Office Girl Quotes

“Jack: Well, I've never been to New York, but I hear it's for assholes.
Odile: It's not.
Jack: Well, that's what I heard. Cool people don't live there anymore, They all live here. In Chicago.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“...and realizes how there are all these moments, moments like just this one, there are all these moments, and how everyone lives their lives in these short, all-too-short moments. There are all these moments and what's so interesting, what makes them beautiful, is the fact that none of them last.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“I don’t think I’m special. I want you to know that,” Odile says sharply. “I don’t think I’m better than everybody else.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“The last four days
where everything has finally made some sense. And why is she so ready to throw this away? Because.
Because eventually every relationship she’s been in has turned to shit. Eventually she ends up
screwing everything up. So maybe it’s better to leave now before people’s feelings get hurt.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“I’ve been thinking a
lot and it’s not that anyone did anything wrong. We just didn’t know what we wanted. We weren’t the
people we were supposed to be yet,”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“I told you why. If I don’t do it now, I never will. I’ll just be some office drone ten years from
now, wishing I had done something interesting at least once in my life.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“It’s pretty hard not to like her,” he says. “Even when
you know you shouldn’t.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“Maybe. Because he’s got to try. Because she is too interesting, too beautiful not to even do anything.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“As the liquid paper’s fumes quell his brain activity, Jack finds himself staring at
her again and what he thinks is this: Wow.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“...the city is just too big and too full of people to be alone.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“How’s life?”
“That’s the stupidest question I’ve ever heard.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“And it's exactly what's wrong with the radio. It's like...anything that tries to appeal to everybody always ends up sounding so cheap.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“He wants to say: First of
all, you were wrong about pop music. And art and all of pop culture. And all kinds of things.
Because all of it matters. Even if it is awful. Everybody knows all the bad movies and the bad
songs on the radio. Because it’s the only thing anybody has in common anymore. It’s all anybody
has. So you were wrong about that and you were wrong about us and you were wrong about me,
but he doesn’t actually say any of this out loud.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“As a boy, all I ever wanted was this: a
life dedicated to art; every idea, every breath an artistic gesture. And here is this girl before me,
blowing on her hands to keep warm. And why am I so worried it’s not going to last?”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“Listen, I’m going to give you some advice, not because I
think you need it, but because I feel like I’ve earned it. The right, I mean. To give advice. Here it is:
don’t hold onto things. It’s a problem the men in my family have. It’s taken me a long time to figure
this out. Me, my father, my grandfather, we collect things. We collect miseries. It’s what we do. But
sometimes the best thing to do is to just let things go. To let them pass.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“I really do. It’s the first time I don’t have to think at work, you know. It’s really simple. You
just answer the phone and put in people’s orders. It’s pretty laid back. You don’t like it?”
“No. I feel like it’s killing my brain.”
“Maybe that’s why I like it. I don’t mind not having to think.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“We’re adults,” he says quickly. “I’m only here to work. I won’t bother you or anything.”
“Fine,” she says. “Great.”
“Great,” he repeats.
“We’re too good of work friends anyways.”
“We are?”
“I mean, we’re probably too much alike,” she says.
“Yeah, it would be too weird. If things didn’t work out.”
“These things never work out,” she says.
“Exactly,” he says.
“Exactly.”
“Right,” he adds. “Exactly.”
“And who needs all the weirdness?”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“And he says, “I’m trying to figure out what’s wrong with me. And I think I realized that I’m
average, that there’s nothing remarkable about me. And I wanted to know if this is something other
people think about.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“Maybe, he thinks, as he’s riding on through the snow, maybe this is why she’s leaving. Maybe
she fell in love with me when we were kids. And now: and now: and now: we’re not kids anymore.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“What lasts?
What lasts?
What lasts?
What lasts?
What lasts?
And so he stares for an hour or so at all her notes, at the poorly sketched drawings for an art movement that has now come to an end, and realizes how there are all these moments, moments just like this one, there are all these moments, and how everyone lives their lives in these short, all-too-short moments. There are all these moments and what's so interesting, what makes them beautiful, is the fact that none of them last.”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl

“She puts away four small plastic cups of red wine and then stares at a painting of a topless girl with a large silver sword for a half hour and then she begins to think: You call this art? This isn’t art! This is a joke! All of you are a joke! Fuck you and fuck Jeff Koons and the rest of those ‘80s art-star wannabes. Where’s the art that makes people weep? Where’s the art that makes people want to go to church? None of this is the least bit interesting. All of this stuff, all of this is so self-aware. It’s for ironic art snobs. I want something brilliant. I want something stunning. I want something that makes me look in wonder…”
― Joe Meno, Office Girl