Tuesdays with Morrie (1999 TV Movie)

Jack Lemmon: Morrie Schwartz

Photos 

Quotes 

• Morrie Schwartz : When you learn how to die, you learn how to live.

• Morrie Schwartz : The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.

• Morrie Schwartz : Death ends a life, not a relationship.

• Morrie Schwartz : If we accept the fact that we can die at anytime we lead our lives differently.

• Morrie Schwartz : Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too - even when you're in the dark. Even when you're falling.

• Morrie Schwartz : Dying is just one thing to be sad about. Living unhappily, that's another matter.

• Morrie Schwartz : My father was afraid of love. He couldn't give it and he couldn't receive it either. Maybe that's worse.

  Mitch Albom : Morrie, Morrie, we should stop.

  Morrie Schwartz : Not letting ourselves be loved because we're too afraid of giving ourselves to someone we might lose.

• Morrie Schwartz : When we're infants, we need others to survive. When we're dying, we need others to survive. But here's the secret. In between, we need others even more.

• Morrie Schwartz : [quoting W.H. Auden]  "All I have is a voice - to undo the folded lie - the lie of authority - whose buildings grope the sky. No one exists alone. Hunger allows no choice to the citizen or police. We must love one another... or die."

  Morrie Schwartz : We must... love one another... or die.

• Morrie Schwartz : Usually in the morning, you know, before everybody gets up, I get so angry, so bitter. Just, what the hell did I ever do to deserve this? Where's the fairness? I cry and I rage. I mourn. And then I detach. It's over; that's it; all over. No more. I just look back on how I've been feeling and I say, well, that's self-pity and that's enough of that for today.

  Mitch Albom : Just like that? You just stop?

  Morrie Schwartz : Yeah, that's all the time I give it. Start thinking about the day ahead, you know? The people that are going to come to see me, the stories I'm going to hear, and all the stuff I'm going to learn.

• [first lines] 

  Morrie Schwartz : Excuse me, kids.

  [greeting people as he walks past] 

  Morrie Schwartz : Hello, love. How're ya doin'? Hey, Katie.

  Mitch Albom : [narrating]  Among other things, many other things, my old professor loved to eat. He especially liked tongue. I'd say, "Morrie, that's disgusting. " He'd say, "I'm sorry you think so. I also like cole slaw. Can you handle cole slaw, Mitch?"

  Mitch Albom : [narrating]  Near the top of the list of things he loved was dancing. He had his own way of dancing. He'd do the Lindy to Jimi Hendrix. He'd jitterbug to... name a band... Nine Inch Nails.

  Morrie Schwartz : [hands tango music to the DJ] 

  Mitch Albom : [narrating]  One of his favorites was the tango. His own version, of course. Wherever it came from... it wasn't Argentina. Moments like that... he could live in forever. In the summer of he began to notice a few things: shortness of breath... legs giving him a little trouble. But what do you expect at 77?

  Morrie Schwartz : [backs his car into a fence] 

  Mitch Albom : The dancing stopped forever in the summer of 1994.

• Morrie Schwartz : Sometimes I see myself dancing, and I think... "Wow! Oh, boy! I don't have ALS after all. It's-It's a big mistake. It's all part of a lovely fantasy." But just for a minute. Fantasy is useful. You can learn from it.

• Mitch Albom : I guess I'm just not really a touchy-feely guy.

  Morrie Schwartz : Yeah, it scares you.

  Mitch Albom : Doesn't scare me.

  Morrie Schwartz : Yes, it scares you. All this does. Everything we're talking about... death, dying.

  Mitch Albom : There is a reason why people don't talk about these things.

  Morrie Schwartz : Hmm?

  Mitch Albom : To spare people's feelings.

  Morrie Schwartz : "To spare people's feel..." I never have understood that. How can you spare someone's feelings by denying them?

• Morrie Schwartz : Another wave says to him, "Why do you look so sad?" And the little waves says, "Because we're gonna crash. All us waves are gonna be nothin', don't ya understand?" And the other wave says, "*You* don't understand. You're not a wave. You're part of the ocean."

• Morrie Schwartz : [describing what he'd do with one day of perfect health]  I'd have a lovely breakfast: Sweet rolls and tea. Then a good swim. I'd ask my friends for lunch, a great lunch. You know, but... A salad or something simple. And then we'd take a walk in a park... with trees, so we could watch the birds. And we'd talk about how much we meant to each other. And for dinner, I'd take 'em to a place that had great pasta. Oh, boy. And a little duck. Yeah, I love duck. Do you like duck?

  Mitch Albom : Yeah.

  Morrie Schwartz : Yeah. And then I would dance. Oh, I'd dance with my lovely partners... till I was exhausted. Then go home, and I'd have a great sleep.

• Morrie Schwartz : When you're in bed, you're dead.

• Morrie Schwartz : But you know what I dread? Someday soon someone's going to have to wipe my a** for me. But, I'm a lucky man.

  Mitch Albom : You're lucky?

  Morrie Schwartz : Yeah. I've still got time to learn, time to say goodbye to the people I love. And time to teach my final course.

  Mitch Albom : About dying.

  Morrie Schwartz : Not about dying, about living. When you know how to die, you know to live.

• Morrie Schwartz : You know anything about this disease that I've got here? This Lou Gehrig's disease? It melts ya like a candle, you know? In my case, from the bottom up.

• Mitch Albom : I know I should've called. I'm stealin' time from my boss here.

  Morrie Schwartz : You missed my funeral! Never mind. You'll catch the next one.

• Morrie Schwartz : I passed a landmark. Remember what I said about someday somebody havin' to wipe my ass? I'm there.

  Mitch Albom : You're not gonna expect me to do that, are you?

  Morrie Schwartz : Why not? You might be good at it.