Tommy Lee Jones Quotes

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Kid, Some, Had, Place

Normal people with normal problems can be hilarious.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Normal, Normal People, Hilarious

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Very, Intangible, Works, Believer

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Play, Movie, Cut, Sew

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

American, Identify, North, North American

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Destiny, Country, Undeniable, Descent

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Grandmother, Some, Dilemmas, 21st-Century

I don't analyze things like titles.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Like, Things, Titles, Analyze

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Work, Mind, Audience, Howl

I've never really known what glamour is.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Never, Known, Really, Glamour

Partnerships are good engines for narrative.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Partnerships, Narrative, Engines

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Life, Thinking, Idea, Simultaneously

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Experience, My Life, Reason, Context

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Think, Person, I Think, Worried

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Think, The Only Thing, Still, Suited

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Thinking, Big, About, Suited

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Very, Leading, Telling, Intimidate

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Changes, Constant, Larger, Instincts

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Happy, Young, Desperate, Young Actor

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Money, Guy, Introspective

My education as a filmmaker has been entirely practical. I started working professionally in the film business in 1970, and I've been at it steadily since, and I pay a lot of attention.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Been, Film Business, Steadily

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Production, Part, Theatrical, Snow White

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Wealthy, Idea, Lee, Tommy

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Kindness, Politeness, Overrated

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

College, Been, Al, Closest

I try to be as good a director as I possibly can. I try to be prepared, and I hope everyone else is. The preparation, I suppose, means just about everything. Little things mean a lot.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Little Things, Means, Possibly

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Through, Some, Very, Resounding

I've worked with some very good directors and some very bad ones. I learned a great deal from both. From the bad, untalented people, you learn what not to do. And when you work with very highly talented people, you want to emulate them.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Some, Deal, Very, Highly

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Stupid, Think, Ethnic, Criminal

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Children, Boring, Always, Bored

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Want, Audience, Stories, Context

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Education, Bad, Been, Apart

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Deserve, Kind, Old, Row

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Dress, Thought, Habits, Appeals

I think any stereotyping is too much.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Think, I Think, Too, Stereotyping

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Other, Mars, Organism, Charmed

I've worked in the film business for 45 years, and I want to keep on growing as a filmmaker. I want to see my visual life grow and be increasingly effective in this world.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Grow, Film Business, Filmmaker

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Want, Wanna, Many, Shoot

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Perfect, Ordinary People, American History

It's important for me as an actor to know the entire script before you start shooting, and especially if you're directing, you don't want to be struggling with anything.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Start, Want, Before, Directing

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Concerned, Issues, About, All Women

I like to make movies on the west side of the Mississippi River, and a lot of times, the movies I direct have horses and big hats in them and get called westerns, but that's okay. I used to resent that, but I don't anymore.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Big, Resent, Direct, Mississippi

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Grow, Going, Whether, Requires

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Play, Part, Appropriate, Vitality

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

My Life, Been, Had, All My Life

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Anything, Just, Fun

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Experience, Youth, Had, Player

I don't fight anybody anytime or anywhere.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Fight, Anybody, Anywhere, Anytime

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

View, Prose, McCarthy, Stylist

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

News, Broadcast, Otherwise, Football Game

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Fine, Steal, South, Hurt

I love cinema.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Love, I Love, Cinema

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Important, Most, Cinema

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Happy, Part, Large, Calling

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Big, Movie, Been, Western

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Humor, Sense Of Humor, Sense, Recognizable

Human beings are glorious and preposterous characters.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Human Beings, Characters, Beings

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Play, Like, Villains, Parts

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

World, Face, Very, Nightmare

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Small, Town, Very, Home Town

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

World, Only, Spokesman, Voter

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Think, Movie, I Think, Genre

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Nothing, All Americans, Automatically

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Audience, Understand, Read, Dialogue

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Movies, Bad, Some, Enjoyed

I look upon pride as a sin.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Pride, Look, Sin

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Away, Directed, Would, Good Ideas

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Work, Appropriate, Perfectly, Interviews

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Sense Of Humor, Think, Like, Describe

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Live, Use, Any, Personally

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Afraid, Other, Prepared, Directors

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Think, Some, Still, Drama

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Teach, Will, Them, Horse

I don't direct movies for a living.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Movies, Living, Direct

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.

- Tommy Lee Jones

Work, Done, Your, Cattle

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Play, Think, Guys, Nice Guys

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Comedy, Had, Lot, Performer

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Movies, View, Country, Point Of View

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Integrity, Characters, Lots

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Work, Matter, Always, Hard Work

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

- Tommy Lee Jones

Enjoy, More, Than, More And More

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