Tim Blake Nelson

“I've done about every kind of fishing you can imagine, but I've never noodled. And the reason I've never noodled is because I don't want to get bit by a water moccasin. I'm just too afraid of snakes.”

“I started writing 'Leaves Of Grass' when my professional life was falling apart somewhat. I just had a movie implode in pre-production. And so I came back licking my wounds to New York, where I live, and started to write a script about a protagonist for whom the exact same thing happened: His life was falling apart.”

“I think we all live dichotomies. I'm a father of three boys and a loyal homebody sort of husband and father. And yet I act in movies and write and direct movies.”

“I love writing about Oklahoma. I love writing Oklahoma characters; I love playing Southwestern characters.”

“Drama and comedy, to me, are all about being surprising, coherent, and true, all at once.”

“'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' was this role that utterly fell into my lap and changed my life.”

“I tried to film 'Leaves of Grass' in Oklahoma, but it was literally about a million dollars less to shoot in Louisiana.”

“Really, life is full of contradictions. Life is messy.”

“I wanted to get the most broad foundation for a lifelong education that I could find, and that was studying Latin and the classics. Meaning Roman and Greek history and philosophy and ancient civilizations.”

“I am not a natural singer, but I can sing, and probably the way I sing is more imitative than from myself, which is why I am never going to be an amazing recording artist.”

“I frankly encountered more anti-Semitism in the northeast than I did in Oklahoma, but not much either place. Anti-Semitism is not part of my life.”

“When I'm in a movie, what I always do, instead of sitting in a trailer or watching a DVD, is I go on the set and watch the director work and the actors work, and sometimes I'll hang out with B camera and watch what they're up to and ask questions because there's so much to learn about the medium.”