Early Nora Ephron (Photo Credit: The New York Times)
Through her witty writing and rich characters, Nora Ephron captivated audiences around the world with her storytelling. She created serendipity on screen, lasting moments of connection as well as personal exploration, drawing her readers and viewers into the fun and the drama of her tales. Ephron was the female narrator of the romantic comedy. She mastered the art of storytelling by reflecting the realities of relationships as much as the nuances of the individuals who lived them.
Looking at the heroines of Ephron’s writing, one sees the extraordinarily unique gift she had in depicting women who were both inspirational and relatable. Ephron’s female leads are funny and genuine, made human by their idiosyncrasies, as so perfectly captured by the curious and plucky personality of Meg Ryan time and again. Interestingly, her heroines are also adventurers: moving to New York to become a great writer (When Harry Met Sally…), traveling across the country after becoming captivated by the story of a stranger (Sleepless in Seattle), running her own store and taking solace in the words of someone she meets online (You’ve Got Mail) and risking everything to take a chance on her culinary skills to become the next Julia Child (Julie & Julia). In all these tales, Ephron’s heroines also experience romantic heartache, times when their personal relationships fall apart while they balance the rest of their life journey. Yet, their resolve and gumption fit Ephron’s own mantra, to “be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” Also, while Ephron may have questioned whether men and women could be friends in When Harry Met Sally…, she certainly believed in the power of female friendship: Carrie Fisher made a fabulous female best friend to Meg Ryan’s Sally Albright, and Rosie O’Donnell offered her humorous support as Ryan’s fearless pal in Sleepless in Seattle. In the end, Ephron’s heroines always find their way through positivity and a faith in happiness that makes them not just lovable, but inspiring. So, too, was Ephron.
Academy-Award winning writer, screenwriter and director, Nora Ephron, passed away from Leukemia at age 71.
Quotes on Nora Ephron:
Billy Crystal: “I am very sad to learn of Nora’s passing,” he said in a statement. “She was a brilliant writer and humorist. Being her Harry to Meg’s Sally will always have a special place in my heart. I was very lucky to get to say her words.”
Carrie Fisher: ”In a world where we’re told that you can’t have it all, Nora consistently proved that adage wrong. A writer, director, wife, mother, chef, wit — there didn’t seem to be anything she couldn’t do. And not just do it, but excel at it, revolutionize it, set the bar for every other screenwriter, novelist, director. She was inspiring, intimidating and insightful. She was so, so alive. It makes no sense to me that she isn’t anymore. My heart goes out to her family and the many others who treasured her.”
Vixely’s Favorite Ephron Quotes:
Just before I’d moved to New York, two historic events had occurred: The birth control pill had been invented, and the first Julia Child cookbook was published. As a result, everyone was having sex, and when the sex was over, you cooked something.
It’s always hard to remember love -years pass and you say to yourself, Was I really in love, or was I just kidding myself? Was I really in love, or was I just pretending he was the man of my dreams? Was I really in love, or was I just desperate?
What failure of imagination had caused me to forget that life was full of other possibilities, including the possibility that eventually I would fall in love again?
Vixely’s Favorite Ephron Movie Quotes:
From When Harry Met Sally…
Sally learns men and women can’t be friends in When Harry Met Sally...
Harry: You realize of course that we could never be friends.
Sally: Why not?
Harry: What I’m saying is — and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form — is that men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.
Sally: That’s not true. I have a number of men friends and there is no sex involved.
Harry: No you don’t.
Sally: Yes I do.
Harry: No you don’t.
Sally: Yes I do.
Harry: You only think you do.
Sally: You say I’m having sex with these men without my knowledge?
Harry: No, what I’m saying is they all want to have sex with you.
Sally: They do not.
Harry: Do too.
Sally: They do not.
Harry: Do too.
Sally: How do you know?
Harry: Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.
Sally: So you’re saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive?
Harry: No, you pretty much want to nail ‘em too.
Sally: What if they don’t want to have sex with you?
Harry: Doesn’t matter because the sex thing is already out there so the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.
Sally: Well, I guess we’re not going to be friends then.
Harry: Guess not.
Sally: That’s too bad. You were the only person that I knew in New York.
Harry: You know you just get to a certain point where you get tired of the whole thing.
Sally: What “whole thing”?
Harry: The whole life-of-a-single-guy thing. You meet someone, you have the safe lunch, you decide you like each other enough to move on to dinner. You go dancing, you do the white-man’s over-bite, go back to her place, you have sex and the minute you’re finished you know what goes through your mind? How long do I have to lie here and hold her before I can get up and go home. Is thirty seconds enough?
Sally: That’s what you’re thinking? Is that true?
Harry: Sure! All men think that. How long do you want to be held afterwards? All night, right? See there’s your problem, somewhere between thirty seconds and all night is your problem.
Sally: I don’t have a problem!
Harry: Yeah you do.
Harry: I think they have an OK time.
Sally: How do you know?
Harry: What do you mean how do I know? I know.
Sally: Because they…
Harry: Yes, because they…
Sally: And how do you know that they really…
Harry: What are you saying, that they fake orgasm?
Sally: It’s possible.
Harry: Get outta here!
Sally: Why? Most women at one time or another have faked it.
Harry: Well they haven’t faked it with me.
Sally: How do you know?
Harry: Because I know.
Sally: Oh, right, that’s right, I forgot, you’re a man.
Harry: What is that supposed to mean?
Sally: Nothing. It’s just that all men are sure it never happened to them and that most women at one time or another have done it so you do the math.
Harry: You don’t think that I could tell the difference?
Sally: No.
Harry: Get outta here.
[Sally begins to fake an orgasm]
Harry: Are you OK?
[Sally continues very audibly, attracting the attention of nearly every customer in the cafe. Afterwards, she returns to eating her dessert]
Older Woman Customer: [to waiter] I’ll have what she’s having.
Sally: I don’t have to take this crap from you.
Harry: If you’re so over Joe, why aren’t you seeing anyone?
Sally: I see people.
Harry: See people? Have you slept with one person since you broke up with Joe?
Sally: What the hell does that have to do with anything? That will prove I’m over Joe? Because I fuck somebody? Harry, you’re gonna have to move back to New Jersey because you’ve slept with everybody in New York and I don’t see that turning Helen into a faint memory for you. Besides, I will make love to somebody when it is making love. Not the way you do it like you’re out for revenge or something.
Harry: Are you finished now?
Sally: Yes.
Harry: Can I say something?
Sally: Yes.
Harry: I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
Harry: I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and the thing is, I love you.
Sally: What?
Harry: I love you.
Sally: How do you expect me to respond to this?
Harry: How about, you love me too?
Sally: How about, I’m leaving?
Harry: Doesn’t what I said mean anything to you?
Sally: I’m sorry, Harry. I know it’s New Year’s Eve. I know you’re feeling lonely, but you just can’t show up here, tell me you love me, and expect that to make everything all right. It doesn’t work this way.
Harry: Well, how does it work?
Sally: I don’t know, but not this way.
Harry: How about this way? I love that you get cold when it’s 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you’re looking at me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
Sally: You see? That is just like you, Harry. You say things like that, and you make it impossible for me to hate you, and I hate you, Harry. I really hate you. I hate you.
From Sleepless in Seattle:
Doctor Marcia Fieldstone: People who truly loved once are far more likely to love again. Sam, do you think there’s someone out there you could love as much as your wife?
Sam Baldwin: Well, Dr. Marcia Fieldstone, that’s hard to imagine.
Doctor Marcia Fieldstone: What are you going to do?
Sam Baldwin: Well, I’m gonna get out of bed every morning… breathe in and out all day long. Then, after a while I won’t have to remind myself to get out of bed every morning and breathe in and out… and, then after a while, I won’t have to think about how I had it great and perfect for a while.
Doctor Marcia Fieldstone: Tell me what was so special about your wife?
Sam Baldwin: Well, how long is your program? Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together… and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home… only to no home I’d ever known… I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like… magic.
Sam Baldwin: Didn’t you see Fatal Attraction?
Jonah Baldwin: You wouldn’t let me!
Sam Baldwin: Well I saw it and it scared the shit out of me! It scared the shit out of every man in America!
Jay: Well, this is fate! She’s divorced, we don’t want to redo the cabinets, and you need a wife. What do they call it when everything intersects?
Sam Baldwin: The Bermuda Triangle.
From You’ve Got Mail:
Kathleen: I started helping my mother after school here when I was six years old. And I used to watch her. And it wasn’t that she was just selling books, it was that she was helping people become whoever it was (that) they were going to turn out to be. Because when you read a book as a child it becomes part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does…
Kathleen: Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life. Well, valuable, but small. And sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven’t been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn’t it be the other way around? I don’t really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So goodnight, dear void.
More on women in romantic comedies by Vixely.
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