Quotes By Tommy Lee Jones

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.

Partnerships are good engines for narrative.

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

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

I don't fight anybody anytime or anywhere.

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 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.

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.