Six Feet Under quotes

You've done a nice job. She looks peaceful.

David

Well, she is at peace now.

If there's any justice in the universe, she's shoveling shit in Hell.

Nate

Everybody forgives everybody for everything.

Nate

I refuse to sanitize this anymore!

David

This is how it's done.

Nate

Yeah? Well, it's whacked. What is this stupid salt-shaker? Huh? What is this hermetically sealed box? This phony Astroturf around the grave? Jesus, David, it's like surgery. Clean. Antiseptic. Business. He was our father!

David

Please don't do this.

Nate

You can pump him full of chemicals. You can put makeup on him. You can prop him up for a nap in the slumber room; but the fact remains, David, that the only father we're ever gonna have is gone! Forever … and that sucks, but it's a goddamned part of life and you can't really accept it without getting your hands dirty. Well, I do accept it, and I intend to honor the old bastard by letting the whole world see just how fucked up and shitty I feel that he's dead! God damn it!

Amen.

David

What the hell?

Ruth

There's been an accident. The new hearse is totaled. Your father is dead. Your father is dead, and my pot roast is ruined.

[to Nate] Well, well, the prodigal returns. This is what you've been running away from your whole life, buddy boy. Scared the crap out of you when you were growing up, didn't it? And you thought you'd escape. Well, guess what? Nobody escapes.

Nate

When I went backpacking through Europe after I quit school, I went to this island off the coast of Sicily—it’s this volcanic island—and on the boat over, there was this pine box. Somebody from the island was being returned to be buried there. And there were all these old Sicilians dressed up all in black, waiting, just lined up on the beach. And when they got that coffin to the beach, those old Sicilian women just went ape-shit, screaming, throwing themselves on, beating their chests, tearing at their hair, making animal noises, and it was just so…so real. I mean, I’ve been around funerals my entire life, but I had never seen such grief. And at the time, it gave me the creeps, but uh…now I think it’s probably so much more healthy than…this.

[to David, talking about the music at the funeral] Anyway, I so prefer this light, classical -- you know, chamber orchestra stuff. It's still spiritual, but doesn't seem so dated or depressing. [Laughs] I studied music appreciation when ... [what she's actually saying fades out and what we now hear is in voice-over -- what David hears her saying in his head.] You think I'm really boring, don't you? Well, get used to it, because now that your father is dead, you can forget about ever going to law school. It's just you and dead people and freaks like me for the rest of your life!"

David

[screams]

Brenda

Well, we're all wounded. We carry our wounds around with us through life, and eventually they kill us. Things happen that leave a mark in space, in time. In us.

Rico

[referring to the deceased's erection] Angel lust. You can be dead, but you're never really dead.

[commenting on his own headstone] Is that the best anyone could come up with? "Father, husband, caregiver"?

Nate

What would you prefer? "Introvert, sadist, mindfucker"?

Claire

What am I, some knocked-up Victorian wife that has to stay hidden from view?

Nate

I, uh, think Mr. Suarez kinda shit himself. Is that normal?

David

You stopped to eat? Do you have any respect for human life at all?

Nate

I have a huge respect for human life! I just didn't know that they can take a dump when they're dead!

David

Well, they can. Make a note of it!

Ruth

Boys, I don't like this bickering.

David

Yeah, and I don't like you sleeping with hairdressers. [Ruth slaps David. David walks away, followed by Nate]

Nate

Look, don't take this out on Mom. What is it that you want to say to me?

David

Well, there's a body that's spent over two hours in a van. Unrefrigerated. Decomposing at a rate much faster than you could ever imagine. Thanks for making my life just that much more difficult. Thanks for undermining my authority with our employees. And thanks for making so clear to me that my choice to dedicate myself to this business and to this family was really stupid, because apparently I would have be rewarded just the same for wasting my life.

Nate

Oh, my life is a waste? Well, fuck you. At least I enjoy it.

David

Well, lucky you.

Nate

Dave, at least let me help.

David

You've helped enough.

Claire

I wish that just once people wouldn't act like the clichés that they are.

Ruth

You both look so happy. Just enjoy it while it lasts. Which isn't very long. You think you have forever, but you don't. Soon you start to get on each other's nerves. Then you don't tell the other person as much as you used to, 'cause, really, what's the point? You thought they understood you, but they never did … not really. Finally, not only do you not tell the other person anything real, you actively start lying to him. And then, when you think it can't get any worse, he up and dies! No matter what you do, you end up alone, not knowing who you are or what you really want!

David

I don't understand kids! When I was her age, I never would've taken a foot!

Keith

David, I can help. I'm a cop. That's what I do for a living.

David

You find feet?