Explore Quotes by Tommy Lee Jones

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

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

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

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 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.

I'm always happy to have a job.

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

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.

Partnerships are good engines for narrative.

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

I'm a hedonist.

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.

I look upon pride as a sin.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.