The Hours (2002)

Meryl Streep: Clarissa Vaughan

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Quotes 

• Clarissa Vaughn : I remember one morning getting up at dawn, there was such a sense of possibility. You know, that feeling? And I remember thinking to myself: So, this is the beginning of happiness. This is where it starts. And of course there will always be more. It never occurred to me it wasn't the beginning. It *was* happiness. It was the moment. Right then.

• Clarissa Vaughn : That is what we do. That is what people do. They stay alive for each other.

• [in 1921] 

  Virginia Woolf : [writing in her book]  Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.

  [in 1951] 

  Laura Brown : [reading in bed]  Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.

  [in 2001] 

  Clarissa Vaughan : Sally, I think I'll buy the flowers myself.

  [waking up] 

  Sally Lester : What? What flowers?

  [realizing] 

  Sally Lester : Oh, shit! I forgot!

• Clarissa Vaughn : All right Richard, do me one simple favor. Come. Come sit.

  Richard Brown : I don't think I can make it to the party, Clarissa.

  Clarissa Vaughn : You don't have to go to the party, you don't have to go to the ceremony, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. You can do as you like.

  Richard Brown : But I still have to face the hours, don't I? I mean, the hours after the party, and the hours after that...

  Clarissa Vaughn : You do have good days still. You know you do.

  Richard Brown : Not really. I mean, it's kind of you to say so, but it's not really true.

• Clarissa Vaughn : Why is everything wrong?

• Clarissa Vaughn : I don't know what's happening. I'm sorry. I seem to be in some strange sort of mood. I'm sorry - it's very rude of me. I seem to be unravelling.

• Clarissa Vaughn : One morning in Wellfleet, you were there, we were all there, I'd been sleeping with him and I was out on the back porch. He came out behind me and put his arm on my shoulder. "Good morning, Mrs. Dalloway." From then on I've - been stuck.

  Louis Waters : Stuck?

  Clarissa Vaughn : Yep. With the name, I mean.

• Richard Brown : Who is this party for?

  Clarissa Vaughan : What are you asking, what are you trying to say?

  Richard Brown : I'm not trying to say anything. I think I'm staying alive just to satisfy you.

• Clarissa Vaughan : Just to let you know I am making the crab thing. Not that I imagine it makes any difference to you.

  Richard Brown : Of course it makes a difference. I love the crab thing.

• Clarissa Vaughn : When I'm with him I feel... Yes, I am living. And when I'm not with him... Yes, everything does seem sort of silly.

• Clarissa Vaughn : He gives me that look.

  Julia : What look?

  Clarissa Vaughn : To say your life is trivial. You are so trivial.

• Julia : You can't see that Louis Waters is weird?

  Clarissa Vaughn : I can see that he's sad.

  Julia : Well. All of your friends are sad.

• Richard Brown : We want everything, don't we?

  Clarissa Vaughn : I suppose we do.

• Clarissa Vaughn : Richard. Richard. It's a party. It's only a party. Populated entirely by people who respect and admire you.

  Richard Brown : Ah, a small party, is it?

• Clarissa Vaughn : Of course.He did it this morning... he gives me that look.

  Julia : What look?

  Clarissa Vaughn : To say... your life is trivial.You... are so... trivial.Just daily stuff, you know, schedules and parties, and... details - that's what he means. That is what he's saying.

  Julia : Mum, it only matters if you think it's true. Well? Do you? Tell me.

• Barbara in the Flower Shop : It's you isn't it?

  Clarissa Vaughn : What is?

  Barbara in the Flower Shop : In the novel. Isn't it meant to be you?

  Clarissa Vaughn : Oh, I see! Yeah, sort of. I mean - in a way. You know, Richard's a writer that's what he is. He uses things which actually happened.

  Barbara in the Flower Shop : Yeah.

  Clarissa Vaughn : And years ago he and I were - students, that's true. But, you know, then he changes things.

  Barbara in the Flower Shop : Oh, sure!

  Clarissa Vaughn : I don't mean in a bad way. It's more like - he makes them his own.

• Clarissa Vaughn : How's San Francisco?

  Louis Waters : Oh, it's one of those cities people tell you to like.

• Barbara in the Flower Shop : I actually tried to read Richard's novel.

  Clarissa Vaughn : You did?

  [Barbara grimaces] 

  Clarissa Vaughn : Oh, I know. It is not easy. I know. It did take him ten years to write.

  Barbara in the Flower Shop : Maybe it just takes another ten to read.

• Louis Waters : I shouldn't tell you this - I've fallen in love.

  Clarissa Vaughn : Really?

  Louis Waters : Yes. With a student.

  Clarissa Vaughn : With a student?

  Louis Waters : Exactly. I know - you think: am I still up for this? All this intensity, all those arguments, doors being slammed. But, you know, what it's like.

• Louis Waters : Do you think I'm ridiculous?

  Clarissa Vaughn : Ridiculous? Fortunate, too.