- Walter Black: We reach a point where, in order to go on, we have to wipe the slate clean. We start to see ourselves as a box that we're trapped inside and no matter how we try and escape, self help, therapy, drugs, we just sink further and further down. The only way to truly break out of the box is to get rid of it all together... I mean, you built it in the first place. If the people around you are breaking your spirit, who needs them? Your wife who pretends to love you, your son who can't even stand you. I mean, put them out of their misery. Starting over isn't crazy. Crazy is being miserable and walking around half asleep, numb, day after day after day. Crazy is pretending to be happy. Pretending that the way things are is the way they have to be for the rest of your bleeding life. All the potential, hope, all that joy, feeling, all that passion that life has sucked out of you. Reach out, grab a hold of it and snatch it back from that bloodsucking rabble.
- Norah: I'm not okay, not at all, the truth is, I'm missing something. The thing I loved the most, the face I wish were in the front row right now, the brother I'll never get back. So what do I do with that? What do any of us do? Besides lie. This is what I believe, right now, in this auditorium, there is someone who is with you, someone who is willing to pick you up, dust you off, kiss you, forgive you, put up with you, wait for you, carry you, love you. So while everything may not be okay, one thing I know is true, you do not have to be alone.
- Porter Black: Good afternoon, graduates, dead poets, painters, future Einsteins, and all those in between. Today I'm here to warn you, that you are being lied to. Our parents, our teachers, our doctors, have lied to us. And it's the exact same lie. The same six words, "Everything is going to be okay."
- Meredith Black: [reading] "Hello. The person who handed you this card is under the care of a prescription puppet, designed to help create a psychological distance between himself and the negative aspects of his personality. Please treat him as you normally would, but address yourself to the puppet. Thank you."
- [last lines]
- Walter Black: This is a picture of Walter Black, who had to become The Beaver, who had to become a father, so that one day this might just become a picture of Walter Black.
- [first lines]
- Walter Black: This is a picture of Walter Black, a hopelessly depressed individual. Somewhere inside him is a man who fell in love. Who started a family. Who ran a successful company. That man has gone missing. No matter what he's tried, and he's tried everything, Walter can't seem to bring him back. It's as if he's died, but hasn't had the good sense to take his body with him. So mostly what he does is sleep.
- Walter Black: What's this?
- Henry Black: It's a brain.
- [pulls out paper-mache model]
- Walter Black: Oh wow, it's a brain.
- Henry Black: Mom says yours got broken.
- Walter Black: Well, this will come in handy.
- Porter Black: Growing up, I wanted to be just like you. As I got older, all I wanted to be was anybody else.
- Walter Black: I know.
- Walter Black: Eat the pill, read the book, see the bleeding expert. Well, Walter finally helped himself.
- Meredith Black: Listen to yourself, this is insane. You're talking about a puppet.
- Walter Black: No, Meredith, you're talking about a bloody puppet. We're talking about a miracle.
- Henry Black: Dad?
- Walter Black: Yeah, mate.
- Henry Black: Can we make a turd?
- Walter Black: Yeah, anytime, mate. You give the word, we'll make the turd.
- Walter Black: No more muckin' about with tools when I'm not around. It's not safe. Or when your mother's asked you not to. Or at night. Or in a toilet. Or when you're climbing Mount Everest. Or picking your nose. Agreed?
- Norah: I waited so long for this lie to come true, that I finally paid someone to tell the truth for me.