How we cite our quotes: All quotes are from The Sixth Sense.
Quote #1
LYNN: Something you were looking for, baby?
COLE: Pop Tarts?
Cole has been alone in the kitchen for something like 15 seconds, but suddenly the cupboards are all blown open. Like, all of them. Lynn seems to know something is off, since she seems scared (she even screams), but she asks Cole for a non-freaky explanation. And he provides one.
Quote #2
COLE: What are you thinking, Mama?
LYNN: Lots of things.
COLE: Anything bad about me?
Cole lives in fear that his Mom will think he's a "freak" (his word). After the cupboard "Pop Tarts" moment, he checks in with her to make sure her thoughts aren't headed in that direction. He can see how worried she is about him.
Quote #3
MR. CUNNINGHAM: Can anyone guess what this building was used for a hundred years ago, before you went to school here, before I went to this school even? Yes, Cole?
COLE: They used to hang people here.
MR. CUNNINGHAM: No, that's not correct. Where'd you hear that?
COLE: They pulled the people in, crying and kissing their families 'bye. People watching spit at them.
You'd think Cole's ability to see and talk to the dead would be an asset in history class, since his ghost friends can clearly provide answers to questions like this. (Is that cheating?) However, Cole comes out with the most freaky-deaky version of the truth, and it just leads to a confrontation with his teacher. The teacher can't handle the truth.
Quote #4
COLE: You're Stuttering Stanley!
MR. CUNNINGHAM: Excuse me?
COLE: You talked funny when you went to school here.
When Cole and his teacher get into a disagreement in class, Cole uses some of his intel from the spirit world to fight back. Apparently, the teacher was known as "Stuttering Stanley" when he went to school there, and Cole starts repeating that nickname—over and over—to get Stanley to leave him alone. It freaks out the teacher so much that he starts stammering again.
Quote #5
COLE: I want to tell you my secret now.
MALCOLM: Okay.
COLE: I see dead people.
MALCOLM: In your dreams? While you're awake? Dead people, like, in graves, in coffins?
COLE: Walking around like regular people. They don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're dead.
MALCOLM: How often do you see them?
COLE: All the time.
This is the turning point in the film, and "I see dead people" is the movie's most famous line. Unfortunately, even though Cole is finally ready to come clean, Malcolm is totally not ready to hear it. Shyamalan was worried that the close-up of Malcolm's face when Cole tells him this would be a dead giveaway (pun intended) that Malcolm was one of those dead people. Instead, test audiences just saw it as a reaction shot and didn't suspect a thing.
Quote #6
MALCOLM: Cole has pathologies more severe than initially assessed. He's suffering from visual hallucinations, paranoia, some kind of school-age schizophrenia. Medication and hospitalization may be required. And I'm not helping him.
Malcolm refuses to believe that Cole is seeing ghosts, at least at first, and decides that Cole has some kind of severe pathology. To be fair, psychologists generally deal with people who have emotional problems, not people who communicate with the dead, so Malcolm's first thought is that this is a fantasy or a delusion. That Cole is really surrounded by dead people wouldn't be his first guess.
Quote #7
COLE: How could you help me if you don't believe me? Some magic's real.
Cole is desperate when he realizes that Malcolm doesn't believe him. Since Malcolm had done some goofy magic trick earlier in the film, Cole references that in trying to get him to see that some "magical" things actually do exist.
Quote #8
MALCOLM: You know what "Yo no quiero morir" means? It's Spanish. It means "I don't want to die. " What do you think these ghosts want when they talk to you? I want you to think about it, Cole. I want you to think about it really carefully. What do you think they want?
COLE: Just help.
MALCOLM: That's right. That's what I think too. They just want help, even the scary ones. I think I might know a way to make them go away.
COLE: How?
MALCOLM: Listen to them.
COLE: What if they don't want help? What if they're just angry and they just want to hurt somebody?
MALCOLM: I don't think that's the way it works.
COLE: How do you know for sure?
MALCOLM: I don't.
Malcolm has come around to believing Cole, because he now knows that his former patient Vincent had experienced the same thing. Malcolm listened to a tape of his old sessions with Vincent that revealed the faintest little trace of someone else in the room saying, "I don't want to die." Now, Malcolm's able to offer Cole some concrete ideas for how to deal with the ghosts. His last sentence, "I don't," adds some authenticity to what he's saying. He's being honest with Cole. He doesn't have all the answers.
Quote #9
COLE: I'm ready to communicate with you now.
LYNN: Communicate?
COLE: Tell you my secrets.
LYNN: What is it?
COLE: You know the accident up there?
LYNN: Yeah.
COLE: Someone got hurt.
LYNN: They did?
COLE: A lady. She died.
LYNN: Oh, my God. What, you can see her?
COLE: Yes.
LYNN: Where is she?
COLE: Standing next to my window.
LYNN: Cole, you're scaring me.
COLE: They scare me too sometimes.
LYNN: They?
COLE: Ghosts.
LYNN: You see ghosts, Cole?
COLE: They want me to do things for them.
LYNN: They talk to you? They tell you to do things?
COLE: They're the ones that used to hurt me. What are you thinking, Mama? You think I'm a freak?
[…]
COLE: Grandma comes to visit me sometimes.
LYNN: Cole, that's very wrong. Grandma's gone, you know that.
COLE: I know. She wanted me to tell you...
LYNN: Cole, please stop.
COLE: She wanted me to tell you she saw you dance. She said when you were little, you and her had a fight, right before your dance recital. You thought she didn't come to see you dance. She did. She hid in the back so you wouldn't see. She said you were like an angel. She said you came to the place where they buried her, asked her a question. She said the answer is, "Every day." What did you ask?
LYNN: Do I make her proud?
This is a big moment for Cole and Lynn, since Cole has been terrified to tell his mom his secret. She's scared and incredulous—understandably. However, he manages to convince her with some details about Lynn's mother that he could only know through supernatural means. As a result of this convo, it looks like the two are finally on their way to the real honesty that Lynn has been hoping for all along. As freaked out as Lynn must be, it's an explanation for what has been happening, and that's what a mom wants to know. Not knowing and just worrying is much worse.