Kalifornia Quotes

Brian Kessler Early lived in the moment. He did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. I don't know if I was fascinated or frightened by him.

Taglines Fear never travels alone.

Adele Corners Know what, Brian? One night when we was stayin up late we was talkin bout how much bad luck he must have comin from all those mirrors he broke, and I swear we came to 449 years it would take for him to work it all off, and he'd have to - after he died - he's gonna have to keep comin back to earth over and over and over again.

Carrie Laughlin ].

Adele Corners What?

Carrie Laughlin Karma. You know, when you do something bad to someone and fate pays you back by something bad happening to you.

Adele Corners Is that French?

Brian Kessler I remember once going on a school trip to the top of the Empire State Building. When I looked down at the crowds of people on the street they looked like ants. I pulled out a penny and some of us started talking about what would happen if I dropped it from up there and it landed on someone's head. Of course I never crossed that line and actually dropped the penny. I don't think Early Grayce even knew there was a line to cross.

Adele Corners Will you tell me more about California?

Early Grayce Yeah, I guess so. Let's see. One thing, people think faster out there on the account of all that warm weather. Cold weather makes people stupid. That's a fact.

Adele Corners I guess that explains why there's so many stupid people around here.

Early Grayce It sure does. You know what else? You never have to buy no fruit on account it's all on the trees everywhere you turn. And they ain't got no speed limits. I hear your first month's rent is free, state law. So I'm thinking till we get settled we'll just move around from month to month. How will that be with you, momma?

Adele Corners What are we going to do out there, Early?

Early Grayce By God the first thing we're going to do is get us a couple of six-packs of Lucky Lager and we're going to climb up to that famous Hollywood sign. We're going to howl at the moon, goddamn it. Yeah, just like that.

Adele Corners I heard once that there ain't nothing on that old moon except some little golf balls the astronauts left behind.

Early Grayce Nah, that ain't right. That's bullshit. The government be sending people there all the time. Just don't want us to know about it.

Brian Kessler When you first meet people all you notice are the differences between you and them, but as time passes you start noticing the similarities. I guess that's how all friendships begin.

Brian Kessler When you dream there are no rules. People can fly. Anything can happen. Sometimes there's a moment as you're waking and you become aware of the real world around you, but you are still dreaming. You may think you can fly but you better not try.

Brian Kessler Early seemed harmless. Primitive, but harmless. Of course the fact of the matter was he had killed his landlord less than an hour before we met him. He was even wearing the guy's ring. Who knows what he did with the finger?

Early Grayce Got them both on the dead run.

Adele Corners No! No, no, no Early!

Early Grayce Come on, momma. Tell me that don't hurt. Here.

Brian Kessler What?

Early Grayce Gotta put that crippled dog out of his misery. You wanna know about it, you gotta do it, son. Shoot him. Come on, lay it on in there. Come on, mean boy. Come on, mean boy. Do it! Shoot him! Shoot the dog! Time to live, boy. Shoot him. Come on. Go! Go, mean boy.

Early Grayce You faggot.

Brian Kessler Look at his face! It's not your father. Look at him!

Early Grayce I know that, you idiot. That's police in a world of hurting. This here's a mercy killing.

Carrie Laughlin Oh God!

Early Grayce Let's hit the road.

Early Grayce You haven't even said thank you.

Adele Corners Thank you.

Early Grayce Thank you for what, Adele?

Adele Corners I don't know, Early.

Early Grayce Well, Adele, it's for saving your fucking life back there! Goddamn! You were this close, momma, from spending the night in the county morgue.

Carrie Laughlin He wasn't going to shoot her, you murdering son of a bitch!

Brian Kessler Stop it, Carrie.

Carrie Laughlin What are you fucking insane?

Brian Kessler Shut up!

Carrie Laughlin God, why are you so fucking blind, Brian? He's a murderer for crying out loud.

Brian Kessler Just shut up!

Early Grayce Goddamn bunch of loons.

Adele Corners My God, Carrie. If Early ever saw me in a picture like that I'd be black-and-blue for a week.

Carrie Laughlin You shouldn't let him do that to you.

Adele Corners You think Early's mean to me? Well, he's not. He may punish me once in a while, but he's not mean. Um, when I was 13 there was these three boys and they raped me in the back of this truck. They hurt me so bad that I was in the hospital for, like, four months. And I feel safe with Early cause most of the time he treats me really nice. I know that he'd never. He would never let anything like that ever happen to me again.

Early Grayce Momma? What are you crying for? I'm the one who got hit.

Adele Corners Cos I decided, Early, I'm not gonna climb up that Hollywood sign with you.

Early Grayce And why not?

Adele Corners Cos you're mean, Early.

Early Grayce No, I'm not.

Adele Corners You hurt those people, Early. I don't wanna do it with you. I loved you, Early. You just be quiet. You are mean.

Taglines A state of fear and terror.

Early Grayce Boring. Boring. Dog shit. Now that don't leave much to the imagination, does it? I know him. That's my daddy. Fucker. Boring. [drops it and then pauses a moment studying the next photo. That's you ain't it?

Carrie Laughlin Yeah, that's me. Do you like it? What do you think?

Early Grayce Dog shit! Boring. Stinky. Stinky. You gotta learn how to control your woman better. But lucky for you, they take all kinds in California. That's where we'll be tomorrow. California.

Brian Kessler I'll never know why Early Grayce became a killer. I don't know why any of them did. When I looked into his eyes I felt nothing, nothing. That day I learned that any one of us is capable of taking another human life. But I also learned there is a difference between us and them: it's feeling remorse. Dealing with guilt. Confronting a conscience. Early never did.

Brian Kessler How many people have you killed, Early?

Early Grayce Well, now, how many people have you seen me kill, Bri?

Brian Kessler None.

Early Grayce That's how many I killed.

Brian Kessler If you say so.

Early Grayce Damn right I do. Shut up! Eat your food. You ain't never killed no one, have you, Bri?

Brian Kessler No.

Early Grayce No. Ain't seen nobody killed either, have you?

Brian Kessler No, I haven't.

Early Grayce No. Tell me something, big time. How are you going to write a book about something you know nothing about?

Brian Kessler I'd always wanted to be a writer, but there's a big difference between writing a magazine article and writing a book. I know I wrote a magazine article. Everything I ever wanted to know about serial killers fit nicely on those four pages. The article got me a book deal with a little cash up front, but between the rent and the convertible the advance was gone. I owed a book and I was stuck. What little I knew about serial killers I learned in a university library. The only thing I knew for certain was that people didn't kill each other in libraries.

Brian Kessler What was that?

Adele Corners Nothing, Brian. It was just the thunder. Oh my God.

Brian Kessler Hey, Early, what the fuck are you doing? We talked about this.

Early Grayce Oh, Brian. You gonna like this one. Get in. Big fella you riding shotgun. Adele, you drive.

Brian Kessler What's going on? What are you doing?

Early Grayce Come on bud, let's go. Get us out of here momma.

Brian Kessler What happened back there?

Carrie Laughlin Oh my God. He shot him. He shot him in the head.

Brian Kessler Who shot who in the head?

Adele Corners No, he didn't Carrie.

Early Grayce Everybody just shut up! Goddamn, bitch, quit squawking. Nothing's changed. I'm gonna get you there, safe, to California. That is, if Adele don't kill us with her driving first.