Before Sunset

Journalist: Do you consider the book to be autobiographical? Jesse: Uh, well, I mean... isn't everything autobiographical? I mean, we all see the world through our own little keyhole. I mean, I always think of Thomas Wolfe. You know, have you ever seen that little one-page 'Note to Reader' in the front of Look Homeward, Angel?...Anyway, he says that we are the sum of all the moments of our lives and that, uh, anybody who sits down to write is gonna use the clay of their own life - that you can't avoid that. So when I look at my own life, you know, I have to admit, right, that I've-I've never been around a bunch of guns or violence, you know, not really. No political intrigue or a helicopter crash, right? But my life, from my own point of view, has been full of drama, right? And uh, so I thought, if I could write a book that, that could capture what it's like to, to really meet somebody, I mean, one of the most exciting things that's ever happened to me is to meet somebody, to make that

Before Sunset, CC BY-SA 4.0

Celine: I was fine, until I read your fucking book! It stirred shit up, you know? It reminded me how genuinely romantic I was, how I had so much hope in things, and now it's like, I don't believe in anything that relates to love. I don't feel things for people anymore. In a way, I put all my romanticism into that one night, and I was never able to feel all this again. Like, somehow this night took things away from me and I expressed them to you, and you took them with you! It made me feel cold, like if love wasn't for me! Jesse: I... I don't believe that. I don't believe that. Celine: You know what? Reality and love are almost contradictory for me. It's funny. Every single of my ex’s, they're now married! Men go out with me, we break up, and then they get married! And later they call me to thank me for teaching them what love is, and, and that I taught them to care and respect women! Jesse: I think I'm one of those guys. Celine: You know, I want to kill them! Why didn't they ask me to

Before Sunset, CC BY-SA 4.0

Jesse: [describing how she looks different] Skinnier, I think. A little thinner. Celine: Did you think I was fat before? Jesse: [laughing] No! Celine: Yeah, you thought I was a fatty. No, you thought I was a fatty! Yeah, you, you wrote a book about a fat French girl! Jesse: No, listen... Celine: [laughing] Oh, no... Jesse: Seriously, all right, you look beautiful.

Before Sunset, CC BY-SA 4.0

Celine: It's amazing what perverts we've become in the past nine years. Jesse: At least now we don't have to pretend that each new sexual experience is a life-altering event. Celine: I know. By now, you know, you've stuck it in so many places, it's like about to fall off. Jesse: Yeah, you know, and I can't realistically expect that you've become anything but a total ho, at this point. Celine: Yeah, thank you.

Before Sunset, CC BY-SA 4.0

Jesse: I heard this story once about when the Germans were occupying Paris and they had to retreat back. They wired Notre Dame to blow, but they had to leave one guy in charge of hitting the switch. And the guy, the soldier, he couldn't do it. You know, he just sat there, knocked out by how beautiful the place was. And then when the allied troops came in, they found all the explosives just lying there and the switch unturned, and they found the same thing at Sacre Couer, Eiffel Tower. Couple other places I think... Celine: Is that true? Jesse: I don't know. I always liked the story, though.

Before Sunset, CC BY-SA 4.0

Jesse: You want to know why I wrote that stupid book? Celine: Why? Jesse: So that you might come to a reading in Paris and I could walk up to you and ask, "Where the fuck were you?" Celine: [laughing] No - you thought I'd be here today? Jesse: I'm serious. I think I wrote it, in a way, to try to find you. Celine: Okay, that's– I know that's not true, but that's sweet of you to say. Jesse: I think it is true. What do you think were the chances of us ever meeting again? Celine: After that December, I'd say almost zero. But we're not real anyway, right? We're just, uh, characters in that old lady's dream. She's on her deathbed, fantasizing about her youth. So of course we had to meet again.

Before Sunset, CC BY-SA 4.0