Photo: Getty Images1/9On parenting: “The only thing really, I think, eventually a parent can do is say I love you, there’s nothing you can do wrong, you cannot hurt my feelings, I hope you will forgive me on occasion, and what do you need me to do? You offer up that to them. I will do anything I can possibly do in order to keep you safe. That’s it. Offer that up and then just love them.” (From a 2019 interview with the New York Times.)
Pictured (from left to right): Samantha Bryant, Colin Hanks, Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Ann Hanks, Chet Hanks, and Truman Theodore Hanks.
Photo: Getty Images2/9On his thematic interests as a writer and actor: “I think it ends up being the need for connectedness. Not just humankind, but also the human condition. Again and again, we’re searching for that person who’s a magic key for us, makes us feel connected, secure, part of something bigger than ourselves. Without it, the world ain’t any fun.” (From a 2017 interview with the Guardian.)
Pictured: Tom Hanks and Colin Hanks.
Photo: Getty Images3/9On sheltering in place: “If we take care of each other, help where we can, and give up some comforts...this too shall pass.” (On Twitter, 2020.)
Pictured: Ron Howard, Steve Carell, Tom Hanks, and Rita Wilson.
Photo: Getty Images4/9On connecting with the public: “I would like to think I've reflected the audience's lives somehow, though it's in this big, false, glamorous arena of movies. I hope people see themselves somehow up on the screen. Shakespeare said it best: Hold the mirror up to nature. Human behavior is worthy of examination and celebration.” (In conversation with Oprah, 2001.)
Pictured: Tom Ford, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, and Rita Wilson.
Photo: Getty Images5/9On kindness: “Being kind is just being open to a possibility of making a simple choice that makes a day a little bit better.” (From a 2019 interview on CBS This Morning.)
Pictured: Truman Theodore Hanks, Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks, and Chester Marlon Hanks.
Photo: Getty Images6/9On his enduring optimism: “I think the knee-jerk reaction is that because you’re optimistic, you’re naive. Or that, because you’re essentially cheerful, you’re ignoring the pain of the real things that are going on. And that’s just not the case. I weigh everything. But I can’t help it that I wake up in the morning and think: What good thing is going to come around?” (From a 2017 interview with the Guardian.)
Pictured: Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.
Photo: Getty Images7/9On that condiment controversy: “I have learned not to spread my Vegemite so thick.” (On Twitter, 2020.)
Pictured: Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson.
Photo: Getty Images8/9On sharing a sense of joy: “Why not have a good time? Why not bring a little bit of joy from anything from a long plane ride, to a short elevator ride, to an exchange over an extra-large, venti-sized latte in line at your local coffee place? To me, it's the natural order of things, the natural state of things.” (From a 2019 interview on NPR).
Pictured: Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, and Chet Hanks.
Photo: Getty Images9/9Barack Obama on Tom Hanks: “People have said that Tom is Hollywood’s Everyman; that he’s this generation’s Jimmy Stewart or Gary Cooper. But he’s just Tom Hanks. And that’s enough. That’s more than enough.” (Barack Obama at the Kennedy Center Honors Reception, 2014.)
