Phoebe in Wonderland (2008)

Elle Fanning: Phoebe Lichten

Photos 

Quotes 

• Phoebe : I can see myself wrecking and ruining. But I can't stop myself.

• Phoebe : Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. It's a beautiful name I think. I was born with it. Starting now. It'll get worse before it gets better. My shoulders, my fingers, and imitating. Spitting. It's a voice in your head that makes you do the opposite of what you're supposed to. It makes you break rules. But sometimes breaking rules is good. So I like to think about it that way.

• Jamie : How'd your audition go? I think mine went well. I practiced forever. I was better at home. Auditions are stressful. When I wanted my baking kit, I prayed to God every night for a whole month to get it.

  Phoebe : Is that what you have to do?

  Jamie : Well, if you want something really bad, you have to pray. Or do something you hate, and God will see you deserve it.

  Phoebe : I don't believe in God.

  Jamie : Me neither, but I did get the baking kit.

• Phoebe : Where's Daddy going?

  Hillary Lichten : He had some work to do.

  Olivia Lichten : But it's Halloween. What are you doing?

  Phoebe : Take my candy.

  Olivia Lichten : Why?

  Phoebe : It's my fault... Daddy leaving.

  Hillary Lichten : No, he had work to do.

• Miss Reiter : [to the class]  What do we know about Good Job Jenny?

  Phoebe : [under her breath]  She deserves a slow and painful death.

• Jamie : I have Mary. She's a Patriot Girl too, except British. She escaped the bombing of London during World War II.

  Phoebe : I know who she is. She's a loser.

  Jamie : You think?

  Phoebe : What are you looking for?

  Jamie : Money. Yesterday I found a dollar. I'm saving up for Sings With Birds, the noble Sioux girl growing up in 1732.

  Phoebe : Do you want my Catherine doll?

  Jamie : Thanks, but I have her.

• Peter Lichten : Why do we have to go to the principal's office?

  Phoebe : I spat at the other kids. I couldn't help it.

  Peter Lichten : Phoebe, what do you mean you couldn't help it?

  Hillary Lichten : She means she couldn't help it.

  Phoebe : Please tell Mr. Davis I couldn't help it.

• Principal Davis : She spat, Mrs. Lichten, she spat.

  Phoebe : Spat, spat, water rat.

  Principal Davis : So I thought you could come in and we could chat about it.

  Phoebe : Tommy spat first!

  Principal Davis : Phoebe, perhaps you should let your mommy and daddy and I talk alone about it. Here, you can have a candy.

  Hillary Lichten : Phoebe is imaginative and sensitive and passionate and if she did get excited about the gerbil, I'm sure she was provoked. You heard her, that other terror spat first.

• Phoebe : Are you always supposed to feel hope?

• [last lines] 

  Caterpillar : Who are you?

  Phoebe : I hardly know, sir, right now. At least I knew who I was when I got up this morning. But I think I've must have changed many times since then.

  Caterpillar : Explain yourself.

  Phoebe : I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly, for I can't understand it myself to begin with. And being so many different sizes in a day, it is very confusing.

  Caterpillar : It isn't.

  Phoebe : Well, perhaps you haven't found it so yet, but when you have to turn into a chrysalis - you will some day, you know - and then into a beautiful butterfly, I think you'll feel a little odd.

  Caterpillar : Not a bit.

  Phoebe : Your feelings may be different. All I know is, it would feel very strange to me.

  Caterpillar : You? Who are you?

  Phoebe : [just stares brightly] 

• Phoebe : Why'd she take off her dress? If I had a dress like that, I'd never take it off.

  Olivia Lichten : You'd have to, to wash it.

  Phoebe : No, because maybe if I wore it long enough, one day I'd wake up and I'd be that person.

  Hillary Lichten : You'd have to choose your part carefully.

  Phoebe : Oh, I would. Believe me, I would.

• Dr. Miles : Have you told anyone about the Red Queen?

  Phoebe : My mother. It made her nervous.

  Dr. Miles : Do you hide things from your parents if you think it'll make them nervous?

  Phoebe : Of course.

  Dr. Miles : What do you and the Red Queen talk about?

  Phoebe : Wonderland. How nice it is to have a place where things aren't fixed. It's all the opposite there, you know. It'd be nice if...

  Dr. Miles : If?

  Phoebe : If it were the same here.