Quotes

Jean: Nemo, do I matter to you? I'd just like to ask you one question. Did you do it on purpose? I found this on the bedside table.

[reads note]

Jean: There comes a time in life where everything seems narrow. Choices have been made. I can only continue on. I know myself like the back of my hand. I can predict my every reaction. My life has been cast in cement with airbags and seatbelts. I've done everything to reach this point and now that I'm here, I'm fucking bored. The hardest thing is knowing whether I'm still alive.

Nemo Nobody adult: [looks at note] It is my handwriting. I don't remember.

Nemo Nobody aged 118: Sometimes people call me Mr. Craft. C-R-A-F-T. Can't Remember A Fucking Thing.

Nemo Nobody aged 118: I've got nothing to say to you. I'm Mr. Nobody, a man who doesn't exist.

Young journalist: Do you remember what the world was like before telemerization? Quasi-immortality? What was it like when humans were mortals?

Nemo Nobody aged 118: There were cars that polluted. We smoked cigarettes. We ate meat. We did everything we can't do in this dump and it was wonderful! Most of the time nothing happened... like a French movie.

Young journalist: And, um, sexually? Before sex became obsolete.

Nemo Nobody aged 118: Ha, ha! We screwed! Everybody was always screwing. We fell in love... we fell in love.

Nemo age 9: You have to make the right choice. As long as you don't choose, everything remains possible.

Young journalist: I'm sorry, I don't understand. Did you stay with your father or go with your mother?

Nemo's Mother: You could've stayed with your father if you wanted to!

Nemo Nobody adult: [meets by chance at the trainstation] Anna!

Anna: Nemo... how have you been?

Nemo Nobody adult: I'm fine, how are you?

Anna: Yeah, good.

Nemo Nobody adult: Are they your kids?

Anna: Yeah...

[awkward silence]

Anna: Well, see you around.

Nemo Nobody adult: Yeah, uh... See you around.

Nemo age 16: [narrating] What on earth made me say I don't go swimming with idiots?

Nemo Nobody aged 118: Urgh, you're still here? Did I fall asleep? Sometimes I don't sleep so I think... I think about how it was... and all I have left. What do you see when you look at me? A grumpy old man who never answers questions? Who mixes everything up? Who's kept busy by getting his meals? That's not me. Me... I wear shorts. I'm nine years old. I can run faster than the train. I can't feel my aching back anymore. I'm fifteen. I'm fifteen and I'm in love.

Nemo age 16: How did you know my name?

Elise age 15: We go to the same school. You never notice me, you never notice anyone. Do you have a girlfriend? What, are you queer? Why don't you have a girlfriend?

Nemo age 16: I don't know... I don't want one.

Elise age 15: Do you know how to talk? Well say something.

[waits then starts to leave]

Nemo age 16: Gravity on Mars is 0,38. That's three times less than on Earth. The ground is covered with iron-oxide dust.

Elise age 15: [turns to face Nemo] You're incredible. Raise your hand and say 'I swear'. Promise me that when I die, you'll scatter my ashes on Mars.

Nemo Nobody adult: [on telephone] I'm gonna be a little late.

Anna: It's okay, don't worry.

Nemo Nobody adult: I love you.

Anna: I love you more.

Nemo Nobody adult: Me more.

Anna: Me more.

Nemo Nobody adult: Okay.

Anna: Cheater!

Nemo's Father: You look like my son.

Nemo age 16: I am your son, dad.

Nemo's Father: My son is taller than you.

Anna age 15: You're the first and last person I'll ever love.

Nemo age 16: Ten days... That makes 14,400 minutes... I wish time would stop right now, that it would stay this way forever.

Anna age 15: They say if you slow your breathing, time slows down. The Hindus say so.

Nemo age 16: [to Elise] Shh, don't say anything. You're the one I love. You can count on me for Mars, I promise.

Nemo Nobody adult: So... who has a joke? Anybody? I do! What's green, small and goes up and down?

Daughter: A pea in a elevator. It's not funny. Old people humour...

Nemo Nobody adult: [to/about Elise] I often have this dream. In prehistoric times, I can hear you screaming. I chase the bear and you're not afraid anymore, but when I wake up, there's no bear... but you're still afraid. And I'm not a bear hunter. I'm an executive at a plant that manifactures photocopying machines that just quit his job. I don't dare to move, I don't live, whatever I do is a disaster. I would love to set out to chase the bear away and for you to not be afraid anymore.

Elise: What are you doing today?

Nemo Nobody adult: I was thinking about taking the opportunity to wash the car.

Elise: What's the deal with that car?

Nemo Nobody adult: What do you mean?

Elise: Why do you take such good care of that car while you leave me here all alone? What's the problem with the car?

Nemo Nobody adult: [goes outside to set the car on fire, then goes back to Elise] There's no more problem with the car.

Man in black 2: This is weird. His shoes are different sizes.

Man in black 1: Maybe he shrunk? Happens when you get older, you shrink.

Man in black 2: No one shrinks, that's rubbish. You got the wrong bloke, that's all.

Man in black 1: Astronauts shrink two inches when they come back to Earth.

Man in black 2: You think this fella is an astronaut?

Man: [answers telephone] Hello, who is this?

Nemo Nobody adult: Hello, who is this?

Man: Who is THIS?

Nemo Nobody adult: I was told to call this number. My name is Nemo Nobody.

Man: Is this some kind of a joke?

Nemo Nobody aged 118: Before he was unable to make a choice because he didn't know what would happen. Now that he knows what will happen, he is unable to make a choice.

Anna: When we were separated at 15, I said I would never love anyone else, ever. I would never become attached, I'd never stay put anywhere, I'd have nothing for myself; I decided I would pretend to be alive. And this is what I've been waiting for, all this time, renouncing all possible lives, for one only, with you.

Nemo's Mother: [about her son Nemo] He has a gift for making people uncomfortable.

Nemo Nobody aged 118: Every path is the right path. Everything could've been anything else. And it would have just as much meaning.