[Dans le train]
Céline : Have you ever heard that as couples get older, they lose their ability to hear each other ?
Jesse : No.
Céline : Well, supposedly, men lose their ability to hear high-pitched sounds and women eventually lose hearing in the low end. I guess they sort of nullify each other or something .
Jesse : I guess. Nature's way of allowing couples to grow old together without killing each other.

Céline : I knew you were American. And of course, you don't speak any other language, right ?
Jesse : Yeah, yeah. I get it, I get it. So, I'm the crude, dumb, vulgar American who doesn't speak other languages, who has no culture, right ? But I tried.

Céline : You know, my parents never really spoke of the possibility of my falling in love or getting married or having children. Even as a little girl they wanted me to think as a future carrer as a, you know, interior designer or lawyer or something like that. I'd say to my dad, "I want to be a writer." and he'd say, "Journalist." I'd say I wanted to have a refuge for stray cats. He'd say, "Veterinarian." I'd say I wanted to be an actress. He'd say, "TV newscaster." It was this constant conversion of my fanciful ambition into these practical moneymaking ventures.

Jesse : Alright, I have an admittedly insane idea, but if I don't ask you this it's just, uh, you know, it's gonna haunt me the rest of my life.
Céline : What?
Jesse : Um... I want to keep talking to you, y'know. I have no idea what your situation is, but, uh, but I feel like we have some kind of, uh, connection. Right?
Céline : Yeah, me too.
Jesse : Yeah, right, well, great. So listen, so here's the deal. This is what we should do. You should get off the train with me here in Vienna, and come check out the capital.
Céline : What?
Jesse : Come on. It'll be fun. Come on.
Céline : What would we do?
Jesse : Umm, I don't know. All I know is I have to catch an Austrian Airlines flight tomorrow morning at 9:30 and I don't really have enough money for a hotel, so I was just going to walk around, and it would be a lot more fun if you came with me. And if I turn out to be some kind of psycho, you know, you just get on the next train. [Elle réfléchit] Alright, alright. Think of it like this: jump ahead, ten, twenty years, okay, and you're married. Only your marriage doesn't have that same energy that it used to have, y'know. You start to blame your husband. You start to think about all those guys you've met in your life and what might have happened if you'd picked up with one of them, right? Well, I'm one of those guys. That's me y'know, so think of this as time travel, from then, to now, to find out what you're missing out on. See, what this really could be is a gigantic favor to both you and your future husband to find out that you're not missing out on anything. I'm just as big a loser as he is, totally unmotivated, totally boring, and, uh, you made the right choice, and you're really happy.
Céline : Let me get my bag.

Jesse : They're different questions. I could answer the sexual-feelings thing. No problem. But, you know, love.. I mean, what if I asked you about love ?
Céline : I would have lied, but at least I would have made up a great story.
Jesse : Oh, lie, great ! Love is a complex issue, you know ? I mean, it's like... I mean, yes, I've told somebody that I love them, and I've meant it. But was it totally unselfish, giving love ? Was it a beautiful thing ? Not really.

Jesse : Tell me something that really pisses you off. Really drives you crazy.
Céline : Pisses me off.
Jesse : Yeah.
Céline : God, everything pisses me off.
Jesse : List a couple.
Céline : Uh, I know. I hate being told by strange men, strange men in the street, you know, like to smile to make them feel better about their boring life. Uh, what else ? I hate, I hate that 300 kilometers from here, there's a war going on, you know, people are dying, and nobody knows what to do about it. Or they don't give a shit. I don't know. I hate that the media's, you know, they're trying to control our minds.
Jesse : The media ?
Céline : Yeah, the media. It's very subtle, but it's a new form of fascism, really. Uh, I hate, I hate when I'm in a foreign country, especially in America, they are the worse, each time I wear black or lose my temper or say anything about anything, you kno,w they always go, "Oh, it's so French. It's so cute." Beurk, I hate that. I can't stand that. Really.

Jesse : Do you believe in reincarnation?
Céline : Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting.
Jesse : Yeah, right. Well, most people, you know, a lot of people talk about past lives and things like that, you know? And even if they don't believe it in some specific way, you know, people have some kind of notion of an eternal soul, right?
Céline : Yeah.
Jesse : OK, well this was my thought: 50,000 years ago, there are not even a million people on the planet. 10,000 years ago, there's, like, two million people on the planet. Now there's between five and six billion people on the planet, right? Now, if we all have our own, like, individual, unique soul, right, where do they all come from? You know, are modern souls only a fraction of the original souls? 'Cause if they are, that represents a 5,000 to 1 split of each soul in the last 50,000 years, which is, like, a blip in the Earth's time. You know, so at best we're like these tiny fractions of people, you know, walking... I mean, is that why we're so scattered? You know, is that why we're all so specialized?
Céline : I don't know. Wait a minute, I'm not sure... I don't...
Jesse : Yeah, hang on, hang on. It's a, it's a totally scattered thought. It... which is kind of why it makes sense.

Céline : When I was a little girl, I was thought that if none of your family or friends knew you were dead, then it was like not really being dead. People can invent the best and the worst for you.

Jesse : Everybody's parents fucked them up. Rich kids, parents gave them too much. Poor kids, not enough. You know, too much attention, not enough attention. They either left them or they stuck around and taught them the wrong things.

Céline : Did your parents divorce?
Jesse : Yeah. Finally. They should have done it a lot sooner, but they stuck together for a while for the "well-being of my sister and I", thank you very much.

Céline : You know, I've been wondering lately. Do you know anyone who's in a happy relationship?
Jesse : Uh, yeah, sure. I know happy couples. But I think they lie to each other.
Céline : Yeah. People can lead their life as a lie. My grandmother, she was married to this man, and I always thought she had a very simple, uncomplicated love life. But she just confessed to me that she spent her whole life dreaming about another man she was always in love with. She just accepted her fate. It's so sad. And in the same time, I love that she had these emotions and feelings I never thought she had.
Jesse : I guarantee you, it was better that way. If she'd ever got to know him, I'm sure he would have disappointed her eventually.
Céline : How do you know? You don't know them.
Jesse : Yeah, I know, I know. It's just, people have these romantic projections they put on everything. That's not based on any kind of reality.

[Sur une terrasse, une voyante vient de "lire l'avenir de Céline" en échange de 50 chillings.]

Jesse : I mean, just once, I'd love to see, some little old lady save up all her money, to go to the fortune teller, and she'd get there, all excited about hearing her future, and the woman would say, "Um-humm. Tomorrow, and all your remaining days will be exactly like today. A tedious collection of hours. And you will have no new passions, and no new thoughts and no new travels, and when you die, you'll be completely forgotten. 50 chillings, please."

Céline : Even though I reject most of the religious things I can't help but feeling for all those people that come here lost or in pain, guilt, looking for some kind of answers. It fascinates me how a single place can join so much pain and happiness for so many generations.

Jesse : Well, I was driving around with this buddy of mine, he was a big atheist, and we came to a stop, next to this homeless guy. And my buddy takes out a 100 dollar bill, and leans out the window, and he says, "Do you believe in God?". And the guy looks at my friend, and he looks at the money, he says, uh, "Yes, I do". My friend says, "Wrong answer", and we drove away.

Jesse : Would you be in Paris by now, if you hadn't gotten off the train with me?
Céline : No not yet. What would you be doing?
Jesse : I'd probably be hanging around the airport, reading old magazines, crying in my coffee cause you didn't come with me.
Céline : Actually, I think I'd probably have gotten off the train in Salsburg with someone else.
Jesse : Oh, yeah? Oh, I see. So, I'm just that dumb American momentarily decorating your blank canvas.
Céline : I'm having a great time.

Jesse : So, uh, were we having our first fight back there?
Céline : No.
Jesse : Yeah, I think so, I think we were.
Céline : Well, even if we were a little bit, y'know. Why does everyone think conflict is so bad ? There's a lot of good things coming out of conflict.

Un poète de rue

[qui a proposé à Jesse et Céline de composer un poème avec le mot de leur choix qui est "milk-shake"] :
Daydream delusion, limousine eyelash
Oh baby with your pretty face
Drop a tear in my wineglass
Look at those big eyes
See what you mean to me
Sweet-cakes and milkshakes
I'm a delusion angel
I'm a fantasy parade
I want you to know what I think
Don't want you to guess anymore
You have no idea where I came from
We have no idea where we're going
Lodged in life
Like branches in a rive
Flowing downstream
Caught in the current
I carry you
You'll carry me
That's how it could be
Don't you know me?
Don't you know me by now?

Jesse : You know what drives me crazy? It's all these people talking about how great technology is, and how it saves all this time. But, what good is saved time, if nobody uses it? If it just turns into more busy work. You never hear somebody say, "With the time I've saved by using my word processor, I'm gonna go to a Zen monastery and hang out". I mean, you never hear that.

Jesse : I kind of see this all love as this, escape for two people who don't know how to be alone. People always talk about how love is this totally unselfish, giving thing, but if you think about it, there's nothing more selfish.

Jesse : You know what's the worst thing about somebody breaking up with you? It's when you remember how little you thought about the people you broke up with and you realize that is how little they're thinking of you. You know, you'd like to think you're both in all this pain but they're just like "Hey, I'm glad you're gone".

Jesse : There's these breeds of monkeys, right, and all they do is have sex, all the time, you know? And they turn out to be the least violent, the most peaceful, the most happy, you know? So maybe fooling around isn't so bad.
Céline : Are you talking about monkeys?
Jesse : Yes I'm talking about monkeys.
Céline : Ah, I thought so...
Jesse : Why ?
Céline : I never heard this one. But it reminds me of like this perfect, you know, male argument to justify them fooling around.

Céline : You know, I have this awful paranoid thought that feminism was mostly invented by men so that they could like, fool around a little more. You know, women, free your minds, free your bodies, sleep with me. We're all happy and free as long as I can fuck as much as I want.

[Jesse et Céline parlent des particularités hommes/femmes]
Jesse : You wanna stop talking about this ?
Céline : Yeah, I hate it. You know, men, women, there's no end to it.
Jesse : It's like a skipping record [disque rayé]. Every couple's been having this conversation forever.
Céline : And nobody came up with anything.

Céline : I always feel this pressure of being a strong and independent icon of womanhood, and without making it look my whole life is revolving around some guy. But loving someone, and being loved means so much to me. We always make fun of it and stuff. But isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?

Jesse : Sometimes I dream about being a good father and a good husband. And sometimes it feels really close. But then other times it seems silly like it would ruin my whole life. And it's not just a fear of commitment or that I'm incapable of caring or loving because... I can. It's just that, if I'm totally honest with myself I think I'd rather die knowing that I was really good at something. That I had excelled in some way than that I'd just been in a nice, caring relationship.

Céline : I had worked for this old man and once he told me that he had spent his whole life thinking about his career and his work. And he was fifty-two and it suddenly struck him that he had never really given anything of himself. His life was for no one and nothing. He was almost crying saying that.

Céline : I believe if there's any kind of God it wouldn't be in any of us, not you or me but just this little space in between. If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt.

Céline : I like to feel his eyes on me when I look away.

Céline : But then the morning comes, and we turn back into pumpkins, right?

Jesse : Why do you think everybody thinks relationships are supposed to last forever anyway?

Jesse : I know what you mean about wishing somebody wasn't there, though. It's just usually it's myself that I wish I could get away from. Seriously, think about this. I have never been anywhere that I haven't been. I've never had a kiss when I wasn't one of the kissers. Y'know, I've never, um, gone to the movies, when I wasn't there in the audience. I've never been out bowling, if I wasn't there, y'know making some stupid joke. I think that's why so many people hate themselves. Serio; usly, it's just they are sick to death of being around themselves Let's say that you and I were together all the time, then you'd start to hate a lot of my mannerisms. The way every time we would have people over, uh, I'd be insecure, and I'd get a little too drunk. Or, uh, the way I'd tell the same stupid pseudo-intellectual story again, and again. Y'see, I've heard all those stories. So of course I'm sick of myself. But being with you, uh, it's made me feel like I'm somebody else.

Céline : You know what I want?
Jesse : What?
Céline : To be kissed.
Jesse : Well I can do that.

Céline : No, then it's like some male fantasy. Meet a French girl on the train, fuck her, and never see her again.

Jesse : Listen, if somebody gave me the choice right now, of to never see you again or to marry you, alright, I would marry you, alright. And maybe that's a lot of romantic bullshit, but people have gotten married for a lot less.
Céline : Actually, I think I had decided I wanted to sleep with you when we got off the train. But now that we've talked so much, I don't know anymore.
Jesse : Oh God !
Céline : Why do I make everything so complicated?

Céline : Maybe we should meet here in 5 years or something.
Jesse : All right, all right, 5 year - 5 years! That's a long time!
Céline : It's awful! It's like a sociological experiment!