Tom Hanks – 26 Quotes

26 Quotes by Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

My kid could get a bad X-ray and I could get a call from the doctor saying I have something growing in my bum and that would change my perspective on everything instantaneously, on what is and what is not important.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

Tweeting is like sending out cool telegrams to your friends once a week.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

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.’

– Tom Hanks

If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

It’s just as hard… staying happily married as it is doing movies.

– Tom Hanks

I’ve made over 20 movies, and 5 of them are good.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

If you look at romantic comedies as pieces of commerce, the audience is looking for wish fulfillment.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

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.

– Tom Hanks

Movie-making is telling a story with the best technology at your disposal.

– Tom Hanks