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

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

Understanding the Quote: "there was a period of time in los angeles when i wondered..."

This quote by Tom Hanks reflects deeply on the theme of los angeles. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Los Angeles, Periods, Ifs, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Tom Hanks interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks is celebrated for insightful thoughts on los angeles and periods. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 91999
Topic
Los Angeles
Periods
Ifs
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Thinking
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Good Man
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Animated
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Motivation
Reflection
Ideas
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.
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Feelings
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Prejudice
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Leader
Political
I Know How The Academy Awards Works: It's A Card Game, And I'm In The Toss-up Category.
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Awards
Cards
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Waiting
Luck
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Reason
Humans
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.
New York
Fall
School
A Hero Is Somebody Who Voluntarily Walks Into The Unknown.
Hero
Walks
I'm Not A Smart Man, But I Know What Love Is.
Romantic
Smart
Love Is
The Only Way You Can Truly Control How You Are Seen Is By Being Honest All The Time.
Motivational
Way
Honest
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.
Sea
Feet
Necks
You Don't Necessarily Go In To Talk To The Person To Try To Find Some Secret Key To The Lock.
Keys
Secret
Trying
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.
Brother
Hero
Black And White
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.
Philosophy
Real
Where You Are
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...
Healing
Eye
Angel
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.
Finals
Analysis
Wells
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.
Real
Adventure
Character
Work In The Theater Is More Fun Than Fun.
Fun
Theater
Mama Always Said, Dying Was A Part Of Life. I Sure Wish It Wasn't.
Dying
Wish
Mama
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.
Real
Black And White
Color
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.
Reading
Different
Scripts
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.
Trying
Stories
Possibility
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.
Kids
Dating
Gone
I Come From The School Of That Horse Is Not Dead.
Horse
School
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.
Honesty
Kids
Class
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.
Growing Up
Thinking
Moon
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.
Voice
Drawing
Long
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.
Birthday
Crush
Baby
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.
Loneliness
Fighting
Battle
I Don't Cause Riots, But I Do Cause Confusion. People Freeze When They Spot Me.
People
Confusion
Causes
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.
Men
Play
Two
I Was Never Intimidated By Change. I Was Like An Army Brat Who Had Lived All Around The World.
Army
World
Brat
We're Part Of A Greater Humanity And We Can Actually Affect The World By The Choices We Make Once We Leave The Theater.
Choices
Humanity
World
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?
Here I Am
Breathing
One Day
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.
Hair
Guy
Competition
I Try Not To Lie To People - The Only Way To Control The Way You're Perceived Is To Tell The Truth.
Lying
People
Trying
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.
Opportunity
College
Play
Are You Crying? There's No Crying. There's No Crying In Baseball.
Baseball
League
Cry
The Desert, When The Sun Comes Up...i Couldn't Tell Where Heaven Stopped And The Earth Began.
Morning
Heaven
Desert
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.
Fun
School
Scary
The Power Of The Individual Is As Powerful As The Universe Is Infinite.
Powerful
Individuality
Infinite
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.
Inspiring
Hubble Space Telescope
Physics
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!
Guarantees
Demand
Quitting
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.
Character
Thinking
Looks
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.
Details
Fabric
Advantage
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.
Jobs
Passion
Artist
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.
Jobs
Responsibility
Always Trying
Houston, We Have A Problem.
Houston
Problem
I Don't Think Anybody's Mind's Gonna Be Changed.
Thinking
Mind
Changed
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.
Kids
I Love My Family
Film
Life Was Like A Box Of Chocolates. You Never Know What You're Gonna Get.
Movie
Book
Numbers
Saying No To Something Is Actually Much More Powerful Than Saying Yes.
Inspirational
Powerful
Saying Yes
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.
Love Is
Fake
Teach
There's A Difference Between Solitude And Loneliness. I Can Understand The Concept Of Being A Monk For A While.
Loneliness
Differences
Solitude
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
Football
Names
Villa
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.
Running
People
Going Out
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?'
Good Day
Thinking
Night
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.
Choices Made
Editors
Stories
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.
Optimistic
Optimism
Tolerance
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.
Country
Impact
World
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.
Thinking
Play
Awards
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.
Loneliness
Fate
Thinking
If Not For John Adams Leading A Revolution Against Great Britain...this Would Be The Baftas.
Revolution
Would Be
Britain
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.
Jobs
Thinking
Vacation
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.
Moon
Thinking
Race
If Things Were Easy To Find, They Wouldn’t Be Worth Finding.
Easy
Findings
Ifs
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.
Lonely
Loneliness
Cinema
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.
Dad
Son
Thinking
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.
Baby
Kids
Phones
If I Stopped Having Passion, I'd Be Done.
Passion
Done
Ifs
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.
Fighting
Self
People
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