A Single Man (2009)

Colin Firth: George

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Quotes 

• George : [last lines; voiceover]  A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp. And the world seems so fresh as though it had all just come into existence. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be.

• George : Let's leave the Jews out of this just for a moment. Let's think of another minority. One that... One that can go unnoticed if it needs to. There are all sorts of minorities, blondes for example... Or people with freckles. But a minority is only thought of as one when it constitutes some kind of threat to the majority. A real threat or an imagined one. And therein lies the fear. If the minority is somehow invisible, then the fear is much greater. That fear is why the minority is persecuted. So, you see there always is a cause. The cause is fear. Minorities are just people. People like us.

• George : You know that only thing that has made the whole thing worthwhile has been those few times that I was able to truly connect with another person.

• Jim : Do you ever just live in the moment? It's like now, what could be better than being tucked here with you?... I mean, if I died right now it would be OK.

  George : Well it wouldn't be OK with me, so why don't you just shut up and go and change the record.

  Jim : Good answer.

• George : [whispered]  Just get through the goddamn day.

• Carlos : No one has ever picked me up and not wanted something.

  George : I think you picked me up. This is kind of a serious day for me.

  Carlos : Come on. What could be so serious for a guy like you?

  George : I'm just trying to get over an old love I guess.

  Carlos : My mother says that lovers are like buses. You just have to wait a little while and another one comes along.

• George : If one is not enjoying one's present, there isn't a great deal to suggest that the future should be any better.

• George : It takes time in the morning for me to become George, time to adjust to what is expected of George and how he is to behave. By the time I have dressed and put the final layer of polish on the now slightly stiff but quite perfect George I know fully what part I'm supposed to play.

• George : The bathroom's just down the hall, if you'd like to take a shower.

  Kenny : Aren't you taking a shower too, Sir?

  George : Oh, I'm fine, I'm English, we like to be cold and wet.

• Grant : There will be no time for sentiment when the Russians fire a missile at us.

  George : If it's going to be a world with no time for sentiment, Grant, it's not a world that I want to live in.

• George : I always used to tell him that only fools could possibly escape the simple truth that now isn't simply now: it's a cold reminder. One day later than yesterday, one year later than last year, and that sooner or later it will come.

• George : Waking up begins with saying am and now. For the past eight months waking up has actually hurt. The cold realization that I am still here slowly sets in.

• George : For the first time in my life I can't see my future. Every day goes by in a haze, but today I have decided will be different.

• George : Looking in the mirror staring back at me isn't so much a face as the expression of a predicament.

• George : It's all becoming so bland. That's not why I came to America. It's like a complete breakdown of culture and manners.

  Charley : The young ones have no manners. The other day at the car wash, a young man looked me up and down and asked me if I was a natural blonde.

  George : What did you say?

  Charley : I looked him straight in the eye and said, "Let's just say, if I stood on my head, I would be a natural brunette with lovely breath."

• Jennifer Strunk : Would you like to meet Charlton Heston? He's our scorpion. Every night we throw in something new to him and watch him kill it. Daddy says it's like a Coliseum. Daddy says he wants to throw you into the Coliseum.

  George : No kidding. Why?

  Jennifer Strunk : Well, he says you're light in your loafers. But you're not even wearing any loafers.

• George : [to Charley]  Go to London. Change your life. And if you're not happy being a woman, stop acting like one.

• Carlos : No one has ever picked me up and not wanted something.

  George : I think you picked me up.

• George : Let's leave the Jews out of this just for a moment and think of another minority, one that can go unnoticed if it has to.

• George : There's no such thing as old anymore. The other day, one of my students called me a senior citizen.

  Charley : I wouldn't mind if old didn't exist. But I'm not sure that senior is what I'm aiming for, either.

• Charley : This is so nice, lying here with you. Don't you ever miss this? What we could have been to each other. Having a real relationship and kids.

  George : I have... had Jim.

  Charley : No, I mean a real relationship. Geo, let's be honest. What you and Jim had together was wonderful, but wasn't it really just a substitute for something else?