Peter Hedges > Quotes

“Love is not a feeling.  It's an ability.”
― Peter Hedges

“In a cement park across the street is this giant sculpture. It is a giant umbrella frame lying on its side. It's green. Stand under it, during a rainstorm, you'll still get wet - that's why it's art.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“I have seen God and he is this girl.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“A man who works all day, every day and loves each apple he uncrates, who cherishes each can of soup - a man like that surely puts us all to shame.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“How can you kill a man who'd already been dead for years?”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“I never want to regret. 'Regret' is the ugliest word.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“She loves me-she just doesn't know it yet.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“No 'buts', Gilbert. You just make sense to me. It's nothing more special than that.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“smiles and friendly nods are like fabric softeners for the face.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“There is nothing more depressing than toast that no one eats.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“He sees me through the glass. We both nod like we give a small shit about each other.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“I devised a test.
I turned off the TV and instantly the snoring stopped. She began to move. When I felt her eyes about to open, I turned the TV back on and back to sleep she went. Then I'd turn it off and on - sometimes for millisecond - and she never failed me. Each time it was off, she's move and mutter - each time it was on, she'd sleep.
By the time the headlights from Amy's Nova turned into our driveway, my suspicion had been confirmed. My mother has a more intimate, connected relationship with this television than she has ever had with me.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“I was seven when he hung himself, and I don't remember all that much, and anything I did remember, I've managed to forget.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“Describing Endora is like dancing to no music. It's a town where nothing much ever happens, and nothing much ever will.”
― Peter Hedges

“Wait a minute, I'm thinking, was this another one of those conversations where what is meant and what is being said are not the same thing?”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“These eggs are broken. Cracked."
"Yes, ma'am. That happens sometimes."
"Does it?"
"Yes, it's the unfortunate part of being an egg.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“You can tell the idyllic nature of a family by the upkeep of its picnic table. Ours is its own indictment. We are splintering and peeling. We rot.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“Yeah, some days you die.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“Joan and the Judge had gone to a Sunday brunch with friends. They would be home shortly, in good spirits probably, unless of course they saw their boy frozen to the mailbox.
So Claire and Maggie had no choice. They each grabbed a shoulder and hooked under an elbow and yanked suddenly without warning. Scotty brought his hands quickly to his mouth. All three stood quietly staring at the miniature pink circle of flesh still stuck on the mailbox.
"It looks like a little pizza," said Maggie without thinking.”
― Peter Hedges, An Ocean in Iowa

“I'm told women scream when they give birth because of the intense pain. And I think about how easily life can just slide away, like thawing ice. And how it's only the living that scream.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“She doesn't acknowledge Tucker, and there's no thank you for the cigarettes. She says a person shows their gratitude by action, not by words. So I guess that means she thanks me by smoking every cigarette in every pack.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“He loves to hide, but only if you take the time to find him. And while I suspect that's true for most people, only a retard or a kid would admit it.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“Anyway, they took her body to McBurney's Funeral Home in Motley. They'll be planting her tomorrow.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“Stupid people often say the smartest things.”
― Peter Hedges

“My brother's costume is the exception. He looks like an American. In fact, he behaves like one. When he tried to pick up the first kid he knocked down, he smashed into several others, it snowballed, chaos ensued. My brother very much resembled America today in pretty much all things.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“God forgives you your sins."
I say right back, "And I forgive him his.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“Great loss is felt by no one”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“The more Christian you are in this town, the more makeup you wear.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“The more Christian you are in this town, the more makeup you wear. I've always thought that it's because if you were to die suddenly, you'd look better for God.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“You're shrinking Gilbert, you're shrinking! Shrinking, shrinking, shrinking!”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape