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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.

-Tom Hanks

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I Start At Square

Tom Hanks

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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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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

My Son Is A Gentleman And A Professional Who Is Pursuing Something Difficult. Yet The Only Thing He Has Ever Asked Me For Is Advice - Never Favors. He Has Just Said, "what Do You Think I Should Do, Dad?" It's Extraordinary To Me That My Son Would Listen To And Have Faith In Whatever Wisdom I Can Offer.

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

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.

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

I Would Not Want To Live In A Country That Would Have Me As A Leader In Any Sort Of Political Bent.

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.

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

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.

Shake It Off And Move On.

Repertory Theater Is All About Being Part Of The Whole, One Of The Many Colors In This Vast Palette.

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

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

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.

If It Wasn't Hard, Everyone Would Do It. It's The Hard That Makes It Great.

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

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."

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

I Went To College Because I Didn't Have Anywhere Else To Go And It Was A Fabulous Hang. And While I Was There I Was Exposed To This World That I Didn't Know Was Possible.

I've Made Quite A Number Of Movies Like Castaway And A Few Others Where I'm The Only Guy In The Movie And The Only Place To Be Is Right Next To The Camera In Costume Ready To Go In Order To Get It. The Years, And More Specifically Probably The Four Months Prior To Beginning Shooting, Is Where The Big Preparation Is That The Director Does Because I Knew We Were Going To Get On The Set. And The Good News Is, If You're The Boss, If It Ain't Good, You Don't Use It. You Just Cut It Out.

No Journalist Has Ever Been In My House And No Photographs Have Ever Been Taken Of Where I Live. I Don't Parade My Family Out For Display, Which Is The Way It Will Stay.

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

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

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?

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Franklin Pierce

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