How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Annie Hall.
Quote #1
ALVY: There's an old joke, um… two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know—and such small portions." Well, that's essentially how I feel about life: full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.
This joke and the joke that Alvy tells at the end of the movie about the eggs (see Quote #8) act as bookends for the story. Both convey Alvy's idea that life and love are absurd, but we need them anyway.
Quote #2
YOUNG ALVY: The universe is expanding.
DR. FLICKER: The universe is expanding?
YOUNG ALVY: Well, the universe is everything, and if it's expanding, someday it will break apart and that will be the end of everything!
ALVY'S MOM: What is that your business? [to the doctor] He stopped doing his homework!
YOUNG ALVY: What's the point?
ALVY'S MOM: What has the universe got to do with it? You're here in Brooklyn! Brooklyn is not expanding!
DR. FLICKER: It won't be expanding for billions of years yet, Alvy. And we've gotta try to enjoy ourselves while we're here!
Most of us struggle with the idea of death when we're kids. It's a tough concept. But not all of us use the fact that the universe is expanding to skip out on our homework.