I haven’t seen a movie that offers a better explanation of true love, with all its complexities and absurds, than Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.
Since it’s of one my favorite all-timers, I’ve decided to put together a list of the most iconic Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind quotes that will have you rethink love and romance.
So, let’s start!
Top 10 Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Quotes
1. “Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.” — Mary
2. “What a loss to spend that much time with someone, only to find out that she’s a stranger.” — Joel Barish
3. “Sometimes I think people don’t understand how lonely it is to be a kid. Like…you don’t matter.” — Clementine Kruczynski
4. “I could die right now, Clem. I’m just… happy. I’ve never felt that before. I’m just exactly where I want to be.” — Joel Barish
5. “Adults are, like, this mess of sadness and phobias.” — Mary Svevo
6. “Constantly talking isn’t necessarily communicating.” — Joel Barish
7. “I walked out the door. There’s no memory left.” — Joel Barish
8. “I can’t remember anything without you.” — Joel Barish
9. “I don’t constantly talk! Jesus! People have to share things, Joel…” — Clementine Kruczynski
10. “You stop listening to what is true, and what is true is constantly changing.” — Clementine Kruczynski
See also: 200 Powerful Quotes About Transformation To Inspire Change
Iconic Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Quotes
1. “I thought maybe you were a nut. But you were exciting.” — Clementine Kruczynski
2. “Remember me. Try your best. Maybe we can.” — Clementine Kruczynski
3. “Come back and make up a goodbye, at least. Let’s pretend we had one.” — Clementine Kruczynski
4. “I wish I had stayed too. NOW I wish I had stayed. I wish I had done a lot of things. I wish I had… I wish I had stayed. I do.” — Joel Barish
5. “That is the oldest trick in the stalker book.” — Clementine Kruczynski
6. “I thought you knew that about me. I ran back to the bonfire, trying to outrun my humiliation, I think.” — Joel Barish
7. “I had a really nice time last night. I had the best f*cking night of my entire f*cking life, last night!” — Joel Barish
8. “I think if there’s this truly seductive quality about Clementine, it’s that her personality promises to take you out of the mundane. It’s like an amazing, burning meteorite that will carry you to another world where things are exciting.” — Joel Barish
9. “Sand is overrated. It’s just tiny, little rocks.” — Joel Barish
10. “Drink up, young man. It’ll make the whole seduction part less repugnant.” — Clementine Kruczynski
11. “Meet me… In Montauk.” — Clementine Kruczynski
12. “You had the whole human race pegged.” — Joel Barish
13. “Really? There’s a stalker book? Great, I gotta read that one.” — Joel Barish
14. “I don’t know! I don’t know! I’m lost! I’m scared! I feel like I’m disappearing! My skin’s coming off! I’m getting old! Nothing makes any sense to me! Nothing makes any sense!” — Clementine Kruczynski
15. “Look, I’m sorry if I came off a little nutso, I’m not really.” — Clementine Kruczynski
16. “The bloom is off the rose, at this point.” — Clementine Kruczynski
17. “Can it cause brain damage?” — Joel Barish
18. “I’m not a stalker. YOU’RE the one that talked to me, remember?” — Joel Barish
19. “Joel Barish: I do sorta live with someone though.
Clementine Kruczynski: Male or female?
Joel Barish: Female… female…
Clementine: At least I’m not barking up the wrong tree!” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
20. “Please let me keep this memory, just this one.” — Joel Barish
See also: 180 Unforgettable Memories Quotes About The Good Old Days
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Quotes On Love
1. “I loved you on this day. I love this memory.” — Joel Barish
2. “Clementine: I’m Clementine. Can I… borrow a piece of your chicken?
Joel: And then you just took it… without waiting for an answer. It was so intimate; like we were already lovers.” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. “We met at the wrong time. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. Maybe one day years from now, we’ll meet in a coffee shop in a far away city somewhere and we could give it another shot.” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4. “That’s what I love about you.” — Joel Barish
5. “Why do I fall in love with every woman I see that shows me the least bit of attention.” — Joel Barish
6. “Joely, don’t ever leave me.” — Clementine Kruczynski
7. “Are we like those bored couples you feel sorry for in restaurants? Are we the dining dead? I can’t stand the idea of us being a couple people think that about.” — Joel Barish
8. “You’re pretty.” — Joel Barish
9. “Joel, look at me. You’ll remember me in the morning, and you’ll come to me, and you’ll tell me about us, and we’ll start over.” — Clementine Kruczynski
10. “You can erase someone from your mind. Getting them out of your heart is another story.” — Dr. Howard Mierzwiak
11. “It would be different. If we could just give it another go-round.” — Joel Barish
12. “Our files are confidential Mr. Barish so we can’t show you any evidence. Suffice it to say, Miss Kruczynski was not happy and she wanted to move on. We provide that possibility.” — Dr. Howard Mierzwiak
13. “Look, man, I’m telling you right off the bat, I’m high maintenance. So, I’m not gonna tip-toe around your marriage or whatever it is you got going on there. If you wanna be with me, you’re with me.” — Clementine Kruczynski
14. “I can’t see anything I don’t like about you.” — Joel Barish
15. “People have to share things. That’s what intimacy is.” — Clementine Kruczynski
16. “You are what you love, not what loves you.” — Charlie Kaufman
17. “Clementine: What took you so long?
Joel: I just walked in.
Clementine: Do you miss me?
Joel: Oddly enough, I do!
Clementine: You said “I do” – I guess that means we’re married!
Joel: I guess so!” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
18. “Joel: I can’t remember anything without you.
Clementine: Aw, that’s… very sweet, but try.” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
19. “Clementine: You know me, I’m impulsive.
Joel: That’s what I love about you.” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
20. “I could have stayed up with you all night, counting your flaws, and imperfections, your body.” — Joel Barish
Brilliant Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Quotes
1. “Maybe you can find yourself a nice antique rocking chair to die in.” — Clementine Kruczynski
2. “My embarrassing admission is I really like that you’re nice, right now.” — Clementine Kruczynski
3. “It’s not about us, it’s about Joel, who’s an adult, okay, not ‘Momma Carrie’s kid’!” — Rob
4. “Too many guys think I’m a concept, or I complete them, or I’m gonna make them alive. But I’m just a f*cked-up girl who’s lookin’ for my own peace of mind; don’t assign me yours.” — Clementine Kruczynski
5. “I ditched work today. Took a train out to Montauk. I don’t know why, I’m not an impulsive person.” — Joel Barish
6. “Not yet, not married. No, I’m not married.” — Joel Barish
7. “I apply my personality in a paste.” — Clementine Kruczynski
8. “Look at it out here! It’s all falling apart. I’m erasing you, and I’m happy! You did it to me first. I can’t believe you did this to me. Clem! Did you hear me? By morning, you’ll be gone! The perfect ending to this piece of sh*t story!” — Joel Barish
9. “If only I could meet someone new. I guess my chances of that happening are somewhat diminished, seeing that I’m incapable of making eye contact with a woman I don’t know.” — Joel Barish
10. “The bloom is off the rose, at this point.” — Clementine Kruczynski
11. “Well, technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage, but it’s on a par with a night of heavy drinking. Nothing you’ll miss.” — Howard Mierzwiak
12. “Carrie: I saw you talking to someone pretty!
Rob: Yeah, man, who was that?
Joel: She was… just a girl.” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
13. “Can you hear me? I don’t want this any more! I want to call it off.” — Joel Barish
14. “You look familiar. Ever shop at Barnes & Noble?” — Clementine Kruczynski
15. “I’m just trying to erase you from my mind. Just like you did to me.” — Joel Barish
16. “Joel: I had a really nice time last night.
Clementine: Nice?” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
17. “Joel: Don’t call me Antoine. My name is Wally.đ
Clementine: Yes, I know, but how can a woman love a man with a name like Wally?” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
18. “I feel like sometimes I’m in my own little world and you’re always next to me and I don’t know how you do it but you understand me.” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
19. “You don’t tell me things, Joel. I’m an open book. I tell you everything, every damn, embarrassing thing.” — Clementine Kruczynski
20. “We are David and Ruth Laskin. Which one do you want to be? I prefer to be Ruth, but I’m flexible.” — Clementine Kruczynski
Deep Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Quotes
1. “Valentine’s Day is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.” — Joel Barish
2. “Joel: I can’t see anything that I don’t like about you.
Clementine: But you will! But you will. You know, you will think of things. And I’ll get bored with you and feel trapped because that’s what happens with me.
Joel: Okay.
Clementine: [pauses] Okay.” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. “My favorite is this ugly girl doll who I call Clementine, and I keep yelling at her, ‘You can’t be ugly! Be pretty!’ It’s weird, like if I can transform her, I would magically change, too.” — Clementine Kruczynski
4. “We’ll use these items to create a map of Clementine in your brain, okay? So we’ll need photos, clothing, gifts, books she may have bought you, CDs you may have bought together.” — Dr. Howard Mierzwiak
5. “I felt like a scared little kid, I was like…it was above my head, I don’t know.” — Joel Barish
6. “How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world, forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d.” — Mary
7. “What can I say, Joel? You know Clementine. She’s like that. She’s… impulsive. She decided to erase you almost as a lark.” — Carrie
8. “You look at a baby and it’s so pure and so free, and so clean, and adults are like this mess of sadness and phobias, and Howard just makes it all go away.” — Mary Svevo
9. “I’m always anxious, thinking I’m not living my life to the fullest, taking advantage of every possibility, make sure I’m not wasting one second of the little time I have.” — Clementine Kruczynski
10. “I don’t need nice. I don’t need myself to be it, and I don’t need anybody else to be it at me.” — Clementine Kruczynski
11. “Joel shifts between emulating his memories and commenting on them. Sometimes he even mimics what he knows people will say.” — Joel Barish
12. “I wanted to understand as much as I could about the procedure as possible…” — Mary Svevo
13. “I want to read some of those journals you’re constantly scribbling in. What do you write in there if you don’t have any thoughts or passions or… love?” — Clementine Kruczynski
14. “Joel: I love being bathed in the sink; such a feeling of security.
Clementine: I’ve never seen you happier, Baby-Joel. ” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
15. “I wonder if the things that remind me of you, remind you of me.” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
16. “Clementine Kruczynski: This is it, Joel. It’s going to be gone soon.
Joel Barish: I know.
Clementine Kruczynski: What do we do?
Joel Barish: Enjoy it.” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
17.”That was beautiful to watch, Howard. Like a surgeon or a concert pianist.” — Mary Svevo
18. “I’m sorry… I just, my life isn’t that interesting.” — Joel Barish
19. “Hi. Didn’t figure you’d show your face around me again. I guess I thought you were… humiliated. You did run away, after all.” — Clementine Kruczynski
20. “It’s hard to see things when you’re too close.” — Joel Barish
Final Words
I’m sure these Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind quotes have inspired you to re-watch the movie. And if you haven’t seen it yet… what are you waiting for?
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