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
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
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
Characters with no integrity are just as interesting as characters with lots of integrity. – Tommy Lee Jones
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
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
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
No director wants to be directed, but no good director… would shy away from the good ideas of others. – Tommy Lee Jones
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
