“- Susan Morrow: Why are you so driven to write?
- Edward Sheffield: I guess it's a way of keeping things alive. You know, saving things that will eventually die. If I write it down, then... it'll last forever.”
Amy Adams - Susan Morrow
Jake Gyllenhaal - Edward Sheffield

“Cuz it's real difficult in life to get things the way you want them. When I'm writing it's easy. But there's a fly in the ointment. I have no... talent.”
Kevin Corrigan - JJ Lask

“You have a genuine talent for slogans. It must be like having an ear for music.”

Ernest Truex - Mr. Baxter

“The voice you hear is not my speaking voice - but my mind's voice. I have not spoken since I was six-years-old. No one knows why - not even me. My father says it is a dark talent, and the day I take it into my head to stop breathing will be my last.”

Holly Hunter - Ada

“God doesn't give people talents that He doesn't want people to use. And He gave you The Touch. It's a power inside of you, down there where you keep your guts, boy. It's all you need to blast your way in and get back what they took from you.”

Louis Gossett Jr. - Charles "Chappy" Sinclair