Interview Quotes

Early Aspirations and Self-Education

"I was four years old when I decided I wanted to make movies and, you know, I wanted to travel the world and meet people from other countries and cultures and fly jets and airplanes and parachutes and jump off buildings."

— Tom Cruise • 00:50:17

"My school was basically watching movies and evaluating films, and I had to think about, how did I think about movies?"

— Tom Cruise • 01:33:34

"I just did what I do, which is I went to every single department. I just started studying every single department and asking a gazillion questions."

— Tom Cruise • 01:42:01

"I'm going to do the best I can every day, and that's all I can do, and I will never take it for granted."

— Tom Cruise • 02:25:11

The Craft of Filmmaking and Collaboration

"I created my own film school, and I could see it from different points of view, you know, everyone had a different point of view of what the film was."

— Tom Cruise • 03:17:27

"I'm not someone who would read something to know how I should experience it. Whatever art form it is, whatever culture it is, it's like, I want to know for myself."

— Tom Cruise • 03:48:22

"To lead is to serve."

— Tom Cruise • 07:16:16

"I want to know when I apply this, does it create the effects that I want? And how do I do that?"

— Tom Cruise • 07:39:13

"Nicholson understands that lens. And those guys that came up Newman, all of them understood the lens."

— Tom Cruise • 09:59:32

"Art, art, the derivation of art is skill. It's not, there's a skill to that."

— Tom Cruise • 10:12:01

"I'm not making them for me. I'm making it for me that I love making it. And it's tremendous joy to make it. But when I'm acting, I'm also there for the actors. I'm there for the crew."

— Tom Cruise • 07:22:04

"You train, get fine interest, be whatever it is, music instruments. So you see in my career, whether it's an underwater sequence that you saw me doing legend. It was the first time I did an underwater sequence."

— Tom Cruise • 10:46:02

Defining Moments and Career Choices

"It was an incredible learning experience because it was the first time I realized like some people didn't know how to make movies. And some people didn't have the same level of passion or quality commitment."

— Tom Cruise • 08:45:42

"I always made my own decisions. Like I listened to people. I listened to advices, but I hold my own counsel with everything."

— Tom Cruise • 08:36:24

"It was a moment, like every time I'm going, here's the crucible. Here's the, you know, here's the Rubicon. Can I cross it?"

— Tom Cruise • 11:37:25

"She goes, look, if you don't do it, I'm going to just go over and I'm going to tell him who you are and that you're over there."

— Cass (Tom Cruise's sister) • 12:20:35

"He sent Rain Man and the script was not the script. You know, Rain Man, my character was like 57 years old, you know, real old guy."

— Tom Cruise • 12:41:21

The Genesis of Mission: Impossible and Top Gun

"I love the theme music. It's unbelievable. Bump, bump, bump, bump."

— Tom Cruise • 13:14:23

"I was like, I'm going to wear this harness in the CIA room, but that's also a harness that I used under my wardrobe. So I was developing, how do we handle the wardrobe with these harnesses..."

— Tom Cruise • 14:13:46

"So, how does motion define character, tone and story and what kind of behavior. So a lot of these things, when you're seeing me do it, it's yeah, we're acting or, you know, so I, I, then I would just, you know, I've dedicated my life to learning different skills and then applying those skills and then kind of going, everything is about movies."

— Tom Cruise • 14:41:01

"That was extraordinary. And also in Days of Thunder, I worked with him, he changed aerial photography, he changed motor sports, the way that you see these, these sports being filmed today, is because of Tony Scott."

— Tom Cruise • 15:57:31

"I said, look, I'm not, as a young artist, I really felt, I wasn't, I wanted to develop my talent, and I, in different areas, and I wanted to understand more, and challenge myself more, with, with different kinds of movies."

— Tom Cruise • 16:19:00

The Collaboration with Eddie Hamilton

"He's an exceptional, an exceptional story teller. And the moment I met him, I was like, I'm going to work with this guy, you know, for the rest of my life."

— Tom Cruise • 15:12:26

"Blue is glue, red is dead."

— Eddie Hamilton • 15:54:03

"So yeah, that's how movies are made. That's how I learned how to make movies. I don't know what to say. She just keep going until it's, it's right. And you never, ever give up."

— Tom Cruise • 16:04:12