Quotes from Guess Who's Coming to Dinner


Pacey to Jen: "How do you expect a guy to do his best work in the face of scorn and derision?"

Joey: "Jen, um, we're all strangers to our parents. I mean, they love us, but they don't really know us. And sometimes before we get the chance to know them, they're gone. And so we can't ask them all the things we want to know about turnips or turkey gizzards or what they were like when they were young."

Joey: "It gets easier, you know."
Andie: "What?"
Joey: "Being in the same room with him."

Dawson: "I'd also like to give thanks for the opportunity to gather with friends and family, who in the best of all worlds are one and the same."

Jen: "Mom, you are the most intensely selfish person that I have ever known. Look at you, you can't even cry. Something's taken that away from you. You're numb. And you know what? You're grateful for it. No wonder you're so afraid of being alone. Because the day you are, you're going to have to look inside of yourself, and you're going to see what I've known for a long time. There's nothing there."

Dawson: "So what do you say we really cut loose tonight? Huh? Act out our teenage ennui in wanton and destructive ways."
Joey: "What do you have in mind?"
Dawson: "Sex, drugs, rock and roll. Or we could just sit right here and have a mind-blowing three-hour conversation."

Jen: "Pacey, our arrangement precludes any sort of emotional foreplay."
Pacey: "Yes, it does, which, by extension, also precludes the idea of angry sex."

Pacey: "For what it's worth, as a guy who's just gone through this himself, what just happened to you is a defining moment. When you come to see your parents as human beings with their own problems, it is, oddly, kind of liberating. When you realize they're way more messed up than you are, it's not worth your time or energy to go on despising them for it."

Pacey: "I know this may be a little hard for you to believe, but it's actually not every day that a beautiful woman throws herself at me."
Jen: "And thank you."
Pacey: "For what?"
Jen: "Conduct above and beyond."
Pacey: "Ah, it was nothing."
Jen: "Pacey, you're a sixteen-year-old boy, that must have taken super human strength."
Pacey: "Oh, Jen, you have no idea."

Dawson: "You know what I'm thinking? It's been kind of awhile since we all ended up in the same spot together. I must say, it's nice."
Jen: "You know, Dawson, you're right. I feel like I'm in the middle of the, uh, Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special."
Andie: "Oh, I love that one. That's where they all eat on the ping-pong table but it keeps collapsing and then they end up making the popcorn...."
Joey: "Yeah, but I think the group hug is a little premature, however. I'm sure we'll find a way to be estranged again in no time."
Dawson: "Well, before we do, I would just like to say that in a world where the people who raise you end up letting you down, it's an honor and a privilege to have you guys to turn to."
Joey: "Well, I can't wait for the Oscar speech. I mean, there's not going to be a dry eye in the house."


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