Christopher J. Nolan Quotes & Sayings

but as long as he keeps the bad people rich and the good people scared no one will touch him — Christopher J. Nolan

ARIADNE: Do you use a timer?
ARTHUR: No, I have to judge it myself. Once you're all asleep in room 528, I wait 'til Yusuf starts his kick...
ARIADNE: How will you know?
ARTHUR: His music warns me it's coming, then the van hitting the barrier of the bridge should be unmistakable-that's when I blow the floor out from underneath us and we get a nice synchronized kick. Too soon, and we won't get pulled out; too late and I won't be able to drop us.
ARIADNE: Why not?
ARTHUR: The van will be in free fall. I can't drop us without gravity. — Christopher J. Nolan

ARIADNE: Why are they looking at me?
COBB: Because you're changing things. My subconscious feels that someone else is creating the world. The more you change things, the quicker the projections converge on you.
ARIADNE: Converge?
COBB: They feel the foreign nature of the dreamer, and attack-like white blood cells fighting an infection.
ARIADNE: They're going to attack us?
COBB: Just you, actually. — Christopher J. Nolan

To be honest, I've always made films and I never really stopped, starting with little stop-motion experiments using my dad's Super 8 camera. In my mind, it's all one big continuum of filmmaking and I've never changed. — Christopher J. Nolan

COBB: You're waiting for a train. A train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can't know for sure. Yet it doesn't matter...
Mal looks at his across the railroad tracks. Replies-
MAL: Because you'll always be together. — Christopher J. Nolan

Don't talk like you're one of them! You're not... even if you'd like to be. To them you're just a freak, like me. They need you right now, but when they don't, they'll cast you out. Like a leper. See, their morals, their "code"... it's a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these uh, these "civilized people", they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve. — Christopher J. Nolan

ARTHUR: (indicates rain) Couldn't you have peed before we went under?
YUSUF: Sorry.
The front door OPENS and Eames climbs in, soaked.
EAMES: Bit too much free champagne before takeoff, Yusuf?
YUSUF: Ha bloody ha. — Christopher J. Nolan

A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed or locked up. But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can't stop you, then you become something else entirely — Christopher J. Nolan

EAMES: Try this... "MY FATHER ACCEPTS THAT I WANT TO CREATE FOR MYSELF, NOT FOLLOW IN HIS FOOTSTEPS."
COBB: That might work.
ARTHUR: Might? We'll have to do better than that.
EAMES: Thanks for the contribution, Arthur.
ARTHUR: Forgive me for wanting a little specificity, Eames. — Christopher J. Nolan

ARTHUR: What happened?
ARIADNE: Cobb stayed.
ARTHUR: With Mal?
ARIADNE: No. To find Saito.
Arthur looks out at the water below the bridge.
ARTHUR: He'll be lost...
ARIADNE: No. He'll be alright. — Christopher J. Nolan

She had locked something away,
something deep inside.

A truth that she had once known,
but chose to forget.

And she couldn't break free.

So I decided to search for it.

I went deep into the recess of her mind
and found that secret place.

And I broke in.. — Christopher J. Nolan

ARTHUR: He's out.
ARIADNE: Wait, Cobb-I'm lost. Whose subconscious are we going into?
COBB: Fischer's. I told him it was Browning's so he'd come with us as part of our team.
ARTHUR: (impressed) He's going to help us break into his own subconscious.
COBB: That's the idea. He'll think that his security is Browning's and fight them to learn the truth about his father. — Christopher J. Nolan

(On "Following") We've got a pretty serious claim on being the cheapest film ever made. — Christopher J. Nolan

SAITO: Care for a lift, Mr. Cobb?
COBB: (jumping in) What brings you to Mombasa, Mr. Saito?
SAITO: I have to protect my investment.
Eames stands on pavement. The car pulls up. Cobb beckons from the rear window. Eames looks at Saito. Back to Cobb.
EAMES: This your idea of losing a tail?
COBB: (shrugs) Different tail. — Christopher J. Nolan

EAMES: Now, in the dream, I can impersonate Browning and suggest the concepts to Fischer's conscious mind...
EAMES: (draws a diagram) Then we take Fischer down another level and his own subconscious feeds it right back to him.
ARTHUR: (impressed) So he gives himself the idea.
EAMES: Precisely. That's the only way to make it stick. It has to seem self-generated.
ARTHUR: Eames, I'm impressed.
EAMES: Your condescension, as always, is much appreciated, Arthur. — Christopher J. Nolan

ARTHUR: How do we get out once we've made the plant?
(to Cobb)
I hope you've got something a little more elegant than shooting me in the head like last time.
Arthur tilts back in his chair. Yusuf turns to Cobb.
COBB: A kick.
ARIADNE: What's a kick?
Eames slips his foot under Arthur's chair leg. TIPS it- Arthur's legs SHOOT UP INSTINCTIVELY for balance-
EAMES: That, Ariadne, would be a kick.
COBB: That feeling of falling which snaps you awake. We use that to jolt ourselves awake once we're done. — Christopher J. Nolan

EAMES: Shouldn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, Arthur-
Eames lines up a shot with a grenade launcher. Fires- the sniper EXPLODES into the air- Arthur looks at Eames.
EAMES: Shall we? — Christopher J. Nolan

ARTHUR: The only way to wake up from inside the dream is to die. — Christopher J. Nolan

There's a point where we just let the music take over everything. — Christopher J. Nolan

ARTHUR: It'd have to be a 747.
COBB: Why?
ARTHUR: On a 747 the pilots are up above, first class is in the nose so nobody walks through the cabin. We'd have to buy out the whole cabin, and the first class flight attendant-
SAITO: We bought the airline.
Everyone turns to Saito.
SAITO: It seemed... neater. — Christopher J. Nolan

COBB: Our dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake we realize things were strange.

Ariadne gestures around them-

ARIADNE: But all the textures of real life-the stone, the fabric... cars... people... your mind can't create all this.

COBB: It does. Every time you dream. Let me ask you a question: You never remember the beginning of your dreams, do you? You just turn up in the middle of what's going on.

ARIADNE: I guess.

COBB: So... how did we end up at this restaurant? — Christopher J. Nolan

Either you die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. — Christopher J. Nolan

EAMES: There's a man here. Yusuf. He formulates his own versions of the compound.
COBB: Let's go see him.
EAMES: Once you've lost your tail.
(Cobb reacts)
Back by the bar, blue tie. Came in about two minutes after we did.
COBB: Cobol Engineering?
EAMES: They pretty much own Mombasa.
Cobb glances over the balcony.
COBB: Run interference. We'll meet downstairs in half an hour.
EAMES: Back here?
COBB: Last place they'd expect.
Eames downs his drink. Rises. Walks over to the Businessman.
EAMES: Freddy!
The Businessman looks up, awkward.
EAMES: Freddy Simmonds, it is you!
Cobb nonchalantly SLIPS over the balcony DROPPING HARD into the midst of the crowd on the street below.
EAMES: (looks harder) Oh. No, it isn't.
The Businessman looks past Eames but Cobb has vanished. — Christopher J. Nolan

MAL: You killed me.
Cobb looks at Mal. Whispers-
COBB: I was trying to save you-I'm sorry.
Mal comes in close to Cobb. Looks him over.
MAL: You infected my mind. You betrayed me. But you can make amends. You can still keep your promise. We can still be together... right here. In our world. The world we built together. — Christopher J. Nolan