Nate Fisher quotes from Six Feet Under

Nate

Everybody forgives everybody for everything.

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.

Nate

Sorry, there was an accident on the 405. Both cars totaled. Should have stopped to hand out cards.

Nate

All that lives, lives forever. Only the shell, the perishable passes away. The spirit is without end. Eternal. Deathless.

Nate

Everything's bad for something.

Nate

Yeah, I'll have a double dub – uh – uh – a – a Chubby – a double Chubby – a Chubby Chubby – a double double – a double chubby – a chubby chubby – a chub – I'll have a doub – I'll have a double Chubby cheeseburger. [scrunches eyes, having a major headache] Oh, fuck me!

Nate

I hit a new low. I made the bereaved vomit.

Nate

[To Brenda, while talking about their wedding.]I'm glad today sucked, because I wouldn't want the happiest day of our life to be over already, would you?

Nate

[as imagined by Brenda during a family dinner] Quit trying to be some fucking hausfrau, all right? You're a rebel. You're a freak. We're never gonna be a real family no matter what you sauté!

Nate

[to Brenda] What am I supposed to tell her? That her real mommy got pregnant and made me trapped into marrying her while she was fucking her brother-in-law, and then he murdered her because she tried to break it off, and that he might even be her real dad? I just want to spare her that, but I don't have to spare me that.

Nate

Love isn't something you feel, it's something you do. If the person you're with doesn't want it, do yourself a favor and save it for someone who does.

Nate

[to Rico] Ecotone. It's the area where two ecological worlds overlap. You know, like wilderness and civilization.

Nate

[as imagined by Brenda] I'm just saying you only get one life. There's no God, no rules, no judgments, except for those you accept or create for yourself. And once it's over, it's over. Dreamless sleep forever and ever. So why not be happy while you're here. Really. Why not?

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.

[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"?