Beginners (2010)

Ewan McGregor: Oliver

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Quotes 

• Anna : Why do you leave everyone? Why did you let me go?

  Oliver : Maybe because I... I don't really believe that it's gonna work, and then I make sure that it doesn't work.

• Hal : Well, let's say...

  Oliver : Arthur, down!

  Hal : ...let's say since you were little, and... and you... you always dreamed of... of someday getting a lion, and you wait and you wait and you wait and you wait, and the lion doesn't come. Then along comes a giraffe. You can be alone, or you can be with the giraffe.

  Oliver : I'd wait for the lion.

  Hal : That's why I worry about you.

• Anna : You can ask me anything.

  Oliver : Anything? What's that there?

  Anna : That's a tree.

  Oliver : Yeah.

  Anna : And Cars.

  Oliver : Uh-huh.

  Anna : Another building like this one.

  Oliver : Right.

  Anna : People in the building like us. Half of them think things will never work out. The other half believe in magic. It's like a war between them.

  Oliver : How do you know so much about people?

  Anna : Oh. Well, you have to learn how to read their faces.

• Oliver : Go and have your own experiences with your own people. I-I'll be right here. I'm a human. I'm not a dog. And-and you're a Jack Russell and that's a breed. Your personality was created by this guy John Russell, who was a hunting enthusiast in the 1800's, and he bred your ancestors for their stamina and their courage for the hunt. You think you're you and you want to chase the foxes, but... other people planted that in you years ago, and now, somewhat arbitrarily, you're considered very cute by us humans, and we keep breeding you not to... not to chase foxes, but to be cute, and we put you in television shows, and movies, and... and you're chasing tennis balls because they're as close to a fox as you're gonna get.

• Anna : I used to love hotels. Now I'm always in a new apartment or in another hotel somewhere.

  Oliver : How do you keep hold of friends? Or boyfriends?

  Anna : Makes it very easy to end up alone. To leave people.

  Oliver : You can stay in the same place and still find ways to leave people.

• Oliver : [writes on a billboard]  You make me laugh but its not funny.

• Oliver : I've always wanted to have a phone call with someone who doesn't talk.

• Oliver : We didn't go to this war. We didn't have to hide to have sex. Our good fortune allowed us to feel a sadness that our parents didn't have time for and a happiness that I never saw with them.

• Oliver : Why are you telling them you're turning the corner?

  Hal : Well, uh...

  Oliver : You, you have stage four cancer.

  Hal : It's not as bad as it sounds.

  Oliver : Pop - there is no stage five.

  Hal : [chuckles]  That's not what it means.

  Oliver : Well, then what does it mean?

  Hal : It just means that it's been through three other stages.

• Oliver : You re-wrote Jesus's death?

  Hal : Ah, it was far too violent. We need new stories.

• Elliot : You're thinking about her all the time.

  Oliver : And you know that because...

  Elliot : Because you're not talking about it. I know you.

• Oliver : We didn't know how we learned the stories in our heads, but sometimes they stopped running, and I can really see Anna's eyes in 2003. Her ears. Her feet. This is what it looks like when she says, 'I love you,' in 2003. This is what it looks like when she cries. When she tells me there's always a new empty room waiting for her. They used to make her feel free. Now they make her feel the opposite of free.

• Oliver : [voiceover]  Six months later, my father told me he was gay. He had just turned 75.

  Hal : I'm gay.

  Oliver : [voiceover]  I always remember him wearing a purple sweater when he told me this, but actually he wore a robe.

• Oliver : And what about the chair? Is it gay?

  Hal : The chair is not gay, obviously.

• Oliver : Well, I'm gonna have to kill you now.

  Anna : Hm... why?

  Oliver : Because I'm falling in love with you.

• Anna : You look so unhappy.

  Oliver : Well are you happy? Here?

  Anna : Maybe I'm not perfect at it. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I want to be here.

• Elliot : What was that?

  Oliver : Historical consciousness. Something bigger than myself.

• Oliver : What did you do with my father? He was so polite.

  Hal : Well, I invited him but he never returns my calls.

• Oliver : Okay. You point - I'll drive.

• Oliver : [returning from Andy]  I couldn't tell him.

  Hal : That's okay.

  Oliver : No, it's not. You can't hide this from him. He loves you.

  Hal : For someone with so much relationship advice, you seem awfully alone.

• Oliver : I don't know, Anna. I don't think this is what I'm supposed to feel like.

• Oliver : Rabbit. What is real? Does it hurt? Horse. Sometimes Rabbit. Does it happen all at once Horse. It takes a long time. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes dropped out and you get a loose in the joints. But these things don't matter at all, because you are Real and you can't be ugly except to people who don't understand.

• Oliver : Here. Here is simple and happy. That's what I meant to give you.