Joe Gould's Secret (2000)

Ian Holm: Joe Gould

Photos 

Quotes 

• Joe Gould : In the winter, I'm a Buddhist; in the summer, I'm a nudist!

• Joe Gould : When I am hungry I don't have any self respect!

• Joe Gould : [for his book]  Civilization brings distinctions of cast apart from individual attainment. Thus is developed the patrician and the peasant. Each has a different set of virtues, and both are needed for the complete sum of humanity. When you find a patrician without pride, or a peasant without avarice, you get very nearly the perfect person. In the eyes of the infinite, all pride is just dust and ashes.

• Joe Gould : The Oral History is my rope, my scaffold, my bed, my board, my wife, my floozy, my wound and the salt on it, my whiskey, my aspirin, my rock and my salvation. It's the only thing that matters a damn to me. All else is dross.

• Joe Gould : Only the artist is free, Joe. Because he is single of purpose. He knows what he wants and wants only that. But this, frightens people, I don't know.

• Joe Gould : So I supposed you're puzzled about me, Mr. Mitchell. If so the feeling's mutual. I've been puzzled about me, and have been since childhood. Did you ever have a painful operation or disease?

• Joe Gould : [looking at a sculpture]  Is she your type?

  Joe Mitchell : Parts of her.

• Joe Gould : Edward Nagel called me a barbarian, because I didn't see a picture as a picture. It didn't mean anything to me. All I saw was the expression of the man who painted it. And Gaston LeChez agreed with me, saying art is essentially a means of self-expression, putting E. Nagel in his place.

  Joe Mitchell : Well, that must have made you feel good.

  Joe Gould : No, actually it made me feel bad. Because although our thoughts were the same, Gaston's and mine, his meant something, because he was who he was. Mine meant nothing, because because I was who I am.

• Joe Gould : Take care of those composition books, Joe. The Oral History is my rope, my scaffold, my bed, my board, my wife, my floozy, my wound and the salt on it. My whiskey, my aspirin, my rock, and my salvation.

• Phil : Oh Joe, I know you don't intend such a thing, but the Oral History may turn out to be a sort of x-ray of the soul of the Bourgeoisie.

  Joe Gould : What makes you think that you know what I don't intend?

• Joe Gould : [from his book]  The insane person is a victim of self-deception. Yet in a measure, we all have this virtue. One is his own imaginary creation of himself. If we could see ourselves for what we really are life would be insupportable. Hence, I would judge the sanest man to be him who most firmly realizes the tragic isolation of humanity, and pursues his essential purpose calmly.