50 Important Quotes You Should Pay Attention to in The Truman Show

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Quotes from The Truman Show about Culture and Control 

#11: You never see anything anyway. They always uh..turn the camera, and..play music and…you know, the wind blows and then the curtain moves. You don’t see anything. 

• Techniques: Innuendo, polysyndeton, repetition, parallel syntax
• Characters: Security Guard (Speaker), Truman Burbank, Meryl 

#12: Early bird gathers no moss, rolling stone catches the worm, right? 

• Techniques: Subversion, idioms, foreshadowing, symbolism
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker)

#13: Blocked at every turn. Beautifully synchronized, don’t you agree? 

• Techniques: Fragmented language, symbolism, juxtaposition 
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker), Meryl 

#14: Oh, Truman. You knew this would happen. You know you can’t drive over water. Let’s go home where you’ll feel safe.

• Techniques: Dismissive tone, repetition, juxtaposition, irony
• Characters: Meryl (Speaker), Truman Burbank

#15: That’s not true! Why don’t you let me fix you some of this new Mococoa drink. All natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicuragua, no artificial sweeteners. [Meryl holds up and advertises a jar of cocoa]

• Techniques: Breaking the fourth wall, vernacular, chirpy tone, contrast 
• Characters: Meryl (Speaker), Truman Burbank

#16: You’re scaring me, Meryl. What’re you going to do? Dice me? Slice me? SO many CHOICES! 

• Techniques: Tricolon, rhetorical question, rhyme 
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker), Meryl 

#17: This is different. Everybody seems to be in on it.

• Techniques: Juxtaposition, allegory 
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker), Marlon

#18: Incidentally, I believe Truman is the first child to have been legally adopted by a corporation?

• Techniques: Rhetorical question, characterisation, symbolsim
• Characters: Interviewer (Speaker), Christof

#19: People forget it takes the population of an entire country to keep the show running.

• Techniques: Contrast, hyperbole, persuasive tone
• Characters: Christof (Speaker), Interviewer

#20: Everything on the show is for sale. The actor’s wardrobe, food products, to the very homes they live in.

• Techniques: Tricolon, asyndeton, symbolism
• Characters: Christof (Speaker), Interviewer

#21: Cue the sun.

• Techniques: Symbolism, metaphor, paradox
• Characters: Christof (Speaker)

#22: Is that the best you can do!? You’re gunna hafta’… KILL ME! (sings) What should we do with a drunken sailor?

• Techniques: Irony, cultural allusion, colloquial language
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker)

#23: That’s our hero shot. 

• Techniques: Contrast, irony, first-person plural pronoun
• Characters: Christof (Speaker)

#24: You never had a camera in my head!

• Techniques: Motif, exclamation, symbolism 
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker), Christof

#25: I know you better than you know yourself.

• Techniques: Paradox, manipulative tone, antanaclasis
• Characters: Christof (Speaker), Truman Burbank

Individuality Against Modern Society Quotes in The Truman Show

#26: We’ve become bored with watching actors give us phony emotions. We are tired of pyrotechnics and special effects. While the world he inhabits is, in some respects, counterfeit, there’s nothing fake about Truman himself. No scripts, no cue cards. It isn’t always Shakespeare, but it’s genuine. It’s a life.

• Techniques: Parataxis, motif, cultural allusion, tricolon
• Characters: Christof (Speaker)

#27: You’re going to the top of the mountain, broken legs and all.

• Techniques: Foreshadowing, metaphor
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker)

#28: Look, Truman, I’m not allowed to talk to you…Yeah, well, I can understand, I’m a pretty dangerous character

• Techniques: Double entendre, intimidating tone 
• Characters: Lauren (Speaker), Truman Burbank (Speaker)

#29: Can you tell her: I had to go to Fiji, and that I’ll call her when I get there. 

• Techniques: Symbolism
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker), Meryl

#30: Somebody help me! I’m being spontaneous!

• Techniques: Exclamation, motif 
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker)

#31: I changed my mind. What’s New Orleans like this time of year? Mardi Gras, woooooo! Ha ha ha ha ha! Hoo hoo hoo! Whoooohoo! Look, Meryl! Same road, no cars. It’s magic! Hahaha! 

• Techniques: Onomatopoeia, exclamation, absurd tone
• Characters: Meryl (Speaker), Truman Burbank

#32: Let me get you some help Truman, you’re not well!

• Techniques: Exclamation
• Characters: Meryl (Speaker), Truman Burbank

#33: And as he grew so did technology. An entire human life – recorded on an intricate network of hidden cameras and broadcasted live and uninterrupted 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to an audience around the globe.

• Techniques: Polysyndeton, imagery,  juxtaposition
• Characters: TV Announcer (Speaker), Truman Burbank

#34: He’s not a performer, he’s a prisoner. Look at him, look at what you’ve done to him!

• Techniques: Juxtaposition, antanaclasis, parallel syntax
• Characters: Sylvia (Speaker), Christof

#35: I hereby… proclaim this planet… Trumania of the Burbank galaxy. That one’s for free. 

• Techniques: Motif, diction, metaphor, symbolism 
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker)

#36: There is no more truth out there than there is for the world I created for you. The same lies, the same deceit. But in my world, you have nothing to fear.

• Techniques: Repetition, irony, allegory 
• Characters: Christof (Speaker), Truman Burbank

#37: You were real… that’s what makes you so good to watch.

• Techniques: Contrast, paradox 
• Characters: Christof (Speaker), Truman Burbank

#38: And who am I? […] You’re the star.

• Techniques: Diction, fragmented language
• Characters: Christof (Speaker), Truman Burbank

#39: Say something, damn it! You’re still on camera, live to the world!

• Techniques: Exclamation, motif, declarative tone
• Characters: Christof (Speaker), Truman Burbank

#40: In case I don’t see ya’, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight. Hahaha! Yeah! 

• Techniques: Colloquial language, motif, tricolon 
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker)

Quotes from The Truman Show about Constructions of Reality

#41: It’s all true. It’s all real. Nothing here is fake. Nothing you see on this show is fake. It’s merely controlled.

• Techniques: Parataxis, parallel syntax, motif, juxtaposition, euphemism 
• Characters: Marlon (Speaker)

#42: This is us….and all the way around here… Fiji. You can’t get any further away before you start coming back

• Techniques: Humour, characterisation 
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker), Marlon

#43: Shh shh shh…scalpel…I’m now making my primary incision just… above the right… knee. 

• Techniques: Suspense, comedic tone
• Characters: Doctor (Speaker), Meryl, Truman Burbank

#44: Mom, isn’t that…?……Truman…? 

• Techniques: Foreshadowing, contrast 
• Characters: Little girl (Speaker), Truman Burbank

#45: In just a moment, we’ll see a lady on a red bike, a man with flowers, and a Volkswagen beetle with a dented fender. 

• Techniques: Visual imagery, foreshadowing, polysyndeton, mise-en-scene
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker)

#46: I’ve tasted other cocoas. This is the best… What does this hafta’ do, with anything? Tell me what’s happening! 

• Techniques: Contrast, declarative tone, motif
• Characters: Meryl (Speaker), Truman Burbank (Speaker)

#47: Well, I don’t know what to think, Marlon. Maybe I’m losing my mind, but..it’s like the whole world revolves around me somehow. 

• Techniques: Irony, hyperbole
• Characters: Truman Burbank (Speaker), Marlon

#48: The point is, I would gladly step in front of traffic for you Truman. And the last thing I would ever do to you [Christof in the Control Room: is lie to you]

• Techniques: Irony, hyperbole, diacope
• Characters: Christof (Speaker)

#49: We accept the reality with which we are presented.

• Techniques: Motif
• Characters: Christof (Speaker)

#50: I am the creator of a television show that gives hope and joy and inspiration to millions.

• Techniques: Biblical symbolism
• Characters: Christof (Speaker), Truman Burbank