Before Sunset Quotes (2004)
Journalist #1: Do you consider the book to be autobiographical?
Jesse: Uh, well, I mean… isn’t everything autobiographical?
Jesse: I’m designed to feel slightly dissatisfied!
Celine: One night I heard some noise on my fire excape, so I called 911. And the cops came eventually…
Jesse: Yeah like three hours later.
Celine: [laughing] Yeah, after I had been raped and killed about 10 times.
Celine: It’s amazing what perverts we’ve become in the past nine years.
Jesse: So what kind of songs do you write? I didn’t know you did that.
Celine: What kind?
Jesse: Yeah, sure.
Celine: I don’t know, just songs.
Jesse: Like?
Celine: Like, some are about, you know, people, uh, relationships. One’s about my cat.
Jesse: Sing one.
Celine: No, I can’t, I don’t have a guitar.
Jesse: Oh, co- come on. A cappella.
Celine: No, no, no. I’m not singing a song without a guitar. You’re nuts!
Jesse: Why not? It’s…
Celine: No, okay. Not now. No.
Jesse: One.
Celine: No.
Jesse: If not now, when? Wanna meet here in six months with a guitar? You know, I’ll fly all the way over here, you may or may not make the metro…
Celine: [laughing] Okay, that’s funny.
Jesse: What do you think were the chances of us ever meeting again?
Celine: After that December, I’d say almost zero. But we’re not real anyway, right? We’re just, uh, characters in that old lady’s dream. She’s on her deathbed, fantasizing about her youth. So of course we had to meet again.
Jesse: Oh, God, why didn’t we exchange phone numbers and stuff? Why didn’t we do that?
Celine: Because we were young and stupid.
Jesse: Do you think we still are?
Celine: I guess when you’re young, you just believe there’ll be many people with whom you’ll connect with. Later in life, you realize it only happens a few times.
Jesse: And you can screw it up, you know, misconnect.
Celine: So what’s it like to be married? You haven’t talked much about that.
Jesse: I haven’t? How weird.
Celine: I love my kitty!
Jesse: What’s his name?
Celine: Che.
Jesse: Che?
Celine: Mmm hmm.
Jesse: Uh huh…
Celine: What?
Jesse: Commie.
Celine: They enjoy the goal but not the process. But the reality of it is that the true work of improving things is in the little achievements of the day.
Celine: The concept is absurd. The idea that we can only be complete with another person is evil! Right?
Celine: You can never replace anyone because everyone is made up of such beautiful specific details.
Celine: There are so many things I want to do, but I end up doing not much.
Jesse: In the months leading up to my wedding, I was thinking about you all the time. I mean, even on my way there; I’m in the car, a buddy of mine is driving me downtown and I’m staring out the window, and I think I see you, not far from the church, right? Folding up an umbrella and walking into a deli on the corner of 13th and Broadway. And I thought I was going crazy, but now I think it probably was you.
Celine: I lived on 11th and Broadway.
Jesse: You see?
Celine: Memory’s a wonderful thing if you don’t have to deal with the past.
Celine: Baby, you are gonna miss that plane.
Jesse: I know.
Celine: Were you there in Vienna, in December?
Jesse: Okay, I realize there are a lot of serious problems in the world.
Celine: Okay, thank you.
Jesse: Okay. I mean, I don’t even have one publisher in the whole Asian market.
Jesse: Maybe what I’m saying is, is the world might be evolving the way a person evolves. Right? Like, I mean, me for example. Am I getting worse? Am I improving? I don’t know. When I was younger, I was healthier, but I was, uh, whacked with insecurity, you know? Now I’m older and my problems are deeper, but I’m more equipped to handle them.
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