A Thousand Clowns (1965) Screenplay by Herb Gardner based on his original play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP8wr7I2aRM ARNOLD: ...Murray, I can't watch this. You've got to shape up. MURRAY: Shape up? ARNOLD: That's right, shape up. MURRAY: Arnie, what they hell happened to you? You got sold. I don't know you any more. Who is it? When you quit Harry the Fur King on 28th street, remember? ARNOLD: That's twenty years ago, Murray. MURRAY: Now, Carrie said you weren't behaving maturely enough for a salesman. Your clothes didn't match, or something, so the next day you dressed perfectly: hamburg, grey suit, cuff links, carrying a briefcase and a rolled umbrella and you came into Harry's office on roller skates. Where'd they go, Arnie? What happened to your roller skates? ARNOLD: Well, I don't do practical jokes any more, if that's what you mean. MURRAY: Practical! That's right! A way to stay alive. Hey, if most things aren't funny, Arn, then they're only exactly what they are. Then it's just one long dental appointment interrupted occasionally by something exciting like waiting or falling asleep. What's the point if I leave things just the way I find them? Then I'm just adding to the noise, I'm just taking up some more room on the subway. ARNOLD: Murry, the Welfare Board has these specifications. All you have to do is to make up your mind... MURRAY: Arnie you don't understand any more. You've got that wide stare that people stick in their eyes so nobody'll know their head's asleep. I'd be a moaner, a shufffler. You want me to come sit and eat fruit with you and watch the clock run out. You start to drag and stumble under the rotten weight of all the people who should've been told off---all the things you should have said, all the specifications...that aren't yours. You know, the only thing you've got left to reject is your food in a restaurant, if they do it wrong you can send it back and make a big fuss with the waiter. Five months ago, was on the subway on my way to work. Was sitting on the express, same as every morning, looking out the window, watching the local scobs go by in the dark, with an empty head and my arms folded, not feeling great, not feeling rotten, just...not feeling. And for a minute I...I couldn't remember. I didn't know, unless I really concentrated, whether it was a Tuesday, or a Thursday. For a minute, it could have been any day, Arn. I gotta know what day it is! I gotta know what's the name of the game and what the rules are without anyone else telling me. You got to own your own days and name 'em. Each one of 'em. Every one of 'em. Or else the years go right by and none of them belong to you. And that ain't just for weekends, kiddo. DIALOGUE ON DIALOGUE: Murray, a former television writer, has lost his job, and his faith in modern civilization. He inherited a nephew from his sister who abandoned the boy to Murray seven years earlier, and now he has to convince the Welfare Board that he's a capable guardian or lose the boy. In this scene Murray's brother Arnold tries to convince him that he must conform in order to hold on to the boy, but Murray can't abide the artificiality of the world. He's not depressed about the state of the world, just sad that he can't convince more people that they take it too seriously.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) Screenplay by Douglas Adams and Karey Kirkpatrick; based on the book by Douglas Adams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH7XCghlH7M MARVIN: I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed. TRILLIAN: Well, we have something that should take you rmind off things. MARVIN: It won't work. I have an exceptionally large mind. TRILLIAN: Yeah, we know, but we need you to go down to the number two entry bay and pick up our stowaways and bring them up here. MARVIN: Just that? I won't enjoy it. TRILLIAN: Yeah, well, that's life. MARVIN: Life? Don't talk to me about life. DIALOGUE ON DIALOGUE: When life gets you down, you can always count on Marvin to feel worse than you.

Leaving Las Vegas (1995) John O'Brien (novel) Mike Figgis (screenplay and director) with Nicolas Cage and Elizabeth Shue Video: https://youtu.be/J7_mHnw4UWc INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT Ben and Sera are eating. He plays with his food, eating very little of it. Finally he pushes it away and orders another drink. SERA: I'm from the East. I went to college, did an arts course. I now live in Vegas. I think of it as home. I came here deliberately to carve out a life. I was in LA before, but I'll come back to that later. (pause) The tough times are behind me now. I can deal with the bad things that happen. There will always be dark characters. But my life is good. It is as I would want it to be. So, why are you a drunk? BEN: Is that really what you want to ask me? SERA: Yes. BEN: (worried) Well, then I guess this is our first date... or our last. Until now, I wasn't sure it was either. SERA: Very clever. Sera thinks for a while and decides to give in to him on this. SERA: First. It's our first. I'm just concerned. So... why are you killing yourself? BEN: Interesting choice of words. I don't remember. I just know that I want to. SERA: Want to kill yourself? Are you saying that you're drinking as a way to kill yourself? And she leans across the table to be close to him, listening intently. Ben becomes uncomfortable and tries to joke it off. BEN: Or killing myself as a way to drink. Sera continues to stare at him, wanting to know the real answer. He takes a slug from his drink. She sits back. BEN: We'll talk about it some other time maybe. OK? Sera relaxes and continues with her food. We hear her thoughts for a moment. SERA (v.o): It wasn't so important to me. I mean, he never asked me why I was a hooker, and that was impressive. I really liked him. So I decided to just play my part. I mean... it's good to help someone once in a while., it's a bonus to being alive, and that was my plan... to stay alive. I suddenly came to a decision. Dialogue on dialogue: I love this movie. Cage got an Oscar. Shue was nominated, along with Figgis for screenplay and direction. It's a classic great with a wonderful bluesy jazz track. It's one of those rare films where everything comes together. This scene sticks in my mind, especially the line about how killing himself is a way to drink. That line is very representative of his character. He is always jovial and light about everything, with a few exceptions of rage. But this indicates how he rationalizes and accepts his depression. He's OK with killing himself. And it seems he doesn't even know he's depressed. Or doesn't admit it. That way he can carry on life as if it's all very acceptable. In fact numerous great writers seem to fall into depression and even suicide. And the novel is semi-autobiographical. In writing, if you put your soul into it, it can be reflective and can bring up certain thoughts such as the general futility of life (everything ends). In Hollywood this kind of demise seems even more a rule than an exception. Success is usually short lived. It's wonderful to face these things through this character.