20th Century Women

"This is the really hard part, and then it gets better, and then it gets hard again."
[to Jamie]

Jamie: "Stop."
Dorothea Fields: "What?"
Jamie: "Thinking that you know everything that's going on."
Dorothea Fields: "No, I don't. I just think that, you know, having your heart broken is a tremendous way to learn about the world."

Dorothea Fields: "I think maybe you guys can help me with Jamie. How do you be a good man? What does that even mean nowadays?"
Julie: "Don't you need a man to raise a man?"
Dorothea Fields: "No, I don't think so. I think you're what's going to work for him."

"When you were born I told you life was very big and unknown. There were animals and cities and music, you'd fall in love, have passions, have meaning, but now it's 1979 and nothing means anything, and I know you less everyday."
[to Jamie]

[President Jimmy Carter on TV]
"We are at a turning point in our history. As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government. It is a crisis of confidence. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our Nation. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself, involved in the search for freedom. We've always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning."
Carpenter1: "Wow, he is so screwed. It's over for him."
Dorothea Fields: "I thought that was beautiful."