As an actor I am always waiting for my luck to run out.
Tom HanksRead
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.
Interpretation
Doing what you love can bring immense joy, but it also comes with pressures and responsibilities.
In this quote, Tom Hanks reflects on the dual nature of pursuing a passionate career. While he expresses great love for his profession and acknowledges it as a fulfilling 'job in the world', he also highlights the burdens of public scrutiny and the need to meet professional expectations. This balance between personal fulfillment and external pressures is a common challenge faced by many who seek success in their fields.
In practice
In a motivational speech about pursuing passions in one's career.
As an actor I am always waiting for my luck to run out.
Even the simplest choice can make a jaw-dropping difference in our world.
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.
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 think it's better to feel good than to look good.
If you look at romantic comedies as pieces of commerce, the audience is looking for wish fulfillment.
The greatest thrill in my life was to represent the United States of America.
I don't deserve a Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. But fifteen years ago, I had a brain operation and I didn't deserve that, either. So I'll keep it.
If I'd just tried for them dinky singles I could've batted around .600.
I'm not a defender of old or new football managers. I believe in good ones and bad ones, those that achieve success and those that don't.
Beside every great success are the seeds of enormous failure. In every failure, there's the opportunity seeds of great success. They're not miles apart. So if they're that close together, and if you're really working, you're always gonna have that likelihood that something's not going to work.
I'm not really keen on comebacks. Eurythmics was an incredible thing. When I look back on that work, I feel very satisfied with it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.