“
It's no wonder we're all such a mess, is it? We're like Tom Hanks in Big. Little boys and girls trapped in adult bodies and forced to get on with it.
”
”
Nick Hornby (High Fidelity)
“
Fuck being a good sport, I’d rather be playing charades with Tom Hanks.
”
”
Jennette McCurdy (I'm Glad My Mom Died)
“
The desert, when the sun comes up...I couldn't tell where heaven stopped and the Earth began.
”
”
Tom Hanks
“
Never give up because you never know what the tide will bring in the next day.
”
”
Tom Hanks
“
So now I know what I have to do. I have to keep breathing. And tomorrow the sun will rise, and who knows what the tide will bring in.
”
”
William Broyles Jr. (Cast Away: The Shooting Script)
“
It's supposed to be hard. If it were easy, everyone would do it.
”
”
Tom Hanks
“
You learn more from getting your butt kicked than getting it kissed.
”
”
Tom Hanks
“
I just want somebody I can have a decent conversation with over dinner.” —Tom Hanks, Sleepless in Seattle (1993) 11
”
”
Jenn Bennett (Alex, Approximately)
“
The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino." - Joe Fox
”
”
Nora Ephron
“
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.
”
”
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
“
Believing is seeing and seeing is believing.
”
”
Tom Hanks
“
A hero is somebody who voluntarily walks into the unknown.
Tom Hanks
”
”
Tom Hanks
“
...childish, selfish, immature - that's right, I am. But do you know how much money I make for thinking this way?
”
”
Tom Hanks
“
We both disliked rude rickshwalas, shepu bhaji in any form, group photographs at weddings, lizards, tea that has gone cold, the habit of taking newspaper to the toilet, kissing a boy who'd just smoked a cigarette et cetra.
Another list. The things we loved: strong coffee, Matisse, Rumi, summer rain, bathing together, Tom Hanks, rice pancakes, Cafe Sunrise, black-and-white photographs, the first quiet moments after you wake up in the morning.
”
”
Sachin Kundalkar (Cobalt Blue)
“
If you're funny, if there's something that makes you laugh, then every day's going to be okay.
”
”
Tom Hanks
“
I just want somebody I can have a decent conversation with over dinner.” —Tom Hanks, Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
”
”
Jenn Bennett (Alex, Approximately)
“
He later underscored how tricky suspect assessment is by pointing out that just based on geographic history and physical description a good EAR-ONS suspect would be Tom Hanks. (Who, it should be emphasized, can be eliminated by the shooting schedule of Bosom Buddies alone).
”
”
Michelle McNamara (I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer)
“
The things that suck still suck, but they're allowed to be happy. And maybe it means so much more that they're happy, knowing that they still carry that sadness with them.
”
”
Kerry Winfrey (Waiting for Tom Hanks (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #1))
“
Everyone thinks of romantic comedies as being these sappy, unrealistic stories where love conquers all and everyone ends up happy at the end. But that's not what her movies were at all. Like, in Sleepless in Seattle, you can't really get any sadder that Tom Hanks missing his dead wife. And in You've Got Mail, Meg Ryan misses her mom and loses her store. None of that gets resolved by the end. It's not like Tom's wife comes back to life, and Meg Ryan still loses the business her mom built.
”
”
Kerry Winfrey (Waiting for Tom Hanks (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #1))
“
I'd follow Dean Di Laurentis to the ends of the earth. To the bowels of a volcano, if he asked me to be the Meg Ryan to his Tom Hanks. To fucking Mordor, if he asked me to be the Sam to his Frodo.
”
”
Elle Kennedy (The Score (Off-Campus, #3))
“
It was a million tiny things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together... and I knew it.
”
”
Tom Hanks
“
Maybe my person and I won’t fit together like two halves of the same whole, but neither did Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail or Sleepless in Seattle. They didn’t erase each other’s pain; they just made it bearable.
”
”
Kerry Winfrey (Waiting for Tom Hanks (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #1))
“
He built her a bookshelf and she filled it with books by people who wrote page after page about their feelings. Ove understood things he could see and touch. Cement and concrete. Glass and steel. Tools. Things one could figure out. He understood right angles and clear instruction manuals. Assembly models and drawings. Things one could draw on paper. He was a man of black and white. And she was colour. All the colour he had.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove)
“
Death row is a place for broken people
just like Tom Hanks.
They can't be fixed,
warped all out of shape
by the cracks and splinters inside them.
And what else can you do with stuff that's broken
except throw it in the trash?
Right?
”
”
Sarah Crossan (Moonrise)
“
Do you really want to kick a guy when he's down? Of course you do. That's when his head is nearest to your foot. You barely have to move it.
”
”
Kevin Seccia (Punching Tom Hanks: Dropkicking Gorillas and Pummeling Zombified Ex-Presidents---a Guide to Beating Up Anything)
“
Almost the entire world is asleep. Those who are awake live in constant amazement.
”
”
Tom Hanks, Joe vs. the Volcano
“
The more men I kill, the more far away from home I feel -- Saving Private Ryan
”
”
Tom Hanks
“
Every day the sun will rise and you never know what the tide will bring in.
-Tom Hanks, in the movie 'Castaway'.
”
”
William Broyles Jr.
“
Dead Uncle Steve?” I grit my teeth. “He’s not dead. He looks like Tom Hanks from Castaway, though. Minus the volleyball.
”
”
Erin Watt (Twisted Palace (The Royals, #3))
“
It’s just how love gets described in the movies. Like in Sleepless in Seattle . . .” This is the movie they showed us last night. “Tom Hanks’s character is musing about why he fell in love with his dead wife, and he says that it was because she could peel an apple in one long strip, or something like that. And I was reading something similar in a book recently, only that was about peeling an orange . . . anyway . . . I’ve just never felt like the way someone peels fruit would be a reason to spend the rest of your life with them.
”
”
Catherine McKenzie (Spin (Spin, #1))
“
Tom isn't one of the men whose legs trailed by a hank of sinews, or whose guts cascaded from their casing like slithering eels. Nor were his lungs turned to glue or his brains to stodge by the gas. But he's scarred all the same having to live in the same skin as the man who did the things that needed to be done back then. He carries that other shadow, which is cast inward.
”
”
M.L. Stedman
“
So I tole him a little bit about my checkered career, an after he listened for a while, Tom Hanks says, "Well, Mr. Gump, you are sure a curious feller. Sounds like somebody ought to make a movie of your life's story.
”
”
Winston Groom (Gump and Co. (Forrest Gump, #2))
“
In New York City real estate parlors took your money and lied to you, drug addicts relieved themselves in plain sight, and the Public Library was closed on Mondays.
”
”
Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type)
“
But what if I stop giving everyone everything, and then they don’t give me anything back to fill the void?
”
”
Kerry Winfrey (Not Like the Movies (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #2))
“
I settle back in my seat, gazing out the window as we cross the bridge toward New Jersey. I don’t know where the heck he’s taking me, but I’m happy to let him. I’d follow Dean Di Laurentis to the ends of the earth. To the bowels of a volcano, if he asked me to be the Meg Ryan to his Tom Hanks. To fucking Mordor, if he asked me to be the Sam to his Frodo. To—
“We’re here,” he announces.
I’m jolted out of the most ridiculous train of thought I’ve ever ridden.
”
”
Elle Kennedy (The Score (Off-Campus, #3))
“
Being Anna’s boyfriend was like training to be a Navy SEAL while working full-time in an Amazon fulfillment center in the Oklahoma Panhandle in tornado season. Something was going on every moment of every day. My 2:30 naps were a thing of the past.
”
”
Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
“
Трябва да продължа да дишам,защото утре слънцето ще изгрее и не се знае какво ще ни донесе прилива
”
”
Tom Hanks
“
Kirk, as his defensive stance, pulled out book after book, reading like he was a chain-smoker with a carton of menthols.
”
”
Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
“
He had almost forgotten that feeling. The humiliation of it. The powerlessness. The realisation that one cannot fight men in white shirts.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove)
“
Did Tom Hanks talk to the volleyball because he'd gone mad, or to stop himself going mad?
”
”
Andrea K. Höst (Stray (Touchstone, #1))
“
So you write to our congressmen
With bleeding pens
Of the sorrow within
And in return they just send
Tickets to the latest Tom Hanks show
”
”
Jewel
“
Halfway through the tour, we skip out and go to Cafe Lalo instead, determined to sit just where Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks did in You’ve Got Mail.
”
”
Emily Henry (People We Meet on Vacation)
“
This is like a scene in some half-baked romantic comedy, the kind of thing not even Tom Hanks can do much with.
”
”
Stephen King (Rose Madder)
“
And every time someone calls me a good sport, all I feel is how much I don’t want to be one. Fuck being a good sport, I’d rather be playing charades with Tom Hanks.
”
”
Jennette McCurdy (I'm Glad My Mom Died)
“
Always use a condom, especially in Philadelphia! Have we learned nothing from one of Tom Hanks’s most famed roles? Protect yourself!
”
”
Ben Kissel (The Last Book on the Left: Stories of Murder and Mayhem from History's Most Notorious Serial Killers)
“
What are you doing?” he asks. “What everyone does in these situations—I’m turning inanimate objects into friends. Tom Hanks had Wilson, and I have Gary.” I hold up the blue nitrile glove I craftily stuffed with cotton balls. With a Sharpie, I drew Gary a face. Lucas smiles for a fraction of a second before turning and shaking his head. “We saw that,” Gary and I say.
”
”
R.S. Grey (Anything You Can Do)
“
Hey, I got an idea, let’s go to the movies. I wanna go to the movies, I want to take you all to the movies. Let’s go and experience the art of the cinema. Let’s begin with the Scream Of Fear, and we are going to haunt us for the rest of our lives. And then let’s go see The Great Escape, and spend our summer jumping our bikes, just like Steve McQueen over barb wire. And then let’s catch The Seven Samurai for some reason on PBS, and we’ll feel like we speak Japanese because we can read the subtitles and hear the language at the same time. And then let’s lose sleep the night before we see 2001: A Space Odyssey because we have this idea that it’s going to change forever the way we look at films. And then let’s go see it four times in one year. And let’s see Woodstock three times in one year and let’s see Taxi Driver twice in one week. And let’s see Close Encounters of the Third Kind just so we can freeze there in mid-popcorn. And when the kids are old enough, let’s sit them together on the sofa and screen City Lights and Stage Coach and The Best Years of Our Lives and On The Waterfront and Midnight Cowboy and Five Easy Pieces and The Last Picture Show and Raging Bull and Schindler’s List… so that they can understand how the human condition can be captured by this amalgam of light and sound and literature we call the cinema.
”
”
Tom Hanks
“
The air is slightly chilly, but there's a promise in the air. It might be rainy and cold and, okay, it wouldn't be unheard of if it started snowing in April, but warm weather is coming. Things are growing, and I can feel it.
”
”
Kerry Winfrey (Not Like the Movies (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #2))
“
All of us resist growth to some extent. It’s built in; I’m convinced of it. To paraphrase Tom Hanks’s character in the movie A League of Their Own, if growth were easy, everybody would be doing it. But that’s what makes it great.
”
”
John A. McDougall (The Mcdougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss)
“
As I scaled some rocks, I didn’t move out of the way in time as a wave crashed to shore and I got soaked up to my shins in icy water. I could forget about a Russian vor; I was going to look like Tom Hanks in goddamn Cast Away by the time I arrived.
”
”
Marisha Pessl (Night Film)
“
Tom isn't one of the men whose legs trailed by a hank of sinews, or whose guts cascaded from their casing like slithering eels. Nor were his lungs turned to glue or his brains to stodge by the gas. But he's scarred all the same, having to live in the same skin as the man who did the things that needed to be done back then. He carries that other shadow, which is cast inward.
”
”
M.L. Stedman (The Light Between Oceans)
“
Kaitlin said, "I'm so sick of that 'Greatest Generation' crap. We finally drove a silver nail through the heart of Generation X, only to have this new monster rear its head. And I'm soooooo sick of Tom Hanks looking earnest all the time. They should make a Tom Hanks movie where Tom kills off Greatest Generation figureheads one by one."
Bree arrived on cue: "And then he starts killing other generations. He becomes this supernova of hate--all he wants to do is destroy."
"Hate clings to him like a rich, lathery shampoo. His lungs secrete it like anthrax foam."
Mom lost it. "Stop it! All of you! Tom Hanks is a fine actor who would never hurt anybody. At least not onscreen."
I thought, 'Hey, didn't Tom Hanks mow down half of Chicago in "Road to Perdition?"' Well, whatever.
”
”
Douglas Coupland (JPod)
“
I’d have bet on seeing Eva Gabor on Forty-Second Street before you. Are you crying?” “No. Yes. Oh, Bobby!” Sue explained: She had been in the city for two months, sleeping on Rebecca’s couch. Her savings were running out. No agents would give her the time of day.
”
”
Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
“
I wonder if anyone will know what I mean when I say that some people make the world seem like a large place filled with different lands, languages and cultures and others make it seem like a small place where a new Tom Hanks movie is being released on video this week
”
”
Tales of Mere Existence
“
The best way to spark conversation is to be specific. Include quirky things that make you stand out. If you say, “I like music,” that doesn’t really tell me anything about you. Cool, who doesn’t? Same with writing that you like travel, food, and laughter. That’s like saying you like Tom Hanks. Yeah, dude, he’s an American hero. Don’t tell me you like to cook; describe to me your signature dish and what makes your Vietnamese soup pho-nomenal. The more specific you are, the more opportunities you give potential matches to connect by commenting on that quirk.
”
”
Logan Ury (How to Not Die Alone: The Surprising Science That Will Help You Find Love)
“
But what finally undid me was when Ariana came whistle-toning in with excitement because she had spent the previous evening playing charades at Tom Hanks’s house. That was the moment I broke. I couldn’t take it anymore. Music performances and magazine covers…whatever, I’ll get over it. But playing a family game at National Treasure, two-time Academy Award-winner and six-time nominee Tom Hanks’s house? I’m done.
From that moment on, I didn’t like her. I couldn’t like her. Pop star success I could handle, but hanging out with Sheriff Woody, with fucking Forrest Gump? This has gone too far.
”
”
Jennette McCurdy (I'm Glad My Mom Died)
“
Collins, echoing Ed Catmull, “What separates people is the return on luck, what you do with it when you get it. What matters is how you play the hand you’re dealt.” He continues, “You don’t leave the game, until it’s not your choice. Steve Jobs had great luck at arriving at the birth of an industry. Then he had bad luck in getting booted out. But Steve played whatever hand he was dealt to the best of his ability. Sometimes you create the hand, by giving yourself challenges that will make you stronger, where you don’t even know what’s next. That’s the beauty of the story. Steve’s almost like the Tom Hanks character in Castaway—just keep breathing because you don’t know what the tide will bring in tomorrow.
”
”
Brent Schlender (Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader)
“
deal for us as it was for him. Steve Wong’s grandparents were naturalized in the forties. My dad had escaped the low-grade
”
”
Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
“
that once-splendid cinema palace and watched movies. Now it’s
”
”
Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
“
For a moment he thinks about swerving off the road, until he realises that the worst case scenario would be that they all accompanied him into the afterlife.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove)
“
What's normal anyways?
”
”
Forrest Gump
“
No one in the history of ever has called me chill. I came out of the womb and the doctor was like, ‘Whoa, get this newborn into a baby yoga class, she’s stressed.
”
”
Kerry Winfrey (Not Like the Movies (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #2))
“
Ove cast his evaluating eye on the spectacle and finally drew the conclusion that this smoking, Spanish-manufactured car must be known as a ‘hospital’.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove)
“
Ove’s wife often quarrels with Ove because he’s always arguing about everything.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove)
“
he was afraid that their chattering voices would drown out the memory of her voice.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove)
“
The tubes have to warm up,” he said. “Does this get shortwave from the Soviet Union?” “How’d you know?” “My grandma had a radio like this.” “So did mine! In fact, that’s it.
”
”
Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
“
Sure, it's absolutely ridiculous to turn down a real-life guy because of a movie star, like saving myself for one of the Jonas Brothers in junior high, but it's how I feel.
”
”
Kerry Winfrey (Waiting for Tom Hanks (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #1))
“
you either distract yourself from your pain with over-activity, or you make yourself a home inside your pain cocoon.
”
”
Kerry Winfrey (Waiting for Tom Hanks (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #1))
“
I’ll ask him what life has been like for him since he twice crossed the equigravisphere. Does he suffer melancholia on a quiet afternoon, as the world spins on automatic?
”
”
Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
“
I try not to judge people who face situations I’ve never faced
”
”
Kerry Winfrey (Waiting for Tom Hanks (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #1))
“
Hank Stamper was, quite intentionally, Captain Marvel. Once known as … Übermensch. The current fantasy …
”
”
Tom Wolfe (The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test)
“
In the time I spend lollygagging over my whites and colors, Anna will drywall her attic, prepare her taxes, make her own fresh pasta, and start up a clothing exchange on the Internet.
”
”
Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
“
It doesn’t matter how someone in a romantic comedy affords their absurdly nice house, or whether or not their profession makes sense, or if technically they’re sort of stalking someone they heard on a call-in radio show. What matters is that they have hope. Sure, they find love, but it’s not even about love. It’s the hope that you deserve happiness, and that you won’t be sad forever, and that things will get better. It’s hope that life doesn’t always have to be a miserable slog, that you can find someone to love who understands you and accepts you just as you are.
”
”
Kerry Winfrey (Waiting for Tom Hanks (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #1))
“
Sure, some movies don’t work. Some fail in their intent. But anyone who says they hated a movie is treating a voluntarily shared human experience like a bad Red-Eye out of LAX. The departure is delayed for hours, there’s turbulence that scares even the flight attendants, the guy across from you vomits, they can’t serve any food and the booze runs out, you’re seated next to twin babies with the colic, and you land too late for your meeting in the city. You can hate that. But hating a movie misses the damn point. Would you say you hated the seventh birthday party of your girlfriend’s niece or a ball game that went eleven innings and ended 1–0? You hate cake and extra baseball for your money? Hate should be saved for fascism and steamed broccoli that’s gone cold.
”
”
Tom Hanks (The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece)
“
if touching her cheek. ‘I miss you,’ he whispers. It’s been six months since she died. But Ove still inspects the whole house twice a day to feel the radiators and check that she hasn’t sneakily turned up the heating.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove)
“
Sweet tea with milk, three Oreos, and Bob Roy’s snug and cozy flat helped Sue breathe deeply for the first time in months. She let out a sigh as big as a cresting wave and leaned back into a chair so soft it put the z in cozy. “Okay,” Bob said. “Tell me everything.” She opened up about, well, everything, cued by Bob’s sympathy. He uttered his support at every story, every anecdote: New York was the only place for Sue to be! Shelley and her “yeah, okay” attitude were to be expected from such a see-you-next-Tuesday! The subway was survivable as long as you never made eye contact with anyone. You found an apartment by reading the Rental classifieds in the Times and The Village Voice, but you had to get them early, at seven in the morning, and then you had to hightail it to the apartments with a bag of donuts because the super would always open up for a pretty girl who shared her donuts.
”
”
Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
“
Sonja thought he should talk to Rune about it because they were ‘in the same situation’. Ove couldn’t quite understand what she meant by that. Rune was not in fact going to be the father of Ove’s child, but an altogether different one.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove)
“
Ove didn’t know what he was expected to say to that; clearly the whole matter of car makes was considered quite important in Spain, and certainly Ove could empathise with that. ‘Saaaab,’ he said, therefore, pointing demonstratively at his chest.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove)
“
I'm reminded that romance isn't the only great love story of our lives. Sometimes the love we have with our lifelong friends, the ones we can depend on through changes and fights and joys and heartbreaks - sometimes those are the greatest love stories we have.
”
”
Kerry Winfrey (Not Like the Movies (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #2))
“
History in a societal sense doesn't repeat, rather it seems to rhythm. That is due to the conspiring of a few and their conquest to corrupt, conquer and control. The elimination of common sense and the ability to think critically, destroys commutation and ultimately commUNITY!!! -
”
”
Tom Hanks (no money in the banks hanks)
“
Casting people look at your picture, then at you to see if it matches. Are you actually a girl? Do you have blond hair? You sporting a rack of any significance? If you’re what they are looking for, they turn over to your résumé, scan your credits and your lies, then scribble down this magic word: callback.” Bob rolled paper into the old Royal, adjusted the margins and tabs, and within minutes had typed out a crisp, clear, and clean résumé that made Sue look like she was as experienced a dreamer as ever hopped a bus to the big city. She could boast of thirty roles. The one thing missing from the paper was her name at the top.
”
”
Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
“
And then he packs up the battery and clamps and corrugated iron and puts everything in the garage. Not because he doesn’t think those morons deserve a proper electric shock. Because they do. But because he knows it’s been a while since someone reminded him of the difference between being wicked because one has to be or because one can.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove)
“
I was at a party in Beverly Hills, and everyone in sports was there. Magic Johnson, Wayne Gretzky, Kareem. And I spotted my idol—Hank Aaron! I walked up to him and introduced myself. He said, “I know who you are. You made a great decision going to the USFL.” I was shocked. Then he leaned in and whispered, “Tom, you always have to get the money. Get the fucking money. Because they don’t care about you.” —Tom Ramsey, quarterback, Los Angeles Express
”
”
Jeff Pearlman (Football For A Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL)
“
On the Lights, Tom Sherbourne has plenty of time to think about the war. About the faces, the voices of the blokes who had stood beside him, who saved his life one way or another; the ones whose dying words he heard, and those whose muttered jumbles he couldn’t make out, but who he nodded to anyway. Tom isn’t one of the men whose legs trailed by a hank of sinews, or whose guts cascaded from their casing like slithering eels. Nor were his lungs turned to glue or his brains to stodge by the gas. But he’s scarred all the same, having to live in the same skin as the man who did the things that needed to be done back then. He carries that other shadow, which is cast inward. He tries not to dwell on it: he’s seen plenty of men turned worse than useless that way. So he gets on with life around the edges of this thing he’s got no name for. When he dreams about those years, the Tom who is experiencing them, the Tom who is there with blood on his hands, is a boy of eight or so. It’s this small boy who’s up against blokes with guns and bayonets, and he’s worried because his school socks have slipped down and he can’t hitch them up because he’ll have to drop his gun to do it, and he’s barely big enough even to hold that. And he can’t find his mother anywhere. Then he wakes and he’s in a place where there’s just wind and waves and light, and the intricate machinery that keeps the flame burning and the lantern turning. Always turning, always looking over its shoulder. If he can only get far enough away—from people, from memory—time will do its job.
”
”
M.L. Stedman (The Light Between Oceans)
“
Ryan was complex—he was big-hearted and caring but also resolute and direct. He once e-mailed me an audio clip of a television news interview he gave after a group of Navy SEALs rescued the captain of the Maersk Alabama tanker ship. Pirates had taken the ship and the captain hostage off the coast of Somalia, Africa. The story was later made into the film Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks. A team of Navy SEAL snipers shot and killed all but one of the hostage takers, who had placed themselves and their hostage in a desperate situation. Ryan told the TV reporter, “Despite what your momma told you, violence does solve problems.”1 I understood exactly what Ryan meant—there was no diplomatic or political solution to the crisis, and allowing pirates to take American vessels and crews hostage would set a bad precedent in other parts of the globe. Weeks before, in fact, the pirates had killed other hostages. Ryan’s statement was in no way meant to be bravado; he was merely conveying the fact that many times violence brings about a successful conclusion to a hostage crisis. The SEALs spoke the only language that the Somali pirates understood: violence. Apparently, the SEALs’ response acted as a deterrent, since the Somali pirates have consequently stayed clear of US flagged vessels. Chris Kyle later turned Ryan’s statement into a patch he wore on his hat.
”
”
Robert Vera (A Warrior's Faith: Navy SEAL Ryan Job, a Life-Changing Firefight, and the Belief That Transformed His Life)
“
Sue stepped into a haven that smelled of candles and lemon-scented dish soap, a cabinet of curiosities, one of which was the bathtub smack dab in the middle of the small kitchen. Bob Roy’s railroad flat was four tight, connected rooms, each stuffed with koombies, knickknacks, doodads, furniture pieces of any style, shelves, books, photos in frames, trophies bought from flea markets, old records, small lamps, and calendars from decades before. “I know,” he said. “It looks like I sell magic potions in here, like I’m an animated badger from a Disney cartoon.” He lit a burner on the stove with a huge kitchen match, then filled a shiny, Olde English–style kettle with water from the tap. As he prepared cups on a tray he said, “Tea in minutes, titmouse. Make a home for yourself.
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Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
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Jobs later explained, “We discussed whether it was correct before we ran it. It’s grammatical, if you think about what we’re trying to say. It’s not think the same, it’s think different. Think a little different, think a lot different, think different. ‘Think differently’ wouldn’t hit the meaning for me.” In order to evoke the spirit of Dead Poets Society, Clow and Jobs wanted to get Robin Williams to read the narration. His agent said that Williams didn’t do ads, so Jobs tried to call him directly. He got through to Williams’s wife, who would not let him talk to the actor because she knew how persuasive he could be. They also considered Maya Angelou and Tom Hanks. At a fund-raising dinner featuring Bill Clinton that fall, Jobs pulled the president aside and asked him to telephone Hanks to talk him into it, but the president pocket-vetoed the request. They ended up with Richard Dreyfuss, who was a dedicated Apple fan. In addition to the television commercials, they created one of the most memorable print campaigns in history. Each ad featured a black-and-white portrait of an iconic historical figure with just the Apple logo and the words “Think Different” in the corner. Making it particularly engaging was that the faces were not captioned. Some of them—Einstein, Gandhi, Lennon, Dylan, Picasso, Edison, Chaplin, King—were easy to identify. But others caused people to pause, puzzle, and maybe ask a friend to put a name to the face: Martha Graham, Ansel Adams, Richard Feynman, Maria Callas, Frank Lloyd Wright, James Watson, Amelia Earhart. Most were Jobs’s personal heroes. They tended to be creative people who had taken risks, defied failure, and bet their career on doing things in a different way.
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Walter Isaacson (Steve Jobs)
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Hey, I got an idea, let’s go to the movies. I wanna go to the movies, I want to take you all to the movies. Let’s go and experience the art of the cinema. Let’s begin with the Scream Of Fear, and we're gonna have it haunt us for the rest of our lives. And then let’s go see The Great Escape, and spend our summer jumping our bikes, just like Steve McQueen over barb wire. And then let’s catch The Seven Samurai for some reason on PBS, and we’ll feel like we speak Japanese because we can read the subtitles and hear the language at the same time. And then let’s lose sleep the night before we see 2001: A Space Odyssey because we have this idea that it’s going to change forever the way we look at films. And then let’s go see it four times in one year. And let’s see Woodstock three times in one year and let’s see Taxi Driver twice in one week. And let’s see Close Encounters of the Third Kind just so we can freeze there in mid-popcorn. And when the kids are old enough, let’s sit them together on the sofa and screen City Lights and Stage Coach and The Best Years of Our Lives and On The Waterfront and Midnight Cowboy and Five Easy Pieces and The Last Picture Show and Raging Bull and Schindler’s List… so that they can understand how the human condition can be captured by this amalgam of light and sound and literature we call the cinema.
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Tom Hanks
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My mother worked as a saleslady at the well-known Five Corner bakery in Journal Square during the day. Her orders were that I do at least one page of homework for every one of my subjects before she came home. It didn’t matter what my teachers would assign, those were her rules and I didn’t dare to violate them! However, I usually allowed others to make the rules and then decide whether I would follow them. Turning on our small Bakelite radio, I would ignore my mother’s rules and listen to my favorite adventure shows.
“Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy, Superman, who could leap tall buildings in a single bound, and Tom Mix were my favorite daily half-hour radio programs during the week. Tom Mix was forever solving some mystery that I could help him with, since I had a decoder badge that cost only 10 cents, along with a box top from a Ralston Purina’s “Wheat Chex” cereal box. Since it tasted like straw, wanting to get a decoder badge was the only way I would eat this blah cereal for breakfast.
The radio shows were way too exciting, and my homework always took second place. When my mother finally came home and saw that I had not done my work, she would get quite upset and make me do twice as much, seated at the kitchen table where she could keep her eye on me. Being under her direct supervision wasn’t much fun, but I would sit there until she was satisfied that I had finished my assignments. My mother showed no mercy! If my father found out about my being lax, there would be hell to pay! For whatever reason, I never seemed to learn….
Oh, woe is me, woe is me…. I was in trouble again… No, I was still in trouble!
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Hank Bracker
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His eyes were rolled up into the back of his head as he dreamed he was still in high school, unable to dial the correct combination for his gym locker.
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Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
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My first game was a 126, then I stopped caring because, well, we had bowled the week before and to my sensibility four games of bowling in one year is a fine total.
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Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
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RAND HOLSTON: Forrest Gump is a movie I am extremely proud of. I represented Wendy Finerman and Steve Tisch, the producers. STEVE TISCH: Gump was ’94 but we set up the project at Warner Bros. in ’85—a nine-year development gestation period. It didn’t hurt that Ovitz wanted Gump to be made. Hanks and Zemeckis were clients. When the head of the most important talent agency in the business at that time says he wants to make something happen and he’s very passionate about making something happen, it’s a lot of wind in your sail. RAND HOLSTON: We had to restructure the deal more than once. The studio decided it wasn’t willing to make the picture for what had been previously discussed, and when they gave us the new number, it was clear the only way to get the film made was taking the principals above the line—Bob Zemeckis, Tom Hanks, Wendy, and Steve—to take less cash up front, and we made sure they were able to get more gross points on the back end. This turned out to be a really good deal for all of them. ROBERT ZEMECKIS: The studio was going to shut the movie down if Tom and I didn’t give our fees back. This was something that they do all the time: There’s forty-eight hours left before you shoot, and they say you’ve got to take X amount of million dollars out of the budget. So we said, “How are we going to do that now? We’ve got to start shooting in forty-eight hours.” And it comes back, “Well, you guys are just going to have to give us back your fees.
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James Andrew Miller (Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency)
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Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball....there’s no crying in baseball!
A League Of Their Own
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Tom Hanks
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There were very few things to do in Toms River, New Jersey, however it was the closest thing resembling civilization near the school. When I wasn’t being restricted to the campus, for one infraction or another, that’s where I would go. Toms River was two and a half miles west of the school. Making the round trip was a five-mile walk, but it was worth it, just to get away. To get there I walked down Prospect Avenue, and then cut corners to Bayside Avenue. In the winter, the frozen snow and ice made the walk cold and miserable. There was always a wind blowing off the river, but I would trudge on relentlessly. The wet slush soaked through my shoes, ruining a shine I had worked on for hours. My feet became wet and frozen, but I pressed on regardless. Eventually I would reach Route 166, which was narrow and only had two lanes; still it was the only north-south highway along the coast at the time. I then crossed the concrete bridge that had a year engraved on it, indicating that it was built as a WPA project during the Great Depression. On the west side of the road was the Toms River Diner. It was classic in appearance and was a warm haven, where I could thaw out. Thelma, the waitress, was always friendly and one of the sexiest women I ever knew. She laughed at my silliness, knew just how much cleavage to show, and moved and turned like a fashion model. There was always “Country Music” playing, especially that of Hank Williams who was Thelma’s favorite. Hey, Good Lookin’, Your Cheatin’ Heart, and I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry were all songs he had written and that she sang along with. Thelma knew that I could not keep my eyes off of her, and she enjoyed playing the part, letting me look far down the unbuttoned section of her waitress uniform, while pouring me another cup of coffee. The way she looked over her shoulder, throwing aside her hair while asking what else I wanted, would send shivers down my back and feelings into my loins that set me on fire. Just this alone was worth the five-mile round trip. During warmer weather, the walk was more pleasant, but the constant wind off the Atlantic Ocean and the river, never let up.
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Hank Bracker
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engine, go into a high-rise
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Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
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Nolan said, “Higher Love is ultra violent, highly secretive and need to silence me before I expose its leaders and plans. Higher Love’s goal is the overthrow of the US government and its replacement by a military dictatorship. It’s not as unlikely as it sounds given how badly the political system functions these days. Uncovering this organization on behalf of the president is what I’ve done night and day the last two years.”
“Hire Dan Brown to write the screenplay,” Mei Ling said. “Maybe you can cast Tom Hanks to play you. You’d like that.
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Bradley West
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To circle the globe, a ship needs only a sail, a wheel, a compass, and a clock.
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Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)
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The old man blinked at the young lady, "You are seeking permanence."
"I guess I am!
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Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type)
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In the Pre-Adventure room, Bert was rechecked by the
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Tom Hanks (Uncommon Type: Some Stories)