WORD LISTS

Choice Words from Philip Seymour Hoffman's Roles

Sun Feb 02 21:46:47 EST 2014
By Vocabulary.com (NY)Visual Thesaurus Moderator
Philip Seymour Hoffman died on Sunday, Feb. 2nd at the age of 46. One of the most acclaimed actors of his generation, he had the uncanny ability to inhabit a role and make it memorable, no matter how much or how little screen or stage time he actually had. Here are eleven vocabulary words from dialogue from the roles he played. Because he was such a captivating presence, it is not an exaggeration to say that he contributed to these roles almost as much as the authors of the words he spoke. He left his mark on everything from "Mission Impossible III" to "The Seagull" by Chekov, and he will be missed. As George Clooney said: “There are no words.”
desolation
Caden Cotard: Try to keep in mind that a young person playing Willy Loman thinks he's only pretending to be at the end of a life full of despair. But the tragedy is that we know that you, the young actor will end up in this very place of desolation.- "Synecdoche," New York, Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman
salvation
Well it is like salvation sort of. I mean the smell. I love the smell of toast. And the sun's coming up. It makes me feel like anything's possible. Y'know?- "True West" by Sam Shepard
persist
When you consider all the writers who never even had a machine. Who would have given an eyeball for a good typewriter. Any typewriter. All the ones who wrote on a matchbook covers. Paper bags. Toilet paper. Who had their writing destroyed by their jailers. Who persisted beyond all odds.- "True West" by Sam Shepard
aspersion
Gust Avrakotos: Well, that's because Harold Holt is a tool. He's a cake-eater, he's a clown, he's a bad station chief, and I don't like to cast aspersions on a guy, but he's going to get us all killed.- "Charlie Wilson's War," Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
caliber
WILLY: [coming out of the bathroom in his pajamas]: Remember him? What’s the matter with you, you crazy? If he’d stayed with Oliver he’d be on top by now! Wait’ll Oliver gets a look at him. You don’t know the average caliber any more. The average young man today—[he’s getting into bed]—is got a caliber of zero. Greatest thing in the world for him was to bum around.- "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller
filch
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
’Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.- Iago, in "Othello" by William Shakespeare
Act III scene 3
imposition
Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving.-Iago, in "Othello" by William Shakespeare, Act II Scene 3
sanctimonious
And they'll buy you drinks, you'll meet girls, they'll try to fly you places for free... I know. It sounds great. But they are not your friends. These are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of the rock stars, and they will ruin rock and roll and strangle everything we love about it.-Lester Bangs in "Almost Famous," Screenplay by Cameron Crowe
exacerbate
Truman Capote: Perry, I know what 'exacerbate' means.
Perry Smith: Okay... well...
Truman Capote: There is not a word or a sentence or a concept that you can illuminate for me.- "Capote," Screenplay by Dan Futterman
banal
She loves the theatre, she thinks she is serving humanity and the sacred cause of art, while in my opinion, the theatre of today is...conventional. When the curtain goes up, and, in a room with three walls and artificial light, those great geniuses, those priests of holy art, show me how people eat, drink, love, walk about, and wear their jackets; when from those banal scenes and phrases they try to fish out a moral...then I flee- Konstantin in "The Seagull" by Anton Chekov
currency
The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool. -- Lester Bangs in "Almost Famous," Screenplay by Cameron Crowe

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