20 Best Elio Quotes

Oliver: Is there a bank in town? I'd like to start an account while I'm here.
[accidentally breaks his soft boiled egg]
Mafalda: [in Italian] Let me do it.
Oliver: [in English] Sorry.
[Mafalda cracks open another egg for Oliver]
Mr. Perlman: It happens to the best of us.
Oliver: Yeah, well...
Mr. Perlman: [chuckling] None of our residents has ever had a local bank account.
Oliver: Really?
Elio: Should I take him to Montodine?
Mr. Perlman: I think they're closed for summer vacation. You try... Crema.
Elio: Crema?

Mr. Perlman: Have I spoken out of turn? Then I'll say one more thing. It'll clear the air. I may have come close, but I never had what you two have. Something always held me back or stood in the way. How you live your life is your business, just remember, our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once. And before you know it, your heart is worn out, and, as for your body, there comes a point when no one looks at it, much less wants to come near it. Right now, there's sorrow, pain. Don't kill it and with it the joy you've felt.
Elio: Does mom know?
[long pause]
Mr. Perlman: I don't think she does.

Elio: I miss you.
Oliver: I miss you too, very much. I have some news.
Elio: News? Oh, you're getting married, I suppose.
Oliver: I might be getting married next spring, yeah.
Elio: You never said anything.
Oliver: Well, it's been off and on for two years.
Elio: That's wonderful news.
Oliver: Do you mind?

Elio: Malfada? Mom? Yeah, it's me. Yeah, everything's fine, I'm at the station in Clusone. Listen, Mom, can you...
[voice breaking]
Elio: Can you come get me, mom?

Oliver: Mind if I put this in your bag?
Elio: Yes, please.

[Oliver finds Elio's "peach"]
Elio: I'm sick, aren't I?
Oliver: I wish everyone was as sick as you.

Oliver: Can I kiss you?
Elio: Yes, please.

Oliver: Is there anything you don't know?
Elio: I know nothing, Oliver.
Oliver: Well, you seem to know more than anyone else around here.
Elio: Well, if you only knew how little I really know about the things that matter.
Oliver: What "things that matter?"
[long pause]
Elio: You know what things.
Oliver: Why are you telling me this?
Elio: Because I thought you should know.
Oliver: Because you thought I should know?
Elio: Because I wanted you to know.
Elio: [to himself] Because I wanted you to know. Because I wanted you to know. Because I wanted you to know.
Elio: [to Oliver] Because there's no one else I can say this to but you.
Oliver: Are you saying what I think you're saying?
[Elio nods]
Oliver: Wait for me here. Don't go away.
Elio: You know I'm not going anywhere.

Mr. Perlman: You're too old not to accept people for who they are. What's wrong with them? What's wrong with them? You call them Sonny and Cher behind their backs...
Elio: That's what mom calls them. That's what mom calls them!
Mr. Perlman: ...and then accept gifts from them. The only person that reflects badly on is you. Is it because they're gay or because they're ridiculous?

Elio: Maybe it made sense when you wrote it.

Elio: I thought that he did not like me

[writing a letter to Oliver, voices overlapping]
Elio: Please don't avoid me. It kills me. I can't stand thinking you hate me. Your silence is killing me. I'd sooner die than know you hate me. I am such a pussy.
Elio: [to himself] Way over the top.
[rips the paper out and writes another note]
Elio: Can't stand the silence. I need to speak to you.

Elio: They know about us.
Oliver: I figured.
Elio: How?
Oliver: From the way your dad spoke to me, he made me feel like a part of the family, almost like a son-in-law. You're so lucky! My father would have carted me off to a correctional facility.
Elio: Elio. Elio, Elio, Elio, Elio, Elio, Elio, Elio, Elio...
[long pause over the phone followed by a sigh]
Oliver: Oliver. I remember everything.

Annella: [Reading from The Heptaméron] A handsome young knight is madly in love with a princess, and she too is in love with him, though she seems not to be entirely aware of it. Despite the friendship that blossoms between them, or perhaps because of that very friendship, the young knight finds himself so humbled and speechless that he is totally unable to bring up the subject of his love. Until one day he asks the princess point-blank: Is it better to speak or to die?
Elio: I'll never have the courage to ask a question like that.
Mr. Perlman: I doubt that. Hey, Elly-Belly. You do know that you can always talk to us?

Mr. Perlman: You two had a nice friendship.
Elio: Yeah...
Mr. Perlman: You're too smart not to know how rare, how special what you two had was.
Elio: Oliver was Oliver.
Mr. Perlman: Parce-que c'etait lui, parce-que c'etait moi.
Elio: Oliver may be very intelligent but...
Mr. Perlman: Oh no, no, no. He was more than intelligent. What you two had, had everything and nothing to do with intelligence. He was good. You were both lucky to have found each other, because you too are good.
Elio: I think he was better than me. I think he was better than me.
Mr. Perlman: I'm sure he'd say the same thing about you. Which flatters you both.

Elio: [to Oliver, crying] I don't want you to go.

[Elio grabs Oliver's crotch]
Elio: Am I offending you?
[Oliver takes Elio's hand and moves it]
Oliver: Just don't.

Oliver: I like the way you say things. I don't know why you're always putting yourself down though.
Elio: So you won't, I guess.

Elio: Just watch, this is how he'll say goodbye to us when the time comes, with his, "Later."
Annella: Meanwhile we'll have to put up with him for six long weeks, won't we, darling?
Mr. Perlman: I think he's shy. You'll grow to like him.
Elio: What if I grow to hate him?

Oliver: [to Elio playing the guitar] Sounds nice.
Elio: I thought you didn't like it.
Oliver: [looks at Elio, looks away again] Play it again, will you?
Elio: [walks into the house] Follow me.
Oliver: [Elio plays the piano] That sounds different; did you change it?
Elio: I changed it a little bit.
Oliver: Why?
Elio: I just played it the way Liszt would have played it if he'd altered Bach's version.
Oliver: Play that again.
Elio: Play what again?
Oliver: The thing you played outside.
Elio: Oh, you want me to play the thing I played outside?
Oliver: Please.
Oliver: [after Elio plays] I can't believe you changed it again!
Elio: Oh, I changed it a little bit.
Oliver: Yeah. Why?
Elio: I just played it the way Busoni would have played it if he'd altered Liszt's version.
Oliver: And what is wrong with Bach the way Bach would have played Bach's version?
Elio: [interrupting] Bach never wrote it for the guitar. In fact, they're not even sure Bach even wrote it.
Oliver: Forget I asked!
Elio: [Elio plays] It's young Bach. He dedicated it to his brother.