Vision Quest (1985)

Harold Sylvester: Tanneran

Quotes 

• Tanneran : Well, what do you think? Does anybody understand a word of it? Huh? Louden? This poem mean anything to you at all?

  Louden Swain : Yeah, kind of. I figure the girl in the poem's about my age. She's feeling sad about the leaves falling from the trees, and the poet, he tells her that what she's really sad about is that she's beginning to realize she's going to die someday, too. The thing is, she's already dying.

  Tanneran : Is that a good thing to realize, or do you think maybe we'd be better off not thinking about it?

  Louden Swain : I don't know. Nobody likes to think about it. I don't like to think about it. But if you don't, you might go through life thinking you've got plenty of time. You put off the really important stuff until later, and pretty soon, before you know it, there's no more time left, you've blown it.

  Tanneran : That's not bad, Louden. Not bad at all.

• Tanneran : I think you're dehydrated.

  Louden Swain : No, I'm just the victim of a screwed-up nitrogen imbalance. Plus, I think I've contracted priapism.

  Tanneran : What's priapism?

  Louden Swain : It's a disease of a constant erection.

  [Tanneran giggles] 

  Louden Swain : It's not funny, believe me! The girl of my dreams lives under my own roof, but she thinks I'm just a kid, a dumb jock, all of which is more or less true. I'm dying, Mr. Tanneran, just like that girl in the poem... only quicker, and with a hard-on.

• Louden Swain : Can 800 million Chinamen be wrong?

  Tanneran : Frequently.