Quotes

  • tom-cruise-mynd“As a kid when I was growing up, I remember vividly being on the roof of my family’s station wagon, and across the street was the Sahara Desert. I always wanted to see other places and learn about how other people lived. I began to travel and saw different cultures even within America.”
  • “Don’t miss out on your Minority Report. Buy it now on DVD and video.”
  • “Even the scenes where you don’t have the action, I’ve got to pace myself. At the end of the day, you know, you might be doing a close-up and working on this scene and you got to be prepared, you got to have it available. So I think of that when I’m preparing for a film, so I prepare very hard.”
  • “Have you ever gotten the feeling that you aren’t completely embarassed yet, but you glimpse tomorrow’s embarrassment?”
  • “I always look for a challenge and something that’s different.”
  • “I bought it for Nic. I just thought it was perfect for her and she’s great in it. (It’s) really a tour de force performance.”
  • tom-cruise-mynd-2“I didn’t become an actor to have power, but it just happens that I have it and so I have a lot of opportunities.”

  • “I didn’t want to tell Stanley, … He panicked. I wanted this to work, but you’re playing with dynamite when you act.”
  • “I disagree with people who think you learn more from getting beat up than you do from winning”
  • “I do it because it’s fun. I’m not a great mountain climber but things like that excite me. I think a lot of people are going to think that stuff is special effects, but it’s not. I’m on the mountain. Throughout the fight scenes, when things come dangerously close, that’s all real.”
  • “I find that, especially with children, they want to contribute. Even my kids, when they come in and they mess up the work and I’m busy, but they are just trying to help out, so I always say, ‘Thank you.’ That’s how I am with them and I find that they’re happier and I’m happier as a result.”
  • “I look at the Samurai because they were the artists of their time. What I think struck me when I read Bushido is compassion. ‘If there’s no one there to help, go out and find someone to help.’ That hit me, because I try to lead my life like that.”
  • “I love kids. I was a kid myself, once.”
  • “I love this woman,”
  • “I love what I do. I take great pride in what I do. And I can’t do something halfway, three-quarters, nine-tenths. If I’m going to do something, I go all the way.”
  • “I remember someone saying to Isabella [his daughter] Do you know who your father is? And she just looked at me. She says, He’s just my dad?”
  • “I take no pleasure in having to be here today, but it is the last recourse to counter the vicious lies that have been printed about me and my family,”
  • “I want a world without war, a world without insanity. I want to see people do well. I don’t even think it’s as much as what I want for myself. It’s more what I want for the people around me. That’s what I want.”
  • tom-cruise-mynd-3-fyndin“I’m gonna eat the placenta. I thought that would be good, very nutritious.”

  • “It was everything that we wanted it to be. It was spiritual. It was powerful. It was indescribable. What words can you use. It’s still something that I’m processing and keep reliving.”
  • “It’s their right to do that and I respect that, … Collateral.”
  • “It’s well known I’m a Scientologist, and that has helped me to find that inner peace in my life and it’s something that has given me great stability and tools that I use.”
  • “I’ve been…chased by paparazzi, and they run lights, and they chase you and harass you the whole time. It happens all over the world, and it has certainly gotten worse. You don’t know what it’s like being chased by them. It is harassment under the guise of, you know, ‘We are the press, we are entitled.’ When people are having a private moment, they should be allowed to have a private moment”
  • “I’ve gotten very good at scheduling my life, scheduling the scene and preparing myself for knowing, saving the energy, consuming the energy, knowing when to go for it and having the available reserves to be able to do that. You have to think about that, because it’s endurance.”
  • tom-cruise-mynd-4“I’ve learned to relax more. Everybody feels pressure in what they do, maybe mine is just a little different because there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to accomplish what I want to.”

  • “I’ve never done work for money ever. If your choices are based on grosses and the film doesn’t do well, what does that mean? It leaves you with nothing.”
  • “I’ve never made a film that I didn’t believe in, you know? However the picture turns out, I’ve always given everything to it. That’s kind of how I approach life. I can’t help it. There’s no part-way with me on anything in any area of my life.”
  • “Jerry Maguire: Jump in my nightmare, the water’s warm!”
  • “Nothing ends nicely, that’s why it ends.”
  • “Now, what do I say to him? I mean, what … .”
  • “Of course [I believe in aliens]. Are you so arrogant as to believe we are alone in this universe?”
  • “Oh, no, no, don’t get so frightening. No, you’re a good big bad wolf.”
  • “On film Vanilla Sky: You’re going to get the full experience of what love is.”
  • “People don’t know the great things they [Scientologists] do, within education, and how they really try to help the community. It’s just a very positive, wonderful thing.”
  • “Personally I don’t have all of the information President Bush has, but I believe Saddam has committed many crimes against humanity and in his own people,”
  • tom-cruise-mynd-5“Rubbishing reports his faith in Scientology will force girlfriend Katie Holmes to have a silent birth”

  • “Saddam has committed many crimes against humanity and against his own people.”

  • “She’s graceful. And I really love her.”
  • “Something magnificent has happened to me and something extraordinary, and I’m so happy I just can’t restrain myself”
  • “Talk is over-rated as a means of settling disputes.”
  • “The exciting part of acting, I don’t know how else to explain it, are those moments when you surprise yourself.”
  • “The thing about film-making is I give it everything, that’s why I work so hard. I always tell young actors to take charge. It’s not that hard. Sign your own cheques, be responsible.”
  • “There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance in a body,”
  • “Today, people can say anything they want. Suddenly it gets in the rumor mill and then it evolves and then somehow it becomes fact and you say, What is this? You know, why don’t you ask me?”
  • “We knew from the beginning the level of commitment needed. We felt honored to work with Stanley Kubrick. We were going to do what it took to do this picture, whatever time, because I felt – and Nic [Nicole Kidman] did, too – that this was going to be a really special time for us. We knew it would be difficult. But I would have absolutely kicked myself if I hadn’t done this. [On the film Eyes Wide Shut]”
  • “What I find sometimes that is tricky is if actors are using too much of their own life in a picture, in a scene, they get locked into a particular way to play the scene, and it lacks an immediacy.”
  • “Whatever she’s going to go through, she’s going to go through. And I’m going to be there.”
  • “When I first started out all the attention could be a bit unnerving, especially when people stared. Now I find the best thing is to just relax. Being recognized is just something you have to get used to.”
  • “When I work, I work very hard. So I look to work with people who have that level of dedication. And I depend on that from everyone. From the director to my crews that I work with.”
  • “When you become successful in any type of life, there are people who are not contributing to the motion.”
  • “When you have to cope with a lot of problems, you’re either going to sink or you’re going to swim.”