Novelist John tells his friend Carl, “M. Butterfly.” (0:06)
Television delivery man Joe tells John’s mother Beatrice, referring to his partner Amir, “He’s mentally ill, m’am.” (0:08)
John tells his sister-in-law Cheryl, “I’ve got a block.”
Cheryl tells her daughter Jill, “It’s when he can’t write.” (0:17)
John’s mother Beatrice tells him, referring to John’s brother Jeff and her picture phone, “I told him I like this, but it’s driving me crazy.” (0:26)
John tells Beatrice, “You know, when I’m down, and you give me these words of wisdom, and you say to me, ‘Honey, you don’t need to see a shrink,' just don’t be hard on yourself.” (0:32)
Poster for Barbarella on the wall of John’s room. (0:36)
John hangs posters for Planet of the Apes and 2001: a Space Odyssey on the wall of John’s room. He places figures of Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still and Robert the Robot from Forbidden Planet on a shelf.(0:37)
Beatrice asks John, “This is what you do when you’re blocked?” (0:39)
Beatrice tells John, “You’re making me nervous.” (0:40)
Beatrice tells John, referring to his sister, “She was in some sort of an institution for a few years.”
John, “Well I’m sure she went insane for spending a few dollars more for her food.” (0:47)
Beatrice tells her friends, “This market’s so confusing.” (0:47)
John tells Beatrice, “It’s like It Happened One Night for food.” (0:48)
John tells Beatrice, “It’s like Fantasia.”
Beatrice: “You must think of me as some sort of a moron.”
John: “Not a moron. Just someone who thinks I’m a moron.” (0:51)
Cheryl tells Jeff, “It means you’re a mama’s boy.” (1:10)
Beatrice tells John, referring to an elephant, “They say that these animals have better memory than even us.”
John: “Well, we don’t have that good of a memory. I don’t think animals get Alzheimer’s.” (1:11)
Beatrice’s lover Charles asks John, “Are you still blocked?”
”Still blocked?” (1:20)
Beatrice tells John, “You’re not going to analyze me at midnight.” (1:31)
John tells Beatrice, “We talk like two writers, one blocked and insecure...” (1:36)
References to The Graduate: John's Alfa Romeo Spider, and a modified version of the Simon and Garfunkel song Mrs. Robinson.