Quotes

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

James Sveck: I'm James Sveck. I'm seventeen and... I don't like to talk much. I hate politics, organized religion and... all of that. People always talk about their lives, but their lives just aren't that interesting. You should only say something if it's interesting or absolutely has to be said. I have nothing interesting to say.

Man Visitor: What is the name of the artist?
James Sveck: He/She/It has no name. Well, He/She/It does, but He/She/It does not self-identify.
Woman Visitor: And why is this?
Man Visitor: It's fascinating. He/She/It claims that identity is fluid, and should not be constrained by something as fixed as a name. You see, He/She/It believes that if an artist has a name, then people pay for that name rather than for the art. It's a way of separating the artist from the art.

James Sveck: This is what love does? Turns you into a marionette? It's like trying to have a conversation with a parrot or somebody who's been lobotomized.

James Sveck: My mother told me that you're a... a "Life Coach?" Is that what you call yourself?
Life Coach: Do you think what we call ourselves has anything to do with who we really are?
James Sveck: When it comes to professional titles, yeah. And please don't do that.
Life Coach: Please don't do what?
James Sveck: Answer my questions with more questions.
Life Coach: Does that bother you?
James Sveck: Yeah, it does.
Life Coach: You don't want a drink?

Life Coach: So, you think you're not normal?
James Sveck: I don't think I know what normal is. New York is a funny place to be lonely.
Life Coach: How so?
James Sveck: There's people everywhere. Everyone's got a rhythm of their own. I don't have one. I can see everyone moving to that beat, you know. Gotta go now. Gotta get there, here. Laughing, dancing, whatever, and... all I hear is silence, like there's something way down deep inside of me, some minor defect in the most hidden recesses of the second chromosome of my DNA, that makes me... different.

[first lines]
James Sveck: I wish the whole day was like breakfast, when people are still connected to their dreams, focused inward and... and not yet ready to engage with the world. If it was always breakfast, I would be fine.

James Sveck: I read somewhere that Americans have completely misinterpreted Freud 'cause it was mistranslated from the original German.
Life Coach: You could say the same thing about the Bible. Are you interested in psychology?
James Sveck: I think it's a self-indulgent examination of one's life that supersedes the actual living of said life.
Life Coach: Did you say "sad life?"
James Sveck: No, no, no, "said" life.
Life Coach: I-I thought you said "sad" life.
James Sveck: No, I-I said "said."

James Sveck: I feel like an empty plastic bottle in the middle of the ocean with no cap, so the water could easily come in. Soon I'll be full, and then... and then I'll be sinking.

Sue Kenney: [jabbering on] I just don't want people thinking I come from North Dakota. I mean, there's a big different between North and South Dakota. It's like... the difference between North and South Korea. Well, not that North Dakota is Communist, I mean...

James Sveck: I like museums because they're one of the few places left in the world where nobody's trying to sell you anything.

Nanette: I think that when you get to the end of your life, you have to ask yourself only two questions. Did I live fully, and did I love well. And if you can say yes to those two things, then you're home free.
James Sveck: [toasting with iced tea] To being alive.

Marjorie Dunfour: What should I do?
James Sveck: I hate it when people say that. Most of the time they know exactly what to do. Ask yourself what you really want.

Nanette: [book inscription] My dearest James, be patient and tough. Some day this pain will be useful to you.

Henryk Maria: If everyone had to believe in what they did, very little would get done in the world.

Nanette: I always wanted to learn to play the clarinet.
James Sveck: Why didn't you?
Nanette: My mother didn't approve of ladies putting long, cylindrical objects in their mouths.

Gillian Sveck: Henrich Maria says that naming a child then mispronouncing their name is a subtle and insidious form of child abuse.
Marjorie Dunfour: Well, darling, that's just not my style. If I *were* going to abuse you, there'd be *nothing* subtle about it.

James Sveck: Why do you care if I go to college or not?
Gillian Sveck: I don't really care. But if you don't go, then mom's never gonna shut up about it and right now, I'm the one that has to deal with this. I want you to suck it up and go and then mom will be happy, dad will be happy and I'll be happy.
James Sveck: What about me?
Gillian Sveck: You're never happy anyways.

James Sveck: I have a father, who is having plastic surgery; a mother whose marriage last barely a weekend; a sister, she's writing her memoirs at the age of 23; and you think that I'm the one who needs a shrink.

James Sveck: I like reading. I go to the movies.
Marjorie Dunfour: Well, that's all fine and good, James, but how about liking something more real?

Paul Sveck: Don't you think you put us through enough with your antics? Your mother and I agree on so very few things - but this is one of them.

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Top Gap

By what name was Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You (2011) officially released in Canada in English?