30 May 2013

Before Midnight Quotes


Title: Before Midnight



Céline ?: Okay. Are you sure?
James Wallace, also known as Jesse: No, I'm not sure of anything, okay?

Céline ?: Oh, god. I wish things were simpler. I mean, if I leave, I get fucked; if I stay, I get fucked.
James Wallace, also known as Jesse: There's always a catch.
Céline ?: Yeah, the world is fucked.

James Wallace, also known as Jesse: We're teaching them a valuable lesson, you know. You snooze, you lose in this world.

Céline ?: This place is so full of thousands of years of myth and tragedy, and I thought something tragic was going to happen.

Céline ?: In France, we stuff tomatoes with tomatoes, and the peppers with peppers.
Ariadni ?: Oh, really? Because we use the same stuffing for both, because of the way it reacts differently, in terms of taste.

James Wallace, also known as Jesse: So, what my question is, what is this notion of self to begin with?
Patrick ?: It's written over the portals to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. It says "gnothi seauton", which means "know thyself".

Céline ?: Let me tell you rhight now, Anna, how to keep a man. You've gotta let them win at all the silly little games.

James Wallace, also known as Jesse: Is the foundation to our entire relationship a lie? It is, it is.

Ariadni ?: Okay, I have story that my husband here loves, and that's going to tell you everything you need to know about masculine and feminine. Right? Okay, ready.
Ariadni ?: My mom used to be a nurse so she was there when people were coming out of their comas.
...
Ariadni ?: So she was the one to tell them, "Hi, my name's Katerina. You're coming out of a coma... You're going to be okay. You're going to be fine." And you know, stuff like that. She said that every woman, the very first thing, the first reaction she would have  would be to ask about everybody else. "How are my kids? How's my husband? Is anyone else hurt?" Every man, with no exception, when they were told this, what was the first thing they did? Looked down at their cock.
...
Ariadni ?: And only eventually, eventually, they would come around to asking about their kids or about someone else they might have accidentally killed. Stuff like that, important stuff.
Céline ?: Doesn't that just say it all? Penis first, then the rest of the world.

James Wallace, also known as Jesse: Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa. If you can explain it all on strictly gender terms, why do you or why does any woman waste time getting mad at or bother trying to change a man?
Stefanos ?: Exactly. It's all biology. What is the problem?

Anna ?: Hearing all this, I wonder if this idea of a love affair that lasts forever is still relevant to us? I mean, we know that we are going to break up eventually.

Anna ?: Her big advice was not to be too consumed with romantic love. Friendships and work, she said, brought her the most happiness.
Ariadni ?: I couldn't agree more. I mean, that's the thing that fucks us up, right? This idea of a soul mate, of someone who will come to complete us and save us from having to take care of ourselves.

Patrick: But at the end of the day, it's not the love of one other person that matters, it's the love of life.

Natalia ?: ... He appears and he disappears like sunrise or sunset, anything so ephemeral. Just like our lives, we appear and we disappear, and we are so important to some but we are just passing through.

Céline ?: I mean, we always think we're evolving, but maybe we can't change that much.

James Wallace, also known as Jesse: You know how I think I've changed the most?
Céline ?: How?
James Wallace, also known as Jesse: When I was younger, I just wanted time to speed up, you know?

James Wallace, also known as Jesse: Every year I just seem to get a little bit more humbled and more overwhelmed about all the things I'm never going to know or understand.
Céline ?: That's what I keep telling you. You know nothing!
James Wallace, also known as Jesse: I know, I know. I'm coming around!
Céline ?: But not knowing is not so bad. I mean, the point is to be looking, searching, to say hungry, right?
James Wallace, also known as Jesse: I know, it's true. I just wish it was a little easier.
Céline ?: How do you mean?
James Wallace, also known as Jesse: Well, just to maintain certain level of passion, you know? I mean, it used to come so naturally. I remember when I was younger, me and all my writer friends, we just felt like we were doing something important, you know, like this was our time?

James Wallace, also known as Jesse: You know, I think you gotta be a little deluded to stay motivated.

Céline ?: Young men have this thing about comparing themselves all the time. They have all these signposts they judge themselves by. You used to do that all the time.
James Wallace, also known as Jesse: Do what? What do you mean?
Céline ?: With like, Rimbaud read this by seventeen, F. Scott Fitzgerald did this by thirty...
James Wallace, also known as Jesse: And Balzac wrote a book before breakfast everyday, so what the hell am I doing?
Céline ?: Yeah. But women don't think that way as much.
James Wallace, also known as Jesse:You don't think so?
Céline ?: No. We have much less to compare ourselves to, maybe. Most women who achieve anything in life, the first time you hear about them, they're in their 50s because it was so hard for them to get any recognition before then. They struggle for thirty years or they raise kids and where stranded at home before that could finally do what they want.

Céline ?: It means nothing.
James Wallace, also known as Jesse: It means something. It does.

Céline ?: It is in the nature of women to be the nurturer.

Céline ?: I read on the fridge at work, you know those magnet words that people make sentences with? Someone had put together, "Women explore for eternity in the vast garden of sacrifice."

Céline ?: Just because I have doubts doesn't mean I don't want it.

Céline ?: You're very good at taking care of yourself. I take care of myself, and everything else. We're going somewhere, you pack your bag, I pack everything else.

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