– I mean, you’re a doctor, right? Am I dying? Can you tell me that?
– No.
– No, you can’t tell me?
– I can’t tell you.
– You can’t tell me if you can’t tell me?
– No.
– No, you can’t tell me… because you’re not allowed to?
– No.
(Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Synecdoche, New York” by Charlie Kaufman, 2008)
– Have you got a stutter?
– Y-y-yeah. A b-b-bit.
– OK, fine. Don’t worry, don’t worry. Do you know where they’ve gone?
– Y-y-y…
– Fine, fine. Where?
– The Ca… Hotel.
– Hotel? Which hotel?
– Ca… The Ca… The Ca… The Ca…
– Go on.
– Ca-ca-ca…
– All right. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Slowly. Very slowly. Slowly.
– The C… The Ca… The C… The Ca…
– No hurry.
– The C-C-Ca…
– Sing it. Sing.
– # The Ca… The Ca… The Ca… The Ca… Ca…
– Plenty of time.
– # Ca… Ca… The Ca…
– Oh, come on! Sorry. I’m sorry. Um… All right, wait.
– # The Ca… The…
– Here. Write it. Cathcart Towers Hotel?
– Cathcart Towers Hotel.
(John Cleese and Michael Palin in “A Fish Called Wanda” by Charles Crichton and John Cleese, 1988)
– All the Dude ever wanted was his rug back.
I’ m not greedy.
It really… tied the room together.
Darkness washed over the Dude. Darker than a black steer’s tookus on a moonless prairie night. There was no bottom.
(Jeff Bridges in “The Big Lebowski” by the Coen brothers, 1998)
– Shut up, enough! I told you to shut up. Make a choice.
– Don’t make me choose! I can’t!
– I’ll send them both over there!
– I can’t choose!
– Take both children away! Move!
– Take my little girl! Take my baby!
(Karlheinz Hackl and Meryl Streep in “Sophie’s Choice” by Alan J. Pakula, 1982)
– Joely? What if you stayed this time?
– I walked out the door… There’s no memory left.
– Come back and make up a good-bye, at least. Let’s pretend we had one… Bye, Joel.
– I love you.
– (whispering) Meet me in Montauk.
(Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” by Michel Gondry, 2004)
– But what sense of hope, or satisfaction, could a reader derive from an ending like that?
So, in the book, I wanted to give Robbie and Cecilia what they lost out on in life.
I’d like to think this isn’t weakness or evasion, but a final act of kindness.
I gave them their happiness.
(Vanessa Redgrave in “Atonement” by Joe Wright, 2007)
“Gloria, faltas en el aire
falta tu presencia, cálida inocencia
faltas en mi boca, que sin querer te nombra
y escribiré mi historia, con la palabra Gloria
Porque aquí a tu lado
la mañana se ilumina
la verdad y la mentira
se llaman Gloriaaaaa…”
(Paulina García in “Gloria” by Sebastián Lelio, 2013)
– You’re all flops. I am the Earth Mother, and you are all flops. I disgust me. You know, there’s only been one man in my whole life who’s ever made me happy. You know that? One.
– What, the gym instructor or something?
– No, no, no, no. George. My husband?
– You’re kidding.
– Am I?
– You must be! Him?
– Yep.
– George, sure!
– You don’t believe it.
– Well, of course I do!
– You always deal in appearances?
– Oh, for God’s sake.
– George, who is out somewhere there in the dark. Who is good to me. Whom I revile. Who can keep learning the games we play as quickly as I can change them. Who can make me happy and I do not wish to be happy. Yes, I do wish to be happy. George and Martha — sad, sad, sad. Whom I will not forgive for having come to rest, for having seen me and having said, “Yes, this will do”. Who has made the hideous, the hurting, the insulting mistake of loving… me. And must be punished for it. George and Martha — sad, sad, sad. Some day, hah! Some night, some stupid, liquor-ridden night, I will go too far and I’ll either break the man’s back or I’ll push him off for good which is what I deserve.
(Elizabeth Taylor and George Segal in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” by Mike Nichols, 1966)
– … But there’s more to life than screwing to Ravel’s “Bolero”!
– Sure there is… But what’s wrong with screwing to Ravel’s “Bolero”?
(Dudley Moore and Bo Derek in “10” by Blake Edwards, 1979)
– Pop, I am a dime a dozen and so are you.
– I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman and you are Biff Loman!
– I am not the leader of men, Willy! And neither are you! You were never anything but a hard-working drummer who landed in the ashcan like all the rest of them. I am one dollar an hour, Willy! I am not bringing home any prizes anymore, and you’re gonna stop waiting for me!
– You vengeful, spiteful mutt!
– Yeah, Pop! Pop, I’m nothing. I’m nothing, Pop. Can’t you understand that? There’s no spite in it anymore. I’m just what I am, that’s all.
(John Malkovich and Dustin Hoffman in “Death of a Salesman” -an Arthur Miller play by Volker Schlöndorff , 1985)
