Adaptation. (2002)

Nicolas Cage: Charlie Kaufman, Donald Kaufman

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Quotes 

• Charlie Kaufman : There was this time in high school. I was watching you out the library window. You were talking to Sarah Marsh.

  Donald Kaufman : Oh, God. I was so in love with her.

  Charlie Kaufman : I know. And you were flirting with her. And she was being really sweet to you.

  Donald Kaufman : I remember that.

  Charlie Kaufman : Then, when you walked away, she started making fun of you with Kim Canetti. And it was like they were laughing at *me*. You didn't know at all. You seemed so happy.

  Donald Kaufman : I knew. I heard them.

  Charlie Kaufman : How come you looked so happy?

  Donald Kaufman : I loved Sarah, Charles. It was mine, that love. I owned it. Even Sarah didn't have the right to take it away. I can love whoever I want.

  Charlie Kaufman : But she thought you were pathetic.

  Donald Kaufman : That was her business, not mine. You are what you love, not what loves you. That's what I decided a long time ago. What's up?

  Charlie Kaufman : [stunned]  Thank you.

• [first lines] 

  Charlie Kaufman : [voiceover]  Do I have an original thought in my head? My bald head. Maybe if I were happier, my hair wouldn't be falling out. Life is short. I need to make the most of it. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I'm a walking cliché. I really need to go to the doctor and have my leg checked. There's something wrong. A bump. The dentist called again. I'm way overdue. If I stop putting things off, I would be happier. All I do is sit on my fat ass. If my ass wasn't fat I would be happier. I wouldn't have to wear these shirts with the tails out all the time. Like that's fooling anyone. Fat ass. I should start jogging again. Five miles a day. Really do it this time. Maybe rock climbing. I need to turn my life around. What do I need to do? I need to fall in love. I need to have a girlfriend. I need to read more, improve myself. What if I learned Russian or something? Or took up an instrument? I could speak Chinese. I'd be the screenwriter who speaks Chinese and plays the oboe. That would be cool. I should get my hair cut short. Stop trying to fool myself and everyone else into thinking I have a full head of hair. How pathetic is that? Just be real. Confident. Isn't that what women are attracted to? Men don't have to be attractive. But that's not true. Especially these days. Almost as much pressure on men as there is on women these days. Why should I be made to feel I have to apologize for my existence? Maybe it's my brain chemistry. Maybe that's what's wrong with me. Bad chemistry. All my problems and anxiety can be reduced to a chemical imbalance or some kind of misfiring synapses. I need to get help for that. But I'll still be ugly though. Nothing's gonna change that.

• [at a seminar, Charlie Kaufman has asked McKee for advice on his new screenplay in which 'nothing much happens'] 

  Charlie Kaufman : Sir, what if the writer is attempting to create a story where nothing much happens? Where people don't change, they don't have any epiphanies, they struggle and are frustrated and nothing is resolved. More a reflection of the real world.

  Robert McKee : The real world?

  Charlie Kaufman : Yes, sir.

  Robert McKee : The real fucking world. First of all, you write a screenplay without conflict or crisis you'll bore your audience to tears. Secondly, nothing happens in the world? Are you out of your fucking mind? People are murdered every day. There's genocide, war, corruption. Every fucking day somewhere in the world somebody sacrifices his life to save somebody else. Every fucking day someone somewhere takes a conscious decision to destroy someone else. People find love, people lose it. For Christ sake a child watches her mother beaten to death on the steps of a church! Someone goes hungry, somebody else betrays his best friend for a woman. If you can't find that stuff in life, then you my friend don't know crap about life! And why the FUCK are you wasting my two precious hours with your movie? I don't have any use for it! I don't have any bloody use for it!

  Charlie Kaufman : Okay, thanks.

• Robert McKee : I'll tell you a secret. The last act makes a film. Wow them in the end, and you got a hit. You can have flaws, problems, but wow them in the end, and you've got a hit. Find an ending, but don't cheat, and don't you dare bring in a deus ex machina. Your characters must change, and the change must come from them. Do that, and you'll be fine.

  Charlie Kaufman : You promise?

• Charlie Kaufman : [voice over]  Why didn't I go in? I'm such a chicken. I'm such an idiot. I should have kissed her. I've blown it. I should just go and knock on her door and just kiss her. It would be romantic. It would be something we could someday tell our kids. I'm gonna do that right now.

  [drives away] 

• Charlie Kaufman : To begin... To begin... How to start? I'm hungry. I should get coffee. Coffee would help me think. Maybe I should write something first, then reward myself with coffee. Coffee and a muffin. Okay, so I need to establish the themes. Maybe a banana-nut. That's a good muffin.

• Susan Orlean : YOU FAT PIECE OF SHIT. He's dead.

  Charlie Kaufman : Shut up.

  Susan Orlean : YOU LOSER. You've ruined my life, YOU FAT FUCK.

  Charlie Kaufman : FUCK YOU LADY. You're just a lonely, old, desperate, pathetic DRUG ADDICT.

• Valerie Thomas : I guess we thought that maybe Susan Orlean and Leroche could fall in love, and...

  Charlie Kaufman : Okay. But, I'm saying, it's like, I don't want to cram in sex or guns or car chases, you know... or characters, you know, learning profound life lessons or growing or coming to like each other or overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end, you know. I mean... The book isn't like that, and life isn't like that. You know, it just isn't. And... I feel very strongly about this.

• Charlie Kaufman : [voice-over]  I am pathetic, I am a loser...

  Robert McKee : So what is the substance of writing?

  Charlie Kaufman : [voice-over]  I have failed, I am panicked. I've sold out, I am worthless, I... What the fuck am I doing here? What the fuck am I doing here? Fuck. It is my weakness, my ultimate lack of conviction that brings me here. Easy answers used to shortcut yourself to success. And here I am because my jump into the abysmal well - isn't that just a risk one takes when attempting something new? I should leave here right now. I'll start over. I need to face this project head on and...

  Robert McKee : ...and God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That's flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character.

• Charlie Kaufman : How could you have somebody held prisoner in a basement and... and working at a police station at the same time?

  Donald Kaufman : [pause]  Trick photography.

• [last lines] 

  Charlie Kaufman : I have to go right home. I know how to finish the script now. It ends with Kaufman driving home after his lunch with Amelia, thinking he knows how to finish the script. Shit, that's voice-over. McKee would not approve. How else can I show his thoughts? I don't know. Oh, who cares what McKee says? It feels right. Conclusive. I wonder who's gonna play me. Someone not too fat. I liked that Gerard Depardieu, but can he not do the accent? Anyway, it's done. And that's something. So: "Kaufman drives off from his encounter with Amelia, filled for the first time with hope." I like this. This is good.

• Donald Kaufman : I'm putting in a chase sequence. So the killer flees on horseback with the girl, the cop's after them on a motorcycle and it's like a battle between motors and horses, like technology vs. horse.

  Charlie Kaufman : And they're still all one person, right?

• Charlie Kaufman : You and I share the same DNA. Is there anything more lonely than that?

• Charlie Kaufman : The script I'm starting, it's about flowers. Nobody's ever done a movie about flowers before. So, so there are no guidelines...

  Donald Kaufman : What about "Flowers for Algernon"?

  Charlie Kaufman : Well, that's not about flowers. And it's not a movie.

  Donald Kaufman : Ok, I'm sorry, I never saw it.

• Charlie Kaufman : There are no rules, Donald. And anyone who says there are is just, you know...

  Donald Kaufman : Not rules, principles. McKee writes that a rule says you *must* do it this way. A principle says, this *works* and has through all remembered time.

• Donald Kaufman : Anyway, listen, I meant to ask you, I need a cool way to kill people. Don't worry, for my script.

  Charlie Kaufman : I don't write that kind of stuff.

  Donald Kaufman : Oh, come on, man, please? You're the genius.

  Charlie Kaufman : Here you go. The killer's a literature professor. He cuts off little chunks from his victims' bodies until they die. He calls himself "the deconstructionist".

• Charlie Kaufman : Mr. McKee?

  Robert McKee : Yes.

  Charlie Kaufman : I'm the guy you yelled at this morning.

  Robert McKee : I need more.

• Charlie Kaufman : You sound like your in a cult.

  Donald Kaufman : No, it's just good writing technique. Oh, I made you a copy of Mckee's ten commandments, I posted it over both our work stations.

  [Charlie tears the page from over his work area] 

  Donald Kaufman : [in threatening tone]  You shouldn't have done that.

  [smiles] 

  Donald Kaufman : 'Cause it's extremely helpful.

• Donald Kaufman : [about McKee]  But he says that we have to realize that we all write in a genre, and we must find our originality within that genre. See it turns out, there hasn't been a new genre since Fellini invented the mockumentary...? My genre's thriller, what's yours?

• Charlie Kaufman : The book has no story. There's no story.

  Marty : Alright. Make one up.

• Donald Kaufman : Okay, well here's the twist. We find out that, that the killer really suffers from multiple personality disorder, right? See, he's actually really the cop and the girl. All of them are him. Isn't that fucked up?

• Charlie Kaufman : My leg hurts, I wonder if it's cancer? There's a bump. I'm starting to sweat. Stop sweating. I've got to stop sweating. Can she see it dripping down my forehead? She looked at my hair line. She thinks I'm bald. She...

  Valerie Thomas : We think you're great.

  Charlie Kaufman : Oh, wow, thanks. Well, that's nice to hear.

• Charlie Kaufman : We open on Charlie Kaufman. Fat, old, bald, repulsive, sitting in a Hollywood restaurant, across from Valerie Thomas, a lovely, statuesque film executive. Kaufman, trying to get a writing assignment, wanting to impress her, sweats profusely. Fat, bald Kaufman paces furiously in his bedroom. He speaks into his hand held tape recorder, and he says: "Charlie Kaufman. Fat, bald, repulsive, old, sits at a Hollywood restaurant with Valerie Thomas".

• Charlie Kaufman : The only idea more overused than serial killers is multiple personality. On top of that, you explore the notion that cop and criminal are really two aspects of the same person. See every cop movie ever made for other examples of this.

  Donald Kaufman : Mom called it "psychologically taut".

• Charlie Kaufman : ...But a little fantastic and fleeting and out of reach.

  Robert McKee : Then what happens?

  Charlie Kaufman : That's the end of the book. I wanted to present it simply without big character arcs or sensationalizing the story. I wanted to show flowers as God's miracles. I wanted to show that Orlean never saw the blooming ghost orchid. It was about disappointment.

• Donald Kaufman : [spying on Susan with binoculars]  She's crying. She's at her computer.

  Charlie Kaufman : This is morally reprehensible.

  Donald Kaufman : United... to Miami. Eleven... fifty five am tomorrow. I thought she was down with Laroche.

  Charlie Kaufman : Her parents live in Florida, Donald.

  Donald Kaufman : That was no parent phone call, my friend.

  Charlie Kaufman : Don't say "my friend".

  Donald Kaufman : A guy entering. Handsome.

  Charlie Kaufman : Must be her husband.

  Donald Kaufman : She's acting weird with him, though, right? Don't you think? What's she hiding from him? Maybe she's a lesbian and doesn't know how to tell him. What do you think?

• Charlie Kaufman : I was heading home to do some work. You coming?

  Donald Kaufman : No, man. I'm gonna stay at Caroline's tonight.

  [arms up in the air, moving his hips around and around] 

  Donald Kaufman : A little push, push in the bush.

  Caroline Cunningham : Donald, you're such a retard!

• Charlie Kaufman : [voice over]  Okay, we open with Laroche. He's funny. Okay. He says, "I love to mutate plants". He says "Mutation is fun". Okay, we show flowers and... okay. We have to have the court case. Okay, we show Laroche. Okay, he says "I was mutated as a baby. That's why I'm so smart". That's funny. Okay, we open at the beginning of time. No! Okay, we open with Laroche. He's driving into a swamp.

  John Laroche : Crazy white man!

  [Charlie screams] 

• Donald Kaufman : [delighted]  I can't believe I got shot. Isn't that fucked up?

• Donald Kaufman : Hey, Charles. I pitched my script to mom.

  Charlie Kaufman : Don't say pitch.

• Charlie Kaufman : I don't know how to adapt this. I mean I should've stuck with my own stuff. Don't know why I thought I could write this.

  Marty : See her?

  [points to a blonde in the next room] 

  Marty : I fucked her up the ass. No. I'm kidding. Um... maybe I can help.

  Charlie Kaufman : It's about flowers.

• Charlie Kaufman : Today is the first day of the rest of my life

• Charlie Kaufman : I'm the guy you yelled at this morning.

  Robert McKee : I need more.

• Donald Kaufman : Charles, you'll be glad. I have a plan to get me out of your house, pronto.

  Charlie Kaufman : A job is a plan. Is your plan a job?

  Donald Kaufman : Drum roll, please. I'm gonna be a screenwriter. Like you.

• Donald Kaufman : [handing Charlie his finished script]  So, would you show your agent? It's called "The Three".

• Donald Kaufman : [to Charles]  But I think you actually need to speak to this woman. To know her.

• Charlie Kaufman : One has eyes that contain the sadness of the world

• Charlie Kaufman : Orlean makes orchids - so fascinating. Plus, her musings on Florida and orchid poaching, Indians. It's just - it's great, sprawling New Yorker stuff. I'd want to remain true to that. You know, I'd wanna let the movie exist, rather - rather than be artificially plot-driven.

  Valerie Thomas : Great! I guess I'm not exactly sure what that means.

  Charlie Kaufman : Oh. I'm not sure I know what that means either.

• Charlie Kaufman : Why can't there be a movie simply about flowers?

• Charlie Kaufman : [internal thoughts]  Say something. I dragged her here and now I'm not saying anything. Make her laugh. Say something funny.

  [Spoken to Amelia] 

  Charlie Kaufman : I hate parties, Amelia. Why did we come here?

  Amelia Kavan : Because we're hip, young trendsetters on the make, maybe?

  Charlie Kaufman : More like old losers sitting on the floor, maybe.

  Amelia Kavan : Jesus, Charlie. Speak for yourself.

• Charlie Kaufman : [voice over]  What am I doing here? Why did I bother to come here today? Nobody even seems to know my name. I've been on this planet for 40 years, and I don't understand a single thing. Why am I here? How did I get here?

• Charlie Kaufman : I still can't believe they gave me that job. I mean, after that lunch. I was sweating insanely. I was ranting. I was a mess!

  Amelia Kavan : Oh, you were nervous because she was pretty, that's all.

  Charlie Kaufman : How do you know she was pretty?

  Amelia Kavan : After eight months of knowing you, I think I get what makes you sweat.

• Charlie Kaufman : That's really sweet of you.

  Alice the Waitress : Well, I'm just a sweetie, ain't I?

• Charlie Kaufman : I wanted to grow as a writer. I wanted to do something simple. Show people how amazing flowers are.

  Marty : Are they amazing?

  Charlie Kaufman : I don't know. I think they are.

• Charlie Kaufman : It is a journey of evolution. Adaptation. The journey we all take. A journey that unites each and every one of us. Darwin writes that we all come from the very first single-cell organism. Yet here I am. And there's Laroche. There's Orlean. And there's the ghost orchid. All trapped in our own bodies, in moments in history. That's it. That's what I need to do. Tie all of history together.

• Donald Kaufman : When he forces the woman who's really him to eat herself, he's also eating himself to death.

• Charlie Kaufman : I have no idea how to write. I can't make flowers fascinating.

• Charlie Kaufman : I'm Ouroboros.

  Donald Kaufman : I don't know what that word means.

  Charlie Kaufman : I've written myself into my screenplay.

  Donald Kaufman : That's kind of weird, huh?

  Charlie Kaufman : It's self-indulgent. It's narcissistic. It's solipsistic. It's pathetic. I'm pathetic. I'm fat and pathetic.

  Donald Kaufman : I'm sure you had good reasons, Charles. You're an artist.

• Donald Kaufman : I'm gonna look at the porn site. Research. Don't tell my old lady.

  Charlie Kaufman : You mean Mom?

  Donald Kaufman : No, I don't mean Mom.

• Donald Kaufman : The script kind of makes fun of me, huh?

  Charlie Kaufman : I'm sorry. I was trying something..

  Donald Kaufman : Hey, I don't mind. It's funny.

• Charlie Kaufman : I don't know anything about anything.

• Susan Orlean : Are you going to write about this in your screenplay?

  Charlie Kaufman : I really don't know what this "is".

• Charlie Kaufman : I don't want to die, Donald. I've wasted my life. God, I've wasted it.

  Donald Kaufman : You didn't. And you're not gonna die.

  Charlie Kaufman : I wasted it. I admire you, Donald, you know? I spent my whole life paralyzed, worrying about what people think, and you, you're just oblivious.

  Donald Kaufman : I'm not oblivious.

  Charlie Kaufman : No, you don't understand. I mean that as a compliment.

• Charlie Kaufman : But, so anyway, I was also wondering, I'm going up to Santa Barbara this Saturday, for an orchid show, and I, and I...

  Alice the Waitress : Oh.

  Charlie Kaufman : I'm sorry.

  Alice the Waitress : Well...

  Charlie Kaufman : I apologise. I'm sorry.

  Alice the Waitress : So, I'll just be right back with your pie then.

• Charlie Kaufman : Where's the van? Have they gone?