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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.

-Tom Hanks

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I've Made Quite A

Tom Hanks

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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.

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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.

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

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

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.

Houston, We Have A Problem.

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

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

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

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Happily Married

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?'

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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?

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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 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

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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Pierre De Coubertin

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