10 Amazingly Profound Quotes About Life From Richard Linklater Films

L-I-V-I-N!

Before Sunset
Warner Independent Pictures

Richard Linklater makes movies like no other. There's a great passion that goes into the projects he undertakes, and almost all of his work reflect something very personal. His films, by nature are not based around action or even plot, in the traditional narrative sense, but instead heavily rely on character interaction. 

To create an engaging film mostly based on dialogue alone, the writing has to be something truly special, and every flick Linklater has penned has an amazing sense of realism in the dialogue. The characters he creates are personas based on people in real life, and it's so easy to relate to them and find meaning in the things they are saying. 

With last year's Oscar-nominated Boyhood, Linklater cemented himself as one of the most original and brilliant filmmakers of our time and proved how the traditional three-act narrative can be completely thrown out the window in place of a movie made up purely by moments. Life, after all is just a series of moments. The present is all that matters, and no other filmmaker is more aware of this than Linklater. He makes it very apparent in his work. 

Even the films that he himself didn't write seem to have a similar feel about them, and perhaps that's because the writers were influenced by Linklater or he purposely attached himself to these projects because of that. Of all the great films he has directed, here is a selection of 10 with incredibly profound quotes. 

10. Has Faith In Groups - Slacker

Before Sunset
Orion Classics

"You know, that's what I hate; when you start talking like this, like you just pull in these things from the shit you read, and you haven't thought it out for yourself, no bearing on the world around us, and totally unoriginal." 

Slacker is Linklater's first feature film and is pretty much the thing he does best. It's an entire film made up of conversations that serve no purpose to any plot, but are simply fascinating in themselves. 

There are some many unique characters in the film and even just seeing them chat for a short amount of time, it's easy to get a picture of what kind of people they are. This is a particularly good line about how people love to regurgitate stuff they've read instead of making original thoughts. We need to think for ourselves and this remains ever-relevant in today's internet-obsessed world. 

Contributor
Contributor

Joe is a television junkie. A film fanatic. A pop culture know-it-all. An interactive media masters student, and a bass player. 22 years old and Irish. Thinks Netflix is a Godsend.