Brenda Chenowith quotes from Six Feet Under

Nate

What about you saying that things happen that leave marks … in people, in space, in time?

Brenda

Yeah, that's physics. Energy affecting matter. Talking to dead people is delusional.

Nate

So you definitely don't believe in any kind of a life after death?

Brenda

I think people live on through the people they love and the things they do with their lives … if they manage to do things with their lives.

Nate

But that's it, that's it? That's all there is, there's nothing more, there's nothing like bigger?

Brenda

Just energy.

Nate

But there's no plan, no—

Brenda

No, there's definitely no plan. Just survival. Should I have ordered the salmon?

Nate

Uh, I don't know. How can you live like that? I mean, what if you found out you were gonna die tomorrow?

Brenda

I've been prepared to die tomorrow since I was six years old.

Nate

Really?

Brenda

Yeah, pretty much. We never got butter.

Nate

Well, why, since you were six?

Brenda

Because I read a report on the effect nuclear war would have on the world, and it was pretty clear to me at that point that this was definitely gonna happen.

Nate

When you were six?

Brenda

And I wake up every day pretty much surprised that, um … everything is still here.

Nate

Well, I don't understand how you can live like that.

Brenda

Well, I thought we all did.

Sorry. Happens to me all the time.

Brenda

Nothing I haven't seen before, so don't be embarrassed.

Who said I'm embarrassed?

Brenda

Hm. [laughs gently, tries to go back to her work] Okay. [stares at his erect penis and then at him. Puts her hand on it and gives him a strong handjob.]

Nate

Well, who's Christina? Is that your fictional alter ego? Your Holden Caulfield?

Brenda

She's more like my Humbert Humbert. [Nate stares blankly] You know, my Constance Chatterley. [Nate looks slightly confused] She's like Hermione in the Harry Potter books.

Nate

What would you rather have: some overly-educated gasbag like Trevor … or a semi-literate fuck machine like me? Come on.

Brenda

That's a no-brainer, no pun intended.

Anything I can help you with?

Brenda

Yes, I'm looking for clothes so expensive only an idiot would buy them. [walks over to a skirt] Oh, there they are! [saleswoman walks away angrily]

Brenda

Excuse me. [reaching for a skirt]

Be my guest. [Brenda slowly puts her hand on his and lightly brushes it with her fingertips. He reacts by slowly putting his hand on her butt. Brenda thinks for a moment and then moves his hand to her front and puts it up her dress. He starts giving her a handjob below her dress.]

Excuse me. Your wife would like you to see how she looks in her Jill Sanders sweater. [the man leaves.] And I think you should leave, or I'll have to call Security.

Brenda

[leaving] Do you validate?

Nate

Oh, you know what? You don't want to be with me, then don't, alright?

Brenda

Nate, I'm kidding, come on... Of course I want to be with you, I love you!

Nate

Yeah? Well then why do you treat me like shit all the time?

Brenda

Because I had a really fucked up life and I use sarcasm to hide how ridiculously vulnerable I really am... Hey, come on, Jesus, you know that.

Ruth

So, what's new?

Brenda

Actually, I spent all night doing it with this couple from Orange County. And I have absolutely no idea why.

Brenda

[after sex] Okay, you guys need to go now.

Okay, then.

Hm, can I have your number?

Brenda

Why? So we can date?

[as they leave] Late.'

Nate

It's hard sometimes, relationships aren't easy. You just have to work at it everyday. Can't expect everything to be perfect all the time, and can't get shaken when it isn't. If there's a moment when i feel like i'm in prison, I just have to think about all those moments when it feels safe, and remind myself that those moments outweigh the prison moments.

Brenda

Being alone is the prison, just thinking about yourself, just trapped in this fucking vortex, always watching yourself. Which, i suppose, is okay if you're interesting. The truth is: nobody is that interesting.

Brenda

[about Margaret] I already left a message saying I was coming over. So if she wants me to walk in on more fucking, that's her choice.

Billy

I can do it for you if you feel like you've seen enough of Mom's pussy for a few days.

Brenda

Who could ever see too much of Mom's pussy? It's like a trip down memory lane.

Margaret

Sex is something you should feel, not something you should think!

Brenda

Yeah, well, I have to think to keep from behaving in a compulsive and destructive manner thanks to my early exposure to compulsive and destructive sexual energy, thank you very much.

Brenda

Did anything bad ever happen to someone you love on a bridge?

No, but they collapse all the time. If you Google "bridge collapses," you get, like, 1000 hits.

Olivier

Of course, they're going to say nice things about you; they're your kids. But me, I'm a miserable prick who cares nothing about anybody but himself; and I look at you in your hospital bed, tired and worn-out from surgery and I selfishly wonder "How long must I wait before I can fuck you?"

Margaret

Wow. Finally somebody said something right.

Brenda

It would have been weird if I'd said it.

Billy

Not in this family.

Margaret

Darlings, could you give us a moment?

Brenda

Oh, Mom, you're not going to –

Margaret

I just want to be with Olivier for a minute.