Cloud Atlas Quotes
An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.
Haskell Moore: There is a natural order to this world, and those who try to upend it do not fare well. This movement will never survive; if you join them, you and your entire family will be shunned. At best, you will exist a pariah to be spat at and beaten-at worst, to be lynched or crucified. And for what? For what? No matter what you do it will never amount to anything more than a single drop in a limitless ocean.
Adam Ewing: What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?
Adam Ewing: What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?
Isaac Sachs: Belief, like fear or love, is a force to be understood as we understand the Theory of Relativity and Principles of Uncertainty: phenomenon that determine the course of our lives. Yesterday, my life was headed in one direction. Today, it is headed in another. Yesterday I believed that I would never have done what I did today. These forces that often remake time and space, that can shape and alter who we imagine ourselves to be, begin long before we are born and continue after we perish. Our lives and our choices, like quantum trajectories, are understood moment to moment. At each point of intersection, each encounter suggests a new potential direction.
Archivist: In your Revelation, you spoke of the consequences of an individual's life rippling through eternity. Does this mean that you believe in an afterlife? In a heaven or a hell?
Sonmi-451: I believe death is only a door. When it closes, another opens. If I cared to imagine a heaven, I would imagine a door opening and behind it, I would find him there.
Sonmi-451: I believe death is only a door. When it closes, another opens. If I cared to imagine a heaven, I would imagine a door opening and behind it, I would find him there.
Robert Frobisher: Sixsmith. I climb the steps of the Scott Monument every morning and all becomes clear. Wish I could make you see this brightness. Don't worry, all is well. All is so perfectly, damnably well. I understand now that boundaries between noise and sound are conventions. All boundaries are conventions, waiting to be transcended. One may transcend any convention if only one can first conceive of doing so. Moments like this, I can feel your heart beating as clearly as I feel my own, and I know that separation is an illusion. My life extends far beyond the limitations of me.
Robert Frobisher: My dearest Sixsmith, I shot myself through the roof of my mouth this morning with Vivian Ayrs' Luger. A true suicide is a paced, disciplined certainty. People pontificate suicide is a coward's act. Couldn't be further from the truth. Suicide takes tremendous courage. Don't let them say I killed myself for love. Had my infatuations, but we both know in our hearts who is the sole love of my short, bright life.
Sonmi-451: That ship... that ship must be destroyed.
Hae-Joo Chang: Yes.
Sonmi-451: The systems that built them must be turned down.
Hae-Joo Chang: Yes.
Sonmi-451: No matter if we're born in a tank or a womb, we are all Pureblood.
Hae-Joo Chang: Yes.
Sonmi-451: We must all fight and, if necessary, die to teach people the truth.
Hae-Joo Chang: This is what we have been waiting for.
Hae-Joo Chang: Yes.
Sonmi-451: The systems that built them must be turned down.
Hae-Joo Chang: Yes.
Sonmi-451: No matter if we're born in a tank or a womb, we are all Pureblood.
Hae-Joo Chang: Yes.
Sonmi-451: We must all fight and, if necessary, die to teach people the truth.
Hae-Joo Chang: This is what we have been waiting for.
Archivist: [about Yoona taking Somni to the lost-and-found room] Why didn't you report Yoona-939 to Seer Rhee the next day?
Sonmi-451: I couldn't.
Archivist: Why?
Sonmi-451: Because she trusted me.
Archivist: But your actions violated the Fifth Catechism.
Sonmi-451: That's true.
Archivist: How did you justify this transgression?
Sonmi-451: She was my friend.
Sonmi-451: I couldn't.
Archivist: Why?
Sonmi-451: Because she trusted me.
Archivist: But your actions violated the Fifth Catechism.
Sonmi-451: That's true.
Archivist: How did you justify this transgression?
Sonmi-451: She was my friend.
Zachry: Who tripped the Fall, if not Old Georgie?
Meronym: True-true? The Old Uns.
Zachry: That's just a rope o'smoke. Old Uns got the Smart. They mastered sick and seeds, they make miracles and fly across the sky.
Meronym: True. All true. But they got somethin' else. A hunger in their hearts, a hunger that's stronger than all their Smart.
Zachry: Hunger? For what?
Meronym: A hunger for more.
Meronym: True-true? The Old Uns.
Zachry: That's just a rope o'smoke. Old Uns got the Smart. They mastered sick and seeds, they make miracles and fly across the sky.
Meronym: True. All true. But they got somethin' else. A hunger in their hearts, a hunger that's stronger than all their Smart.
Zachry: Hunger? For what?
Meronym: A hunger for more.
[Old Sixsmith notices the "shooting star"-shaped birthmark]
Old Rufus Sixsmith: That's a very peculiar birthmark.
Luisa Rey: Yeah, my mom was sure it was going to be cancerous and kept trying to get me to remove it, but... I kinda like it.
Old Rufus Sixsmith: I knew someone who had a birthmark that was similar to that.
Luisa Rey: Who was it?
Old Rufus Sixsmith: Someone I cared about very much.
Old Rufus Sixsmith: That's a very peculiar birthmark.
Luisa Rey: Yeah, my mom was sure it was going to be cancerous and kept trying to get me to remove it, but... I kinda like it.
Old Rufus Sixsmith: I knew someone who had a birthmark that was similar to that.
Luisa Rey: Who was it?
Old Rufus Sixsmith: Someone I cared about very much.
Timothy Cavendish: [narrating] While my extensive experience as an editor has led me to a disdain for flashbacks and flash forwards and all such tricksy gimmicks I believe that if you, dear Reader, can extend your patience for just a moment, you will find that there is a Method to this tale of Madness.
Timothy Cavendish: [to himself] Look. I was Dermot Hoggins' publisher. Not his shrink, not his astrologer. And the ruddy bloody truth is that I had no idea what the man was going to do that night.
Timothy Cavendish: [to himself] Look. I was Dermot Hoggins' publisher. Not his shrink, not his astrologer. And the ruddy bloody truth is that I had no idea what the man was going to do that night.
Nurse Noakes: You are going to be sorry in ways you cannot even imagine.
Mr. Meeks: [shrieks to draw attention of the crowd in the pub] Are there no true Scotsmen in the house? Those there English gerrunts are trampling all over my God-given rights!
Nurse Noakes: These people are mine.
[fans growl menacingly]
Mr. Meeks: They've used me and my pals most direly and we are in need of a wee bit of assistance!
Highlander: Right, pal, we'll not let you down
[starts a fight]
Mr. Meeks: [shrieks to draw attention of the crowd in the pub] Are there no true Scotsmen in the house? Those there English gerrunts are trampling all over my God-given rights!
Nurse Noakes: These people are mine.
[fans growl menacingly]
Mr. Meeks: They've used me and my pals most direly and we are in need of a wee bit of assistance!
Highlander: Right, pal, we'll not let you down
[starts a fight]
[Frobisher is misplaying Ayrs' composition]
Vyvyan Ayrs: [pained] Stop. Please. You're hurting me. You must have misheard me. I said a "melody", not a "malady".
[Jocasta enters]
Jocasta Ayrs: Vyvyan?
Vyvyan Ayrs: Jocasta! Deliver me.
Jocasta Ayrs: What's going on here? Who is this?
Jocasta Ayrs: I see. Should I be introduced?
Vyvyan Ayrs: There's really no point. The boy is as useful as the clap. Fortunately, he'll be much easier to get rid of.
Vyvyan Ayrs: [pained] Stop. Please. You're hurting me. You must have misheard me. I said a "melody", not a "malady".
[Jocasta enters]
Jocasta Ayrs: Vyvyan?
Vyvyan Ayrs: Jocasta! Deliver me.
Jocasta Ayrs: What's going on here? Who is this?
Jocasta Ayrs: I see. Should I be introduced?
Vyvyan Ayrs: There's really no point. The boy is as useful as the clap. Fortunately, he'll be much easier to get rid of.
Robert Frobisher: [narrating] Dinner of pheasant with Bordeaux rich as buttercream. How I love to listen to men of distinguished lives sing of past follies and glories. The only broken note in the entire evening was Ayrs' wife, Jocasta, excusing herself early. Sensed the buried bone. Later I asked Ayrs about it, he said Kesselring had introduced Jocasta to him. I pried, had Kesselring been in love with her. The subject was a prickly one.
Vyvyan Ayrs: Jocasta was a Jew. Obviously the relationship was impossible.
Robert Frobisher: Why obviously?
Vyvyan Ayrs: Can you really be so ignorant of what is happening in Germany?
Robert Frobisher: [continues narration] At this point in my life all I know, Sixsmith, is that this world spins from the same unseen forces that twist our hearts.
Vyvyan Ayrs: Jocasta was a Jew. Obviously the relationship was impossible.
Robert Frobisher: Why obviously?
Vyvyan Ayrs: Can you really be so ignorant of what is happening in Germany?
Robert Frobisher: [continues narration] At this point in my life all I know, Sixsmith, is that this world spins from the same unseen forces that twist our hearts.
Timothy Cavendish: Never forget Herman Melville, writes a ripping yarn about a big white whale which is summarily dismissed, and yet today it is lugged around in the backpacks of every serious student of literature in the world.
Dermot Hoggins: I don't give a fuck what happens when I'm dead, I want people to buy me book now!
Timothy Cavendish: Well, as your publisher, obviously nothing would make me happier. But sadly, for whatever reason, 'Knuckle Sandwich' has yet to connect to its audience.
Dermot Hoggins: You want a reason? I'll give you a reason
[points]
Dermot Hoggins: Right there!
Timothy Cavendish: Aaaa, you mean Mr Finch?
Dermot Hoggins: Felix fuckin' Finch! That cunt that shat all over me book in his poncy fuckin' magazine!
Timothy Cavendish: It wasn't that bad.
Dermot Hoggins: No?
[quotes]
Dermot Hoggins: 'Mr Hoggins should apologize to the trees failed for the making of his bloated autobio novel. Four hundred vain-glorious pages expire in an ending that is flat and inane beyond belief'.
Timothy Cavendish: Steady now, Dermot. What is a critic but one who reads quickly, arrogantly, but never wisely.
Dermot Hoggins: I don't give a fuck what happens when I'm dead, I want people to buy me book now!
Timothy Cavendish: Well, as your publisher, obviously nothing would make me happier. But sadly, for whatever reason, 'Knuckle Sandwich' has yet to connect to its audience.
Dermot Hoggins: You want a reason? I'll give you a reason
[points]
Dermot Hoggins: Right there!
Timothy Cavendish: Aaaa, you mean Mr Finch?
Dermot Hoggins: Felix fuckin' Finch! That cunt that shat all over me book in his poncy fuckin' magazine!
Timothy Cavendish: It wasn't that bad.
Dermot Hoggins: No?
[quotes]
Dermot Hoggins: 'Mr Hoggins should apologize to the trees failed for the making of his bloated autobio novel. Four hundred vain-glorious pages expire in an ending that is flat and inane beyond belief'.
Timothy Cavendish: Steady now, Dermot. What is a critic but one who reads quickly, arrogantly, but never wisely.
[first lines]
Zachry: [shivering beside the fire] Oh, lonesome night. And babbits bawling, the wind biting the bone. Wind like this... full of voices. Ancestry howling at you, yibbering stories, all voices tied up into one. One voice differing. One voice, whispering out there, spying from the dark. The fangy devil, Old Georgie hisself. Mm. Now your ear up close, and I'll yarn you about the first time we met, eye to eye.
Zachry: [shivering beside the fire] Oh, lonesome night. And babbits bawling, the wind biting the bone. Wind like this... full of voices. Ancestry howling at you, yibbering stories, all voices tied up into one. One voice differing. One voice, whispering out there, spying from the dark. The fangy devil, Old Georgie hisself. Mm. Now your ear up close, and I'll yarn you about the first time we met, eye to eye.
Denholme Cavendish: [answering phone in the middle of the night] Ugh, who the bloody hell is this? Have you any idea what time it is?
Timothy Cavendish: Denny, it's me, Tim
Denholme Cavendish: Timothy? Where are you?
Timothy Cavendish: I think you ruddy well know where I am!
Denholme Cavendish: But residents aren't allowed access to phones. Has someone smuggled one in?
Timothy Cavendish: What? You know the rules?
Denholme Cavendish: I helped *write* them, Timmy. I have been a principal investor in Aurora House for twelve years. It's incredibly lucrative. You can't realize how much people will pay to lock up their parents.
Timothy Cavendish: Denny, it's me, Tim
Denholme Cavendish: Timothy? Where are you?
Timothy Cavendish: I think you ruddy well know where I am!
Denholme Cavendish: But residents aren't allowed access to phones. Has someone smuggled one in?
Timothy Cavendish: What? You know the rules?
Denholme Cavendish: I helped *write* them, Timmy. I have been a principal investor in Aurora House for twelve years. It's incredibly lucrative. You can't realize how much people will pay to lock up their parents.
