Quotes By Tommy Lee Jones

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

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

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.

I don't analyze things like titles.

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.

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

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.

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

Partnerships are good engines for narrative.

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

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.

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

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

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've never really known what glamour is.

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 don't direct movies for a living.

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

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.