Adaptation (film) Quotes

Adaptation (film) is a TV show that was first aired in 1970 . Adaptation completed its run in 1970.

It features Jonathan Demme; Vincent Landay; Edward Saxon as producer, Carter Burwell in charge of musical score, and Lance Acord as head of cinematography.

Adaptation (film) is recorded in English and originally aired in United States. Each episode of Adaptation (film) is 114 minutes long. Adaptation (film) is distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing.

The cast includes: Nicolas Cage as Charlie Kaufman, Brian Cox as Robert McKee, Chris Cooper as John Laroche, Meryl Streep as Susan Orlean, Tilda Swinton as Valerie Thomas, Ron Livingston as Marty, Cara Seymour as Amelia Kavan, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Caroline Cunningham, and Jay Tavare as Matthew Osceola.

Adaptation (film) Quotes

Tilda Swinton as Valerie Thomas

• (Tilda Swinton) "Susan, we would really like to option this."
• (Meryl Streep) "You wanna make it into a movie?"
• (Tilda Swinton) "Into a movie"
• (Meryl Streep) "Oh, God."

• (Tilda Swinton) "I guess we thought that maybe Susan Orlean and Leroche could fall in love, and --"
• (Nicolas Cage) "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."

Ron Livingston as Marty

• (Ron Livingston) "I'd f*** her up the ass."

Meryl Streep as Susan Orlean

• (Meryl Streep) "I suppose I do have one unembarrassed passion. I want to know what it feels like to care about something passionately."

• (Meryl Streep) "Aww, I wish I were an ant. Awww, they're so shiny."
• (Chris Cooper) "You're shinier than any ant darlin'"
• (Meryl Streep) "That's the sweetest thing anybody has EVER said to me."
• (Chris Cooper) "Welp, I like ya', that's why."

• (Meryl Streep) "Do you ever get lonely sometimes, Johnny?"
• (Chris Cooper) "Well, I was a weird kid. Nobody liked me. But I had this idea. If I waited long enough, someone would come around and just, you know -- understand me. Like my mom, except someone else. She'd look at me and quietly say: "Yes." Just like that. And I wouldn't be alone anymore."

• (Meryl Streep) "Can I ask you a personal question?"
• (Chris Cooper) "Look, we're not lost."

• (Meryl Streep) "YOU FAT PIECE OF s***. He's dead."
• (Nicolas Cage) "Shut up."
• (Meryl Streep) "YOU LOSER. You've ruined my life, YOU FAT f***."
• (Nicolas Cage) "f*** YOU LADY. You're just a lonely, old, desperate, pathetic DRUG ADDICT."

• (Meryl Streep) "What I came to understand is that change is not a choice. Not for a species of plant, and not for me."

• (Meryl Streep) "Very happy now."

Nicolas Cage as Charlie Kaufman

• (Nicolas Cage) "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"?"
• (Nicolas Cage) "Well, that's not about flowers. And it's not a movie."
• (Donald Kaufman) "Ok, I'm sorry, I never saw it."

• (Nicolas Cage) "How could you have somebody held prisoner in a basement and -- and working at a police station at the same time?"
• (Donald Kaufman) "Trick photography."

• (Nicolas Cage) "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."

• (Nicolas Cage) "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."
• (Donald Kaufman) "You shouldn't have done that."
• (Donald Kaufman) "'Cause it's extremely helpful."

• (Nicolas Cage) "-- But a little fantastic and fleeting and out of reach."
• (Brian Cox) "Then what happens?"
• (Nicolas Cage) "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."

• (Nicolas Cage) "I'm the guy you yelled at this morning."
• (Brian Cox) "I need more."

• (Nicolas Cage) "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. s***, 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."

• (Nicolas Cage) "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."
• (Nicolas Cage) "I know. And you were flirting with her. And she was being really sweet to you."
• (Donald Kaufman) "I remember that."
• (Nicolas Cage) "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."
• (Nicolas Cage) "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."
• (Nicolas Cage) "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."

• (Nicolas Cage) "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."

• (Donald Kaufman) "Charles, you'll be glad. I have a plan to get me out of your house, pronto."
• (Nicolas Cage) "A job is a plan. Is your plan a job?"
• (Donald Kaufman) "Drum roll, please. I'm gonna be a screenwriter. Like you."

• (Nicolas Cage) "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"."

• (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."
• (Nicolas Cage) "And they're still all one person, right?"

• (Nicolas Cage) "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."

• (Nicolas Cage) "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."
• (Nicolas Cage) "I'm sorry."
• (Alice the Waitress) "Well --"
• (Nicolas Cage) "I apologise. I'm sorry."
• (Alice the Waitress) "I'll just be right back with your pie then."

• (Nicolas Cage) "The book has no story. There's no story."
• (Ron Livingston) "Alright. Make one up."

• (Nicolas Cage) "Today is the first day of the rest of my life"

• (Donald Kaufman) "Anyway, listen, I meant to ask you, I need a cool way to kill people. Don't worry, for my script."
• (Nicolas Cage) "I don't write that kind of stuff."
• (Donald Kaufman) "Oh, come on, man, please? You're the genius."
• (Nicolas Cage) "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"."

• (Donald Kaufman) "Hey, Charles. I pitched my script to mom."
• (Nicolas Cage) "Don't say pitch."

• (Nicolas Cage) "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 --"
• (Tilda Swinton) "We think you're great."
• (Nicolas Cage) "Oh, wow, thanks. Well, that's nice to hear."

• (Nicolas Cage) "You and I share the same DNA. Is there anything more lonely than that?"

• (Nicolas Cage) "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"."

• (Nicolas Cage) "I am pathetic, I am a loser --"
• (Brian Cox) "So what is the substance of writing?"
• (Nicolas Cage) "I have failed, I am panicked. I've sold out, I am worthless, I -- What the f*** am I doing here? What the f*** am I doing here? f***. 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 --"
• (Brian Cox) "-- 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."

• (Nicolas Cage) "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."
• (Chris Cooper) "Crazy white man."

Chris Cooper as John Laroche

• (Chris Cooper) "The smartest guy I know, huh?"

• (Chris Cooper) "You know why I like plants?"
• (Meryl Streep) "Nuh uh."
• (Chris Cooper) "Because they're so mutable. Adaptation is a profound process. Means you figure out how to thrive in the world."
• (Meryl Streep) "Yeah but it's easier for plants. I mean they have no memory. They just move on to whatever's next. With a person though, adapting almost shameful. It's like running away."

• (Chris Cooper) "Look, I'll tell you a story, all right? I once feel deeply, you know, profoundly in love with tropical fish. Had 60 god**** fish tanks in my house. I skin dived to find just the right ones. Anisotremus virginicus, Holdacanthus ciliaris, Chaetodon capistratus. You name it. Then one day I say, "f*** fish". I renounce fish. I vow never to set foot in that ocean again. That's how much "f*** fish"."

• (Chris Cooper) "Point is, what's so wonderful is that every one of these flowers has a specific relationship with the insect that pollinates it. There's a certain orchid look exactly like a certain insect so the insect is drawn to this flower, its double, its soul mate, and wants nothing more than to make love to it. And after the insect flies off, spots another soul-mate flower and makes love to it, thus pollinating it. And neither the flower nor the insect will ever understand the significance of their lovemaking. I mean, how could they know that because of their little dance the world lives? But it does. By simply doing what they're designed to do, something large and magnificent happens. In this sense they show us how to live; how the only barometer you have is your heart. How, when you spot your flower, you can't let anything get in your way."

• (Chris Cooper) "Angraecum sesquipedale. A beauty. God. Darwin wrote about this one. Charles Darwin? Evolution guy? Hello? You see that nectary all the way down there? Darwin hypothesized a moth with a nose twelve inches long to pollinate it. Everyone thought he was a loon. Then, sure enough, they found this moth with a twelve-inch proboscis. Proboscis means "nose," by the way."
• (Meryl Streep) "I know what "proboscis" means."
• (Chris Cooper) "Yeah, let's not get off the subject. This isn't a pissing contest."

• (Chris Cooper) "Who's gonna play me?"
• (Meryl Streep) "Well, I've gotta write the book first, John. Then, you know, they get somebody to write the screenplay."
• (Chris Cooper) "Hey, I think I should play me."

• (Chris Cooper) "Darling, I don't know what's come over you."
• (Meryl Streep) "You came all over me last time I was here, as I recall."
• (Chris Cooper) "My goodness."

• (Chris Cooper) "Sometimes bad things happen and darkness descends."

Brian Cox as Robert McKee

• (Brian Cox) "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."

• (Brian Cox) "Nothing happens in the world? Are you out of your f***ing mind? People are murdered every day. There's genocide, war, corruption. Every f***ing day, somewhere in the world, somebody sacrifices his life to save someone else. Every f***ing day, someone, somewhere takes a conscious decision to destroy someone else. People find love, people lose it. For Christ's 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 f*** 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."
• (Nicolas Cage) "Okay, thanks."

Cara Seymour as Amelia Kavan

• (Cara Seymour) "I love you too, you know."

Maggie Gyllenhaal as Caroline Cunningham

• (Maggie Gyllenhaal) "It's like a brain factory in here."

Jay Tavare as Matthew Osceola

• (Jay Tavare) "I can see your sadness. It's lovely."
• (Meryl Streep) "I'm just tired, that's all. That's my problem. So, maybe we could chat a little bit, and, you know, get some background for --"
• (Jay Tavare) "I'm not going to talk to you much. It's not personal. It's the Indian way."

Add or Update Quotes

If you have a quote to add or change and want to let us know, please fill in the form below. Include the time in the film/video if possible so we can find it.