15 Powerful Quotes from Donnie Darko
This 2001 cult classic starring Jake Gyllenhaal remains popular 20 years after its release. Though Donnie Darko wasn’t popular with audiences at the time, viewers now see the power in this sci-fi story.
Donnie Darko is an awkward teenager with a mysterious past. He regularly sees a doctor to talk over his issues, such as the imaginary friend he’s recently made. Known as Frank, this friend almost always wears a bunny suit, which bothers Donnie. Frank controls Donnie and tells him secrets that no normal human being can know.
While Donnie battles against Frank’s control, he meets Gretchen, who is the first person to truly understand and listen to Donnie. He tells her that according to Frank, the world is going to end in 28 days. Meanwhile, at school, one of the teachers introduces students to local celebrity Jim Cunningham’s attitude lessons. According to the motivational speaker, people only act on fear or love.
The film goes down the path of time travel and philosophy, but the characters offer some valuable lessons. Here are 15 powerful quotes from Donnie Darko.
- Kitty Farmer: “I’ll tell you what he said. He asked me to forcibly insert the lifeline exercise card into my anus.”
- Donnie Darko: “Destruction is a form of creation.”
- Donnie Darko: “Tell me, Elizabeth, how exactly does one suck a f*ck?”
- Donnie Darko: “Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit?”
Frank: “Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?” - Kitty Farmer: “Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion!”
- Gretchen Ross: “You’re weird … that was a compliment …”
- Donnie Darko: “Dear Roberta Sparrow, I have reached the end of your book and … there are so many things that I need to ask you … I’m afraid that you’ll tell me that this is not a work of fiction … I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to.”
- Gretchen Ross: “Donnie Darko? What the hell kind of name is that? It’s like some sort of superhero or something?”
Donnie Darko: “What makes you think I’m not?”
- Gretchen Ross: “What if you could go back in time, and take all those hours of pain and darkness and replace them with something better?”
- Roberta Sparrow: “Every living creature on Earth dies alone.”
- Mr Monnitoff: “Did you stop and think that maybe infants need darkness?”
- Karen Pomeroy: “This famous linguist once said, of all the phrases in the English language, of all the endless combinations of words in all of history, that ‘cellar door’ is the most beautiful.”
- Donnie Darko: “Life isn’t that simple. You can’t just lump everything into these two categories, and then deny everything else.”
- Donnie Darko: “I made a new friend.”
Dr. Thurman: “Real or imaginary?”
Donnie Darko: “Imaginary.” - Donnie Darko: “How can you do that?”
Frank: “I can do anything I want. You can, too.”
