Joey Potter quotes from Dawson's Creek

Dawson

I want to apologize.

Joey

For what?

Dawson

For that question I asked you a couple weeks ago. That very personal question. I should have never asked you. I don't know why I did. It was some masochistic side of me that I haven't explored yet. Probably the same side of me that's sabotaging my relationship with Gretchen.

Joey

You think you're sabotaging your relationship?

Dawson

Well, mentioning you every 30 seconds, I'm sure it doesn't help.

Gretchen

You lied to Dawson about you and Pacey having sex.

Joey

I made a decision, a very private decision about my life and I really don't want the whole world to know about that.

Gretchen

You really don't want Dawson to know about that.

Joey

It's the same thing.

Gretchen

No it's not, Joey. I don't want to be an ogre here, but lying to Dawson isn't going to solve anything. It's not fair to him and it's not fair to somebody who's trying to have a relationship with him.

Joey

Meaning you.

Pacey

You know, I don't think I like this turn that our relationship is taking here. You have no respect for my feelings, we never talk anymore.

Joey

Pace, we spent 9 months talking. We've been doing this for two weeks.

Pacey

But this still doesn't mean you get to treat me like a sex object.

Joey

Oh, I can tell you're all broken up about it.

Dawson

Worthington is what you want, right?

Joey

It doesn't matter what I want, Dawson.

Dawson

Yes or no?

Joey

Yes.

Dawson

Then I want you to have Mr. Brooks' money.

Joey

Dawson, are you insane? I can't.

Dawson

Joey, I... I've watched you go through so much pain in your life. I mean, even before your mom got sick and your dad...

Joey

Don't do this. Don't feel sorry for me, Dawson.

Dawson

I don't. That's not what this is about. Jo, all the pain I've watched you go through, I've never been able to fix it before. And this I can fix. All I need you to do is let me.

Dawson

What you felt the other night at the movie theater, that something was finally right between us... I felt that, too. And nothing will ever change that... not going to school on different coasts. Not meeting people who we're meant to love forever... nothing. And I want you to have this [Hands her an envelope with a check in it]

Joey

But, Dawson...

Dawson

I don't know how I feel about you sleeping with Pacey. I don't know how I'll feel tomorrow or next week or next year for that matter, but I'm absolutely certain that giving you this is the right thing to do. Because I'm certain about us... and what we mean to each other. And I think you are, too.

Pacey

It's not that I don't want you to be able to go off and realize your dreams, Joey, because I do. But for the first time, I just... I felt like it wasn't me that was holding you back from it.

Joey

Pacey, you've never held me back. You have to stop thinking like that.

Pacey

You know what? I could stop thinking like that if you'd just promise me one thing, that if the day ever comes, and it may come much sooner than either one of us thinks, but if that day ever comes where you did feel like I was holding you back... promise me that you'd cut me loose, yeah?

Joey

Pacey...

Pacey

Promise me that.

Joey

I won't promise you that. You're asking me to promise to let you go. I can't do that.

Joey

I'm still trying to process this whole college thing. You know, it's... kinda weird to get your dream.

Pacey

I know it. I say that every time I look at you.

Joey

You always do that. You change the subject.

Pacey

Joey, we're not talking about this today, because we're not talking about anything negative today, because today is your day to celebrate this most amazing accomplishment that you have worked so hard for.

Joey

How does it surprise you every day?

Good question. A city like New York where everything's moving all the time at this constant driving pace, right? It's like a living organism breathing and changing, and over time your relationship to it becomes like this incredible romance, you know? At first, it's intoxicating, irresistible, and then slowly it becomes comfortable and safe. You have this cellular connection to it, as if you've known each other forever, like your oldest happiness, and sometimes you're on the outs, and sometimes you're making up, and every now and then you catch yourself in this transcendent moment where you think to yourself, "oh, my god, I'm madly in love with you, and I always will be." And I think that's when it surprises me.

Joey

Whoa, that's a good answer.

Dawson

Have you and Pacey talked about him being near Worthington next year?

Joey

[laughs] Uh, Pacey and I haven't really discussed the future too much lately.

Dawson

You should. It has a peculiar way of unexpectedly becoming the present.

I really did want your life to be better than mine.

Joey

Bessie, you went first. You took on the full brunt of this storm. And you didn't do what others would have. You didn't run, you didn't cower, you created this warm, loving, safe place. And you raised a baby and a little sister. I hope I would have the strength and courage to... create a life for myself that's even remotely like yours.

Joey

Pacey isn't on a fishing trip, is he?

Gretchen

Pacey got arrested for public drunkenness while you were in New York. Doug got the charges dropped, and then he took him camping to try to talk some sense into him.

Joey

Oh, my god.

Gretchen

This is an intense time. We're all planning our futures, trying to figure out what we're gonna do with the rest of our lives, but if we can't put all that aside and try to do everything possible to make Pacey's life easier right now, he might not have much of one.

Dawson

I was just gonna say, you know, given everything that's happened in the twelve months since last year's prom -- I'm glad we ended up here.

Joey

Me too, Dawson.

Dawson

God, we're so healthy, it makes me wanna puke.

Joey

I know. It is kinda sickening.

Pacey

You know... last year... I felt like I could give you something that no one else could give you. I could give you that wall to paint your mural on. I could take you away on a sailboat for a summer. I could even give you that night in the ski lodge. But I don't feel like I have anything left to give you now, Jo. I guess I'm spent. I've become a man who hates himself so much he can't even look at his own reflection in the mirror, and I wish that I could tell you that being with you doesn't make that worse, but it does... because the more that you love me in spite of that, the angrier that I get at you... and the more that I stop loving you back.

Joey

How long have you felt this way?

Pacey

I don't know, but I know it's not right.

Pacey

Why don't you just tell me how you want me to act? 'Cause I can't win with you, Jo. If I act like I'm unhappy, you get angry with me. But if I act like I'm happy, you get angry with me.

Joey

Well, maybe you should stop acting and just talk to me.

Pacey

Maybe I just don't have anything left to say.