Room Quotes

Jack: Grandma?
Nancy: Yes?
Jack: I need the scissors.
Nancy: What for?
Jack: For cutting my hair.
Nancy: Do you really want to do that?
Jack: I want to send it to Ma.
Nancy: How come?
Jack:

She needs my strong more than me, so I want to send it to her, or you could take it to her?
Nancy: I could help you, if you'd like?
Jack: Yes please.

Jack: Is bad tooth hurting?
Ma: Mmhmm, but you know mind over matter.
Jack: If you don't mind, it doesn't matter
Ma: You're right. Hey do you know what we're gonna do today?
Jack: What?
Ma: We're going to bake a birthday cake
Jack: A

birthday cake?
Ma: Mmhmm
Jack: Like from TV?
Ma: Mmhmm, but for real
Jack: No way!

Jack: [thinking to himself] One, two, three... There's room, then outer space, with all the TV planets, then heaven. Plant is real, but not trees. Spiders are real, and one time the mosquito that was sucking my blood. But squirrels and dogs are just TV, except lucky. He's my dog who might come some day. Monsters are too big to be real, and the sea. TV persons are flat and made of

colors. But me and you are real.

Ma: [about the mouse] He's on the other side of this wall.
Jack: What other side?
Ma: Jack, there's two sides to everything.
Jack: Not on an octagon.
Ma: Yeah, but...
Jack: [Interrupts] An octagon has eight sides
Ma: But a wall, okay, a

wall's like this, see? And we're on the inside and mouse is on the outside.
Jack: In outer space?
Ma: No, in the world. It's much closer than outer space.
Jack: I can't see the outside-side.
Ma: Listen, I know that I told you something else before, but you were much younger. I didn't think that you

could understand, but now you're so old, you're so smart. I know that you can get this. Where do you think that old Nick gets our food?
Jack: From TV by magic!

Ma: [finds a photo of her relay race team] You know who that is?
Jack: This? That's you.
Ma: Yeah, that's me. And Stacy Benton and Heather Noel and Laura Sullivan. We were on a relay team. I was the anchor. I was really fast. We did track.
Jack: Real track?
Ma: Mmm-hmm. On a field.

[long pause]
Ma: You know what happened to them?
Jack: No.
Ma: Exactly.
[puts the photo down and tries to busy herself]
Ma: Nothing. They just lived their life and nothing happened.

Ma: One day when I was seventeen, I was walking home from school...
Jack: Where was I?
Ma: You were still in up heaven. But there was a guy. He pretended that his dog was sick.
Jack: What guy?
Ma: Old Nick. We call him "Old Nick". I don't know what his real name is. He pretended his dog

was sick...
Jack: What's the dog's name?
Ma: Jack, there's wasn't a dog! He was trying to trick me, OK? There wasn't a dog, Old Nick stole me.
Jack: I want a different story!
Ma: No! This is the story that you get! He put me in his garden shed. Here. Room is the shed. He's locked the door. He's the only

one who knows the code. You know, the secret numbers that open the door? He's the only one who knows, and I've been locked in here for seven years. I've been in here for seven years, OK.
Jack: This story is boring!
Ma: Jack, the world is so big. It's so big, you wouldn't believe it. And room is just one stinky part of it.

Jack: Room's not stinky, only when you do a fart!
[Both start crying]
Ma: Oh God, OK.
Jack: I don't believe in your STINKY world!

Officer Parker: Is there daylight in your room?
[Jack nods]
Officer Parker: Okay, good. How many windows?
Jack: Zero.
Officer Parker: Well, then how does the sun come in?
Jack: Through Skylight.
Officer Parker: Skylight? Okay, excellent. So you live in a

house with a skylight?
Jack: No, it's not a house.
Officer Parker: Okay.
Jack: It's a...
Officer Parker: Yeah?
Jack: It's a...
Officer Grabowski: Uh, you'd get more out of him after he's had some sleep.
Officer Parker: Tom, give it

a second.
Jack: Room's a... a shed.

Officer Parker: What made you jump out the truck, Jack?
Jack: Ma said in my head.
Officer Parker: Okay, what exactly did she say?
Jack: Jump when it slows down, but I couldn't.
Officer Parker: All right. So what did you do? What did you do?
Jack: Third time, I

got bent.
Officer Parker: The... third time of what, Jack?
Jack: Third slow. Everything went sideways, and then it stopped, then I jumped...
Officer Parker: I got it.
Jack: ...into...
Officer Parker: I got it, buddy. I got it.
[into her radio]
Officer

Parker: 54-09 call. Dispatch, listen carefully. We have a rough location. All right, uh... south on Elm, three stop signs past the junction with Beech. Look for a garden shed with a skylight. Also check the most recent satellite images for a red pick-up in the driveway. 54-09 en route.
Officer Grabowski: Unbelievable.
Officer Parker: Good

boy, Jack.

Dr. Mittal: The most important thing you did was get him out while he's still plastic.
Ma: What?
Jack: [whispering in her ear] I'm not plastic.
Dr. Mittal: What's that, Jack?
Ma: He says that he's... he's real. He's not plastic.
Dr. Mittal: Well, you got me

there, Jack. You're real. And you're very brave.

Talk Show Hostess: When he was born, did it... did it ever occur to you to ask your captor to take Jack away?
Ma: Away?
Talk Show Hostess: Well, to take him to a hospital, say, leave him there, where he could be found?
Ma: Why... why would I do that?
Talk Show Hostess: So Jack could be

free. Now, this is the ultimate sacrifice, and I understand that, but did you think about him having a normal childhood?
Ma: But he had me.
Talk Show Hostess: Of course he did. But was that the best thing for him?