Quotes By Tommy Lee Jones

I look upon pride as a sin.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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

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

I think any stereotyping is too much.

Human beings are glorious and preposterous characters.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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 enjoy acting more and more than when I was 17.

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.

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.

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

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.

Normal people with normal problems can be hilarious.

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

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

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

I'm always happy to have a job.

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