“The moment we cry in a film is not when things are sad but when they turn out to be more beautiful than we expected them to be.”

“When we travel, we are like a film at the moment of exposure; it is memory that will develop it.”

“When we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.”

“How can we expect novelists to be moral, when their trade forces them to treat every end they meet as no more than an imperfect means to a novel?”

“We thought we were being mature when we were only being safe. We imagined we were being responsible but were only being cowardly. What we called realism turned out to be a way of avoiding things rather than facing them.”

“I glanced up at him. "I love things that are beautiful when you don't expect them to be.”

“That was what happened to laughter when you caged it. It became unbearably sad. It was worse than crying.”

“Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.”

“Turn them on, turn them on,
Turn on those sad songs.
When all hope is gone,
Why don't you tune in and turn them on?They reach into your room,
Just feel their gentle touch.
When all hope is gone,
Sad songs say so much.”

“Especially in its opening scenes, Ballast is "slower" and "quieter" than we usually expect. You know what? So is life, most of the time. We don't wake up and immediately start engaging with plot points. But Ballast inexorably grows and deepens and gathers power and absorbs us. I always say I hardly ever cry at sad films, but I sometimes do, just a little, at films about good people.”