God Help the Girl (2014)

Olly Alexander: James

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Eve : I think you just hate people.

  James : I don't mind people, I just can't stand collective idiocy.

• James : Many women and men have lived empty, wasted lives in attics trying to write classic pop songs. What they don't realize is it's not for them to decide. It's God. Or, the god of music. Or, the part of God that concerns Himself with music. That's why the hit maker has to be considered part divine because the divine spoke through them.

  Cassie : Preposterous notion.

• James : I dreamt I was dead and I could look back on everything I'd done.

• Cassie : So, is the band going to have a name?

  James : Oh, no, not a name conversation.

  Cassie : Why not a name conversation?

  James : Don't you think it's stupid just to give yourself a name just because you sing songs?

  Eve : What, so the Beatles were stupid?

  James : Well, they were kind of stupid if they actually stopped to think about it.

  Cassie : You definitely think too much. You think the fun out of things.

  James : I mean, I... I'm a lifeguard, I work at a pool with three other guys. We didn't give ourselves a name.

  Cassie : What, like the Lifeboys or something? That's pretty good.

• [last lines] 

  James : [narrating]  Just for a moment we were all in the right place, and the possibilities were infinite. Now I'll go back to my room. Eve will get on the train to a grown up life free from neurosis. Cassie will wonder for a few moments, "What the hell just happened?" before she gets torn back into her own living delights and active miseries. And I'll go back to my room.

  Cassie : [about the train]  Was she on it?

  James : Yeah.

  Cassie : Do you want a lift?

  James : Yeah.

  [they ride off on the twin bike] 

• James : I like this time of night.

• James : I bet if I touched your hands they'd be freezing cold.

  Eve : My hands are fine.

  James : [slowly reaches over a pokes her hand]  Cold, knew it. I couldn't stand that, I mean, I'd get sick instantly. I've got the constitution of an abandoned rabbit.

• James : I know discos are frowned upon in bird society.

  Eve : Oh really? How do you know that?

  James : I was a young ornithologist.

• Cassie : [resting on the river bank]  We're definitely a band now.

  Eve : Why are we a band now?

  Cassie : This is something only a band would do. This is band shit. Day trips, canoeing, kayaking.

  Eve : What do you think, James?

  James : I think we are three people paddling a boat, that's all.

  Eve : So what makes a band then?

  James : You don't make a band, a band makes you. It comes up and sweeps you along.