Christopher Nolan

“There's a point where we just let the music take over everything.”

“But I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved ones is just poison in your veins. And one day you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you'd be spared your pain.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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?”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“EAMES: Word is, you're not welcome in these parts.COBB: Yeah?EAMES: There's a price on your head from Cobol Engineering. Pretty big one, actually.COBB: You wouldn't sell me out.Eames looks at Cobb, offended.EAMES: 'Course I would.COBB: (smiles) Not when you hear what I'm selling.A ramshackle balcony overlooking a busy street. Eames pours.COBB: Inception.Eames' glass stops halfway to his mouth.COBB: Don't bother telling me it's impossible.EAMES: It's perfectly possible. Just bloody difficult.COBB: That's what I keep saying to Arthur.EAMES: Arthur? You're still working with that stick-in-the-mud?COBB: He's a good point man.EAMES: The best. But he has no imagination. If you're going to perform inception, you need imagination.COBB: You've done it before?EAMES: Yes and no. We tried it. Got the idea in place, but it didn't take.COBB: You didn't plant it deep enough?EAMES: It's not just about depth. You need the simplest version of the idea-the one that will grow naturally in the subject's mind. Subtle art.”

“ARTHUR: The only way to wake up from inside the dream is to die.”

“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.”

“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?”

“COBB: What do you want from us? SAITO: Inception. Arthur raises his eyebrows. Cobb is poker-faced. SAITO: Is it possible? ARTHUR: Of course not. SAITO: If you can steal an idea from someone's mind, why can't you plant one there instead? ARTHUR: Okay, here's planting an idea: I say to you, "Don't think about elephants." (Saito nods) What are you thinking about? SAITO: Elephants. ARTHUR: Right. But it's not your idea because you know I gave it to you. SAITO: You could plant it subconsciously- ARTHUR: The subject's mind can always trace the genesis of the idea. True inspiration is impossible to fake. COBB: No, it isn't. SAITO: Can you do it? COBB: I won't do it. SAITO: In exchange, I'll give you the information you were paid to steal. COBB: Are you giving me a choice? Because I can find my own way to square things with Cobol. SAITO: Then you do have a choice. COBB: And I choose to leave.”

“You musn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.”

“If you're going to perform inception, you need imagination. You need the simplest version of the idea-the one that will grow naturally in the subject's mind. Subtle art.”

“Superheroes fill a gap in the pop culture psyche, similar to the role of Greek mythology. There isn't really anything else that does the job in modern terms. For me, Batman is the one that can most clearly be taken seriously. He's not from another planet, or filled with radioactive gunk. I mean, Superman is essentially a god, but Batman is more like Hercules: he's a human being, very flawed, and bridges the divide.”

“I never considered myself a lucky person. I'm the most extraordinary pessimist. I truly am.”

“...I studied English Literature. I wasn't a very good student, but one thing I did get from it, while I was making films at the same time with the college film society, was that I started thinking about the narrative freedoms that authors had enjoyed for centuries and it seemed to me that filmmakers should enjoy those freedoms as well.”

“I always find myself gravitating to the analogy of a maze. Think of film noir and if you picture the story as a maze, you don't want to be hanging above the maze watching the characters make the wrong choices because it's frustrating. You actually want to be in the maze with them, making the turns at their side, that keeps it more exciting...I quite like to be in that maze.”

“(On "Following") We've got a pretty serious claim on being the cheapest film ever made.”

“Why do we Fall?So we can learn to pick ourselves back up.”

“I have to believe that when my eyes are closed, the world's still there. (Leonard Shelby, Memento)”

“Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts. (Leonard Shelby, Memento)”

“I always thought the joy of reading a book is not knowing what happens next. (Leonard Shelby, Memento)”

“The thing you fail to grasp is that people are not basically good. We are basically selfish. We shove and clamour and cry for adoration, and beat down everyone else to get it. Life is a competition of prattling peacocks enraptured in inane mating rituals. But for all our effacing and self-importance, we are all slaves to what we fear most. You have so very much to learn. Here. Let me teach you.”