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I Try To Do What I Call The Three E's - Educate, Entertain, And Enlighten. If You Don't Entertain, No One Will Show Up. But You Also Have To Educate, Because People Want To Discover Specific Things About A World Unlike Their Own - Whether It's How Hard It Is To Go To The Moon Or How Scary It Is To Be On Omaha Beach.

-Tom Hanks

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I Try To Do

Tom Hanks

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I Try To Do What I Call The Three E's - Educate, Entertain, And Enlighten. If You Don't Entertain, No One Will Show Up. But You Also Have To Educate, Because People Want To Discover Specific Things About A World Unlike Their Own - Whether It's How Hard It Is To Go To The Moon Or How Scary It Is To Be On Omaha Beach.

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Oprah Winfrey Today You Are Surrounded By Nothing But Love.

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

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

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

'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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

There Was Nothing To React To Except Wind And Trees [in Cast Away]. It Was Like Making A Silent Movie.

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

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

Shake It Off And Move On.

Work In The Theater Is More Fun Than Fun.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.'

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.'

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.

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

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

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?

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

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

But I Also Think All Of The Great Stories In Literature Deal With Loneliness. Sometimes It's By Way Of Heartbreak, Sometimes It's By Way Of Injustice, Sometimes It's By Way Of Fate. There's An Infinite Number Of Ways To Examine It.

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.

If You Have To Have A Job In This World, A High-priced Movie Star Is A Pretty Good Gig.

We Are All God's Animated Cartoons.

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

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

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.

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?

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.

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?'

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

A Story Has The Opportunity To Enlighten Us, Because As We Connect The Extraordinary Moments On Film With The Ordinary Moments Of Our Lives, We Ask Ourselves, "what Am I Going To Do The Next Time I'm Scared? What Would It Be Like To Say Goodbye To My Family For The Last Time?"

Extraordinary Moments

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

It's Just As Hard Staying Happily Married As It Is Doing Movies.

Happily Married

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.

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.

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.

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?

Growing Up In Northern California Has Had A Big Influence On My Love And Respect For The Outdoors. When I Lived In Oakland, We Would Think Nothing Of Driving To Half Moon Bay And Santa Cruz One Day And Then Driving To The Foothills Of The Sierras The Next Day.

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.

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

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.

The Desert, When The Sun Comes Up...i Couldn't Tell Where Heaven Stopped And The Earth Began.

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?

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 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...

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...

Now, Learning How To Make A Movie Is Something You Can Figure Out In About An Afternoon. The Physics Of It, The Marks, The Lights, Etc. What's Hard To Do Is To Suspend Your Own Feelings Of Self Consciousness. The Natural Actors Can Do That; They Can Become Part Of A Characterization And Learn How To Maintain It.

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

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.

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

Motion Pictures Are Just Beginning To Live Up To Their True Potential Of Being Immersive Experience - Going From Beyond Black And White Flickering Images To Fully Immersive 3d Color High-definition. You Don't Even Know Where The Real World Starts And The Fake World Begins. And Yet, None Of That's Going To Matter Unless The Story And The Emotions That They Allow Us To Become Invested In Are Something That We Can Recognize. Pixar Is Able To Do This In Ways That Almost Defies Speculation.

Black And White

'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.

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.

I Had To Keep Breathing. Even Though There Was No Reason To Hope... I Stayed Alive. I Kept Breathing. And One Day My Logic Was Proven All Wrong Because The Tide Came In, And Gave Me A Sail. And Now, Here I Am. Im Back... Because Now I Know What I Have To Do Now. I Have To Keep Breathing. Because Tomorrow The Sun Will Rise. Who Knows What The Tide Could Bring?

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.

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.

Houston, We Have A Problem.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

It Was A Million Tiny Little Things That, When You Added Them All Up, They Meant We Were Supposed To Be Together ... And I Knew It.

My Favorite Traditional Christmas Movie That I Like To Watch Is All Quiet On The Western Front. It's Just Not December Without That Movie In My House.

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

I Have A Woman Who Teaches Me What Love Is Every Day. Maybe That Sentiment Is Possible To Fake, But For Me It's Really True.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

People Ask Me All The Time, "what Kind Of Father Are You?" I Won't Know Until My Kids Are Grown.

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

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.

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

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!

But Actors With Political Views Are A Dime A Dozen.

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

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

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.

If Not For John Adams Leading A Revolution Against Great Britain...this Would Be The Baftas.

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

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.

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

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

I've Made Over 20 Movies, And 5 Of Them Are Good.

And Then It Was Like, Wait, You Can Go To College And Study Theater? And Act In Plays? This Is Almost A Racket, You Know. And Then When The Opportunity Came Along To Do It Professionally, I Thought I'd Won The Lottery.

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.

As A Young Man, Even If I Was Going To See A Play Or A Film By Myself, I Didn't Feel Like I Was Alone. There Was Something That Was Unfolding Up There That Brought Me Into It. And I Recognised That. For Those Two Hours, It Made Me Feel Like I Belonged To Something Really Good.

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.

This Is What We Storytellers Do. We Restore Order With Imagination.

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

I Try To Do What I Call The Three E's - Educate, Entertain, And Enlighten. If You Don't Entertain, No One Will Show Up. But You Also Have To Educate, Because People Want To Discover Specific Things About A World Unlike Their Own - Whether It's How Hard It Is To Go To The Moon Or How Scary It Is To Be On Omaha Beach.

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.

Help, And You Will Make A Huge Impact In The Life Of The Street, The Town, The Country And Our Planet. If Only One Out Of Four Of Each One Hundred Of You Choose To Help On Any Given Day, In Any Given Cause, Incredible Things Will Happen In The World You Live In.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Saving Private Ryan

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

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.

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!

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.

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

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 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.

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

A Hero Is Somebody Who Voluntarily Walks Into The Unknown.

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

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.

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.

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.

The Pleasure Of Working With Somebody Who's An Actor Is They Don't Waste Time With Stuff That Doesn't Matter.

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.

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.'

When I Was Growing Up, Everybody In Charge, My Parents And Teachers, Had All Survived The War, And They Talked About The War Like It Was The Kraken - You Know, This Huge Beast That Roamed The Earth During Their Formative Years.

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

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 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.

Believing Is Seeing And Seeing Is Believing.

Seeing Is Believing

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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'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.

Larger-than-life Characters Make Up About .01 Percent Of The World's Population.

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

Without Question, We Make Choices - And Those Choices Have Consequences. So Can You Control Your Own Destiny? To A Degree, Certainly. Must You Have Faith In Serendipity? Without Question, You'd Better. Otherwise You're Foolish.

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

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

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.

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