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I Am A Lay Historian By Nature. I Seek Out An Empirical Reflection Of What Truth Is. I Sort Of Want Dates And Motivations And I Want The Whole Story. But I've Always Felt, Unconsciously, That All Human History Is That Connection From Person To Person To Person, Event To Event To Event, And From Idea To Idea.

-Tom Hanks

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I Am A Lay

Tom Hanks

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I Am A Lay Historian By Nature. I Seek Out An Empirical Reflection Of What Truth Is. I Sort Of Want Dates And Motivations And I Want The Whole Story. But I've Always Felt, Unconsciously, That All Human History Is That Connection From Person To Person To Person, Event To Event To Event, And From Idea To Idea.

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Life Was Like A Box Of Chocolates. You Never Know What You're Gonna Get.

College Isn't Necessary For Everybody And It's Only From What You Put Into It What You Go There For.

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All Directors Should Have To Act And All Actors Should Have To Direct, So That They Can Understand All These Key Things That Come Into Play With Whether You Can Meet Your Day.

I Don't Ask For Much. I Don't Ask To Be Rich, And I Don't Ask To Be Famous, And I Don't Ask To Play Center Field For The New York Yankees. I Just Want To Get Married And Have A Wife, And A House, And I Want To Have A Kid, And I Want To Go See Him Be A Tooth In The School Play!

I Do Not Want To Admit To The World That I Can Be A Bad Person. It Is Just That I Don't Want Anyone To Have False Expectations. Moviemaking Is A Harsh, Volatile Business, And Unless You Can Be Ruthless, Too, There's A Good Chance That You Are Going To Disappear Off The Scene Pretty Quickly.

The Easiest Thing To Do Is To Rag On The Media, Because It Isn't Doing A Very Good Job Right Now. It Is So Much Easier To Profit From Celebrating The Worst Aspects Of Ourselves. Acting Strikes Me As The Antithesis Of That. We Can Examine The Worst Aspects Of Ourselves, But We Don't Have To Celebrate Them.

But Actors With Political Views Are A Dime A Dozen.

Some People Are Cowards... I Think By And Large A Third Of People Are Villains, A Third Are Cowards, And A Third Are Heroes. Now, A Villain And A Coward Can Choose To Be A Hero, But They've Got To Make That Choice.

The Reason Most Of Us Go To The Movies Is To Be Involved In Someone Else's Moral Dilemma.

I'm Lucky Enough To Be Able To Make Only Movies I'm Interested In Seeing. That Has To Be An Instinctive Thrust. The Audience Knows When You're Faking It. They Can Hang Any Kind Of Moniker They Want On Me.

When You Try To Bring A Story To Life, It Starts In Your Head And You See Possibilities For It, But It's Just One Damn Thing After Another.

The Prejudice Surrounding Aids Exacts A Social Death Which Precedes The Actual Physical One.

There's A Small Percentage Of People Who Can Act. There's A Small Percentage Who Get To Do This For A Living. There's A Swath Of The Population That Are Able To Keep A Story In Their Head And Fight All The Battles Against Self-consciousness And The Surreal Unnaturalness Of Acting In A Movie. The Technical Aspects You Can Learn Fairly Quickly.

Every Job Requires A Certain Riding Of A Horse.

The Filmmakers Aren't Running The Studios Anymore. Sometimes People Who Like Films Are Making Them, But By And Large, They Have To Go Report Quarterly Earnings And All That Stuff. The Competition Is So Huge That It's Very Hard To Get People To Show Up To See Any Movie In The Theater, Much Less An Original One That Isn't A Version Of Something Else They Saw.

If You Look At Romantic Comedies As Pieces Of Commerce, The Audience Is Looking For Wish Fulfillment.

It Was Incredibly Cheesy Set With Torches [tv's Survivor] - It Looked Like The Lobby Of The Enchanted Tiki Room At Disneyland. And Here As Some Guy Pulling Names Out Of A Coconut, And I Said, 'this Is The Thing That Has Made American Mass Media Stop In Their Tracks?

The Average Movie Set Is The Least Political Arena On Earth. Nobody Bothers Talking About Politics Because, One, We All Love The Job So Much. You Don't Talk About Current Events. You Talk About Old Show Business Stories And Whether Or Not There's Gonna Be French Onion Dip At The Craft Services Table That Day.

Shake It Off And Move On.

Everyone Says, "you Have To Work At Relationships." Sometimes You've Got To Work, But If You're Working 60 Percent Of The Time And Only Enjoying It 40 Percent...

I Try Not To Lie To People - The Only Way To Control The Way You're Perceived Is To Tell The Truth.

Making A Film Is To Make Sure That Everybody Looks Forward To Coming To Work.

If Things Were Easy To Find, They Wouldn’t Be Worth Finding.

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The Same Way That I Know That I'll Never Do A Movie As Good Or As Celebrated As 'forrest Gump,' I Know That I'll Never Do A Movie As Bad As 'bonfire Of The Vanities.'

From Now On We Live In A World Where Man Has Walked On The Moon. It's Not A Miracle; We Just Decided To Go.

It Just So Happens That My Body Type And My Lifestyle Gives Me A Preclusion For High Blood Sugars.

In The Creative Process You Come To Loggerheads And You Just Have To Keep The Process Moving Forward, Even If That Requires Jumping On A Plane And Flying To London. It's A Good Thing It's Fun, Otherwise It Would Be Too Much Work.

By And Large, The Making Of Motion Pictures Is All About, 'let's Ratchet It Up.' And I Always Think, 'we Don't Need To Ratchet This Up.' If You Do, Don't Call It 'captain Phillips' Or 'the Maersk Alabama.' Call It Something Else, And Then You Have Carte Blanche To Do Anything, Down To Sea Serpents And Aliens.

Never Give Up Because You Never Know What The Tide Will Bring In The Next Day.

When I Work, A Lot Of Times I Have To Lose Weight, And I Do That, But In My Regular Life I Was Not Eating Right, And I Was Not Getting Enough Exercise. But By The Nature Of My Diet And That Lifestyle - Boom! The End Result Was High Blood Sugars That Reach The Levels Where It Becomes Type 2 Diabetes. I Share That With A Gajillion Other People.

Type 2 Diabetes

The Year I Was Born, 1956, Was The Peak Year For Babies Being Born, And There Are More People Essentially Our Age Than Anybody Else. We Could Crush These New Generations If We Decided Too.

An Animatic Is A Process Where Every Voice And Every Sound Effect Is Added To Rough Animated Drawings And It Lasts Exactly As Long As The Final Movie. So You Actually Get To Go Into A Screening Room With The Rest Of The Cast And You Get To See It All At The Same Time.

Most People Want To Be Able To Go Off And Deal With Their Day - Stop In Here, Run Errands There - And When You Can't Do That, Going Out Becomes A Chore.

When You're On The Open Sea And You Drop 10, 12 Feet And Your Stomach Goes Up Around Your Neck - That's When You Have Problems.

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Let's Not Pretend There Isn't A Huge Industry Driven By The Choices Made By Editors And Writers Who Decide What A Story Is.

If I Was To Direct Ron Howard, I Guarantee You, I Would Put Him Through A Living Hell Every Day. I Would Demand So Much Of Him. We Wouldn't Quit Until He Leaves The Set Crying. Weeping! Spent!

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The "toy Story" Films Accomplish What Timeless Classics Aim For - Innocent Characters Who Face An Endless Trail Of Adventures.

I Understand The Concept Of Optimism. But I Think With Me What You Get Is A Lack Of Cynicism.

I Start At Square One With Every Role. If I Let Myself Feel Pressure, It Would Crush Me. The Truth Is That Everyone Pays Attention To Who's Number One At The Box Office. And None Of It Matters, Because The Only Thing That Really Exists Is The Connection The Audience Has With A Movie. Sometimes That's A Palpable Thing, But Other Times It's Not. No Actor Has Control Of That. All You Can Control Is Your Own Passion For Doing The Work In The First Place.

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The Power Of The Individual Is As Powerful As The Universe Is Infinite.

As Long As You As An Individual... Can Convince Yourself That In Order To Move Forward As Best You Can You Have To Be Optimistic, You Can Be Described As 'one Of The Faithful,' One Of Those People Who Can Say, 'well, Look, Something's Going To Happen! Let's Just Keep Trying. Let's Not Give Up.

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That's What's Nice About Directing A Film And Having It Done: There's Nothing More I Can Do About It. It's Done. That's It. All I Can Do Is Let It Go And Hope That People Are Kind To It.

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Extraordinary Moments

Being Politically Correct Means Always Having To Say You're Sorry. Believe Me, The Power And Pleasure And The Emotion Of This Moment Is A Constant Speed Of Light.

There Isn't Any Great Mystery About Me. What I Do Is Glamorous And Has An Awful Lot Of White-hot Attention Placed On It. But The Actual Work Requires The Same Discipline And Passion As Any Job You Love Doing, Be It As A Very Good Pipe Fitter Or A Highly Creative Artist.

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I Don't Follow Football, I Just Love The Name Aston Villa. Here In England You Have Other Footballing Entities Like Manchester And Arsenal And Chelsea

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Black And White

I Come From The School Of That Horse Is Not Dead.

Hold The Mirror Up To Nature. Human Behavior Is Worthy Of Examination And Celebration.

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I Would Like To Think I've Reflected The Audience's Lives Somehow, Though It's In This Big, False, Glamorous Arena Of Movies. I Hope People See Themselves Somehow Up On The Screen.

In Your Mid-30s, It’s Time To Start Playing Guys Of Compromise. And As You Get Older, Men Of Bitter Compromise.

I Think 80 Percent Of The Population Are Really Great, Caring People Who Will Help You And Tell You The Truth. That's Just The Way It Is. And I Think 20 Percent Of The Population Are Crooks And Liars. It's Just A Fact.

I Love My Family And I Love My Kids, But When The Moments Come, It's Not As Though You Can Just Substitute Your Own Life With What You're Doing On Film. You Have To Go To Some Other Place Where It's Bigger Than Your Own Life.

I Love My Family

The Truth Is That Everyone Pays Attention To Who's Number One At The Box Office. And None Of It Matters, Because The Only Thing That Really Exists Is The Connection The Audience Has With A Movie.

Everybody Has Something That Chews Them Up And, For Me, That Thing Was Always Loneliness. The Cinema Has The Power To Make You Not Feel Lonely, Even When You Are.

I Had To Say No To 'fantasy Island' Back When I Was Doing 'bosom Buddies.'

Directing Is A Constant Test Of Your Communicative Powers. You're Constantly Trying To Explain People Your Vision Of What You Want And Steer These Tiny Little Details Into A Cohesive Thing.

Mama Always Had A Way Of Explaining Things So I Could Understand Them.

My Wife Keeps On Telling Me My Worst Fault Is That I Keep Things To Myself And Appear Relaxed. But I Am Really In A Room In My Own Head And Not Hearing A Thing Anyone Is Saying.

I'm Not Looking For Anything. If You Start Looking For Something Specific, Then You Take Providence Right Out Of It. You Can't Completely Control It. Otherwise You'd Make The Same Kind Of Movie Over And Over Again, Which Some People Say I've Done.

Mass-market Movies Have Become About One Thing. They Kind Of Declare Themselves Right Off The Bat. . . . But When I Go To See (a Film), I Want To Be Surprised. I Want To See Something I Never Expected. And When You Get That, It Should Be Celebrated.

Help And You Will Abolish Apathy-the Void That Is So Quickly Filled By Ignorance And Evil.

I Have High Blood Sugars, And Type 2 Diabetes Is Not Going To Kill Me. But I Just Have To Eat Right, And Exercise, And Lose Weight, And Watch What I Eat, And I Will Be Fine For The Rest Of My Life.

Type 2 Diabetes

Even If A Story Has Nothing To Do With My Life, If I Can Recognise Something Of Myself In The Character And Think, 'oh Yeah, That's What I'd Do...' Yeah, That's What I Look For.

If They Could Offer Up A Way To Go To The Moon That Wouldn't Kill You, I'd Sign Up.

We Are All God's Animated Cartoons.

There's A Difference Between Solitude And Loneliness. I Can Understand The Concept Of Being A Monk For A While.

I Know What I Have To Do Now. I Gotta Keep Breathing. Because Tomorrow The Sun Will Rise. Who Knows What The Tide Could Bring?

For Some People, I Will Be Forrest Gump For The Rest Of My Life. But That's Ok; That's A Good Thing.

Truth Is, I'll Never Know All There Is To Know About You Just As You Will Never Know All There Is To Know About Me. Humans Are By Nature Too Complicated To Be Understood Fully. So, We Can Choose Either To Approach Our Fellow Human Beings With Suspicion Or To Approach Them With An Open Mind, A Dash Of Optimism And A Great Deal Of Candour.

Tweeting Is Like Sending Out Cool Telegrams To Your Friends Once A Week.

It's Not A Mid-life Crisis. It's A Mid-life Disaster. A Mid-life Crisis Is When You Wake Up With Everything And You Go "i Have Everything But I'm Still Unhappy."

You Don't Necessarily Go In To Talk To The Person To Try To Find Some Secret Key To The Lock.

Oprah Winfrey Today You Are Surrounded By Nothing But Love.

I Have Gone Through So Many Examinations Of What A Hero Is, Between The World War Ii Stuff And The Astronaut Stuff.

I Love What I Do For A Living, It's The Greatest Job In The World, But You Have To Survive An Awful Lot Of Attention That You Don't Truly Deserve And You Have To Live Up To Your Professional Responsibilities And I'm Always Trying To Balance That With What Is Really Important.

One Thing That Was Amazing About World War Ii Was That Everybody Signed Up For The Duration Plus Six Months. Fliers Got To Leave Combat After 25 Missions, Or 35 Missions, But Other Than That, You Were In It. You Were Part Of The Great Effort, Until, Oh Boy, Six Months After It Was Over.

A Hero Is Somebody Who Voluntarily Walks Into The Unknown.

When I Was 21 Years Old, I Had A Job Playing Santa Claus In A Shopping Centre In Sacramento. I Was Rail Thin, So It's Not Like I Was A Traditional Santa Claus Even Then. I Had A Square Stomach; That Was The Shape Of The Sofa Cushion That I Had Stuffed Into My Pants.

There's Such An Advantage To Being Involved In The Day-to-day Details Of Each Other's Lives. It's A Marvelous Fabric To Exist In.

Once Humankind Has Been Some Place And Found It Entrancing, They Always Go Back, I Think In The History Of The Human Race, The Moon Has Been The First Place We've Gone To And Said, 'ok, We Don't Need To Go Back There Again.

My Work Is Really A Blast. When It Stops Being A Blast, Then It Ain't No Fun No More!

What We're Doing With Band Of Brothers Is Trying To Put It Into Human Terms, So It Is Not Just A Flickering, Black And White Myth On A Screen, It Is A Resonant Story. I Want The Audience To Recognize Themselves In These Men. They're Not Just Mythic Heroes.

Black And White

Saying No To Something Is Actually Much More Powerful Than Saying Yes.

I Don't Think Anybody's Mind's Gonna Be Changed.

I Know That My Work In This Case Is Magnified By The Fact That The Streets Of Heaven Are Too Crowded With Angels. We Know Their Names. They Number A Thousand For Each One Of The Red Ribbons That We Wear Here Tonight. They Finally Rest In The Warm Embrace Of The Gracious Creator Of Us All. A Healing Embrace That Cools Their Fevers, That Clears Their Skin, And Allows Their Eyes To See The Simple, Self-evident, Common Sense Truth That Is Made Manifest By The Benevolent Creator Of Us All...

In The 1998 Oscars, I Found Myself In The Bathroom In A Stall, Next To Tom Selleck. So I Leaned Over And I Said ‘looks Like We’re A Couple Of Peeing Toms.’ His Angry Silence Is Something I’ll Never Forget.

The Cinema Has The Power To Make You Not Feel Lonely, Even When You Are.

Help Publicly. Help Privately. Help Make Sense Where Sense Has Gone Missing. Help Science To Solve And Faith To Soothe. Help, And You Will Abolish Apathy-the Void That Is So Quickly Filled By Ignorance And Evil.

I Hope My Kids Understand That They're Not Operating In A Normal World. And Yet There Are Principles They Have To Adhere To That Are Normal - Like Decency, Choosing Between Right And Wrong, And Honesty. That's Important Stuff, Whether You're Flying First-class Or Not.

In The Early Days You Have A Tendency To Intellectualize, But You're Really Just Trying To Sound Smart And Score With The Chicks.

When You're Going To Try And Have People Talk In A Room And Actually Reflect Life As We Know It And Have People Recognize Themselves And Their Own Street And Their Own House In It, Well Then You're Aiming For The High Country And It's A Much Bigger Gamble. You Can Interview All The Marketing Gurus And The People In Charge Of, You Know, The People You Gotta Fight With In Order To Get Your Seats Here, And They All Talk About Release Dates And Counterprogramming. At The End Of The Day, It's Gotta Be A Good Movie.

Human Beings Do Things For A Reason, Even If Sometimes It's The Wrong Reason.

I View My Wife As My Lover, And We Have A Bond That Goes Beyond Words Like Wife Or Girlfriend Or Mother.

You Cannot Look Up At The Night Sky On The Planet Earth And Not Wonder What It's Like To Be Up There Amongst The Stars. And I Always Look Up At The Moon And See It As The Single Most Romantic Place Within The Cosmos.

I Know How The Academy Awards Works: It's A Card Game, And I'm In The Toss-up Category.

Back In World War Ii, We Viewed The Japanese As 'yellow, Slant-eyed Dogs' That Believed In Different Gods. They Were Out To Kill Us Because Our Way Of Living Was Different. We, In Turn, Wanted To Annihilate Them Because They Were Different. Does That Sound Familiar, By Any Chance, To What's Going On Today?

There's This Misconception That The Navy Is This Cruise Ship, And You Get To Go Out And Sail Around, And Every Now And Then, You Have To Swab The Deck. But, No, It Is A Very Impressive Group Of Young People That Live At Sea, In This Place That's Very Uncomfortable. They Exude A Pride That Is Well-deserved.

As A Boy Id Often Spend My Days Biking On Riverbeds And Arroyos And Come Home Exhausted. I Realize Now How Much I Took For Granted Having The Natural World So Close At Hand. It Wasnt Until I Moved Away, First To New York And Then To Los Angeles, That I Realized How Much I Missed The Outdoors.

Some People Go To Bed At Night Thinking, 'that Was A Good Day.' I Am One Of Those Who Worries And Asks, 'how Did I Screw Up Today?'

'larry Crowne' Is About As Bummed Out A Human Being As One Can Be When He Loses His Job. What He Is Able To Enjoy Is Something That May Not Be Available To Everybody. But It's About The Value Of Being Willing To Get And Willing To Give Good Advice.

Movie-making Is Telling A Story With The Best Technology At Your Disposal.

My Job Has Always Been To Hold A Mirror Up To Nature.

I've Talked To A Number Of Actors Who Have Gained Weight For Roles, And Just The Sheer Physical Toll It Puts On One's Knees And Shoulders - No One Wants To Do It Again. I'm 57 And I Don't Think I'm Going To Take On Any Job Or Go On Vacation Again And See To It That I Can Gain 30 Pounds.

I Was Never Intimidated By Change. I Was Like An Army Brat Who Had Lived All Around The World.

As An Actor I Am Always Waiting For My Luck To Run Out.

I Will Entertain Anything; It Doesn't Matter. You Know, It's Not Obviously About The Price, It's Not About Who, It's Kind Of About When And What. It's Material, That's All.

If There Are Nine Guys Auditioning And They're All Gorgeous, I Have An Advantage, Because Gorgeous Guys Are A Dime A Dozen. But If They Need Someone Else - Like A Goofy Guy With Bad Hair Who Is Just Okay - Then That's Me. And Finally, The Other 2 Percent Who Audition Are Geniuses That I Could Never Touch.

The Pixar People Continuously Amaze Me. They Come Up With Something That Actually Looks As Though It Takes Place In This Happy, Real-world. Every Plot Line Is Not Just Plausible, But Oddly Authentic. The Stories Are Full Of Adventure, Humor And Love. The Characters Are Written With Great Human Dimension. I Don't Know How They Do It But They Astound Me.

There's No Substitute For A Great Love Who Says, 'no Matter What's Wrong With You, You're Welcome At This Table.'

But The Battles Against Loneliness That I Fought When I Was 16 Are Very Different From Those I Fought When I Was 27, And Those Are Very Different From The Ones I Fight At 44.

We Are Still In The Position Of Waking Up And Having A Choice. Do I Make The World Better Today Somehow, Or Do I Not Bother?

A Lot Of People Would Flee From What They Think Is Award-show Cheesiness, And I Don't. I Often Joke That My Speeches Are Very Personal Moments That Play Themselves Out In Front Of Billions Of People.

It's Difficult To Say No Sometimes. I Often Hear, "they'll Really Take Care Of You," Or "someone Else Is Going To Take The Role If You Don't Play It." Some Of The Best Advice I Ever Received Was To Always Ask Myself: Am I Going To Kill Myself If Somebody Else Takes This Role? The Answer Is Almost Always No.

I Am Who I Am, And I Think I Have A Good Nature, By And Large. But If Someone Takes Advantage Of That Good Nature, Well Then, You Know, I'm Not That Nice A Guy.

I Think I'm Lucky That I Had Kids As Spread Out As Much As I Did, 'cause My Son, My Oldest, Was Born When I Was 21. And My Youngest Is 15 Now. He Was Born When I Was 40, You Know?

My Wife And I, We Met Making A Movie. This Is Not Just Our Job, It's Our Life. It's What We Do Naturally Whether We're Working Together Or Not.

Believing Is Seeing And Seeing Is Believing.

Seeing Is Believing

The Nature Of The Movies Is Different Than It Was Five Years Ago, And They're All Driven By The Possibilities Of Cgi, Which Means You Can Make Anything Happen On Screen That You Can Possibly Desire.

Don’t You Love New York In The Fall? It Makes Me Wanna Buy School Supplies. I Would Send You A Bouquet Of Newly Sharpened Pencils If I Knew Your Name And Address. On The Other Hand, This Not Knowing Has Its Charms.

Work In The Theater Is More Fun Than Fun.

The Only Way You Can Truly Control How You Are Seen Is By Being Honest All The Time.

'forrest Gump' Was Great, It Was Fabulous. It Lasted Much Longer Than Anybody Thought, And Brought Me A Degree Of Attention That No Human Being On The Face Of The Planet Deserves.

I Think It's Better To Feel Good Than To Look Good.

My Doctor Said, 'if You Can Weigh What You Weighed In High School, You'll Essentially Be Healthy And Not Have Type 2 Diabetes.' Well, I'm Gonna Have Type 2 Diabetes, Because There Is No Way I Can Weigh As Much As I Did In High School.

Type 2 Diabetes

E-mail Is Far More Convenient Than The Telephone, As Far As I'm Concerned. I Would Throw My Phone Away If I Could Get Away With It.

At The End Of The Day It's Got To Be A Good Movie, It's Got To Be A Funny Movie, And It's Got To Make People Think, 'hey, I Couldn't Have Spent My Time Any Better.'

I'm Not A Smart Man, But I Know What Love Is.

My Tv Show Had Been Cancelled; Nothing Else Had Gone Anywhere; Some Alliances I Had Made Petered Out And Nothing Came Of Them And I Was Looking At A Long, Long Year Ahead Of Me In Which There Was No Work On The Horizon, The Phone Wasn't Ringing. I Had Two Kids, One Of Them A Brand-new Baby, And I Didn't Know If I Would Be Able To Keep My House.

I'm Glad I Didn't Have To Fight In Any War. I'm Glad I Didn't Have To Pick Up A Gun. I'm Glad I Didn't Get Killed Or Kill Somebody. I Hope My Kids Enjoy The Same Lack Of Manhood.

I've Worked With People Who Are Much Further To The Left Than I Am And Much Further To The Right Than I Am. At The End Of The Day, Who Gives A ... . Good For You. This Is America. Vote Your Conscience.

I've Been Doing A Pale Imitation Of Bill Murray For Most Of My Career.

Yeah! I Got Type-two Diabetes! I'm Sure There's Going To Be Some Media Scandal Now, Saying I Got It Because I Gained And Lost Weight For Movie Parts Or Something - But I Doubt That.

I Always Wanted To Play Lestrade Of Scotland Yard 'cause He's A Buffoon That Gets To Wear A Uniform. I Thought That Would Be Fun.

Acting Still Rings My Bell As Much As It Did In High School. Plus, I Can Now Indulge My Interests As A Producer As Well. My Work Is More Fun Than Fun But, Best Of All, It's Still Very Scary. You Are Always Walking Some Kind Of High Wire.

I Know The Pope Is Opposed To The Use Of Condoms. All I Can Say Is, I Am A Spiritual Man And I've Been Happily Married For 21 Years. I Don't Even Know What A Condom Is Anymore.

Reading A Script Is Usually As Exciting As Reading A Boilerplate Legal Document, So When You Read One That Makes You Feel As If You're Seeing The Movie, You Know It's Something Different.

I'm Not Saying I'm Not Bummed If A Movie Doesn't Do Well, But That Isn't The Final Analysis Of Whether It's Any Good.

There Was A Period Of Time In Los Angeles When I Wondered If I Was Just Going To Lose Everything.

If I Stopped Having Passion, I'd Be Done.

If You Can Feel Like A Good Man In Your 40s, You Can Feel Like A Better Man In Your 50s, A Superman In Your 60s, And Maybe A Spider-man In Your 70s.

But Television, When I Was Doing It, Was All About Scoring. You Had To Make These Jokes Bang, Do Whatever You Could To Make The Material Really Pop. And If It Didn't, There Was Something Wrong With The Material, Or With You.

I Don't Cause Riots, But I Do Cause Confusion. People Freeze When They Spot Me.

Prior To Saving Private Ryan I Never Worked With Men. I Was Always Working With Some Babe, And It Was Always About Falling In Love, And It Just Got Turned Around. I'm Not Looking For Any Particular Kind Of Story. I Wait Until It Comes Across My Desk.

Falling In Love

Before You Go Into What Is Essentially A Competition, You Have To Have That Confidence. You Have To Ask Yourself, "are They Looking For A Guy My Height? My Age? I've Got A Shot." And If There Are Nine Guys Auditioning And They're All Gorgeous, I Have An Advantage, Because Gorgeous Guys Are A Dime A Dozen. But If They Need Someone Else - Like A Goofy Guy With Bad Hair Who Is Just Okay - Then That's Me. And Finally, The Other 2 Percent Who Audition Are Geniuses That I Could Never Touch.

And I'm Not Apolitical - I'm Very Specific In My Politics. But A Lot Of The Time It's Nobody's Business Unless You're Over At My House Having Dinner.

Mama Always Said, Dying Was A Part Of Life. I Sure Wish It Wasn't.

It's Always A Combination Of Physics And Poetry That I Find Inspiring. It's Hard To Wrap Your Head Around Things Like The Hubble Scope.

Hubble Space Telescope

I Have Faith That A Script Is Going To Hit Me Like A Ton Of Bricks, And When That Happens, It's Undeniable That I Should Choose The Role.

There Is Something Basic About Protecting Land By Taking It Off The Market. People Should Be Able To Enjoy Where They Live While At The Same Time Protect The Plants And Animals Around Them.

Dear God, Thank You For My Life. I Forgot How Big And Wonderful It Is.

You Have To Adhere To A Philosophy That The Life Unexamined Is Not Worth Living, Because Otherwise You're Just Living From Day To Day And You Don't Have Any Real Sense Of Yourself Or Where You Are.

All The Kids Are Gone. It's The Greatest Thing That Has Ever Happened To Mr. And Mrs. Tom Hanks. I'll Tell You That Right Now. Second Greatest After Having The Kids In The First Place. When They Go, Holy Smoke, It's Like You're Dating Again. It's Fantastic. Also, We Were Doing An Awful Lot Of Work.

Audiences Crave Something They've Never Seen Before. That's What They Want. They Want To Be Dazzled. They Want To Go In Either To Have Their Expectations Blown Out Of The Water, Or Have No Expectations And Are Dazzled By The Decisions That We Filmmakers Made.

We're Part Of A Greater Humanity And We Can Actually Affect The World By The Choices We Make Once We Leave The Theater.

The Most Accurate Representation Of How I Feel Is That I'm Incredibly Lucky To Be Working In This Structure Where People Get Paid Millions To Read The News On Tv. And, Yes, It Is Insane. And There Is Nothing I Can Say Beyond Acknowledging My Immense Good Fortune, And Being Aware That I'm Blessed, And Aware That It Isn't Going To Last Forever.

All That Most Parents Hope Is That Their Children Are Happy, Funny, Well Adjusted, And Have A Passion For Something In Their Lives. What Would Negate Everything Is If The Next Generation That We're Responsible For Has A Passionless Existence. And That's Cause For Occasional Sleepless Nights.

I Don't Parade My Family Out For Display, Which Is The Way It Will Stay. Yet I Have A Reputation For Being Cooperative With The Press. That's Because When I Do Give An Interview, I'm Willing To Tell The Truth About What I Do For A Living And How Goofy It Is Sometimes - And How Volatile It Can Also Be.

I Am A Lay Historian By Nature. I Seek Out An Empirical Reflection Of What Truth Is. I Sort Of Want Dates And Motivations And I Want The Whole Story. But I've Always Felt, Unconsciously, That All Human History Is That Connection From Person To Person To Person, Event To Event To Event, And From Idea To Idea.

Are You Crying? There's No Crying. There's No Crying In Baseball.

If You're Funny, If There's Something That Makes You Laugh, Then Every Day's Going To Be Okay.

Eating Everything You Want Is Not That Much Fun. When You Live A Life With No Boundaries, There's Less Joy. If You Can Eat Anything You Want To, What's The Fun In Eating Anything You Want To?

Even The Simplest Choice Can Make A Jaw-dropping Difference In Our World.

The Nature Of Motion Capture Is Only Going To Work For Certain Films. It's Not Going To Put Any Other Type Of Movies Out Of Business.

I Just Know That Every Man I Kill The Farther Away From Home I Feel.

Saving Private Ryan

If I Have No Connection With The Character, Then It's All Fake - It's Just Blah, Blah, Blah.

But Look, I Was Born In 1956, The Peak Year For Births In Us History. I Think I'm Very Representative Of Many Of The Thought Processes My Generation Have Been Through And, By And Large, People Of My Age Have Had Their Imprint Planted On The Consciousness Of Western Society For A Long Time.

I Did A 'love Boat!' And Based On My Trip On The 'love Boat,' I Said, 'i'd Just As Soon Not Do 'fantasy Island.''

I'm Not Interested In Doing Something Edgy With A Capital E Just So Everyone Knows, 'oh, Ok, Now He's Showing Us He Can Do Edgy.'

I Want To Have A Good Time Myself. I Don't Want To Dread Going To Work No Matter What The Gig Is. I Think, Selfishly, I Will Make Sure That I Have A Good Time; How About That?

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