Hector and the Search for Happiness

Professor Coreman:
How many of us, I wonder, can recall that childhood moment when we experienced happiness as a state of being. That single moment of untarnished joy. That moment when everything in our world, inside and out, was alright. Everything was alright.

Hector:
You know what smothering is, Clara? It's mothering, with an S!

Hector:
1. Making comparisons can spoil your happiness.

Hector:
2. A lot of people think happiness means being richer or more important.

Hector:
3. Many people only see happiness in their future.

Hector:
4. Happiness could be the freedom to love more than one woman at the same time.

Hector:
5. Sometimes happiness is not knowing the whole story.

Hector:
6. Avoiding unhappiness is not the road to happiness.

Hector:
7. Does this person bring you predominantly a. up b. down?

Hector:
8. Happiness is answering your calling.

Hector:
9. Happiness is being loved for who you are.

Hector:
10. Sweet Potato Stew!

Hector:
11. Fear is an impediment to happiness.

Hector:
12. Happiness is feeling completely alive.

Hector:
13. Happiness is knowing how to celebrate.

Hector:
14. Listening is loving.

Hector:
15. Nostalgia is not what it used to be.

[first lines]

Hector:
[waking suddenly from a nightmare] Clara!

Clara:
Hector... Morning, sweetheart. Time to raise and shine.

Hector:
[narrating] One upon a time, there was a young psychiatrist called Hector, who had a very satisfactory life. His world was tidy, uncomplicated. And he liked it that way. He took great comfort in its predictable patterns. Patterns his girl friend Clara was happy to maintain.

Old Monk:
Would you like to come in?

Hector:
Yes, please. 'Cause I might not be around next week.

Old Monk:
The moment of death is indeed uncertain. Come in.

Hector:
You've been a fugitive. You've been in prison for your beliefs, you've lost family and loved ones. I mean, you've just been through so much. How is it you're so happy?

Old Monk:
Because I've been through so much.

Hector:
I mean, searching for happiness is one thing, but making it the goal, it just doesn't work, does it?

Old Monk:
Higher than that, Hector. More important than what we are searching for is what we are avoiding.

Hector:
Like unhappiness. So, don't make unhappiness *not* the goal?

Old Monk:
Higher than that.

Hector:
Avoiding unhappiness is *not* the road to happiness.

Old Monk:
You hold all the cards, Hector. [both laugh]

Edward:
You're a very very strange person, Hector. The kind of person I normally avoid like the plague. I'm glad I didn't.

Alan:
There a big difference between being here, and being here to be photographed being here.

Hector:
Your English is very good. Where are you from?

Diego Baresco:
Would you like to see my passport? [shows him a $100 bill]

Hector:
I prefer your hair that way it is now.

Diego Baresco:
I bet what I farm makes more people happy than what you dish out.

Hector:
I see, farmer. I get it, drugs. Forgive me, but if your happiness causes other people's unhappiness, then how can there be happiness. Doesn't that bother you?

Diego Baresco:
[throws him onto the bar for the second time] I don't cause unhappiness, I respond to it, same as you! We both feel the need, but the demand we don't create.

Dying Woman on Plane:
I'm not afraid, Hector. People who are afraid of death are afraid of life.

Agnes:
Kids, this is... this is mommy's Hector.

Professor Coreman:
We should concern ourselves, not so much with the pursuit of happiness, but with the happiness of pursuit. [class laughs and applauds]

Professor Coreman:
[narrating] One upon a time, there was a young psychiatrist called Hector, who was very satisfied with his life.

Hector:
[to stewardess] Far be it for me, and forgive me for asking, and I don't mean to pry, but can this plane go any faster?

Professor Coreman:
His world was complex, sometimes even chaotic. And he liked it that way. He took comfort in the rich, random patterns of his life. He listened to his patients with real patience. [chuckling about an encounter] Oh ho, see what I mean? Sometimes with surprising results.

Hector:
[trying on a castle guard's hat] It looks... it looks acceptable.

[last lines]

Professor Coreman:
Everything was up for change. And he loved like he never loved before.