Julie Delpy Quotes

Céline Very few people realize what it is like for an active or passionate woman to have a child. Some friends told me, "you'll see, you'll want to throw them out the window." Okay, but the truth is I never wanted to hurt them once but I thought about ending it all for myself a hundred times. I was so confused, and you were always away on a stupid book tour or because of Henry's custody shit and I didn't want to be a burden. Now I know why ] put her head in a toaster.

Jesse It was an oven.

Céline Don't play with words. You know what I mean - toaster, oven. Same thing. You know how many times I was alone with the girls crying with no clue what to do? Do you know the guilt a mother feels when she doesn't know what to do?

Jesse Do you think you have sole ownership of that feeling?

Céline I don't think you understand, okay? You know what my secret fear is? With every man? Is that they all want to turn me into a submissive housewife.

Jesse Okay, no one could ever do that, all right? I promise, it would be easier to fit your head into a toaster than to turn you into anything submissive.

Céline I don't think I've recovered since giving birth. When they were born, I had no idea what to do. People expect women to have instinct that kicks in, like a female baboon. But I had no idea how to do anything. I loved them so much, and I was doing everything wrong. And you were away so often, calling me, asking me how my day went, and I couldn't even say it to you because I felt so ashamed for being so clueless.

Jesse Look, I think you did great.

Céline No, I didn't.

Jesse No, you did. Well, you did a good job faking it, then.

Céline I remember the only way I could get them to sleep was to drag that stupid double stroller down the stairs and walk them for hours and hours in the middle of the night, all the way to Pigalle and back. I almost got mugged once... I mean, the only reason why the guy didn't attack me was is that I looked so pathetic. The only upside of being over 35 is that you don't get raped as much. I read it - its true.

Céline So if we're going to spend another fifty-six more years together...

Jesse Yeah?

Céline What about me would you like to change?

Jesse That's another one of your can't-win questions. I'm not answering that.

Céline What do you mean? There's not one thing you'd like to change about me? I'm perfect?

Jesse Okay.

Céline Okay.

Jesse Actually...

Céline One thing.

Jesse If I could change one thing about you...

Céline Uh-huh.

Jesse It would be for you to stop trying to change me.

Céline You're a very skilled manipulator, you know that?

Jesse Well, I'm onto you. I know how you work.

Céline You think?

Jesse Yeah. I know everything about you.

Celine When you talked earlier about after a few years how a couple would begin to hate each other by anticipating their reactions or getting tired of their mannerisms-I think it would be the opposite for me. I think I can really fall in love when I know everything about someone-the way he's going to part his hair, which shirt he's going to wear that day, knowing the exact story he'd tell in a given situation. I'm sure that's when I know I'm really in love.

Jesse Do you believe in reincarnation?

Celine Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting.

Jesse Yeah, right. Well, most people, you know, a lot of people talk about past lives and things like that, you know? And even if they don't believe it in some specific way, you know, people have some kind of notion of an eternal soul, right?

Celine Yeah.

Jesse OK, well this was my thought: 50,000 years ago, there are not even a million people on the planet. 10,000 years ago, there's, like, two million people on the planet. Now there's between five and six billion people on the planet, right? Now, if we all have our own, like, individual, unique soul, right, where do they all come from? You know, are modern souls only a fraction of the original souls? Cause if they are, that represents a 5,000 to 1 split of each soul in the last 50,000 years, which is, like, a blip in the Earth's time. You know, so at best we're like these tiny fractions of people, you know, walking...I mean, is that why we're so scattered? You know, is that why we're all so specialized?

Celine I don't know. Wait a minute, I'm not sure...I don't...

Jesse Yeah, hang on, hang on. It's a, it's a totally scattered thought. It...which is kind of why it makes sense.

Jesse This friend of mine had a kid, and it was a home birth, so he was there helping out and everything. And he said at that profound moment of birth, he was watching this child, experiencing life for the first time, I mean, trying to take its first breath... all he could think about was that he was looking at something that was gonna die someday. He just couldn't get it out of his head. And I think that's so true, I mean, all - everything is so finite. But don't you think that that's what, makes our time, at specific moments, so important?

Celine Yeah, I know. It's the same for us, tonight, though. After tomorrow morning, we're probably never going to see each other again, right? We, maybe we should try something different. I mean, it's no so bad if tonight is our only night, right? People always exchange phone numbers, addresses, they end up writing once, calling each other once or twice...

Jesse Right. Fizzles out. Yeah, I mean, I don't want that. I hate that.

Celine I hate that too, y'know.

Jesse Why do you think everybody thinks relationships are supposed to last forever anyway?

Celine Yeah, why? It's stupid.

Celine It's amazing what perverts we've become in the past nine years.

Jesse At least now we don't have to pretend that each new sexual experience is a life-altering event.

Celine I know. By now, you know, you've stuck it in so many places, it's like about to fall off.

Jesse Yeah, you know, and I can't realistically expect that you've become anything but a total ho, at this point.

Celine Yeah, thank you.

Celine Memories are wonderful things, if you don't have to deal with the past.

Celine I always feel this pressure of being a strong and independent icon of womanhood, and without making it look my whole life is revolving around some guy. But loving someone, and being loved means so much to me. We always make fun of it and stuff. But isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?

Celine I was having this awful nightmare that I was 32. And then I woke up and I was 23. So relieved. And then I woke up for real, and I was 32.

Celine You can never replace anyone because everyone is made up of such beautiful specific details.

Céline If we were meeting for the first time today on a train, would you find me attractive?

Jesse Of course.

Céline No, but really, right now as I am? Would you start talking to me? Would you ask me to get off the train with you?

Jesse Well, I mean, you're asking a theoretical question. I mean, what would my life situation be? I mean technically, wouldn't I be cheating on you?

Céline Okay. Why can't you just say "yes"?

Jesse No, I did. I said, "of course"! That was -

Céline No-no-no! I wanted you to say something romantic and you blew it.

Jesse Oh, okay. Alright, wait - if I saw you on a train, okay, listen. I would lock eyes with you.

Céline Uh-huh.

Jesse And then I'd walk right up to you and I'd say, "Hey, baby. You are making me as horny as a billy goat in a briar patch.

Céline Stop it, that's disgusting! Billy goat. No, the truth is, you failed the test. And the fact is, you would not pick me up on a train. You wouldn't even notice me, a fat-assed middle-aged mom, losing her hair.

Jesse Okay. Losing her hair?

Céline Yeah, that's me!

Jesse You set me up to fail. Honestly, you did.

Céline Okay, true. True.

Jesse Alright? Alright? But in the real world, baldy, on game day when it mattered, I did talk to you on a train. I did that, it was the best thing I ever did.

Jesse You want to know why I wrote that stupid book?

Celine Why?

Jesse So that you might come to a reading in Paris and I could walk up to you and ask, "Where the fuck were you?

Celine No - you thought I'd be here today?

Jesse I'm serious. I think I wrote it, in a way, to try to find you.

Celine Okay, that's– I know that's not true, but that's sweet of you to say.

Jesse I think it is true. 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.

Poet 哎，（用德语）

Celine 我理解一点（德语），但他完全不懂。

Poet 哦。我可以问你们一个问题吗？

Celine 是？

Poet 我想与你们做个交易。我的意思是，我并不是向你们讨钱，而是请你给我一个词。你们给我一个词，然后我写首诗，这个词在诗中。如果你们喜欢，如果你们喜欢我的诗，如果它为你们的生活增加了点什么，那么你们可以随便给我点钱。当然我会用英文写。

Celine 好的。

Jesse 很好，

Poet 来吧，选个词。

Celine 一个词，奶昔。

Jesse 奶昔，哦，好。 我想说“好斗的公鸡”，但奶昔也不错。

Poet 奶昔？好的，就奶昔。

Jesse 好

Celine 很好。

Jesse 我想说，我喜欢维也纳的无业游民。

Celine 我喜欢他说的“给你们的生活增加点什么”。

Jesse 那么，我们是不是在这里停止我们的首次争执？

Celine 我想是的，我们应该这样。 但为什么每个人都认为冲突是坏的？冲突可以带来很多好东西呀。

Jesse 是，我也这样想。 我总是认为，如果我能够接受现实，比如大家一般认为的生活是艰苦的，那么我将可能不再那么生气。我只会为好事而高兴。

Celine 这正是我还在学校的原因。在学校里更容易抵抗某些东西。

Jesse 对，我们都有这种根深蒂固的征服欲。你知道，我在做些最无意义的事，比如投飞镖，或打靶，但突然，我觉得它来了，我必须要赢。

Celine 那是你让我下车的原因吗？征服欲？

Jesse 什么意思？

Poet 诗写好了

Jesse （接过写着诗的纸片）哦，好。

Celine （把纸片还给诗人）你能念给我们听吗？

Poet 当然。 骗人的白日梦 汽车的睫毛 哦，孩子，你可爱的脸庞，滴一滴泪在我的酒杯。 看着这些大眼睛，明白你对我意味着什么 ——蛋糕与奶昔 我是骗人的天使 我是幻想的乐园 我希望你了解我，不要瞎猜。 你不知道我来自何处 我们不知道我们走向何处。 人生在世， 如水中浮萍， 顺流而下，相遇在水流中 我带着你 你带着我， 我们只能这样。 你不了解我吗？ 你到现在还不了解我吗？

Celine The past is the past. It was meant to be that way.

Jesse What, you really believe that? That everything's fated?

Celine Well, you know, the world might be less free than we think.

Jesse Yeah?

Celine Yeah, when given these exact circumstances, that's what will happen every time: two part hydrogen, one part oxygen, you get water every time.

Jesse No, no, I– I– I mean what if your grandmother had lived a week longer, or, you know, or passed away a week earlier, days even. You know things might have been different. I believe that.

Celine No, you can't think like that, it's...

Jesse No, I mean, I know you shouldn't on most things, but– It's just, on this one it seemed like something was off, you know?

Jesse I feel like this is, uh, some dream world we're in, y'know.

Celine Yeah, it's so weird. It's like our time together is just ours. It's our own creation. It must be like I'm in your dream, and you in mine, or something.

Jesse And what's so cool is that this whole evening, all our time together, shouldn't officially be happening.

Celine Yeah, I know. Maybe that's why this feels so otherworldly.

Jesse You're just like the little girls and everybody else. You wanna live inside some fairy tale. I'm just trying to make things better. I tell you that I love you unconditionally, I tell you that you're beautiful, I tell you that your ass looks great when you're 80. I try to make you laugh.

Céline OK.

Jesse All right, I put up with plenty of your shit. And if you think I'm just some dog who's gonna keep coming back, then you're wrong. But if you want true love, then this is it. This is real life. It's not perfect, but it's real. And if you can't see it, then you're blind, all right, and I give up.

Jesse Skinnier, I think. A little thinner.

Celine Did you think I was fat before?

Jesse No!

Celine Yeah, you thought I was a fatty. No, you thought I was a fatty! Yeah, you, you wrote a book about a fat French girl!

Jesse No, listen...

Celine Oh, no...

Jesse Seriously, all right, you look beautiful.

Celine You know, I've been wondering lately. Do you know anyone who's in a happy relationship?

Jesse Uh, yeah, sure. I know happy couples. But I think they lie to each other.

Celine Hmf. Yeah. People can lead their life as a lie. My grandmother, she was married to this man, and I always thought she had a very simple, uncomplicated love life. But she just confessed to me that she spent her whole life dreaming about another man she was always in love with. She just accepted her fate. It's so sad.

Jesse I guarantee you, it was better that way. If she'd ever got to know him, I'm sure he would have disappointed her eventually.

Celine How do you know? You don't know them.

Jesse Yeah, I know, I know. It's just, people have these romantic projections they put on everything. That's not based on any kind of reality.

Celine The concept is absurd. The idea that we can only be complete with another person is evil! Right?

Jesse I heard this story once about when the Germans were occupying Paris and they had to retreat back. They wired Notre Dame to blow, but they had to leave one guy in charge of hitting the switch. And the guy, the soldier, he couldn't do it. You know, he just sat there, knocked out by how beautiful the place was. And then when the allied troops came in, they found all the explosives just lying there and the switch unturned, and they found the same thing at Sacre Couer, Eiffel Tower. Couple other places I think...

Celine Is that true?

Jesse I don't know. I always liked the story, though.

Jesse Alright, I have an admittedly insane idea, but if I don't ask you this it's just, uh, you know, it's gonna haunt me the rest of my life

Celine What?

Jesse Um... I want to keep talking to you, y'know. I have no idea what your situation is, but, uh, but I feel like we have some kind of, uh, connection. Right?

Celine Yeah, me too.

Jesse Yeah, right, well, great. So listen, so here's the deal. This is what we should do. You should get off the train with me here in Vienna, and come check out the capital.

Celine What?

Jesse Come on. It'll be fun. Come on.

Celine What would we do?

Jesse Umm, I don't know. All I know is I have to catch an Austrian Airlines flight tomorrow morning at 9:30 and I don't really have enough money for a hotel, so I was just going to walk around, and it would be a lot more fun if you came with me. And if I turn out to be some kind of psycho, you know, you just get on the next train. Alright, alright. Think of it like this: jump ahead, ten, twenty years, okay, and you're married. Only your marriage doesn't have that same energy that it used to have, y'know. You start to blame your husband. You start to think about all those guys you've met in your life and what might have happened if you'd picked up with one of them, right? Well, I'm one of those guys. That's me y'know, so think of this as time travel, from then, to now, to find out what you're missing out on. See, what this really could be is a gigantic favor to both you and your future husband to find out that you're not missing out on anything. I'm just as big a loser as he is, totally unmotivated, totally boring, and, uh, you made the right choice, and you're really happy.

Celine Let me get my bag.

Céline Do you remember this friend of mine? George, from New York.

Jesse No.

Céline Oh, no, that was before. That was before.

Jesse What was?

Céline He was this friend of mine that, when he found out he had leukemia, and he was probably going to die, he confessed to me that the first thing that came to his mind was relief.

Jesse Relief? But why?

Céline Well, before he found out he had nine months to live he was always so worried about money, and now his thought was, great! I have more than enough money to live for the next nine months, I've made it!

Jesse Oh, okay.

Céline And then he was finally able to enjoy everything about life, even like being stuck in traffic. He would just enjoy looking at people... staring at their faces. Just little things.

Celine There are so many things I want to do, but I end up doing not much.

Celine Even being alone it's better than sitting next to your lover and feeling lonely.

Celine If there's any kind of magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone, sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed, but...who cares, really? The answer must be in the attempt.

Celine Let me sing you a waltz / Out of nowhere, out of my thoughts / Let me sing you a waltz / About this one night stand / You were, for me, that night / Everything I always dreamt of in life / But now you're gone / You are far gone / All the way to your island of rain / It was for you just a one night thing / But you were much more to me, just so you know / I don't care what they say / I know what you meant for me that day / I just want another try, I just want another night / Even if it doesn't seem quite right / You meant for me much more than anyone I've met before / One single night with you, little Jesse, is worth a thousand with anybody / I have no bitterness, my sweet / I'll never forget this one night thing / Even tomorrow in other arms, my heart will stay yours until I die / Let me sing you a waltz / Out of nowhere, out of my blues / Let me sing you a waltz / About this lovely one night stand

Sherry I'm like your mistress, except you're not even married.

Penny So, what the fuck do you want, Donnie?

Jesse Oh, God, why weren't you there, in Vienna?

Celine I told you why.

Jesse Well, I know why, I just– I wish you would have been. Our lives might have been so much different.

Celine You think so?

Jesse I actually do.

Celine Maybe not. Maybe, we would have hated each other eventually.

Jesse Oh what, like we hate each other now?

Celine You know, maybe we're– we're only good at brief encounters, walking around in European cities in warm climate.

Jesse So this is how you now want to be spending this evening? I mean, this is what you wanna do tonight?

Céline Well, you started it.

Jesse No. You are the one who will not shut up about it. But if you want to talk about it, I mean, really talk about it. I would prefer to have an unemotional, rational conversation. I mean, do you think we can do that? Would that be possible?

Céline Here we go. Unemotional, rational. You always play the part of the one and only rational one and I'm the irrational, hysterical, hormone-crazy one because I have emotions. Yeah, you sit back and you speak from your big perspective which means everything you say is level-headed and true.

Jesse I don't always do anything.

Céline The world is fucked by unemotional rational men deciding shit, alright? Politicians going to war for no reason, corporate heads deciding to wreck the environment, ], ] - very rational men.

Jesse Cheney and Rumsfeld? Yeah, okay.

Céline The ]? Very rational thinking behind it.

Celine I see it in the people that do the real work, and what's sad in a way is that the people that are the most giving, hardworking, and capable of making this world better, usually don't have the ego and ambition to be a leader.

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.

Jesse I am giving you my whole life OK? I got nothing larger to give, I'm not giving it to anybody else. If you're looking for permission to disqualify me, I'm not gonna give it to you. OK? I love you. And I'm not in conflict about it. OK? But if what you want is like a laundry list of all the things that piss me off, I can give it to you.

Céline Yeah, I want to hear.

Jesse Okay well, number 1, you're fucking nuts! You are. Good luck! Find somebody else to put up with your shit for more than like 6 months, okay? But I accept the whole package, the crazy and the brilliant. I know you're not gonna change and I don't want you to. It's called accepting you for being you.

Céline Most women who achieve anything in life, the first time you hear about them, they're in their 50's, because it was so hard for them to get any recognition before then. They struggle for 30 years or they raise kids and were stranded at home before they could finally do what they want. Actually, you know what? It's kind of freeing. We don't have to spend our lives comparing ourselves to ], ], ]...

Jesse What about ], right, she was a teenager and she saved France, so...

Céline Who wants to be Joan of Arc? Forget France, she was burnt at the stake and a virgin, okay. Nothing I aspired to. What a great achievement!

Jesse Do you think it could be tonight that you're still talking about in your 80s?

Céline Well, it must have been one hell of a night we're about to have.

Celine I don't think we should sleep together. I mean, I want to, but since we're never gonna see each other again, it will make me feel bad. I'll wonder who else you're with. I'll miss you. I know. It's not very adult. Maybe it's a female thing. I can't help it.

Jesse Let's see each other again.

Celine But then the morning comes, and we turn back into pumpkins, right?

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 I was fine, until I read your fucking book! It stirred shit up, you know? It reminded me how genuinely romantic I was, how I had so much hope in things, and now it's like, I don't believe in anything that relates to love. I don't feel things for people anymore. In a way, I put all my romanticism into that one night, and I was never able to feel all this again. Like, somehow this night took things away from me and I expressed them to you, and you took them with you! It made me feel cold, like if love wasn't for me!

Jesse I... I don't believe that. I don't believe that.

Celine You know what? Reality and love are almost contradictory for me. It's funny. Every single of my ex’s, they're now married! Men go out with me, we break up, and then they get married! And later they call me to thank me for teaching them what love is, and, and that I taught them to care and respect women!

Jesse I think I'm one of those guys.

Celine You know, I want to kill them! Why didn't they ask me to marry them? I would have said "No," but at least they could have asked! But it's my fault, I know it's my fault, because I never felt it was the right man. Never! But what does it mean the right man? The love of your life? The concept is absurd. The idea that we can only be complete with another person is EVIL! Right?!

Jesse Can I talk?

Celine You know, I guess I've been heart-broken too many times. And then I recovered. So now, you know, from the start I make no effort because I know it’s not going to work out, I know it’s not going to work out.

Celine Do you think you would have finished your book if you were fucking someone every five minutes?