Ramón Sampedro Quotes in The Sea Inside (2004)

Ramón Sampedro: When you can't escape, and you constantly rely on everyone else, you learn to cry by smiling, you know?

Ramón Sampedro: The person who really loves me will be the one who helps me die. That's love, Rosa. That's love.

Padre Francisco: Freedom without a life is not freedom.

Ramón Sampedro: A life without freedom is not a life.

[last lines]

Ramón Sampedro: Out to sea. Out to sea, and in the weightlessness of the deep where dreams come true, two souls unite to fulfill a single wish. Your gaze and mine, over and over like an echo, repeating silently: "Deeper, and deeper," beyond everything that is flesh and blood. But I always awaken and I always wish for death, my lips forever entangled in your hair.

Ramón Sampedro: [in monologue] Only time and the evolution of consciences will decide one day if my request was reasonable or not.

Julia: Why choose death?

Ramón Sampedro: Well, I want to die because I feel that a life for me, in this state has no dignity. I understand that other quadriplegics may take offense to my saying there's no dignity in this, but I'm not trying to judge anyone. Who am I to judge those who choose life? So don't judge me or anyone who wants to help me die.

Julia: You think someone will help?

Ramón Sampedro: Well, that depends on the powers that be. They'll have to overcome their fear. But hey, it's really no big deal. Death has always been with us and always will be. It catches up with all of us. Everyone. It's part of us. So why are they shocked because I choose to die, as if it were contagious?

Julia: If this goes to court, they'll ask why you haven't explored all alternatives. Why refuse a wheelchair?

Ramón Sampedro: Accepting a wheelchair would be like accepting the scraps of the freedom I lost. Think about this: You're sitting there, three feet away. What's three feet? An insignificant distance for any human being. But for me, those three feet that keep me from reaching you, from touching you, are an impossible journey. Just an illusion. A fantasy. That's why I want to die.

Julia: Too bad there's no view of the sea.

Ramón Sampedro: Just as well. This way I see it when I choose.

Julia: What do you mean?

Ramón Sampedro: When I'm in the mood, I concentrate and walk I out to the sea. I fly there.