"One of the gifts of "My Dinner with Andre" is that we share so many of the experiences. Although most of the movie literally consists of two men talking, here's a strange thing: We do not spend the movie just passively listening to them talk. At first, director Louis Malle's sedate series of images (close-ups, two-shots, reaction shots) calls attention to itself, but as Gregory continues to talk, the very simplicity of the visual style renders it invisible. And like the listeners at the feet of a master storyteller, we find ourselves visualizing what Gregory describes, until this film is as filled with visual images as a radio play — more filled, perhaps, than a conventional feature film. ... The movie is not ponderous, annoyingly profound, or abstract. It is about living, and Gregory seems to have lived fully in his five years of dropping out. Shawn is the character who seems more like us. He listens, he nods eagerly, he is willing to learn, but — something holds him back. Pragmatic questions keep asking themselves. He can't buy Gregory's vision, not all the way. He'd like to, but this is a real world we have to live in, after all, and if we all danced with the druids in the forests of Poland, what would happen to the market for fortune cookies?"

"He said 'I think that New York is the new model for the new concentration camp, where the camp has been built by the inmates themselves and the inmates are the guards and they have this pride in this thing they've built? They've built their own prison! And so, they exist in a state of schizophrenia where they are both guards and prisoners and, as a result, they no longer have -- having been lobotomized -- the capacity to leave the prison they've made or to even see it as a prison.' And then he went into his pocket and he took out a seed for a tree and he said 'This is a pine tree'. He put it in my hand and he said 'Escape before it's too late'."

"Okay, yes. We're bored. We're all bored now. But has it ever occurred to you, Wally, that the process that creates this boredom that we see in the world now, may very well be a self-perpetuating, unconscious form of brainwashing created by a world totalitarian government based on money? And that all of this is much more dangerous than one thinks? And its not just a question of individual survival, Wally, but that somebody who's bored is asleep, and somebody who's asleep will not say no?"

"Things don't affect people the way they used to. I mean it may very well be that 10 years from now people will pay $10,000 in cash to be castrated just in order to be affected by something."

"Do you know, in Sanskrit the root of the verb "to be" is the same as "to grow" or "to make grow"."

"I wouldn't put on an electric blanket for any reason. First, I'd be worried if I get electrocuted. No, I don't trust technology. But I mean, the main thing, Wally, is that I think that kind of comfort just separates you from reality in a very direct way."

"Remember that moment when Marlon Brando sent the Indian woman to accept the Oscar, and everything went haywire? Things just very rarely go haywire now. If you're just operating by habit, then you're not really living."

"[voiceover] All the other customers seemed to have left hours ago. We got the bill, and André paid for our dinner! I treated myself to a taxi. I rode home through the city streets. There wasn't a street, there wasn't a building, that wasn't connected to some memory in my mind. There, I was buying a suit with my father. There, I was having an ice cream soda after school. When I finally came in, Debbie was home from work, and I told her everything about my dinner with Andre."

"I'm adequate to do any sort of a task, but I'm not adequate just to be a human being."

"I just don't think I feel the need for anything more than all this, whereas, you know, you seem to be saying that it's inconceivable that anybody could be having a meaningful life today, and, you know, everyone is totally destroyed, and we all need to live in these outposts; but you know, I can't believe---even for you. Don't you find it pleasant just to get up in the morning?"

"[voiceover] The life of a playwright is tough. It's not easy as some people seem to think. You work hard writing plays and nobody puts them on. You take up other lines of work to try to make a living. I became an actor, and people don't hire you. So you just spend your days doing the errands of your trade. Today I had to be up by ten in the morning to make some important phone calls. Then I'd gone to the stationery store to buy envelopes. Then to the xerox shop. There were dozens of things to do. By five o'clock, I'd finally made it to the post office and mailed off several copies of my plays, meanwhile checking constantly with my answering service to see if my agent had called with any acting work. In the morning, the mailbox had just been stuffed with bills! What was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to pay them? After all, I was already doing my best! I've lived in this city all my life. I grew up on the Upper East Side, and when I was 10 years old, I was rich! I was an aristocrat. Riding around in taxis, surrounded by comfort, and all I thought about was art and music. Now I'm 36, and all I think about is money!"

"Faye Dunaway - The Psychiatrist"

"Denis Leary - Detective Michael McCann"

"Rene Russo - Catherine Olds Banning"

"Pierce Brosnan - Thomas Crown"

"Has it occurred to you that you have a problem with trust?"

"Men make women messy."

"You're not boring, I'll give you that."

"You think I'd believe you'd leave your hard stolen painting around a Caribbean hut?"

"I saw him wreck a 100,000 dollar boat because he liked the splash."

"Do you want to dance? Or do you want to dance?"

"Have you figured out what you're going to say to your board when they realize you paid me thirty million more than others were offering?"

"A woman could trust me as long as her interests weren't too contrary to my own."

"[commenting on Jonathan's craziness] They should make pills for this."

"Contrary to popular New York myth the Times is not omniscient."

"[Lying on the grass with Jonathan, outside Sara's house] Maybe we're lying here because you don't wanna be standing somewhere else."

"You know who plays golf? Guys who are too fat to play tennis, like this guy."

"You know the Greeks didn't write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died: "Did he have passion?"."

"{obituary for Jonathan} Johnathan Trager, prominent television producer for ESPN, died last night from complications of losing his soul mate and his fiancee. He was 35 years old. Soft-spoken and obsessive, Trager never looked the part of a hopeless romantic. But, in the final days of his life, he revealed an unknown side of his psyche. This hidden quasi-Jungian persona surfaced during the Agatha Christie-like pursuit of his long-reputed soul mate, a woman whom he only spent a few precious hours with. Sadly, the protracted search ended late Saturday night in complete and utter failure. Yet even in certain defeat, the courageous Trager secretly clung to the belief that life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences. Uh-uh. But rather, its a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite, sublime plan. Asked about the loss of his dear friend, Dean Kansky, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and executive editor of the New York Times, described Jonathan as a changed man in the last days of his life. "Things were clearer for him," Kansky noted. Ultimately Johnathan concluded that if we are to live life in harmony with the universe, we must all possess a powerful faith in what the ancients used to call "fatum", what we currently refer to as destiny."

"[commenting on Sara's craziness] They should make pills for this."

"Buck Henry - (uncredited) as himself"

"Evan Neuman - Kenny"

"Eve Crawford - Mrs. Buchanan"

"Marcia Bennett Mrs. Trager"

"Eugene Levy - Bloomingdale's salesman (Macall Polay)"

"John Corbett - Lars Hammond"

"Jeremy Piven - Dean Kansky"

"Bridget Moynahan - Halley Buchanan"

"Molly Shannon - Eve"

"Kate Beckinsale - Sara Thomas"

"John Cusack - Jonathan Trager"

"The love of your life could be in line for popcorn....."

"When Love Feels Like Magic, It's called Destiny. When Destiny Has A Sense of Humor, It's Called Serendipity."

"No name. No address. Just fate."

"Sometimes True Love Can Have More Than One Face"

"Can Once In A Lifetime Happen Twice?"

"Destiny ... With A Sense Of Humor."

"[to Joe] Terrific shirt."

"Everything we got only set us back ten and some... Hey you know, Ratso. Rico, I mean. I got this damn thing all figured out. When we get to Miami, what we'll do is get some sort of job, you know. Cause hell, I ain't no kind of hustler. I mean, there must be an easier way of makin' a living than that. Some sort of outdoors work. What do ya think? Yeah, that's what I'll do. OK Rico? Rico? Rico? Hey, Rico? Rico?"

"Yours was the only one left with a palm tree on it. The clothes are damn cheap here too, you know that?"