Jeffrey Jones Quotes

Let me put it this way: I definitely need to understand the villains I play. The best cause pain to anesthetize themselves against their own pain.

When I'm playing a character like Jonathan in Ripley's Game I want to be in the moment when he's feeling pain; this very ordinary person who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances.

Reasons always came with a purpose, to give the appearance of a struggle between principle and desire. Principle had power only until you found what you had to have.

For an author, the nice characters aren't much fun. What you want are the screwed up characters. You know, the characters that are constantly wondering if what they are doing is the right thing, characters that are not only screwed up but are self-tapping screws. They're doing it for themselves.

Most people who get into power in the western world start with great intentions, but slowly they all become entrapped and hung by their own petard.

I'm not the kind of person that would step on people just to get where I wanted to be, but I have crossed moral boundaries when I've either been afraid or desperate.

There's a tendency, especially among revolutionaries, to only show the good side of yourself and then when you come to power, the bad side comes out.

The best characters to play are the ones who have deep internal conflict.

In general, I think writing characters, no one is 100 percent good or bad, and certainly, the bad characters never think they're bad themselves. Even the worst characters don't feel like they're bad guys on the inside.

The best people to have power are the ones who don't want it.

Power has long been regarded as morally corrosive, and we often suspect the intentions of those who seek it.

'm really proud of it. To me, it's a movie about character behavior and the pecking order of the pack, as well as the central character's massive survival guilt.

The interesting part of the process is developing the character, you know, why did he become that? Why is the guy a murderer, or why is this guy a pervert, or whatever he is. So that's the fun part for me to delve into the abyss.

War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

Necessity makes an honest man a knave.

I think that internal conflict works very well, because, after all, all the best drama is fuelled by conflict.

As an actor, to play someone who's at war with himself, that's so interesting.

The beauty of the characters on 'Justified' is that all the human beings that are written are all flawed. Even with the good guys, you see darkness surface.

Evil, when we are in its power, is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, even a duty.

Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces

Power transforms what it touches.

What good would politics be, if it didn’t give everyone the opportunity to make moral compromises?

Power shifts your thinking from what is right and wrong to what is necessary

If the [Ugandan President] Yoweri Museveni of 1986 were to meet the Museveni of today they would fight on sight - they would shoot each other.

I think conflicted characters are always more interesting.