Robin Williams

Good Will Hunting: 10 Best Robin Williams Quotes

Robin Williams delivered 10 best quotes in the classic '90s movie Good Will Hunting.

Robin Williams embodies many a beloved character that fans will identify from growing up with alongside their childhood and more, and amongst possibly the most adored of all is his role as Sean, the tough-love therapist in Good Will Hunting.

Fans of this movie will easily recall the iconic bench scene in which Sean faces off with Will, hard-headed boy-genius played by Matt Damon. This is only one of several scenes in the movie that makes themselves memorable for the powerful words shared between characters–and some of the best quotes of all come from the mouth of the legend himself, Robin Williams.

10. We Get To Choose Who We Let Into Our Weird Little Worlds

Sean tries to get Will to understand that, despite what people commonly say, the imperfections about us are the very things that are worth getting to know and savoring. He speaks of the fact that there is a beauty to truly getting to know the flaws of a person, the weird little things about them, and how wonderful it is that people get to choose who to invite into getting to know them.

9. You’ll Have Bad Times, But That’ll Always Wake You Up To The Good Stuff You Weren’t Paying Attention To

Sean is often attempting to help Will overcome his fear of intimacy and of putting himself out there in life, the fear of something bad happening, and ruining what feels safe. Sean flips this, sharing the fact that even when bad things happen in life, they aren’t all bad–because they provide the contrast for a person to notice all of the things that their comfort had allowed them to take for granted.

8. You’ll Never Have That Kind Of Relationship In A World Where You’re Afraid To Take The First Step Because All You See Is Every Negative Thing Ten Miles Down The Road

Will plays it tough, but Sean sees the reality of Will’s self-protective behaviors. Will would like to believe that the walls he puts up around him make sense, that it’s perfectly practical and clever to keep new people and new experiences at an arm’s length. Sean calls Will out for this, emphasizing that what he thinks is protecting him is actually fencing him in, immobilizing him and possibly hurting him more than whatever it is would run into down the road of risking himself.

7. That’s A Super Philosophy, Will. That Way You Can Go Through Your Entire Life Without Having To Ever Really Know Anybody

Will prefers the company of the authors he reads to actual real people. He has close friends like Chuckie Sullivan (Ben Affleck), but they aren’t the kind of people he can have much of a conversation with in a way that challenges him. What they do have is loyalty and reliability, qualities that are safe to Will.

However, as Sean points out, by avoiding pursuing more complex relationships and meeting new people, Will might go through his life only ever knowing people on a surface level–and having nobody truly know him.

6. I Know Who I Am And I’m Proud Of What I Do. It Was A Conscious Choice, I Didn’t F*Ck Up!

The storyline of Sean’s career choice is a subtle one in the movie, but one that contributes well to the issues of class differences and career elitism that Will also struggles with. Gerry is convinced that Sean failed in life, and constantly drops hints suggesting his disdain and embarrassment for Sean. Quite to the contrary of what Gerry thinks, Sean is actually happy with his life–something Gerry, who rules his life based purely on traditional signs of public approval, can’t understand that Sean is able to assign his own value to his life, and mean it.

5. It’s Not About You, You Mathematical D*Ck!

Gerry once again exemplifies the pretensions and self-referential habits of the elitist academic world, sparking a dramatic performance between himself and Sean. Rather than think about what is actually good for Will as a person, and see that Sean is acting purely in Will’s interest, Gerry is obsessed with the idea that Sean is jealous of Gerry’s accomplishments and therefor trying to hold Will back from joining Gerry’s world.

4. You’re Just A Kid. You Don’t Have The Faintest Idea What You’re Talkin’ About

In possibly the most famous scene of the movie, Sean takes Will to sit in the park and reflects on the comments Will made the day before about a painting in Sean’s office, the beginnings of the iconic chemistry formed between Matt Damon and Robin Williams in the film.

Until now, Will has scared off every therapist he’s seen by analyzing their lives and making them feel inferior. Sean resists Will’s game and instead points out that no matter how flashy his knowledge is, Will’s behavior is all a show, with no substance to back it up.

3. I Can’t Learn Anything About You, I Can’t Read In Some F*Ckin’ Book

Will thinks that because he has read further and wider than most that he is superior to them, that he can understand most things they can’t–even about themselves. It doesn’t occur to him that if someone were to try to understand him by reading a book generally about someone with his similar background, it wouldn’t actually tell them much about him–because people are more complicated than that. Sean teaches Will to treat people with such respect by giving him the same.

2. The Question Is Whether Or Not You’re Perfect For Each Other

Will is skeptical about going on a second date with Skylar. Their first date was so perfect, fitting his ideal of how a date should be, that he can’t stand the idea of letting a second meeting ruin it. Sean breaks down this idea of perfection, telling Will that Skylar will never be perfect, nor Will. Instead of fearing imperfection, he should be looking for someone whose imperfections meld well with his own–making them, in a way, perfect together.

1. F*Ck Them, Okay?

A simple, subtle quote that’s hardly noticeable upon first watching, this line comes immediately after the most intense scene in Good Will Hunting, in which Sean finally breaks through to Will and they share an emotional embrace. Sean says a lot of beautiful, detailed combinations of things in the film, but at this moment his words are direct and to the point, coming in a form that can be understood as both someone who has grown up in the rough neighborhood that Will did, someone who looks at him as a sort of son he wants to protect, and someone who, most of all, is a friend–emphasizing that while they are hugging over the people who have hurt Will, Sean is asserting himself as the kind of person Will can now look to.

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