Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Emma Thompson: Karen Eiffel

Photos 

Quotes 

• Professor Jules Hilbert : No, why did you change the book?

  Kay Eiffel : Lots of reasons. I realized I just couldn't do it.

  Professor Jules Hilbert : Because he's real?

  Kay Eiffel : Because it's a book about a man who doesn't know he's about to die and then dies. But if the man does know he's going to die and dies anyway, dies willingly, knowing he could stop it, then... I mean, isn't that the type of man you want to keep alive?

• Penny Escher : And I suppose you smoked all these cigarettes?

  Kay Eiffel : No, they came pre-smoked.

  Penny Escher : Yeah, they said you were funny.

• Kay Eiffel : Little did he know that this simple, seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death.

• Kay Eiffel : [Penny goes to answer phone]  Don't answer that!

  Penny Escher : Didn't you say this phone never r - ?

  Kay Eiffel : Shh!

  [types another sentence; the phone rings and she runs to answer it] 

  Kay Eiffel : Hello?

  Harold Crick : Is this Karen Eiffel?

  Kay Eiffel : Yes.

  Harold Crick : My name is Harold Crick. I believe you're writing a story about me.

  Kay Eiffel : I'm sorry?

  Harold Crick : My name is Harold Crick.

  Kay Eiffel : Is this a joke?

  Harold Crick : No. No, I work for the IRS. My name, Miss Eiffel, is Harold Crick. When I go through the files at work I hear a deep and endless ocean.

  Kay Eiffel : [gasps; drops phone in terror]  Oh, G - !

  Harold Crick : Miss Eiffel?

• Karen Eiffel : As Harold took a bite of Bavarian Sugar Cookie, he finally felt as if everything was going to be okay. Sometimes, when we lose ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for Bavarian Sugar Cookies, and fortunately, when there aren't any cookies, we can still find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin... or a kind and loving gesture... or a subtle encouragement... or a loving embrace... or an offer of comfort... not to mention hospital gurneys... and nose plugs... and uneaten Danish... and soft-spoken secrets... and Fender Stratocasters... and maybe, the occasional piece of fiction. And we must remember that all these things, the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, which we assume only accessorize our days, are in fact here for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to save our lives. I know the idea seems strange, but I also know that it just so happens to be true. And so it was a wristwatch saved Harold Crick.

• Kay Eiffel : [sees Harold for the first time]  Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

  Harold Crick : Miss Eiffel?

  Kay Eiffel : Your hair. Your eyes. Your fingers. Your shoes.

  Harold Crick : Hello. I'm Harold Crick.

  Kay Eiffel : I know.

• Kay Eiffel : [narrating]  It wasn't just about finding a guitar. It was about finding a guitar that said something about Harold. Unfortunately, this guitar said: "When I get back to Georgia, that woman gonna feel my pain." This one said something along the lines of: "Why, yes, these pants are Lycra." These said, "I'm very sensitive, very caring and I have absolutely no idea how to play the guitar." "I'm compensating for something. Guess what." And then Harold saw it.

• Penny Escher : [They are in a hospital ward surround by lots of sick and injured people]  What are we doing here? I don't even think we're supposed to *be* in here.

  Kay Eiffel : You told me I needed visual stimulation.

  Penny Escher : Yeah, I meant a museum or something.

  Kay Eiffel : I don't *need* a museum. I need the goddamn infirm.

  Penny Escher : [slightly under her breath]  You *are* the infirm.

• Penny Escher : Man in tweed?

  Kay Eiffel : There's nothing wrong with him, he just likes looking at sick people.

  Penny Escher : Oddly spoken with disdain.

• Kay Eiffel : ...It came to me.

  Penny Escher : How?

  Kay Eiffel : Well, Penny, like anything worth writing it came inexplicably and without method.

• Kay Eiffel : What's this?

  Penny Escher : It's literature on the nicotine patch.

  Kay Eiffel : I don't need a nicotine patch, Penny. I smoke cigarettes.

  Penny Escher : Well, it may help.

  Kay Eiffel : May help? Help what? Help what, Penny? Help write a novel?

  Penny Escher : May help save your life.

  Kay Eiffel : I'm not in the business of saving lives.

  [spits into tissue to Penny's disgust, and puts cigarette in tissue] 

  Kay Eiffel : In fact, just the opposite.

  [wipes water out of eye] 

• Kay Eiffel : [narrating]  Why was Harold talking to this man? This man was an idiot.

• Kay Eiffel : Excuse me, where are the dying people? Most of these people are sick or injured - Which is great, don't get me wrong. But they're gonna get better, which doesn't really help me. Is there any way to see the people who aren't going to get better?

  Head ER Nurse : Excuse me?

  Kay Eiffel : I'd like to see, if at all possible, the ones who aren't going to make it. You know, the dead-for-sure ones.

  Head ER Nurse : I'm sorry, are you suffering from anything?

  Kay Eiffel : [shrugs]  Just writer's block.

• Penny Escher : I'm Penny Escher. I'm the assistant your publishers hired.

  Kay Eiffel : The spy.

  Penny Escher : The assistant. I provide the same services as a secretary.

  Kay Eiffel : I don't need a secretary.

  Penny Escher : Then I will have to find some other way of occupying my time.

  Kay Eiffel : Like watching me like a vulture in case I get distracted, because they, the publishers, think I have writer's block, isn't that right?

  Penny Escher : Do you have writer's block?

  [Kay doesn't answer] 

• [standing outside Ana's bakery, Harold starts to lose it] 

  Kay Eiffel : Harold suddenly found himself beleaguered and exasperated, standing outside the bakery...

  Harold Crick : [screaming upwards]  Shut up!

  Kay Eiffel : ...cursing the heavens in futility.

  Harold Crick : [continuing screaming]  No I'm not! I'm cursing you, you stupid voice! So shut up and leave me alone!

• [Harold is talking with a coworker, Dave, in the IRS archives] 

  Harold Crick : Dave, I'm being followed.

  Dave : [looks around]  How are you being followed? You're not moving.

  Harold Crick : It's by a voice.

  Dave : What?

  Dave : I'm being followed by a woman's voice.

  Dave : Okay. What is she saying?

  Harold Crick : She... She's narrating.

  Dave : Harold. You're standing at the water cooler? What is she narrating?

  Harold Crick : I... I had to stop filing. Watch. Listen, listen.

  Kay Eiffel : [as Harold resumes filing, Kay's voice is heard - but only to Harold]  The sound the paper made against the folder had the same tone as a wave scraping against sand. And when Harold thought about it, he listened to enough waves every day to constitute what he imagined to be a deep and endless ocean...

• Penny Escher : [sitting on bench under an umbrella]  May I ask what we're doing out here?

  Kay Eiffel : [sitting next to Penny without an umbrella]  We're imagining car wrecks.

  Penny Escher : I see. And we can't imagine car wrecks inside?

  Kay Eiffel : No. Did you know that 41 percent of accidents occur in times of inclement weather?

  Penny Escher : So do 90 percent of pneumonia cases.

  Kay Eiffel : Really? Pneumonia. That's an interesting way to die. But how would Harold catch pneumonia?

  Penny Escher : Have you written anything new today?

  Kay Eiffel : No.

  Penny Escher : Did you read the poems I suggested, or make a list of words, buy new typing paper, anything?

  Kay Eiffel : No, none of it.

  Penny Escher : Sitting in the rain won't write books.