is something that works - it causes people to do things, it has results. It's an intangible, indefinable, very real thing. And it moves people, sometimes to atrocity. And sometimes to survival.

It's no fun to be a struggling young actor. It's a desperate thing, no way to be happy. If you have any alternative, you should take it.

I don't have a favorite genre. I think 'genre' is a literary term. I don't have a favorite kind or type of movie. I like the ones that are good.

I personally don't live a nihilistic life, I don't have any use for it.

I'm a hedonist.

I don't think I would describe my sense of humor. Doesn't sound like the kind of thing I'd do.

I always told my children when they whined... Only the boring are bored.

In the course of American history, great steps are taken by ordinary people, and ordinary people are not perfect.

If you don't hurt anybody or try to steal anything, you'll be fine in the South.

I felt like the luckiest kid in the world because God had put me on the ground in Texas. I actually felt sorry for those poor little kids that had to be born in Oklahoma or England or some place. I knew I was living in the best place in the world.

Normal people with normal problems can be hilarious.

I fear other actors who are not prepared. And I fear directors who are afraid.

I don't direct movies for a living.

I don't get it. If you're saying, Tommy Lee, you don't fit the image of the East Coast, social elitist wealthy people who comprise Harvard, the only thing I can say is you have no idea what comprises Harvard.

No director wants to be directed, but no good director... would shy away from the good ideas of others.

If you look at how people use the term 'western,' you can only conclude that it means a movie that has big hats and horses. And if you really want to sound like you've been thinking, then you'll use a term like 'genre.' But all the hell it seems to mean is big hats and horses. Which is not all that deeply analytical.

I play characters, and I try to play them in a manner that's appropriate to the script. Physical movement and vitality of language is part of character.

Ethnic stereotypes are boring and stressful and sometimes criminal. It's just not a good way to think. It's non-thinking. It's stupid and destructive.

I don't need much of a character in my life. I've already got one; my family knows who I am, and I don't have a reason to make an impression on the world around me unless it's in a professional context. Acting is not a personal experience; it's a job.

My grandmother grew up in a 19th-century world, and my daughter has grown up in a 21st-century world, and some issues, problems, dilemmas that these women face have not changed.

There's an undeniable tradition of sexism in this country that ties into the move westward by people of European descent and different ways of looking at Manifest Destiny on the west side of the Mississippi River.

As it turns out, my grandmother, my mother, my wife, and my daughter are all women, and I like those people. I'm concerned about the issues that they face in their lives. So I'm a feminist, but that's not all I am.

I don't play just villains. I like to have parts that are not simply villains.

I don't do anything that is not fun. I just don't do it.

I have nothing against interviews. I don't pursue them. When people I work for deem it appropriate, I'm perfectly willing to serve.

What appeals to me? There are things, points of view, uses of the language, habits of dress, ways of thought and believing that came to me from my grandparents and came to them from theirs. Things that are of good use in any situation, no matter what the future may hold.

All my life I've had the privilege to make my living with my imagination, and the most important thing has been to see my creative life grow. I was educated to do that and have lived accordingly.

I think any stereotyping is too much.

I probably watch less than one hour of television a week. And when I do watch television, it's usually a football game. Sometimes I'll watch a news broadcast for a few minutes. Otherwise, I don't have time.

Acting is fun for me and it doesn't really matter how, whether it's hard work or easy work, it's always fun.

The most important question in American cinema, I've learned, is 'When is lunch?'

I think that no matter how much you don't like yourself or the drama of your life you can still find some comedy in it.

My home town is very small and very remote and we don't have a movie house.

I haven't a clue if there is life on other planets but I'd be charmed if we found a unicellular organism on Mars. It would change our whole concept of life on Earth.

In the political world, the only position I have is voter. I'm not a spokesman for anything.

If military movies were automatically successful we'd make nothing but military movies. But seriously, patriotism is one thing that all Americans have in common.

I'm kind of pleased with myself that I've got a tailor on Savile Row. I'm 68 years old. I deserve it.

If you want to know about my politics, the only way to do that is to look at my work.

It's no mean calling to bring fun into the afternoons of large numbers of people. That, too, is part of my job, and I'm happy to serve when called on.

You are going to grow up whether you want to or not. It requires no effort.

Human beings are glorious and preposterous characters.

Cormac McCarthy's language is perfect. He is in my view the greatest living American prose stylist.

You should never ask a horse or an actor to do something they cannot do. Wisdom will teach you to find out what they can do and then make it easy for them.

I haven't had a lot of comedy come my way as a performer.

I've made some bad movies. And I really enjoyed it!