Henry Thomas

I don't know if there aren't any films like 'E.T.' anymore. I just feel that the industry has changed so much. There are so many outlets now.

I've got a lot of crazy plans.

It was like that for the first six months after 'E.T.' was in cinemas. I'd go out and get mobbed. I was a shy kid, and being approached by adults all the time just freaked me out.

I was getting a lot of hassles from the public. Everybody recognized me.

The one thing I've always done is to try not to overcomplicate anything.

Even if I had a tuxedo I wouldn't wear it to school.

I don't know if I was so much of an outsider until after I started doing films. That put me on the outside. I grew up in Texas, and I wasn't the child of industry parents, and I didn't have a lot of friends in the industry or anything like that.

I would inevitably get the girls who were interested in me because I was the guy from E.T. It was kind of tough. I can't deny ever capitalizing upon it but on the whole in my teens I was pretty virtuous.

I probably complicate things unnecessarily now just to give the illusion of professionalism.

The idea of a film staying in theaters for a year is something of a fantasy today.

It's harder to laugh than to cry.

It's really important to go back to where you come from.

I think it's great when girls are artistic.

Many times you walk into a room and people have already made up their minds. But it's always good to have something great associated with you.

I grew up in a rural area, I was from kind of a poor family and my parents weren't showbiz people. But going back was strange, and perhaps stranger for the other students.

I can't stay in L.A. too long or it starts to grow on me in a bad way.

I have horses, I drive a truck, and I wear cowboy boots. First I'm a Texan.

Of course there have been times I regretted being the kid in 'E.T.' My world went completely crazy. I was that stupid kind of famous, where you can't go anywhere.

If I can generate enough income, I'd like to get a castle, a historic castle that I can restore.

Carloads of tourists would photograph the family mailbox, and there was weird mail, death threats.

I understood why films were made, and if they made a lot of money, they were successful. All of these things I knew. As a ten-year-old boy, I didn't really think a lot about finances or celebrity. I always viewed films as kind of what I imagined a summer camp to be like.