Finding Forrester tells the story of Jamal Wallace, an afro american student in the Bronx who's smarter than most students but is apprehensive in showing it. He meets a famour writer, William Forrester and they soon form an interesting teacher and student relationship as well as a friendship. Here' some quotes I found interesting from Finding Forrester . Enjoy.


You should've stayed with the soup question.
The object of a question is to obtain information that matters to us and to no one else.
You were wondering why your soup doesn't foam up?
Probably because your mother was brought up in a house that never thought about wasting milk in soup.
Now that question was a good one.
In contrast to "Do I ever go outside?" which fails to meet the basic criteria of obtaining information that matters to you.
- William Forrester



Because there is a question in your writing that suggesting what is it you wish to do with your life. And that is a question your present school cannot answer for you.
-william


Jamal: Yeah, I think I got it down though.
I figured you were writing about how life never works out.
Willaim: Oh really? You had to read a book to figure that out?


William:because socks are badly designed. The seems are on the inside. Hurt the toes. In some cultures, it's considered good luck to wear something inside out.
Jamal: And you belived that?
William: No, but it's like praying. What do you risk?


Why is it the words we write for ourselves are always so much better than those we write for others?
-William


You write your first draft with your heart and you rewrite with your head.
The first key to writing is to write, not to think.
-william


Bitterly disappointed teachers can be very effective or very dangerous.
-William


What's hard is knowing you're safe there becuase the people you need to worry about know you got nothing to give them.
-Jamal


William: You should never start a sentence with a conjunction.
Jamal: Sure you can.
William: Oh no, it's a firm rule.
Jamal:No no... see ...it was a firm rule.
Somtimes, if you use a basic conjunction at the start of a sentence it can make it stand out a lil bit. AND that may be what the writer wants.
William: And, what is the risk?
Jamal: Well, the risk is doing it too much. It's a distraction. It could give your piece a run-on feeling. But, for the most part, the rule on "and" or "but"at the start of the sentence is still pretty shaky. Even though it's still thought in too man schools by too many professors. Some of the best writers have been ignoring that rule for years including you.


J: They got this contest at school, This writing thing. you ever enter one of those?
W: Writing contest?
J: Yeah.
W: Once. A long time ago.
J: Did you win?
W: Well, of course I won.
J: Like money or something?
W: The Pulitzer.
J: Oh. Well, they make the students stand up and read to everybody.
W: What the hell 's that got to do with writing? Writers write so that readers can read. Let someone else read it.


J: Did you ever get married?
W: not exactly a soup quesiton is it?


The key to a woman's heart is an unexpected gift at an unexpected time.
-william


W: Well?
J: YOu look good man. I mean, it's not the latest stuff out there...
W: I wasn't asking how i look, I was askin are we ready to go?


"The rest of those who have gone before us cannot steady the unrest of those to follow."
-Jamal quoting William


J:You think if one of his two comma kids were writing these papers, he'll be doing this considering "background" shit?
W: Two commas kids?
J: A million dollars man, one comma, two commas.


W: Do you know what most people are afraid of?
J: No.
W: What they don't understand. What we don't understand, we turn to our assumptions.


W: A lot of writers know the rules about writing but they don't know how to write.
J: So?
W: So Crawford wrote a book about four authors who did know. And I was the only one still alive.
J: And?
W: Well, he convinced a publisher to buy it. So i mad a polite telephone call to this publisher, telling him and others that I was in the process of writing a second book. And if they wished to bid on it...


"it is a melancholy truth that great men have poor relations" Dickens


W: There are no reasons. Reason why some of us live and why some of us don't. Well, fortunately for you, you have decades to figure that out.
J: so What's the reason for having a file cabinet full of writing and keeping the shit lock so nobody ever read it huh?


It's funny tho. They always let you get but so far before they take everything away from you.
-terrell, jamal's brother


Losing family obliges us to find our family. Not always the family that is our blood. But the family that can become our blood. And should we have the wisdom to open our door to this new family we will find that the wishes we once had for the father who once guided us, or the brother who once inspired us..... the only thing left to say will be: 'I wish i had seen this, or I wish I had done that, I wish...
-William quoting Jamal's piece of "Losing family"


Most of you are too young to know what your wishes will be. But when i read these words, words of hope and dreams. I realise the one wish that was granted to me so late in life was the gift of friendship.
-William.


Someone i knew once wrote that we walk away from our dreams afraid that we might fail, or worst yet, afraid that we might succeed. You need to know that while i knew so very early that you would someday realise your dreams, I never imagined I would once again realise my own. Seasons change young man and while i may have waited until the winter of my life to see the things i've seen this past year, there is no doubt I would have waited too long had it not been for you.
-William