--- title: Tom Hanks Shares Short Stories on Stephen Colbert description: Tom Hanks shared some charming anecdotes about the good ol' days and how he helped Nora Ephron while talking to Stephen Colbert. canonical: https://time.com/5062544/tom-hanks-short-stories-stephen-colbert/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-13T16:27:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:49:16.658Z og:title: Tom Hanks Shares Stories of Good Ol' Days on Stephen Colbert og:description: Including how he helped Nora Ephron write 'Sleepless in Seattle' og:url: https://time.com/5062544/tom-hanks-short-stories-stephen-colbert/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt465c119f6d9b63c8/6988f4d7096a94893b6a0c27/tom-hanks-story-time-stephen-colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Tom Hanks Shares Stories of Good Ol' Days on Stephen Colbert twitter:description: Including how he helped Nora Ephron write 'Sleepless in Seattle' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt465c119f6d9b63c8/6988f4d7096a94893b6a0c27/tom-hanks-story-time-stephen-colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # It's Time to Watch Tom Hanks Tell Stephen Colbert About the Good Old Days > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=4e24d73d-9754-47ca-b087-31fe1667d0ec&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 13, 2017 4:27 PM UTC  NEW YORK - DECEMBER 12: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and guest Tom Hanks during Tuesday's December 12, 2017 show. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images) NEW YORK - DECEMBER 12: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and guest Tom Hanks during Tuesday's December 12, 2017 show. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images) CBS Photo Archive—CBS via Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 13, 2017 4:27 PM UTC Between being [everyone’s favorite wedding crasher](http://time.com/4507954/tom-hanks-wedding-photo-shoot/) and cheekily [trolling his fans on Twitter](http://time.com/4801590/tom-hanks-trolling-fans/), [Tom Hanks](http://time.com/5045475/tom-hanks-on-hollywood-sexual-harassment-allegations/) has somehow found the time to pen a collection of 17 short stories, appropriately titled [_Uncommon Type: Some Stories_](http://time.com/5009167/tom-hanks-book-uncommon-type/). During an appearance on _The Late Show with Stephen Colbert_, however, Hanks reveals that the volume wouldn’t have even existed if it hadn’t been for writer and director Nora Ephron, who’s arguably given Hanks some of the most the most beloved films in his repertoire, _Sleepless in Seattle_ and _You’ve Got Mail_. Hanks, who dedicated the book to his wife Rita Wilson and “all the kids, because of Nora,” revealed that while working on _Sleepless in Seattle_ during a very successful time in his career, he critiqued Ephron’s screenplay resulting in some Hank-suggested revisions for it, including a memorable scene where his character tells his son with some colorful language that he’s going go away for the weekend with a lady friend. “When it all came out, I said to Nora, ‘Hey, that stuff really worked, those scenes were great,'” he shared. “And she said, ‘Well, you wrote that.’ And I said, ‘No, I complained during rehearsals!’ And she said, ‘Well, that’s what it is. You come up with things and you didn’t type it, but you wrote it.” Hanks later shared that from that moment on, he and Ephron collaborated and critiqued each other’s works. 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