Lee Israel: Can you keep a secret?

Jack Hock: Who would I tell? All my friends are dead.
Jack Hock: You're a horrid cunt, Lee.

Lee Israel: You too, Jack.
Lounge Singer: This next song goes out to all the agoraphobic junkies who couldn't be here tonight.
Lee Israel: I'm a 51-year-old who likes cats better than people.
Marjorie: You can be an asshole if you're famous. You can't be unknown and be such a bitch, Lee.
Lee Israel: This is a celebratory drinking session, not a wallowing one.
Lee Israel: You were friends with Julia...

Jack Hock: Steinberg. She's not an agent anymore - she died.

Lee Israel: She did? So young.

Jack Hock: Or maybe she didn't die. Maybe she just moved to the suburbs - I always confuse those two. No, that's right. She got married and had twins.

Lee Israel: Better to have died.
Lee Israel: Jack Hock, you said?

Jack Hock: That's me. The renegade, the rebel. Jack Hock, big cock.
Lee Israel: I have been living in a state of enormous guilt and anxiety for the past year. Not because I felt like I was doing something wrong, but because I was always afraid of being found out. I can't specifically say that I regret my actions. I don't. I thoroughly enjoyed writing these letters, living in the world of Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward, pretending I was something I am not. In many ways, this has been the best time of my life. It's the only time recently I can remember being proud of the work I was doing. But it wasn't my work, was it? I was hiding behind these people, their names. Because if I'd actually put myself out there, done my own work, then I would be opening myself up to criticism. And I'm too much of a coward for all of that. I've lost my cat, the only soul that truly loved me, maybe ever. And I lost my friend, who might have been an idiot, but tolerated me, and was nice to have around. And I've realized that I'm not a real writer. In the end, it was not worth it.
Lee Israel: I trusted you. I don't know if you've noticed this, but I don't do that. And you have reminded me why that is.
Lee Israel: I'm writing a book about Fanny Brice.

Jack Hock: Who's Fanny Brice?

Lee Israel: Are you sure you're a fag?
Lee Israel: I have figured out a way to pay my bills, without shoveling shit, and it is a good feeling.
Lee Israel: [Finishing her drink at the bar] I need another.

Craig: That's debatable.
Marjorie: Nobody wants a book about Fanny Brice. There's nothing new and sexy about Fanny Brice. Nobody will give you a ten dollar advance for a book about Fanny Brice!
Gossipy Office Worker: [first lines: as Lee drinks whiskey at her desk] I swear she's older than my mom.

Cubicle Worker: Fuck, kill me if I'm still doing this at her age.

Lee Israel: Kill you now if you ask me nicely.
Lee Israel: You pissed in a closet.

Jack Hock: I did what?

Lee Israel: You pissed in a closet. Now I remember. Nobody could stop talking about the English gentleman...

Jack Hock: Why thank you.

Lee Israel: Who was so shit-faced, he mistook the closet for the can. You ruined thousands of dollars worth of furs. Those old biddies didn't know what hit them!

[both laugh]

Lee Israel: Oh the disgusting furs covered in piss. Dogs followed them home!

Jack Hock: [laughing] Oh I'm glad somebody found it amusing. Some folks stopped talking to me after that night.

Lee Israel: Well, fuck 'em!
Lee Israel: Give me one good reason why that cocky shit gets three million dollars and you can't give me ten thousand? Are you that bad of an agent?

Marjorie: Toni, could you please close the door? Miss Israel have some sensitive business to discuss.

Lee Israel: Yeah, God forbid you have to hear an adult conversation, Toni!

Marjorie: I'll give you three reasons. Number one, Tom Clancy is famous.

Lee Israel: Oh, here we go!

Marjorie: Yes, you have written a couple of successful biographies and you've managed to disappear behind your subject matter. But because of that, nobody knows who you are!

Lee Israel: Because I'm doing my job!

Marjorie: Number two, Tom Clancy does every radio show. He does Larry King, he goes to book signings, he plays the game. Meanwhile, you have destroyed every bridge I have built for you.

Lee Israel: See that is beside the point, I am doing good writing!

Marjorie: Number three, nobody wants a book about Fanny Brice! There is nothing new or sexy about Fanny Brice. I couldn't get you a ten dollar advance for a book about Fanny Brice!
Lee Israel: So what do you do, Jack Hock?

Jack Hock: Oh this and that. Mainly that.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? Quotes

Extended Reading

Can You Ever Forgive Me? short comments

Liliane 2022-03-27 09:01:13

I didn't expect it to be so wonderful. Our sins, our shamelessness, our unparalleled filth and beauty.
Dolores 2021-12-26 08:01:52

The degree of completion is very high. At the beginning, Tom Clancy was black. Melissa really don't waste her talent by messing with those bad comedies.