I've never heard of anybody smoking a joint and going on a rampage. It makes you lie around on the floor and look at the ceiling. What's wrong with that? Billy Bob Thornton More Quotes by Billy Bob Thornton More Quotes From Billy Bob Thornton I think everybody's contemplating TV now, because mid-level and high-budget independent films are not being made now. Billy Bob Thornton independent levels thinking We don't shoot in L.A. much anymore. You know, TV and movies, most everything's shot other places. Billy Bob Thornton shots tvs knows I'm really influenced by Southern novelists, not many movie people. More like John Faulkner, William Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, Flannery O'Connor, John Steinbeck, and people like that. Billy Bob Thornton novelists southern people Now the idea in the movie world is to make things the same. And in the TV world, the idea is to do something different, so... that's why I'm here! Billy Bob Thornton tvs different ideas I'm not sure that I'm really relevant as a director anymore. Or as a writer, either, to tell you the truth. Billy Bob Thornton relevant not-sure directors Robert Duvall taught me years ago. He said, "You know theatre is not real. I don't like plays." You know, he doesn't like plays. And I agree with him in certain ways, you know. They can be fun. I don't mind going to see them. I went and saw Phantom of the Opera. I thought hey, that's cool. Look at the mask and all that. Billy Bob Thornton real fun years I can't imagine laying a finger on my kids. I go the other way and probably because my father was so abusive. Billy Bob Thornton father kids way I always say if you're going to do a movie about Charles de Gaulle get a Frenchman, you know. I'm not French. And yeah, sure I could get with a dialect coach and work for six months trying to talk like a Frenchman. But there's some French actors. Just get one of them, you know. Billy Bob Thornton dialect-coach months trying I mean the most important thing you can have as an actor, writer, director, or whatever you are, poet or whatever it is, is life experience. Life experience doesn't mean you have to live 50 years to have it. I mean you know a lot of people have huge life experience by the time they're in college. Billy Bob Thornton college mean years At my dad's funeral I didn't cry when my dad died. I did it years later when I forgave him, which I've totally forgiven him and I loved my dad. Billy Bob Thornton funeral dad years If you've written it you know exactly; whoever you're playing if you've written it you already know it. As a matter of fact, you've already made the movie if you wrote it. You've made it in your head. Billy Bob Thornton matter made facts Now, if you want to do realistic, kind of heavier acting stuff, you do it on Amazon or Netflix or whatever or HBO. Billy Bob Thornton netflix hbo acting I never wanted to write a book, and people have asked me for years to do it. Billy Bob Thornton writing book years Every character I play is me, always has been. Billy Bob Thornton has-beens play character Usually when I'm writing, I kind of know what it is before I start writing and I write stream of consciousness style. Billy Bob Thornton style kind writing Basically there are no stars anymore. The audience is the star. Billy Bob Thornton audience stars The movies I've made about the South, they were my experience and it's something that I know. Billy Bob Thornton south made knows All the actors I've worked with as a director over the years I really love and I thought they were all right for the part. Billy Bob Thornton actors directors years I always have an idea before we even start the movie because if you hire the wrong person, within a couple of days you're going to know that and you're going to be really panicked. Billy Bob Thornton wrong-person couple ideas I used to put that I studied with Stella Adler on my resume. I never met Stella Adler. But if you told a casting director you studied with Stella Adler all the sudden they'd let you in the door. Billy Bob Thornton casting doors directors