"Do I listen to pop music because I'm miserable? Or am I miserable because I listen to pop music?"--Rob (John Cusack), in voice-over
(105 votes)
2
Rob: I can see now I never really committed to Laura. I always had one foot out the door, and that prevented me from doing a lot of things, like thinking about my future and... I guess it made more sense to commit to nothing, keep my options open. And that's suicide. By tiny, tiny increments.
(96 votes)
3
Rob: What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?
(101 votes)
4
Rob: I'm tired of the fantasy, because it doesn't really exist. And there are never really any surprises, and it never really... Laura: Delivers? Rob: Delivers. And I'm tired of it. And I'm tired of everything else for that matter. But I don't ever seem to get tired of you, so...
(83 votes)
5
Barry: How about the Jesus and Mary Chain? Barry's Customer: They always seemed... Barry: They always seemed what? They always seemed really great is what they always seemed. They picked up where your precious Echo left off, and you're sitting around complaining about no more Echo albums. I can't believe you don't own this fucking record. (tosses the record to the customer and walks away) That's insane. Jesus.
(80 votes)
6
Laura: Listen, Rob, would you have sex with me? Because I want to feel something else than this. It either that, or I go home and put my hand in the fire. Unless you want to stub cigarettes out on my arm. Rob: No. I only have a few left, I've been saving them for later. Laura: Right. It'll have to be sex, then. Rob: Right. Right.
(12 votes)
7
Rob: Should I bolt every time I get that feeling in my gut when I meet someone new? Well, I've been listening to my gut since I was 14 years old, and frankly speaking, I've come to the conclusion that my guts have shit for brains.
(7 votes)
8
Barry: Rob, I'm telling you this for your own good, that's the worst fuckin' sweater I've ever seen, that's a Cosby sweater. [Imitating Cosby] Barry: A Cosssssssby sweater. Did Laura let you leave the house like that?
(6 votes)
9
Barry's Customer: Hi, do you have the song "I Just Called To Say I Love You?" It's for my daughter's birthday. Barry: Yea we have it. Barry's Customer: Well, can I have it? Barry: No, actually, you can't. Barry's Customer: Why not? Barry: God. Do you even know your daughter? There's no way she likes that song. Oops, is she in a coma?
(5 votes)
10
Rob: Jon Dillinger was killed behind that theater in a hale of FBI gunfire. And do you know who tipped them off? His fucking girlfriend. All he wanted to do was go to the movies.
(5 votes)
11
Rob Gordon: She LIKED me. She liked ME. SHE like me... At least I think she did.
(7 votes)
12
Rob: How does he do it, you ask. How does [stops, whispers] Rob: how does an average guy like me become the number one lover-man in his particular postal district? He's grumpy, he's broke, he hangs out with the musical moron twins... [shrugs]
(4 votes)
13
Rob: I can't fire them. I hired these guys for three days a week and they just started showing up every day. That was four years ago.
(4 votes)
14
Rob: Charlie, you fucking bitch. Let's work it out.
(4 votes)
15
Rob: It would be nice to think that since I was 14, times have changed. Relationships have become more sophisticated. Females less cruel. Skins thicker. Instincts more developed. But there seems to be an element of that afternoon in everything that's happened to me since. All my romantic stories are a scrambled version of that first one.
(3 votes)
16
Barry: Rob, top five musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the '80s and '90s. Go. Sub-question: is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter day sins, is it better to burn out or fade away?
(3 votes)
17
Rob: [lying in bed imagining the scene] You are as abandoned and noisy as any character in a porn film, Laura. You are Ian's plaything, responding to his touch with shrieks of orgasmic delight. No woman in the history of the world is having better sex than sex you are having with Ian... in my head.
(2 votes)
18
Rob Gordon: I will now sell four copies of "The Three EPs" by The Beta Band. Dick: Go for it. [Rob plays the record] Beta Band Customer: Who is this? Rob Gordon: The Beta Band. Beta Band Customer: It's good. Rob Gordon: I know.
(2 votes)
19
Barry: We're no longer called Sonic Death Monkey. We're on the verge of becoming Kathleen Turner Overdrive, but just for tonight, we are Barry Jive and his Uptown Five.
20
Rob: Liking both Marvin Gaye and Art Garfunkel is like supporting both the Israelis and the Palestinians. Laura: No, it's really not, Rob. You know why? Because Marvin Gaye and Art Garfunkel make pop records. Rob: Made. Made. Marvin Gaye is dead. His father shot him.
21
Laura: I'm too tired not to be with you. Rob: What, so if you had a bit more energy we'd stay split up, but things being as they are, with you being wiped out and all, you want to get back together? Is that it? Laura: Yeah.
22
Rob: Sometimes I got so bored of trying to touch her breast that I would try to touch her between her legs. It was like trying to borrow a dollar, getting turned down, and asking for 50 grand instead.
23
Barry: Holy shite. What the fuck is that? Dick: It's the new Belle and Sebastian... Rob: It's a record we've been listening to and enjoying, Barry. Barry: Well, that's unfortunate, because it sucks ass.
24
Rob: It wasn't boring. But it wasn't spectacular either? It was just- Good. Very good.
25
[Rob turns off Barry's tape] Barry: OK, buddy, uh, I was just tryin' to cheer us up so go ahead. Put on some old sad bastard music, see if I care. Rob: I don't wanna hear old sad bastard music, Barry, I just want something I can ignore. Barry: Here's the thing. I made that tape special for today. My special Monday morning for *you*... special. Rob: Well, it's fuckin' Monday afternoon! You should get out of bed earlier!
26
Rob Gordon: Hey, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I'm certainly not the dumbest. I mean, I've read books like "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and "Love in the Time of Cholera", and I think I've understood them. They're about girls, right? Just kidding. But I have to say my all-time favorite book is Johnny Cash's autobiography "Cash" by Johnny Cash.
27
Rob: If you *really* wanted to screw me up, you should've gotten to me earlier.
28
Rob: Get your patchouli stink outta my store.
29
Rob: Where's Ian? Or Ray, or... what is his fucking name, anyway? What do you call him, Ian or Ray? Laura: Ray. I hate Ian. Rob: I hate him too. Laura: Yeah... I'm sure.
30
Barry: Let 'em riot. We're Sonic-fuckin'-Death Monkey.
31
Rob: The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules. Anyway... I've started to make a tape... in my head... for Laura. Full of stuff she likes. Full of stuff that make her happy. For the first time I can sort of see how that is done.
32
Laura: [preparing to have sex with Rob in a car] I knew there was a reason I wore a skirt today.
33
Rob: My desert island, all-time, top-five most memorable breakups, in chronological order, are as follows: Alison Ashmore; Penny Hardwick; Jackie Alden; Charlie Nicholson; and Sarah Kendrew. Those were the ones that really hurt. Can you see your name on that list, Laura? Maybe you'd sneak into the top ten. But there's just no room for you in the top five, sorry. Those places are reserved for the kind of humiliation and heartbreak you're just not capable of delivering.
34
Rob: I want more, I wanna see the others on the big top-five. I want to see Penny and Charlie and Sarah, all of them. You know? Just see 'em and talk to 'em. You know, like a Bruce Springsteen song. Bruce Springsteen: You call, you ask them how they are and see if they've forgiven you. Rob: Yeah, and then I feel good. And they feel good. Bruce Springsteen: They'd feel good, maybe. But you feel better. Rob: I'd feel clean and calm. Bruce Springsteen: That's what you're looking for, you know, get ready to start again. It'd be good for you. Rob: Great, even. Bruce Springsteen: Give that big final good luck and goodbye to your all time top-five and just move on down the road. Rob: Good luck, Goodbye. Thanks, Boss.
35
Rob: I could've wound up having sex back there. And what better way to exorcise rejection demons than to screw the person who rejected you, right? But you wouldn't be sleeping with a person, you'd be sleeping with the whole sad, single-person culture. It'd be like sleeping with Talia Shire in Rocky if you weren't Rocky.
36
Customer: Do you have Soul? Rob: That all depends.
37
Rob: It made sense to pool our collective loathing for the opposite sex, and while we were at it, you get to share a bed with somebody at the same time. We were frightened of being left alone for the rest of our lives. Only people of a certain disposition are frightened of being alone for the rest of their lives at the age of 26, and we were of that disposition.
38
Rob: I was jealous of other men in her design department. I became convinced that she was going to leave me for one of them. Then she left me for one of them.
39
Rob: Why'd you have to tell her about the store? Barry: Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know it was classified information. I mean, I know we don't have any customers, but I thought that was a bad thing, not like, a business strategy [smacks Rob]
40
Rob: Marvin Gaye. Laura: I know. Rob: Let's get it on. That's our song. Marvin Gaye is responsible for our entire relationship. Laura: Oh, is that so? I'd like a word with him then.
41
Rob: What if I was doing something that can't be cancelled? Laura: Rob, what are you ever doing that can't be cancelled?
42
Rob: Now, the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do's and don'ts. First of all you're using someone else's poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.
43
[Liz storms in] Rob: Hey, Liz. Liz: [calm] Hi, Rob... [screams] Liz: You fucking asshole! [beat, Liz walks out the store, Barry's in the corner, stares] Liz: Hi, Barry.
44
Rob: I lost it. I lost it all- faith, dignity... about 15 pounds.
45
Dick: Marie de Salle's playing. You remember I told you about her. I like her. She's kind of Sheryl Crow-ish crossed with a post-Partridge Family pre-L.A. Law Susan Dey kind of thing, but, you know, uh, black.
46
Barry: I wanna date a musician. Rob Gordon: I wanna live with a musician. She'd write songs at home and ask me what I thought of them, and maybe even include one of our little private jokes in the liner notes. Barry: Maybe a little picture of me in the liner notes. Dick: Just in the background somewhere.
47
[while Marie de Salle is singing "Baby I Love Your Way"] Rob Gordon: I used to hate this song. Barry, Dick: Yeah. Rob Gordon: Now I kinda like it. Barry, Dick: Yeah.
48
Barry: Don't tell anyone you don't own "Blonde on Blonde". It's gonna be okay.
49
Barry: Top 5 songs about death. A Laura's Dad tribute list, okay? Okay. Leader of the Pack. The guy fuckin' beefs it on his motorcycle and dies, right? Dead Man's Curve. Jan & Dean. Dick: Do you know that right after they recorded that song Jan himself crashed his car... Barry: It was Dean you fuckin' idiot... Rob: It was Jan. It was a long time after the song. Barry: Okay, whatever. Tell Laura I Love Her. That would bring the house down - Laura's Mom could sing it. You know what I'd want? One Step Beyond by Madness. And, uh, You Can't Always Get What You Want. Dick: No. Immediate disqualification because of its involvement with The Big Chill. Barry: Oh God. You're right! Dick: Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot. Barry: You bastard! That's so good - that should have been mine... The night Laura's daddy died. Sha na na na na na na na na! Brother what a night it really was. Mother what a night it really... angina's tough! Glory be!
50
Rob: Some people never got over Vietnam or the night their band opened for Nirvana. I guess I never got over Charlie.
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