I'm a hedonist.
— Tommy Lee Jones
I don't think I would describe my sense of humor. Doesn't sound like the kind of thing I'd do.
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.
Cormac McCarthy's language is perfect. He is in my view the greatest living American prose stylist.
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.
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 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.
I'm always happy to have a job.
I think any stereotyping is too much.
I have nothing against interviews. I don't pursue them. When people I work for deem it appropriate, I'm perfectly willing to serve.
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.
Acting is fun for me and it doesn't really matter how, whether it's hard work or easy work, it's always fun.
I don't do anything that is not fun. I just don't do it.
I personally don't live a nihilistic life, I don't have any use for it.
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.
My home town is very small and very remote and we don't have a movie house.
No director wants to be directed, but no good director... would shy away from the good ideas of others.
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.
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.
Human beings are glorious and preposterous characters.
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 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 look upon pride as a sin.
I always told my children when they whined... Only the boring are bored.
I don't analyze things like titles.
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 love cinema.
As a child of West Texas, I identify with Hispanic culture every bit as much as I do North American culture.
I don't direct movies for a living.
I haven't had a lot of comedy come my way as a performer.
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.
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 don't play just villains. I like to have parts that are not simply villains.
I don't fight anybody anytime or anywhere.
