That's What I Am (2011)

Greg Kinnear: Narrator

Quotes 

• Barbara Foss : Hey, Andy. Mary Clear likes you.

  Andy Nichol : M - Mary Clear likes me?

  Barbara Foss : That's what I said.

  Andy Nichol : Why?

  Barbara Foss : I don't know. She's pretty much gone steady with everybody else, so...

  Andy Nichol : She told you that she wanted to go steady with me?

  Barbara Foss : Of course, she's my best friend. She said she thinks you're cute. And don't ask me why.

  [walks away] 

  Narrator : Let's just say that selection by process of elimination lacked a certain romance one might have otherwise found exciting. Even at the age of 13.

• [first lines] 

  Narrator : It has often been said that children are cruel. So goes the tale of Big G.

  Mr. Simon : [reading to the class from Joan of Arc]  Joan looked at the generals and said, my business is not with you. You have not craved the counsel of war. Then she turned toward the kings Privy Counsel and continued. No, it is with you, a counsel of war. It is amazing. Counsels of war have no value, but to decided between two or several doubtful courses. But a counsel of war when there is only one course?

  Narrator : Big G had head of flaming red... no, make that orange, hair. The G stood for Ginger, and derogatory term for red heads. Big G was easily a foot taller than anyone else in the school. Even so, his head was still too big for his body, and his ears too big for his head. One might think in order to compensate, Big G might have been blessed with a handsome face. After all, Clark Gable had big ears, Lucile Ball had orange hair, and yet for them there was compensation. Not so for Big G. Did I say children were cruel? Apparently even God has His moments.

• Narrator : It took maybe thirty seconds for word of Mary Clear and my impending union to cover the school grounds like a suffocating fog. If only our fire drills were that organized. Heck, even the Blue Angels don't fly with that kind of precision any more.

• Narrator : [as Andy heads for rendezvous with Mary Clear]  I moved with purpose, and yet it was clear that my mind was not in control. My body governed by some force previously unknown to me was calling the shots. This despite the fact that it was my body and not my mind that Ricky Brown would ultimately beat unmercifully.

• Narrator : I'm a writer. That's what I am.

• Narrator : She turned what might have been a scarring boyhood memory into the sweetest of recollections, and for that I would always be grateful.

• Narrator : The trip through that dark tunnel from boy to man does not come without great expense.