Dawson's Creek quotes

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.

Gretchen

I want to make love to you so much. So much. And I really believe that that was why we came here, but it's not. I guess just as much as I want you and I love you, we're not gonna do this.

Dawson

Why not?

Gretchen

Because when we go there, it's not gonna be because you have something to prove to yourself. It's gonna be because we love each other, and because we're prepared to show each other what that really means.

Doug

[picking Pacey up at jail] You're not satisfied with being a moron and failure. You gotta add drunk to your list of credentials?

Pacey

[Gets angry and attacks Doug] What? This is it for me! [Doug tries to hold him off] This is my whole life right here! This is all I get.

Dawson

I still have my distortions and my delusions. I still think that everything should be perfect, and that Joey and I should have slept together for the first time. What I realized is that I gotta let go. You know, it's time. And there's so much ahead of me. I mean, there's college, there's... there's this new baby... and there's you.

Gretchen

So what are you saying?

Dawson

I'm in love with you, and I no longer remember what we're waiting for.

Gretchen

Neither do I.

Jen

You knew, didn't you? Oh, god, all this time. My life got uglier and messier, and then you sent me away. You... you made me feel ashamed. You... you punished me for all these things that were beyond my control. You saw me standing in the doorway. Ohh! And you never said anything. I wasn't...

I didn't...

Jen

No. I don't need a confession from you. That's not why I came here. I don't need you to apologize to me for all the pain that you've caused me, and I don't have to forgive you. All I have to do is forgive myself for these things that I can't change. Good-bye, daddy.

Joey

[to Dawson] I want you to know something. Sex doesn't necessarily bring people closer together. It's just a magnifying glass. I mean, if there's a problem, it gets bigger. And if there's closeness... you get closer. As far as you and Gretchen are concerned, I mean... you guys are probably a lot closer than a lot of people who are having sex.

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.

Mitch

One night, you're standing in a dark room, exhausted, reaching for diapers and answers on a shelf you can't see, and this little person calls out to you. "Daddy." That's when you get it. You feel your heart expand in a way you never knew was possible, and you love this little person so much... that you actually ache. I can't explain it any better.

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.

Gretchen

I'm at the prom, Pacey. I'm at the prom again. I mean, I graduated 4 years ago and I'm still here. You know, tonight for the first time, I didn't just feel older than Dawson, I felt old. Too old to be here. Too old to be doing what I'm doing.

Pacey

Want pathetic? How's this for pathetic... I'm technically still a junior. I'm not even supposed to be here.

Gretchen

A brother who's too young and a sister who's too old. We're quite the lot now Pacey.

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.