- Mr. Parks: "Most people go to their graves with their music inside them." - What was Mr. Holmes saying? Come on guys, it's not that hard. he's saying that most people die without discovering their own genius, without expressing the uniqueness that makes them special.
- Dr. Padrow: Look, my advice? You're not ready. Go live a life. Fill yourself up. Find out what's important, earn a point of view.
- Richard: I..
- Dr. Padrow: Earn. Earn a point of view. Then come back when you've got something to say.
- Richard: [narrating] Get a life, my ass. I had a life, and there was no way I was going back to it. Fortunately, the government had this program where you could gain valuable life experience and see the world. They would guarantee your education in exchange for services rendered. It was called Vietnam.
- Clerk: You're worse than deaf, you're confused. You can hear only vowels, no consonants.
- Richard: Yeah...
- Clerk: Well, if you can only hear vowels, you've got two choices, learn to read lips .. or move to Hawaii.
- [stupid grin]
- Richard: I don't wanna go to Hawaii, I wanna go to college.
- Clerk: Listen, even if you graduate, they won't be able to place you.
- Richard: Why? 'Cause I'm deaf? Helen Keller was deaf and blind. She had a job!
- Richard's Dad: Maybe you can be a cook, too, someday.
- Richard: I could never be a cook like my father because I'd already made my career choice. Superhero.
- [first lines]
- Richard: [narrating] All of our earliest memories are lies, family mythologies handed down to us repeatedly until they become as real as what actually happened.
- Richard: No one in the family can say exactly when my mother went crazy. According to Grandma, she was always that way. Dad said it started when she lost the babies. Seven miscarriages in eight years can tend to do that to a person. That's why my arrival on the scene came as somewhat of a surprise. I was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck. I've been pissed off ever since.
- Richard: The miscarriages had taken such a toll on Mom that she somehow got it in her head that she'd lost me as well.
- Richard: Shortly after I was born, my mother drove me to California and placed me in a Catholic orphanage. I wish I could tell you about my earliest memories there, but the truth is, no one knows. Back home, she claimed I had died at birth and couldn't tell anyone where I was.
- Richard: Two years later, after another miscarriage, she suddenly remembered where she'd left me. Despite all of Mom's craziness, Dad never stopped loving her. But they divorced, and I was passed around like an unwanted Christmas fruitcake.
- Richard: Eventually, my mother decided she needed to be a full-time mom again, and that we needed a fresh start. I disagreed.
- Richard: I lost my hearing. I gained a superpower, lip-reading. I can spy on conversations a hundred feet away.
- Art: You know what we cripples want besides getting laid? To be seen. When they look at me out there now, you know what they see? Nothing. I'm ignored. How can you ignore this? But they ignore me, because I am so disturbing to their definition of human, that I make them feel.
- Richard: Why don't you tell him a joke about a guy who's got a 180 IQ but he a has a brain disorder so he can't tie his shoe? Huh? Or a world-class skier who breaks her neck and now she needs a machine to breathe? That's funny stuff. And poor you, 'cause now you gotta sink a little bit of money into this piece-of-shit restaurant. You know what? Here you go. Sorry for the inconvenience. Buy yourself a conscience.