Rent (film) Quotations

Rent was the film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, Rent, detailing the struggles of a group of young friends in the East Village area of New York City in the late-1980s. The film, directed by Chris Columbus, had most of the original Broadway cast members reprising their original roles, with the exception of the actresses who played Joanne and Mimi. It was released on November 23, 2005.

Roger Davis

How do you write a song when the chords sound wrong, though they once sounded right and rare?
You can't wipe out an entire tent city then... watch It's A Wonderful Life on TV!
I'm writing one great song before I... oh.
Zoom in on my empty wallet.
Find glory, beyond the cheap colored lights. One song, before the sun sets. Glory - on another empty life.
Glory: in a song that rings true. Truth like a blazing fire, an eternal flame.
Time flies then no need to endure anymore.
I didn't recognize you without the handcuffs.
Your sweet whisper, I just can't handle! So take your hair in the moonlight, your brown eyes, goodbye goodnight!
You wanna prove me wrong, come back another day!
That's a full service woman you got there.
It's true you're with this yuppie scum?
All your words are nice Mimi, but love's not a three way street! You'll never share real love until you love yourself, I should know!
I see Mimi everywhere.
I hear it, I hear it, I hear it my song!
You were the song all along, and before the song dies… I should tell you, I should tell you, I have always loved you. You can see it in my eyes!

Mark Cohen

December 24, 9 PM, Eastern Standard Time. From here on in, I shoot without a script. See if anything comes from it, instead of my old shit.
The music ignites the night with passionate fire.
There are times, when we're dirt broke and hungry, and I ask myself "What the hell am I still doing here?" and then they call, and I remember...
First I got a protest to save.
And Roger will attempt to write a bittersweet, evocative song… that doesn't remind us of "Musetta's Waltz."
That sleezy news show Buzzline wants to take a meeting.
Look, this is not my Bar Mitzvah, give it back to me!
[About Maureen committing to Joanne] This can't be happening.
Hey, guys, all our shit's back!
That drip of hurt, that pint of shame, goes away -- just play the game!
I see it my film!
Alexi? Mark. Call me a hypocrite. I need to finish my own film. I quit!
December 24, 1990, 10 PM, Eastern Standard Time. I can't believe a year went by so fast.
Hey, Collins, don't get your ass kicked this time!

Mimi Marquez

We could light the candle… Oh, what'd you do with my candle!
But now and then I like to feel good.
Meow... HA!
Get up-- life's too quick. I know someplace sick, where this chick'll dance in the flames!
In the evening I've got to roam -- can't sleep in the city of neon and chrome.
So let's find a bar, so dark we forget who we are, where all the scars from the nevers and maybes die!
I live this moment as my last!
No day but today.
I'm lookin' for baggage that goes with mine.
AZT break...
I should tell you -- I blew the candle out, just to get back in.
Without you, the tides change, the boys run, the oceans crash.
The moon glows, the river flows, but I die without you.
He was the same way. He was always run away, hit the road, don't commit, you're full of shit!
I was heading towards this warm, white light, and I swear… Angel was there. And she looked good.
(saying about angel) "... 'I'm more of a man than you will ever be, I'm more of a woman than you will ever get"'

Tom Collins

Merry Christmas, bitches!
'Oh, hi,' after seven months?
They expelled me for my theory of actual reality.
That's cute, you still love her.
Well I'm thwarted by a metaphysic puzzle, and I'm sick of grading papers, that I know. I'm drowning in my sleep I need a muzzle. And all this misery pays no salary, so…
Lets open up a resturant in Santa Fé! Lovely Santa Fé would be NICE!
Yeah, I teach. Computer age philosophy. When my students would rather watch TV.
In honor of the death of Bohemia, an impromptu salon will commence immediately following dinner - Maureen Johnson, back from her one night performance at the eleventh street lot, will perform Native American tribal chants, backwards, through her vocoder, while accompanying herself on the electric cello, which she ain't never studied.
[To Joanne] You got engagedededed!
The benevolent god ushers the poor artists back to their flat. Full story tonight on Buzzline.
Hey, it's me! Throw down the key.

Angel Dumott Schunard

I'm Angel... come on, let's get you cleaned up...
But sure as I am here, that dog is now in doggy hell.
Back on the street, where I met my sweet, where he was moaning and groaning on the cold concrete. The nurse took him home for some mercurochrome, then I dressed his wounds and got him back on his feet!
Times are shitty but I'm pretty sure they can't get worse.
I'm Pussy Galore... in person!

Joanne Jefferson

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. Five hundred twenty-five thousand journeys to plan. Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. How do you measure the life of a woman or a man?
Share love, give love, spread love.
I'm so mad that I don't know what to do! Fighting with microphones, freezing down to my bones, and to top it all off, I'm with YOU!
You should try it...in heels.
[To Maureen] Does everything have to be about you?
Don't. You. Dare.
I make lists in my sleep, baby, what's my sin?
We used to have this fight each night! She'd never admit I existed!
Didn't give an inch when I gave a mile!
She'd been living on the street. We found her in the park. She wanted to come here.

Maureen Johnson

It's like I'm being tied to the hood of a yellow rental truck, being packed in with fertilizer, and fuel oil, pushed off a cliff by a suicidal Mickey Mouse!
Only thing to do is jump over the moon. Over the moon.
Hey Mister... she's my sister.
TO THE STAGE!
What a frickin' sweetheart!
I didn't get my nipples pierced because it grossed YOU out!
There will always be women in rubber flirting with me!
Don't you want your girl hot?
Kiss, Pookie?

Others

Roger and Mark: How do you leave the past behind when it keeps finding ways to get to your heart? It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out till you're torn apart!
Mark, Roger, and Tenants: How can you connect in an age when strangers, landlords, lovers, your own blood cells betray?
Mark's Dad: Look, Mark. I'm sorry that Maureen dumped you. I say, "C'est la vie." Let her be a lesbian! She doesn't know what she's missing!
Gordon: Now, I find some of what you teach suspect, because I'm used to relying on intellect. But I try to open up to what I don't know, because reason says I should have died three years ago.
All: Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?
Angel and Collins: I think they meant it, when they said you can't buy love. Now I know you can rent it, a new lease you are, my love.
Angel and Collins: With a thousand sweet kisses, I'll cover you.
All: Actual reality! Act up! Fight AIDS!
All: To people living with, living with, living with... not dying from disease! Let he among us without sin be the first to condemn! La vie Boheme!
Alexi Darling: How much did I love your footage? So much, so mu - it reminded me of the Berkley days, fighting the good fight. Kudos, kudos.
Maureen's Mom: [to Mark] Maybe now you two can get back together.
Joanne and Mimi: I'd be happy to die for a taste of what Angel had! Someone to live for, unafraid to say 'I love you!'
Roger and Mark: You're living in America, at the end of the millennium. You're living in America, where it's like The Twilight Zone.
Roger and Mark: For once the shadows gave way to light. For once I didn't disengage!
Roger and Mark: Dying in America, at the end of the millennium. We're dying in America, to come into our own. And when you're dying in America, at the end of the millennium, you're not alone. I'm not alone!

Dialogue

Mark: Where is he?

Collins:Getting dizzy.

Benny: Hey, bum, get your ass off the Range Rover.

Mark: Hey Benny, that attitude towards the homeless is exactly what Maureen is protesting.

Benny: Maureen is protesting losing her performance space. Not my attitude.

Benny: She left you? Another guy?

Mark: Not exactly...

Benny: What's his name?

Mark and Roger: Joanne.

[Benny cracks up]

Mimi: They say I have the best ass below 14th Street. Is it true?

Roger: What?

Mimi: You're staring again.

Roger: Oh no. I mean you do have a nice... I mean --

Mimi: Do you want to dance?

Roger: With you?

Mimi: No, with my father.

Collins: Merry Christmas, bitches!

Mark: Yeah, fourteen hours later! What the hell happened to you?!

Mark: Say something, anything.

Joanne: Test one two three...

Mark: Anything but that.

Joanne: She cheated.

Mark: She cheated.

Joanne: Maureen cheated.

Mark: Fuckin' cheated.

Mark: Pookie.

Joanne: Shut up.

Paul: Then why chose fear?

Gordon: I'm a New Yorker: fear's my life

Life Cafe Manager: Oh, no. Please, no. No. Not tonight. Please leave.

Mark: What are you talking about? Why?

Life Cafe Manager: Because you sit here all night and you never order anything.

Mark: That's a lie. Just last week I had a tea.

Life Cafe Manager: You couldn't pay.

Mark: Oh, yeah.

Angel: Tonight we can.

[Holds up money]

Angel: Ka-pow! [To others] Come on.

Life Cafe Manager: All right. Fine. Just please don't move the tables!

Angel: [Off-screen] Hey, Rosie, let's put these tables together!

Roger: Why did Muffy-

Benny: Alison!

Roger: Miss the show?

Angel: Who died?

Benny: Our Akita

Roger and Mark: Evita?

[Collins glares]

Mark: I sold my soul.

Joanne: Yeah, for three grand a segment!

Collins: Angel helped up believe in love, I can't believe you disagree.

All: I can't believe this is...good bye.

Deleted Scenes

Mark: Why our entire year's strewn on the cutting room floor of memory...
Mark: Why am I the witness? And when I capture it on film, will it mean that is the end, and I'm alone?
Benny: I always hated that dog.
Roger: Mark has got his work. They say Mark lives for his work. And Mark's in love with his work. Mark hides in his work.
Mimi: Goodbye love, just came to say, goodbye love.
Mimi: Goodbye love, hello disease.

Mark: Must be nice to have money.

Mimi and Collins: No shit.

Collins: You owe me a beer.

Mimi: I'll give you a cigarette.

Roger: Mimi's got her baggage too.

Mark: So do you.

Roger: You're always preaching not to be numb, when that's how you thrive. You pretend to create and observe, when you really detach from feeling alive.

Mark: Perhaps it's because I'm the one of us to survive.

Roger: Poor baby.

Quoternity