"Mitch has become an excellent cook. It's like his hobby now. He buys all these gadgets, garlic, press, olive oil spread, every night there's something new. The other day he made the best vegetarian chili."

"It's a funeral, but we don't have to be completely grim about it!"

"Here's my suggestion, alright. I know three or four guys at the department, very sharp, disinterested people who knew your dad, knew his work. Let me take this to them, I'll tell them that we, we found something, something potentially major, we're not sure of the authorship, I'll sit down with them, we'll talk through it carefully, and then we'll figure out what we've got."

"It's a, a result, a proof. I mean, it looks like a proof - I mean, it IS a proof, a very long proof, I haven't read through it all yet, or checked it, I mean, I don't even know if I could check it... if it's a proof of what I think it's a proof of, it's a very important proof."

"I want to stay here with you. I want to spend the day with you. If at all possible, I want to spend as much time as I can, unless I'm coming on way too strong right now and scaring you, in which case I'll begin backpedalling immediately."

"I always liked you. But then I thought, no, you don't flirt with your doctoral advisor's daughter."

"[Reading Robert's notebook] "Talking with students helps, writing in buses. Most of all, Kathy. Her refusal to let me be institutionalised, caring for me herself, has certainly saved my life. Made writing this possible, made it possible to imagine doing math again. Where does her strength come from? I can never repay her. Today is her birthday, she is 24. I'm taking her to dinner.""

"When your dad was younger than both of us, he made major contributions to three fields! Game theory, algebraic geometry, non-linear operators... Look, if I came up with one tenth of the shit your dad produced, I could write my ticket to any math department, in the country."

"[voiceover] If I go back to the beginning, I could start it over again. I could go line by line, try and find a shorter way. I could try to make it... better."

"[On writing the proof] It was like, connecting dots. Some nights, I, I could connect, three or four of them, and some nights they'd be really far apart, I'd have no idea how to get to the next one, if there was the next one."

"[voiceover] How many days have I lost? How can I get back to the place where I started? I'm outside a house, trying to find my way in, but it's locked and the blinds are down, and I've lost the key, and I can't remember what the rooms look like or where I put anything. And if I dare go inside, I wonder, will I ever be able to find my way out?"

"You think you've figured something out? You run over here all pleased with yourself because you changed your mind, now you're certain? You don't know anything! The book, the math, the dates, the writing, all that stuff you just decided with your buddies, it's just evidence, it doesn't prove anything!"

"[If Catherine had written the proof] It would be a real disaster for you, wouldn't it? You and the other geeks who barely finish their PhDs, who are marking time doing lame research, bragging about the conferences they go to, wow. Playing in an awful band, and whining that they're intellectually past it at 26, because they ARE!"

"I didn't show this to anyone. I wanted you to be the first to see it, I didn't know I wanted that until last night. I trusted you. Was I wrong?"

"[Referring to proof] It is forty pages long. I didn't memorize it. It is not a muffin recipe!"

"I feel like I could crack open, like an egg, or one of those really smelly French cheeses that ooze out everywhere when you cut them."

"[Reading Robert's notebook] "Let X equal the quantity of all quantities of X. Let X equal the cold. It is cold in December. The months of cold equal November through February. There are four months of cold, and four of heat, leaving four months of indeterminate temperature. In February it snows. In March the lake is a lake of ice. In September the students come back and the bookstores are full. Let X equal the month of full bookstores. The number of books approaches infinity as the number of months of cold approaches four. I will never be as cold now as I will in the future. The future of cold is infinite. The future of heat is the future of cold. The bookstores are infinite and so are never full except in September...""

"Wow, I can't believe how many people are here, I never knew he had this many friends. Where have you all been for the last five years? I guess to you guys he was already dead, right? I mean, what's a great man without his greatness? Just some old guy... So, you probably want to catch up on what you missed out on. Um, he used to read all day, he kept demanding more and more books, I was getting them out of the library by the car load, there were hundreds. And then, one day, I realised, he wasn't reading: he believed aliens were sending him messages through the dewey decimal numbers in the library books. He was trying to work out the code. He used to, um, shuffle around in his slippers, he talked to himself. He stank. I had to make sure he bathed, which... was embarrassing. Oh, and then he started writing, nineteen, twenty hours a day, I got him this huge case of notebooks, he used every one. I dropped out of school. You see, he was convinced that he was writing the most beautiful, elegant proofs. Proofs, like music. I'm glad he's dead."

"I really don't need this, Claire. I'm fine, you know, I'm totally fine, and then you show up here with these questions like "Are you ok?" with that soothing tone of voice and "Oh, the poor policemen", I mean, I think the policemen can handle themselves. And bagels and bananas and jojoba, and "Come to New York!" and vegetarian chili?! I mean, it really pisses me off, so just save it!"

"Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean there isn't something in that backpack!"

"[to Marty] Stick your finger up the wrong person's ass?"

"The world is full of complainers. But the fact is, nothing comes with a guarantee. I don't care if you're the Pope of Rome, President of the United States, or even Man of the Year—something can always go wrong. And go ahead, complain, tell your problems to your neighbor, ask for help—watch him fly. Now in Russia, they got it mapped out so that everyone pulls for everyone else—that's the theory, anyway. But what I know about is Texas...And down here... you're on your own."

"Samm-Art Williams - Meurice"

"M. Emmet Walsh - Loren Visser (private detective)"

"Dan Hedaya - Julian Marty"

"Frances McDormand - Abby"

"John Getz - Ray"

"Dead in the heart of Texas."

"Breaking up is hard."

"Ray: [to Abby] You left your weapon behind."

"Strip joint DJ: And remember, gentlemen, we're always here, two to two, A.M. to P.M., three hundred and sixty-four days and Christmas, God willing and the creek don't rise."

"Teenager: [to Marty] Hey mister, how'd you break your pussyfinger?"

"[to Abby] Something pretty fucking weird is going on. Put your coat on and I'll drop you at home. But don't talk to either of 'em until I do. And don't worry. Believe me. These things always have a logical explanation. Usually."

"Even the fucking dog's gone crazy."

"[to Ray] Look. Personally I don't give a shit. I know Marty's a hard-on but you gotta do something. I don't know; give the money back, say you're sorry, or get the fuck out of here, or something...It's very humiliating, preaching about this shit...I'm not laughing at this, Ray Bob, so you know it's no fucking joke."

"Let's do it outside, in nature."

"Deborah Neumann - Debra"

"Lover-boy oughta lock his door. Lotta nuts out there."

"[to Marty] Who looks stupid now?"

"[to himself, about Marty] Sweet Jesus, you are disgusting."

"You know a friend of mine broke his hand a while back. Put in a cast. Very next day he takes a fall, protects his bad hand, falls on his good one, breaks that too. So now he's got two busted flippers and I say to him "Creighton, I hope your wife loves you. 'Cause for the next five weeks you cannot wipe your own goddamn ass." That's the test, ain't it? Test of true love."

"I am a jealous man."

"I hate you, God. I hate you as though you existed."