Interiors (1978)

Diane Keaton: Renata

Photos 

Quotes 

• Renata : We never see Marion and Gail. I don't understand. You used to like them!

  Frederick : I can't stand them. They're so enthusiastic. College kids. I get embarrassed!

  Renata : Oh, well, don't get embarrassed. Don't come. Stay home, drink yourself unconscious. That's one of the cliches of being a novelist you've had no problem with.

  Frederick : Yeah, I sure can drink.

• Joey : We gotta go.

  Renata : Really? We hardly had any chance to speak.

  Joey : I know.

• Renata : Do you have any children, Pearl?

  Pearl : Oh, yes. I have two sons. Lewis and John. Lewis is in real estate. John runs an art gallery.

  Renata : Oh?

  Pearl : In the lobby in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. It's not exactly a gallery. It's more - a concession.

  Joey : Paintings of clowns on black velvet?

  Pearl : That's right. Junk. Oh, I tell you, it's pure junk. But people like it. They get a kick out of it. He does very nicely.

• Renata : I can't seem to shake the real implication of dying. It's terrifying. The intimacy of it embarrasses me.

• Renata : She has all the anguish and anxiety of the artistic personality without any of the talent.

• Renata : It's hard to argue that in the face of death, life loses real meaning.

  Pearl : It is?

  Renata : Well, I can't argue it succinctly, but if you read Socrates or Buddha or Schopenhauer or even Ecclesiastes, they're very convincing.

  Pearl : Well, they should know. I don't read that much.

• Renata : I look in the mirror every day and I feel discouraged. Now I see you, and you don't change at all.

  [Flyn laughs] 

  Renata : No, you don't change! Your skin is like cream. Look at your skin. I'm so envious.

  Flyn : I work at it.

  Renata : No, I don't think that's it.

  Flyn : I have a few good years, then my youth will be frozen on old celluloid for TV movies.

• [last lines] 

  Joey : The water's so calm.

  Renata : Yes. It's very peaceful.

• Renata : Have you spoken with Mother?

  Flyn : Oh, yes. We're having dinner one night this week. How's she holding up?

  Renata : I don't know. Better than we all expected. Isn't that right, Joey?

  Joey : She took it very badly at first, but after the initial shock she seemed to come out of it.

  Renata : Joey feels that all of her Jesus Christ nonsense is actually somewhat of a help.

  Flyn : Well, whatever works.

• Renata : My impotence set in a year ago. My paralysis. I suddenly found I couldn't bring myself to write anymore. I shouldn't say "suddenly." Actually, it started happening last winter. Increasing thoughts about death just seemed to come over me. These... A preoccupation with my own mortality. These feelings of futility in relation to my work. Just what am I striving to create, anyway? To what end? For what purpose, what goal? I mean, do I really care if some of my poems are read after I'm gone forever?

• Renata : Frederick, you know Flyn likes you. And don't behave condescendingly. She senses that you talk down to her.

  Frederick : I don't talk down to Flyn. I love hearing about her hair, her weight, the latest TV junk she's done.

• Pearl : He was in the jewelry business, my first husband, may he rest in peace. Adam, my second, was an orthodontist.

  Renata : How many have you had?

  Pearl : Two. Adam had a massive coronary. Rudy was an alcoholic.

• Frederick : Flyn suffers from the same thing my last book suffered from. She's a perfect example of form without any content.

  Renata : That's very profound. You haven't even started drinking yet.

  Frederick : Yeah, I am profound. And I'm not the award-winning writer. You're the one who's supposed to be giving me insights into sex and other world-shattering phenomenon.

• Renata : Do I really care if a handful of my poems are read after I'm gone forever? Is that supposed to be some sort of compensation?