9 Wise Quotes from “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ~ What a collection of senior actors. Totally love this film. Poignant. Funny. Sad. Joyous. And with some wisdom thrown in for good measure. Here are some favorite quotes from the movie: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel….

Sonny: Everything will be all right in the end… if it’s not all right then it’s not yet the end.

Evelyn: Nothing here has worked out quite as I expected.
Muriel: Most things don’t. But sometimes what happens instead is the good stuff.

Evelyn: [about their new environment] Initially you’re overwhelmed. But gradually you realize it’s like a wave. Resist, and you’ll be knocked over. Dive into it, and you’ll swim out the other side.

Evelyn: There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it. Only a present that builds and creates itself as the past withdraws.

Norman Cousins: This is it.
Madge Hardcastle: You’re not worried about thre danger of having sex at your age?
Norman Cousins: If she dies, she dies.

Douglas Ainslie: She was upset.
Jean: Oh spare me your explanation. Do you think I’m jealous?
Douglas Ainslie: I don’t see why else you would have emabarrassed me… and Evelyn.
Jean: You seem to be doing a perfectly good job of embarrassing yourself. Can you imagine how ghastly it is for everyone to see you mooning around after that simpering, doe-eyed ex-housewife, taking advantage of her loneliness…
Douglas Ainslie: Look. Can you hear yourself? Can you? Do you have any idea what a terrible person you have become? All you give out is this endless negativity, a refusal to see any kind of light and joy, even when it’s staring you in the face, and a desperate need to squash any sign of happiness in me or… or… or… anyone else. It’s a wonder that I don’t fling myself at the first kind word or gesture that comes my way, but I don’t, ou… ou… ou… out of some sense of dried-up loyalty and respect, neither of which I ever bloody get in return.

Jean: The whole thing is actually tremendously exciting. Not just getting on the plane, but getting on the plane and turning left.
Norman Cousins: Turning left?
Jean: First class. And home in time for our fortieth wedding anniversary. We haven’t quite decided how to mark the occasion.
Madge Hardcastle: Perhaps a minute’s silence.

Evelyn: You’re still here.
Douglas Ainslie: I… I missed the plane.
Evelyn: What about Jean?
Douglas Ainslie: She didn’t. I had… I had quite an interesting night actually. I… I met the same… um… taxi driver, but this time I let him take me to his brother’s hotel, which turned out to be less of a hotel and more of a… more of a brothel really. And… and they gave… they gave me this pipe, said it was apple tobacco but that’s not what they called it when I was a student, so… so I made my excuses and left. I needed time to think. This city at night is extraordinary. I think the apple tobacco helped… probably.

Evelyn: What’s the use of a marriage when nothing is shared?