Genius (2016)

Colin Firth: Max Perkins

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Quotes 

• Maxwell Evarts Perkins : [talking to his wife from a phone booth]  The surgeon said his brain was filled with tumors. A myriad of tumors. That's the word he used, "myriad". I think Tom would like that. There's nothing they can do, you see. The doctor said it was a matter of weeks. Might regain consciousness, most likely not.

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : No, you stay with Nancy. You stay with Nancy. You should, you know, prepare her. She always loved Tom the most. The plural of "myriad" is "myriads", by the way.

• Maxwell Evarts Perkins : God help anyone who loves you, Tom. Because for all your talk and all your millions of beautiful words, you haven't the slightest idea of what it means to be alive. To look into another person's eyes and ache for him. I hope someday you will. And then maybe all your words will be worth five of Scott's.

• Bertha Perkins : [about manuscript]  That's a very long paragraph.

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : It started four pages ago.

• Maxwell Evarts Perkins : Imagine you're a reader. You're wandering through a bookstore and lots of books, and you see a book titled "Trimalchio in West Egg" and you see one titled The "Great Gatsby."Which are you going to pick up?

  Thomas Wolfe : Gatsby!

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : That's why Scott changed his original title. He knew it needed a bit more meat.

• Maxwell Evarts Perkins : You're too young to be in love.

  Bertha Perkins : How old do you have to be?

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : Forty.

• Maxwell Evarts Perkins : To be a novelist, you have to select. You have to shape and sculpt.

  Thomas Wolfe : Why?

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : Because we've been working for two years and the book's only 100 pages shorter!

• Thomas Wolfe : [looking at the books on the shelf in Perkins' office]  Are all these your authors?

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : Not Tolstoy.

• Thomas Wolfe : I'm sorry I'm not decent enough for your fine dinner parties and your fine friends, but before you drag me out to the wood shed, I think you ought to look at who is giving the lesson. Am I supposed to grow up like you?

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : No, Tom, but you're supposed to grow up.

• Thomas Wolfe : [grabs his massive manuscript and holds out his hand to Perkins to say goodbye] 

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : Mr. Wolfe, we intend to publish your book.

  Thomas Wolfe : [looks at him in disbelief]  Ha!

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : If that is acceptable to you.

• Maxwell Evarts Perkins : [looking at the three cates containing the manuscript of Thomas Wolfe's new book]  This - is Of Time and the River? Well done. Now go home and get some sleep.

  Thomas Wolfe : I... I...

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : Let me read it.

  Thomas Wolfe : Read it kindly. Please.

• Aline Bernstein : I haven't quite decided who I'm going to shoot yet. Tom, myself, or you. Have you a suggestion?

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : Suicide seems a bit extreme and killing Tom won't help much, so I suppose that leaves me.

• [first lines] 

  John Wheelock : [throwing down a manuscript onto his desk]  Might want to read this one.

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : Please tell me it's double-spaced.

  John Wheelock : No such luck.

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : Where'd you get it?

  John Wheelock : A woman named Aline Bernstein. The stage designer? The author's her protege. Every other publisher in town has already tuned it down.

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : Is it any good?

  John Wheelock : Good? No. But it's unique.

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : A quick look.

  John Wheelock : Thanks, Max. I'm in your debt.

• Thomas Wolfe : [hand on his manuscript like an oath]  My heart bleeds to see any of it go. But I guess it's die dog or eat the hatchet.

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : You took the words right out of my mouth.

• Thomas Wolfe : So I've disappointed you yet again.

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : Yes, very much.

  Thomas Wolfe : Well, I'm sorry I'm not decent enough for your fine dinner parties and your fine friends. But before you drag me out to the woodshed, I think you ought to look at who's giving the lesson. Am I supposed to grow up like you?

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : No, Tom, but you're supposed to grow up.

• Thomas Wolfe : The last time I saw my father, I was standing as a train window, when I went north to college. He just got smaller and smaller as we pulled away, until I couldn't see him anymore. That train carried me to my life; beyond the hills and over the rivers. And always the rivers run. Sometimes they flow away from my father, and sometimes they flow back to his door. I have to prove I can do it by myself.

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : Then prove it.

• Thomas Wolfe : They're working girls. That doesn't count.

  Maxwell Evarts Perkins : Yes, it does.