Beginners

"Our good fortune allowed us to feel a sadness our parents never had time for." - Oliver

Hal: "Well, let's say that since you were little, you always dreamed of getting a lion. And you wait, and you wait, and you wait, and you wait but the lion doesn't come. And 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."

"When you feel bad, you go into your room and scream as loud as you can for a minute or two, and then it's out of you, it's called 'catharsis.'" - Georgia

"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

Oliver: "Arthur, you're coming to live with me now, okay? That's the bathroom. This is the living room. This is the dining room where people come and eat sometimes. Look it's lonely out here so you better learn how to talk with me."

Arthur: "While I understand up to 150 words - I don't talk."

"Six months later, my father told me he was gay. He had just turned 75. I always remember him wearing a purple sweater when he told me this but actually he wore a robe." - Oliver

Anna: "You can ask me anything you want."

Oliver: "Anything? What's there?"

Anna: "That's a tree. And Cars. Another building like this one. People in the building like us, half of them think it's never going to 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: "Well, you have to learn how to read their faces."

"You can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." - Oliver

"Go and have experiences with your own people. I'll be right here... I'm a human. I'm not a dog... 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 chase foxes, but to be cute. And we put you in television shows, and movies, and you're chasing tennis balls because they're as close to a fox as you're gonna get." - Oliver

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

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

"This is the photo my mother kept in her bedroom. When I was a kid, I thought that was my arm giving her daisies. Now I make a new mistake and I think it’s her arm giving me the daisies, saying, “here, here’s simple and happy, that’s what I meant to give you." - Oliver

"This is 2003. This is what the sun looks like, and the stars, and the president." - Oliver

Anna: "I'm going to have to kill you now."

Oliver: "And it was going so well."

Elliot: "What was that?"

Oliver: "Historical consciousness. Something bigger than myself."

"Tell her the darkness is about to drown unless something drastic happens right now." - Arthur

"It's like I lost the instructions, or, I never had them." - Young Oliver

"You give very good relationship advice despite being so alone." - Hal

Oliver: "How do you feel about vandalism?"

Anna: "Pretty okay."

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

Anna: "But 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."

"I've always wanted to have a phone call with somebody who doesn't talk." - Oliver

"You always wanted to hold my hand when you were little. I couldn't, you know. I was afraid it would look funny. I wanted to be close, you know and my father certainly was never close with me. God, I hope I wasn't like that."-Hal

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 wanna be here."

[writes down] "Why are you at a party if you're sad?" - Anna

Oliver: "You re-wrote Jesus' death?"

Hal: "It was far too violent. We need new stories."

"You've lost so much. What if I can't make up for that?" - Anna

Hal: "You two married?"

Oliver: "No, Pop."

Hal: "Why not? She's great."

Oliver: "She's a great nurse in the hospital, we don't really know her, you're very high on drugs."

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

Arthur: "She's unlike any girl I've met."Oliver: "Someone flashy walks into your life, and you're just gonna fall for it."Arthur: "Are we married yet?"Oliver: "No. It doesn't work like that. There are other steps. It's complicated."Arthur: "I hope this feeling lasts."

"They had a child, and they stayed married for 44 years... ...Until she died in their bed, after four months of cancer and eating French toast for every meal and watching the Teletubbies everyday and confusing white straws for her cigarettes and skipping back and forth through time inside her head."- Oliver

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

Anna: "Hm... why?"

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

"I don't want to just be theoretically gay. I want to do something about it." - Hal

Oliver: "You, you have stage four cancer."

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

Oliver: "Pop - There is no stage five."

Hal: "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: "And what about the chair, is it gay?"

Hal: "The chair is not gay, obviously."

"My name is Anna. You're worried you can't trust me because you don't know who I am. I get it; that makes sense to me." - Anna

"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 

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. There's a pause, then the truth."

"Okay. You point - I'll drive." - Oliver

"I said look I love you and we're great buddies but you know what I am. And then she says, that doesn't matter. I'll fix that." - Hal

"I don't know Anna. I don't think this is what I'm supposed to feel like." - Oliver

"He found an out gay priest to guide him spiritually. He saw a therapist for the first time. He joined the Primetimers. Movie night. Los Angeles Pride, and then...Four years after he came out, he died in this room..." - Oliver

"We knew it wouldn't work even before we met her." - Arthur

Young Oliver: "This music's old."

Georgia: "It's black, black music is the deepest cause they suffer. In my next life I'm gonna marry a good hot blooded Jew - someone full of emotion. red the most, them and the Jews."

Young Oliver: "I'm Jewish right?"

Georgia: "You're a quarter, I'm a half, your father's none. He has the least emotions, You'll have more emotions than him, but I'll have the most emotions."