Everybody knows Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks. But not everyone knows he is a typewriter aficionado who currently owns over 200 of the machines.

In fact, Hanks loves them so much, he wrote a book about them.

Alex Cohen caught up with Hanks one night at the Aratani Theater in downtown Los Angeles to talk about his book, Uncommon Type and how he incorporates the typewriter into every story.

“There is something unique about the permanence of a typewritten thing,’ said Hanks.

“There is that desire for, number one, originality, meaning there is no other object like it in the world,” he explained. “But number two, permanence. It will last a thousand years if you take care of it.”

A Massachusetts family actually decided to write Hanks a letter after watching his documentary California Typewriter. They made three promises. If he were to gift them a typewriter, they would 1) maintain the typewriter 2) write and send out a note once a week and 3) buy a typewriter for another family.

Needless to say, Hanks sent them one of his Olympia typewriters along with a typewritten letter that ended with one last request: “Then, get to typing…"