Quotes from Peter Hedges

Her name is unimportant and her face a visual sin.

Bettering your life, getting a fresh start, the bright side. Spout these concepts daily and you will survive in Endora; you might even thrive.

I left this conversation hours ago, but somehow my mouth is still moving, words are still forming, and none have seemed to offend. Amazing, the mind. My mind, I mean. Not hers.

Who's calling? Don't insult me like that, the voice says. I stop. Was I just insulting?

She's not royalty for Christ's sake. She's a Grape.

Some people have to live while others get to sit this living thing out.

Arnie pulls at my T-shirt. I shove his hand away. He pushes down the toilet handle and the bathroom fills with that flush sound. Tucker says, You taking a dump? No. Liar. I heard the flush. You were taking a dump. But I... I just wish you'd admit it. We got to be honest with each other. But... I heard the flush, Gilbert. You can't fool Tucker Van Dyke.

People are usually pretty hungry after a funeral. I guess it's because we all realize that time is running out and we better eat all we can. Please don't mention that to my mother.

I was fine till the finger, I say to myself, as I shift to reverse. You don't flip off Gilbert Grape. Let that be known.

In the living room, the consensus among the guests was that Scotty's looks favored his father, but the Judge was quick to disagree: 'He doesn't look a thing like me. He looks like an hors d'oeuvre.' Hearing this, Joan thought the following, and pledged it to herself, as both prayer and promise: You will be loved, Scotty Ocean. And while the guests laughed at the Judge's remark, Joan leaned over and softly whispered to her newborn son, 'You will be loved.

So much of writing is about what characters don't say, and in the early drafts, sometimes things get overwritten.

Lucas is living the life that I wanted, but I want to be clear, I don't feel there's been any pressure for him to live it.

Love is not a feeling.  It's an ability.

In a cement park across the street is this giant sculpture. It is a giant umbrella frame lying on its side. It's green. Stand under it, during a rainstorm, you'll still get wet - that's why it's art.

I have seen God and he is this girl.

A man who works all day, every day and loves each apple he uncrates, who cherishes each can of soup - a man like that surely puts us all to shame.

How can you kill a man who'd already been dead for years?

I never want to regret. 'Regret' is the ugliest word.

She loves me-she just doesn't know it yet.

No 'buts', Gilbert. You just make sense to me. It's nothing more special than that.

He sees me through the glass. We both nod like we give a small shit about each other.

smiles and friendly nods are like fabric softeners for the face.

There is nothing more depressing than toast that no one eats.

Wait a minute, I'm thinking, was this another one of those conversations where what is meant and what is being said are not the same thing?