9 important life lessons by Tom Hanks

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

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.

I think it's better to feel good than to look good.

But the battles against loneliness that I fought when I was 16 are very different from those I fought when I was 27, and those are very different from the ones I fight at 44.

There's a difference between solitude and loneliness. I can understand the concept of being a monk for a while.

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

If you're funny, if there's something that makes you laugh, then every day's going to be okay.

My job has always been to hold a mirror up to nature.

I am who I am, and I think I have a good nature, by and large. But if someone takes advantage of that good nature, well then, you know, I'm not that nice a guy.