Tom Cruise famous quotes

In this life, it's not what you hope for, it's not what you deserve - it's what you take!
-- Tom Cruise

#What You Deserve #This Life #Deserve

I don't hide from cameras or anything. It doesn't bother me. I don't seek our press for the women I'm dating, but if it finds me, it finds me.
-- Tom Cruise

#Dating #Cameras #Bother

When you have to cope with a lot of problems, you're either going to sink or you're going to swim.
-- Tom Cruise

#Swim #Action #Problem

With each one, I love working on the story and the characters. The stunts, each time, we keep pushing ourselves harder and harder. And they are stunts, so there's always a danger in doing them, but fortunately, I have not had a problem. I have not missed a day of work, ever, in my career. I'm always there early. And I train very hard, and we prepare very carefully for each one.
-- Tom Cruise

#Character #Careers #Pushing

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.
-- Tom Cruise

#Thinking #Compassion #Artist

Every time I make a "Mission" movie or other films, people kind of look at me and go, "Well, now what? What's next?" I think there's always going to be another mountain. I think there's something always in store.
-- Tom Cruise

#Thinking #People #Mountain

I like to work with people that I like hanging out with, that I admire, that are really smart and talented, and we can problem solve together.
-- Tom Cruise

#Smart #People #Together

For me, to take a movie and travel the world and go and work with these cultures and an international cast and have this spy thriller that's not just about character but also action and suspense, they're very challenging films as a producer to make, creating stories, creating set pieces that serve this character [Ethan Hunt].
-- Tom Cruise

#Character #Creating #Challenges

I disagree with people who think you learn more from getting beat up than you do from winning.
-- Tom Cruise

#Winning #Thinking #People

I love adventure movies, I just love action adventure films. It's pure cinema and you go in and you're lost to it. To me, it's that challenge - I want to give an audience that ride, that entertainment.
-- Tom Cruise

#Adventure #Giving #Challenges

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.
-- Tom Cruise

#Pride #Nine #Way

We live in a world in which we are able to communicate very quickly in many different ways, and yet we find communicating more difficult than ever. When in fact we need communication more urgently than ever, because the enemies that threaten us are universal: drugs, illiteracy and crime. We have to fight against them together.
-- Tom Cruise

#Communication #Fighting #Drug

I just eat life... I engage in life.
-- Tom Cruise

#Life

I've had such extremes in my life. From being this kind of wild kid, to one year studying to be a Franciscan priest at the seminary....I was very frustrated.
-- Tom Cruise

#Kids #Years #Frustrated

I love kids. I was a kid myself, once.
-- Tom Cruise

#Kids #Kids Love

I don't care what someone believes. I don't care what nationality they are. But if someone wants to get off drugs, I can help them. If someone wants to learn how to read, I can help them. If someone doesn't want to be a criminal anymore, I can give them tools that can better their life.
-- Tom Cruise

#Believe #Giving #Drug

I don't pretend to be the character I AM the character.
-- Tom Cruise

#Character

I think if technology is used in a way that is not responsible, that is a bad thing. I think technology and where it is going inevitable, and there's great benefits that can help an individual in society at large.
-- Tom Cruise

#Technology #Thinking #Benefits

I had to train myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read.
-- Tom Cruise

#Order #Focus #Attention

I feel good about the fact that I finally found something I love. I never lived in one place for very long - that's the way my whole life has been. I was always packing and moving around, staying in Canada, Kentucky, Jersey, St. Louis - it all helped because I was always learning new accents, experiencing different environments.
-- Tom Cruise

#Moving #Kentucky #Long

When I was about 7 years old, I had been labeled dyslexic. I'd try to concentrate on what I was reading, then I'd get to the end of the page and have very little memory of anything I'd read. I would go blank, feel anxious, nervous, bored, frustrated, dumb. I would get angry. My legs would actually hurt when I was studying. My head ached. All through school and well into my career, I felt like I had a secret. When I'd go to a new school, I wouldn't want the other kids to know about my learning disability, but then I'd be sent off to remedial reading.
-- Tom Cruise

#Hurt #Memories #Reading

I'm a good listener. I think it's the one characteristic that's most important. I've always been that way. Not that I take all the advice, but you've got to listen to it and have the courage to make your own decision. And just go for it.
-- Tom Cruise

#Thinking #Decision #Advice

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.
-- Tom Cruise

#Dedication #People #Looks

The important thing is to be relaxed in your work. Same in life. Don't make everything too intense. Then you can let everything go and not "act".
-- Tom Cruise

#Important #Intense #Relaxed

As a young actor, people were trying to define who I was before I really knew that for myself. But I still remember thinking, "This is what I love doing, and I hope I'm going to be able to do it forever."
-- Tom Cruise

#Thinking #People #Forever

Being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident... you know you have to do something about it because you know you're the only one that can really help.
-- Tom Cruise

#Funny #Past #Dumb

Making a movie is like a chess game. It's about constantly changing patterns, adapting to new things. It's not just black and white, as you know.
-- Tom Cruise

#Black And White #Games #Patterns

Have you ever gotten the feeling that you aren't completely embarassed yet, but you glimpse tomorrow's embarrassment?
-- Tom Cruise

#Feelings #Glimpse #Tomorrow

I feel lonely at times, but I don't want to get into a relationship with someone if it is not right. I'm not the type of person who just does things to do them.
-- Tom Cruise

#Lonely #Want #Doe

I enjoy working with writers and their scripts. It's very exciting to me. Eventually I would like to produce, direct and act onstage, but it's not a heavy pressure. When I do it, I want to do it well. I'm just educating myself with writers and scripts, because I didn't read a lot of books when I was growing up.
-- Tom Cruise

#Growing Up #Book #Want

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.
-- Tom Cruise

#Commitment #Special #Would Be

Perception and reality are two different things.
-- Tom Cruise

#Reality #Two #Perception

I have cooked turkeys in my day but when Mom`s around I let her do it.
-- Tom Cruise

#Mom #Turkeys

Someday. That's a dangerous word. It's really just a code for 'never'.
-- Tom Cruise

#Someday #Dangerous #Code

I'm usually nervous to meet people that I admire because what if they're not cool or something?
-- Tom Cruise

#People #What If #Nervous

People go for help, but their lives don't get better because of those psychiatric drugs. They get worse. They feel numb and they're told that's a good thing. It's how you degrade a society -- by drugging the piss out of it.
-- Tom Cruise

#People #Drug #Get Better

My childhood was extremely lonely. I was dyslexic and lots of kids make fun of me. That experience made me tough inside, because you learn to quietly accept ridicule.
-- Tom Cruise

#Lonely #Fun #Kids

Do I make mistakes? Yeah.
-- Tom Cruise

#Mistake #Making Mistakes #I Make Mistakes

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?
-- Tom Cruise

#People #Say Anything #Rumor

They smell good. They look pretty. I love women. I do.
-- Tom Cruise

#Smell #Looks

Every single time I start to do a picture, without fail, I feel as if I don't know what I'm doing.
-- Tom Cruise

#Failing #Feels

Here's how I've lived my life: I've never been late to a set. I make films I believe in. I feel privileged to be able to do what I love.
-- Tom Cruise

#Believe #Able #Film

I remember looking at my dad and wanting to understand him. I didn't want to just write the guy off. He was lost. I can't speak specifically in terms of why and how he got to where he was - that was his journey. All I can tell you is, he was overwhelmed by life... My mother basically did all the work, and then they got separated and I didn't see him for a long time. He didn't try to help the family financially or spiritually, and I lived with the effects of the chaos.
-- Tom Cruise

#Mother #Dad #Writing

I always look for a challenge and something that's different.
-- Tom Cruise

#Challenges #Different #Looks

Psychiatry is a pseudoscience.... You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do...Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, you don't even -you're glib. You don't even know what Ritalin is.
-- Tom Cruise

#Hilarious #Ritalin #Pseudoscience

Nothing ends nicely, that's why it ends.
-- Tom Cruise

#Heartbreak #Ends

Saddam has committed many crimes against humanity and against his own people.
-- Tom Cruise

#People #Humanity #Crime

Awards are wonderful. I've been nominated many times and I've won many awards. But my journey is not towards that. If it happens it will be a blast. If it doesn't, it's still been a blast.
-- Tom Cruise

#Journey #Awards #Wonderful

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

#Life #Thinking #Knowing

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

#War #Thinking #People

I would live with all of my sisters if I could. We've always been very close, my sisters and me.
-- Tom Cruise

#Sister #My Sister

If I don't talk about my religion, if I say I'm not discussing it or different humanitarian things I'm working on, they're like, 'He's avoiding it.' If I do talk about it, it becomes, 'Oh, he's proselytizing.'
-- Tom Cruise

#Different #Humanitarian #Avoiding

I'll never forget the moment I became a dad. It's hard to describe-that level of responsibility, the desire to give such joy, the clarity: Nothing is more important than this.
-- Tom Cruise

#Fathers Day #Dad #Responsibility

I'm not greedy. I just want my half.
-- Tom Cruise

#Money #Want #Half

If you have kids, it is the most important thing to create good times.
-- Tom Cruise

#Kids #Important #Good Times

Even in my dreams, I’m an idiot who knows he’s about to wake up to reality.
-- Tom Cruise

#Dream #Reality #Wake Up

There is Life in every breath...
-- Tom Cruise

I feel the need... the need for speed.
-- Tom Cruise

#Needs #Speed #Feels

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.
-- Tom Cruise

#Money #Mean #Choices

Everybody dies, Sally. The thing is to die well.
-- Tom Cruise

#Death #Dying #Wells

No dream is ever just a dream.
-- Tom Cruise

#Dream #Vision #Just A Dream

My name is Joel Goodson. I deal in human fulfillment. I grossed over eight thousand dollars in one night.
-- Tom Cruise

#Money #Night #Names

When you become successful in any type of life, there are people who are not contributing to the motion.
-- Tom Cruise

#Successful #People #Type

You know what? I’m sure drug dealers on the street, in some way, they are making money. That’s what I equate it to. Here is the thing: you have to understand, with psychiatry, there is no science behind it. And to pretend that there is a science behind it is criminal
-- Tom Cruise

#Drug #Criminals #Way

I've always had the same values. Family for me has always been important. When I shoot, everybody comes.
-- Tom Cruise

#Family #Important #Family Values

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.
-- Tom Cruise

#Relax #Different #Want

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.
-- Tom Cruise

#Believe #Way #Helping

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.
-- Tom Cruise

#Giving #Actors #Film

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.
-- Tom Cruise

#Play #Actors #Too Much

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.
-- Tom Cruise

#People #Relax #Attention

I'm an all-or-nothing kind of person, and when I become interested in something, I give it my all.
-- Tom Cruise

#Giving #Kind #Persons

I've spent many birthdays on a movie set, all great days.
-- Tom Cruise

#Great Day

I feel good about the decisions that I made and I?m happy. You know, I?m really happy.
-- Tom Cruise

#Feel Good #Decision #Made

On film Vanilla Sky: You're going to get the full experience of what love is.
-- Tom Cruise

#Love Is #Sky #Vanilla

I kept looking [at wife Katie Holmes] and thinking, 'This woman's amazing.' I'm happy that I'm with her. She's amazing, and I'd think the same of her even if she wasn't with me -- she's just amazing.
-- Tom Cruise

#Thinking #Wife #Holmes

I'm someone who doesn't believe in making my problems other people's problems.
-- Tom Cruise

#Believe #People #Problem

Talk is over-rated as a means of settling disputes
-- Tom Cruise

#Mean #Settling #Disputes

I don't care who you are, life has challenges.
-- Tom Cruise

#Challenges #Care #Who You Are

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.
-- Tom Cruise

#Opportunity #Actors

But my friends are happy for me. The people who know me are happy. My mom is happy. My family is happy.
-- Tom Cruise

#Mom #People #My Family

If someone doesn’t want to be a criminal anymore, I can give them tools that can better their life. You have no idea how many people want to know what Scientology is.
-- Tom Cruise

#Ideas #Giving #People

I don't care if you print something nasty about me. If it's true, fine. I don't care. But just make sure it's the truth.
-- Tom Cruise

#Truth #Care #Nasty

It seems to me that if there were any logic to our language, trust would be a four letter word.
-- Tom Cruise

#Four #Letters #Would Be

I'm passionate about learning. I'm passionate about life.
-- Tom Cruise

#Passionate

Emotions kick up. You try not to kick things up, but you go through things you can't help.
-- Tom Cruise

#Trying #Helping #Emotion

I have respect for what other people believe. What I believe in my own life is that it's a search for how I can do things better, whether it's being a better man or a better father or finding ways for myself to improve.
-- Tom Cruise

#Father #Believe #Men

When you talk about emotional, chemical imbalances in people, there is no science behind that.
-- Tom Cruise

#Emotional #People #Imbalance

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.
-- Tom Cruise

#Inner Peace #Tools #Use

There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance.
-- Tom Cruise

#Imbalance #Chemicals

Of course [I believe in aliens]. Are you so arrogant as to believe we are alone in this universe?
-- Tom Cruise

#Believe #Arrogant #Aliens

Seriously, I would go in a second. I'd be the first actor in space and I'd love to do it.
-- Tom Cruise

#Space #Serious #Actors

The exciting part of acting, I don't know how else to explain it, are those moments when you surprise yourself.
-- Tom Cruise

#Acting #Surprise #Moments

Sex is great, if you are in a relationship. Otherwise, I find sex actually not so interesting. Without a relationship it is confusing.
-- Tom Cruise

#Sex #Interesting #Confusing

I demand a lot of myself. I want to learn. I can't sit back. I like a challenge, so I create a lot of challenges for myself.
-- Tom Cruise

#Challenges #Want #Demand