Pay It Forward Quotes

Trevor McKenney: Are you saying you'll flunk us if we don't change the world?

Eugene: Well, no. But you might just scrape by with a C.

Arley: I got to take a shower.

Trevor McKenney: What?

Arley: I smell horrible.

Trevor McKenney: No you don't! You smell like a rose or something.

Arley: Are you sure?

Trevor McKenney: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure.

Arley: Sit down, I want to talk to you.

Trevor McKenney: You want to lie to me.

Arley: Jesus, you are really somethin'.

Eugene: Thanks. I appreciate the euphemism. I always wanted to be somethin'.

Eugene: OK. You know, I'm going to have to consult my spirit guides here, because you tell me that Trevor is withholding from you, but you won't tell me anything specific and you still want me to sit here and divine why.

Arley: Divine why? You always talk like that?

Eugene: Yes.

Arley: You go to some big, fancy school?

Eugene: Yes.

Arley: Think you can stop rubbing my nose in it?

Jerry: You ever been on the street?

Arley: My mom took us pretty close.

Jerry: Well, you can't know. Not until you look at a dumpster. But when you climb into that thing for the first time and you pull those newspapers over you, that's when you know you've messed your life up. Somebody comes along like your son, and gives me a leg up, I'll take it. Even from a kid, I'll take it.

Chris: Is that what you want for your birthday? Everybody it forward?

Trevor: I can't ask for that.

Chris: Sure you can. Why not?

Trevor: It wouldn't work.

Chris: Why?

Trevor: [Long pause] I already blew out my candles.

Trevor: Were you just being nice?

Eugene: About what?

Trevor: About my idea. Do you think it's good, or were you just being teachery?

Eugene: "Teachery"?

Trevor: Bullshitting.

Eugene: Do I strike you as someone falsely nice?

Trevor: No. You're not even really all that nice.

[Thorsen gives Chris the keys to his car]

Chris: You want me to drive home in your car?

Thorsen: No, I want you to take my car. Had a lot of luck lately. I don't need it.

Chris: You're giving me a brand-new Jaguar, and you don't want anything?

Thorsen: I can prove it. Give me your card.

[Chris gives Thorsen a business card]

Thorsen: I'll be in touch.

Chris: Whoa, what is this? What, you want me to kill your wife or something?

Thorsen: No. Tempting, but no. Call it generosity between two strangers.

Thorsen: I thanked him and there were some very specific orifices in which I was told to shove my thanks. He told me, "Just pay it forward." Three big favors for three other people. That's it.

Chris: So it's like a pass-it-on thing, then. Wait a minute. You and this lowlife are in this chain of do-gooders, some kind of Mother Theresa conga line? That's a little New-Agey for you, isn't it? Sort of Tibetan? What, are you in a cult?

Thorsen: If you mention my name, you'll be selling your kidneys to pay for your lawsuit. Cult.

Chris: Hey, the guy. What was the guy's name?

Thorsen: [as he's walking away] Sorry, I'm late for my mass wedding.

Woman on Bridge: [sobbing] Oh, God. For God's sake...

Jerry: Come on, tell me! Why are you not worth it?

Woman on Bridge: [sobbing] Trust me, you wouldn't understand.

Jerry: Are you kidding me? You think I live at the Ritz?

Eugene: I know what I'm talking about, Arlene! My father got down on his knees and begged my mother. And my mother,s he always took him back. I never understood it. she'd cover up the bruises and the cuts and she'd take him back. Because he begged and he cried. And now you ask me, you ask me what happened after he came back.

Arley: I...

Eugene: No! Go on! You said you wanted to know what happened to me, now ask me!

Arley: I don't like this...

Eugene: Did he hurt you, Eugene? Ask me!

Arley: Did he hurt you?

Eugene: [shakes his head] Not for long. By 13 I was gone. i ran away. But I missed her so... I had to go back and see her. So one night I did. Now, ask me what happened. What happened that night you came back, Eugene?

Arley: What happened?

Eugene: He was there. Drunk. As usual. Only this time I wasn't the same. I was 16 years old and I was no longer afraid of him. And when I looked him in the eyes and told him if he ever touched her again I would kill him, he knew. He knew that he would never exist for me again. And I'm standing in front of the house. I'm yelling, screaming for her to come out. I'm telling her she doesn't have to take it anymore. She really doesn't. She can come with me now. I don't even see it. He hits me in the side of the head with a two-by-four and I'm bleeding from my ear. And then he's dragging me. He's dragging me behind the house into the garage. And then he's gone. A minute... five minutes... I don't know. And then he's back. And he's wetting me down. He's wetting me down and I don't understand. I don't understand why water... should smell so bad. I don't understand. And then I see it. I see... this... this gas can. This red gas can from his truck.

[Crying]

Eugene: And he looks at me one last time... and he lights a match. And the last thing I remember, I'll never forget it, were his eyes. His eyes because they were filled with this immense... satisfaction.

Arley: [Crying] I'm so sorry...

Eugene: Don't! Don't! Don't tell me how sorry you are for me! Tell me how you're going to stop that happening to Trevor!

Arley: Ricky would never do that!

Eugene: Oh, Jesus, Arlene! He doesn't have to. All he has to do is not love him.

[Turns around and walks into his house with his grocery bags]

Sidney: [Staring at Thorsen's Daughter] No! No, wait!

[Gets up in front of Thorsen, faces the Nurse, and starts shouting]

Sidney: No! Hey! Wait! Enough bullshit! You need to help her right now!

Nurse: Excuse me...?

Sidney: Man, why you giving me all this shit? Ain't you got some oxygen or something you can give her?

Nurse: All right. Let me get a supervisor.

[Attempts to leave]

Sidney: [Blocks her way] No, no, no, no! You don't need to get no supervisor! You the supervisor today! Huh? You are the supervisor today! You feel me on that? Now I want you to get your skinny ass down the hall, put the little girl on a tray and supervise her, and I want you to get her some goddamn air!

[Patting Thorsen's Daughter's shoulder]

Sidney: I got your back, sis!

[Notices the Nurse hasn't left yet]

Sidney: Aw, bitch you still here?

[Gets out a gun and shoots the floor. The nurse hurries out]

Sidney: Shit! Shit ain't funny now!

[Thorsen's Daughter is put on a stretcher]

Sidney: Aw! Aw come on, man! Come on! Come on, man! Damn! Aw!

[Sidney is arrested and put in handcuffs]

Arley: Get out!

[Runs into Trevor's room and locks the door]

Ricky McKinney: [Pounds on Trevor's door] You know I liked you a whole lot better when you've had a few drinks in you?

[Pounds on the door again]

Ricky McKinney: You want me out of the house? I'm out!

Arley: [to Trevor] Sorry... I think I made a mistake.

Trevor McKenney: Everybody makes mistakes.

Arley: I want to wear the green dress.

Trevor McKenney: You look like a vampire in that!

[Arlene, and then Eugene, feeling very emotional, have left the room in which Trevor was being interviewed by Chris for television. Trevor admits that he thinks "pay it forward" will not work, because people are too afraid]

Eugene: Arlene, I don't want to be one of those people he's talking about. And I've become one. I don't want to spend another second of wasted air. Please, don't make me stay trapped in here forever.

Arley: [Storming into the room] Mr. Simonet?

Eugene: Yes, I'm Eugene...

[looks up from his desk to see Arlene]

Eugene: ...Simonet.

Arley: [Taken aback by Eugene's scars] Hello.

Eugene: Hello.

Arley: What is this assignment?

Eugene: Excuse me?

Arley: What did you tell my son to make him bring a homeless man into my house?

Eugene: Uh, I have two problems. One: I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. And two: I don't know who you are.

Arley: Arlene McKinney. My boy is in your social studies class... Trevor.

Eugene: Trevor. Yes, he's very attentive. He's very exigent, which I like.

[Noticing some confusion on Arlene's face]

Eugene: Exigent, it's challenging, testing...

Arley: I know what it means! Would you like to tell me why my kid brought a bum into my house?

Eugene: I have no idea...

Arley: Bullshit!

Eugene: Mrs. McKinney, I don't know how your son interpreted the assignment.

Arley: How do you think he interpreted it?

Eugene: Well, I don't know. My suggestion is, if you want to know, why don't you go home and talk to your son?

Arley: Hey! I talked to him!

Eugene: Really? Then why did you come all the way down here to ask me what the assignment is?

[Points to the blackboard]

Eugene: It's not a state secret.

Boy in class: So I'm going to make this website in Chinese, telling all the people in China to jump up and down.

Eugene: Basically you want to move the earth off its axis.

Boy in class: Yep, pretty much.

Trevor McKenney: Is the world just shit?

Eugene: No, it isn't.

[Eugene touches Trevor's shoulder]

Eugene: Hey, you did good work. Look at me, I'm proud of you, Trevor. I'm proud of you.

[Eugene removes his hand from Trevor's shoulder]

Eugene: And anyway for what it's worth, I'm grading you on the effort not the result.

Trevor McKenney: I don't care about the grade.

[Gets up]

Trevor McKenney: I just want to see if the world would really change.

Eugene: I will always care... about you, always.

Trevor McKenney: Yeah. You're my teacher. They pay you to.

[Trevor leaves the classroom]