Some of our most rewarding experiences have involved fictional characters. Engaging with art––whether through books, films, or other mediums––can be an enlightening experience. We can grow attached to fictional creations in ways that are often profound, even moving. The best part, when reading a book or watching a movie? The quotes.
People were more than happy to share their thoughts after Redditor ThomasTheGreatGenius asked the online community,
"What is something that a fictional character said that stuck with you?"
"But that is not for them to decide."
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
This is beautiful. I rewatched the films more than once during the hellscape that was 2020.
"By coincidence..."
"You can ask any doctor, sometimes it seems like patients just hang on until everyone's had a chance to say goodbye." - JD, Scrubs.
By coincidence, I first watched that episode with that particular quote in it the night after my Grandmum died. She died whilst I was on the plane to see her and before I could say my goodbyes, and I missed her by mere hours. That particular line had me on the floor weeping like a baby."
"It just makes it easier..."
"Money doesn't change people. It just makes it easier for them to be who they are." -Grandpa Abraham Simpson"
I feel like this is speaking to the core of some people I've met over the years who changed the instant they came into some money.
"A pen isn't mightier..."
"A pen isn't mightier than a sword. Pens do not do battle, nor swords poetry. Mighty is the HAND that knows when to pick up the pen, or pick up the sword." -Wiegraf Folles"
"You'll never be you again."
"My first time, Afghanistan. We were moving through a house and... suddenly a man was there and I shot him in the stomach. Yeah, that's a real war story. There are never any good stories like in movies - they're shi*. A man was there, boom... stomach. I was so scared I didn't pull the trigger again for the rest of the day. I thought, well, that's it, Bacho. You put a bullet in someone. You're not you anymore. You'll never be you again. But then you wake up the next morning and you're still you. And you realize: that was you all along. You just didn't know."
From the fourth episode of Chernobyl."
One of the more unnerving miniseries I've watched in the last year and a half. It was horrific. And yes, the dialogue was excellent.
"People aren't..."
"People aren't thinking about you the way that you're thinking about you." -- Alexis Rose
Thanks for all the awards and upvotes! And no, the quote isn't from AXL Rose, LOL. It's from ALEXIS Rose, who's a character on the wonderful Schitt's Creek. If you haven't seen it, check it out. It's amazing.
Alexis Rose is an icon and I will not be told otherwise. Perhaps the most exciting character on that show.
"It is a curious thing..."
"It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things." - Lemony Snicket"
That note about the stairs? Accurate. It's always disorienting.
"This helped me..."
"It's only after we have lost everything that we are free to do anything" - Tyler Durden
This helped me get through methamphetamine addiction. Because I indeed lost everything and the first step into my recovery was finally hitting the very bottom."
"Even darkness must pass."
"Sam's speech in LOTR:
"Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights, we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it's worth fighting for."
"Picture a wave..."
"Chidi explaining death like a wave returning to the ocean at the ending of The Good Place really hits me every time I read it, hear it or have a bad mood that really needs some emotional purging.
Picture a wave in the ocean. You can see it, measure it - its height, the way the sunlight refracts when it passes through - and it's there, and you can see it, and you know what it is: it's a wave. And then it crashes on the shore and it's gone. But the water is still there. The wave was just a different way for the water to be for a little while. That's one conception of death for a Buddhist: the wave returns to the ocean, where it came from, where it's supposed to be."
I tell you––art gets us through some of the toughest times. And we've certainly had a lot of those.
Do you have some suggestions of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
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