Arthur
Imagine exploding your brain trying to think of a toilet paper commercial.
A line from Arthur
Nobody in Hollywood reads. They get their assistants to read things and then summarize them. The whole town runs on book reports.
More lines from Arthur
2 quotes Arthur
Arthur
People wanna love you, Monk. I personally don't know what they see in you, but they wanna love you. You should let them love all of you.
Scenes with Arthur
5 scenes Arthur
[reading from "****"]
"I be standing outside in the night, a police chopper go by and shine some lights in some backyards and I think, 'Shine that light on me, mo'****a, shine me some ****in' light so I can see where the **** I be at.'" Are you serious?
Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison: You notice I didn't put my name on it.
Arthur
This thing scares me.
Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison: Scares you? Why?
Arthur
Because white people think they want the truth, but they don't. They just want to feel absolved.
Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison: Well, fortunately, that's not my problem.
Arthur
What is this? I told you to dress street.
Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison: I did!
Arthur
**** Sesame Street.
Arthur
Check this out. [picks up 3 bottles of whiskey]
Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison: I don't care how drunk we get. I'm not selling it.
Arthur
That's not what I'm doing. Johnnie Walker Red. 24 bucks. johnnie Walker Black. 50 bucks. Johnnie Walker Blue. One hundred and sixty dollars. See the metaphor?
Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison: No.
Arthur
These are all made by the same company. The red is shit. The black is less shit. The blue is good. But fewer people buy the blue because it's expensive. And at the end of the day, most people just want to get drunk. For most of your career, your books have been blue. They're good, complex. But they're not popular because most people want something easy. Now, for the first time, ever, you've written a red book. It's simple, prurient... it's not great literature, but it satisfies an urge. And that's valuable. What I'm trying to illustrate is that... just because you do red, doesn't mean you can't also do blue. You can do it all. Like Johnnie Walker. In fact, you got Johnnie Walker beat because, you don't even have to put your real name on it.
Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison: [takes off glasses, head in his hands] Shesus. Do we drink now?
Paula Baderman
[On a conference call]
Hello?
Arthur
Hello Paula!
Paula Baderman
Arthur! So wonderful to hear from you. I hope you are with the man of the hour.
Arthur
I am indeed. He's right here next to me.
Paula Baderman
Mr. Leigh?
Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison: [Speaking as the author "Stagg R. Leigh"] Uh, yeah, this is he.
Paula Baderman
[Surprised]
Oh, really?
Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison: Uh, uh, yeah, dammit!
Paula Baderman
[Relieved]
Right.
Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison: Mother****er!
Paula Baderman
Right, okay, um, yeah, I was a little confused at first.
