Joe Gould's Secret (2000)

Stanley Tucci: Joe Mitchell

Photos 

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Joe Mitchell : In my home town, I never felt at home. In New York, New York City, in Greenwich Village, down among the cranks, and the misfits, and the one runners, and the has-beens, and the might-have-beens, and the would-bes, and the never-wills, and the God-knows-whats, I have always felt at home.

• [last lines] 

  Joe Mitchell : [spoiler]  Joe Gould died in 1957. So afterwards many people who know him asked me if I would help them search for the Oral History. I thought of telling them that I knew that the Oral History did not exist. But one of the things I have learned going through life is that there's a time and a place for everything. Yes, I said. I would help them. Yes. Of course I would.

  [/spoiler] 

• Joe Mitchell : You know that fellow who was in here the other day? The small, disheveled looking...

  Harold Ross : That was you, Joe.

• 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 Mitchell : Nothing associated with Oral History exists, because Oral History doesn't exist. A few scribblings here and there, but really, no. It exists only in your mind, but you have been too lazy to write it down.