American Fiction (2023)

John Ortiz: Arthur

Quotes 

• Arthur : White people think they want the truth, but they don't. They want to feel absolved.

• Arthur : What is this? I told you to dress street.

  Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison : I did!

  Arthur : Fucking Sesame Street.

• Arthur : I be standing outside in the night, a police chopper go by and shine some lights in some backyards and I think, 'Shine that light on me, mo'fucka, shine me some fuckin' light so I can see where the fuck I be at.'

  Arthur : Are you serious?

  Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison : You notice I didn't put my name on it.

• Paula Baderman : [On a conference call with the author and his editor]  Hello?

  Arthur : Hello Paula!

  Paula Baderman : Arthur! So wonderful to hear from you. I hope you are with the man of the hour.

  Arthur : I am indeed. He's right here next to me.

  Paula Baderman : Mr. Leigh?

  Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison : [Speaking as the author "Stagg R. Leigh"]  Uh, yeah, this is he.

  Paula Baderman : [Surprised]  Oh, really?

  Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison : Uh, uh, yeah, dammit!

  Paula Baderman : [Relieved]  Right.

  Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison : Mother

  [expletive] 

  Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison : !

  Paula Baderman : Right, okay, um, yeah, I was a little confused at first.

• Arthur : This thing scares me.

  Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison : Scares you? Why?

  Arthur : Because white people think they want the truth, but they don't. They just want to feel absolved.

  Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison : Well, fortunately, that's not my problem.

• Arthur : Nobody in Hollywood reads. They get their assistants to read things and then summarize them. The whole town runs on book reports.

• Arthur : Check this out.

  [picks up 3 bottles of whiskey] 

  Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison : I don't care how drunk we get. I'm not selling it.

  Arthur : That's not what I'm doing. Johnnie Walker Red. 24 bucks. johnnie Walker Black. 50 bucks. Johnnie Walker Blue. One hundred and sixty dollars. See the metaphor?

  Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison : No.

  Arthur : These are all made by the same company. The red is shit. The black is less shit. The blue is good. But fewer people buy the blue because it's expensive. And at the end of the day, most people just want to get drunk. For most of your career, your books have been blue. They're good, complex. But they're not popular because most people wnat something easy. Now, for the first time, ever, you've written a red book. It's simple, prurient... it's not great literature, but it satisfies an urge. And that's valuable. What I'm trying to illustrate is that... just because you do red, doesn't mean you can't also do blue. You can do it all. Like Johnnie Walker. In fact, you got Johnnie Walker beat because, you don't even have to put your real name on it.

  Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison : [takes off glasses, head in his hands]  Shesus. Do we drink now?

• Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison : I wish I could go back to not selling books.

  Arthur : I don't.

• Arthur : Imagine exploding your brain trying to thiink of a toilet paper commercial.