Quotes By Tommy Lee Jones

Partnerships are good engines for narrative.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

I've never really known what glamour is.

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

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

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

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

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

I don't direct movies for a living.

I don't fight anybody anytime or anywhere.

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.

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.

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.

I look upon pride as a sin.

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.