Inside I'm Dancing Quotes

When the kinetic Rory moves into his room in the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, his effect on the home is immediate. Most telling is his friendship with Michael, a young man with cerebral palsy and nearly unintelligible speech. Somehow, Rory understands Michael, and encourages him to experience life outside the confines of home.

[before leaving the Carrigmore institution]
Rory: If I've said or done anythin' earlier to offend ya' at any time, then... good!

Michael Connolly: Have you ever had a girlfriend?
Rory: Well, I've had more girlfriends than you've had speech therapy sessions, so...

Rory: [looking at Michael] You have the future, Michael. That's what *I* call a gift.

[Rory has just arrived at Carrigmore and is introducing himself]
Rory: Rory O'Shea. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Besides the full vocal range, I have the use of two fingers of my right hand, sufficient for self-propulsion and self-abuse. You can shake me hand or kiss me arse - but don't expect me to reciprocate.

[after Siobhan has handed in her notice as their carer]
Rory: Take a letter, Michael. To Dublin City Council. "Dear Sir or Madam. As wheelchair users with suicidal intentions, I must protest at a lack of facilities. None of the bridges are equipped with easy parapet access, thus curtailing the rights of the disabled to throw themselves in. Yours in *disgust*, Rory Gerard O'Shea and Michael Connolly."

Rory: [after Siobhan tells Rory there should be rules] It's not your job to make rules. Your job's to do exactly what we tell you to do! I do the interpreting. You do the cleaning, making the tea, cleaning up after us. You're our servant, Siobhan. Our skivvy. Our slave...
Siobhan: Are you going to shut up, or am I going to have to make you?
Rory: I'd like to see you try!
Siobhan: [she covers his mouth] Just remember, you're a servant too... Mister Interpreter...

Michael Connolly: [Siobhan is interpreting Michael's words] When I first met Rory I thought he was trouble. And I was right. He *is* trouble. Yet because he is seen as a rebel, you believe he hasn't the responsibility to live independently. But how do you learn to be responsible? You live in the world. You make your own decisions. You make your own mistakes. So if this panel can offer independent living to someone like me who until recently had no concept of what that meant, and refuse someone whose very life is an embodiment of independence, then I believe that the panel showed a prejudice.

[Police have just pulled Rory's car over. They realise he's disabled and are going to put him back in his chair]
Rory: Aren't you going to arrest me?
Garda Sergeant: No.
Rory: That's discrimination! Look, you're only doing that because I'm disabled. It's me civil right to be arrested!

[to the other patients in the home, who view his effervescent introduction of himself with apathy or disapproval]
Rory: So is it *always* this much fun here? Or is today somebody's birthday?

Siobhan: Can I ask you something? Were you born like this?
Rory: Like what?
Siobhan: Dodgy hair and shit taste in music.

Rory: [on using the money from the charity collection tin at the pub] It's funding for the needs of the disabled. I'm disabled and I need a drink.

Siobhan: Michael, I made a mistake. I thought I could do this but... I'm leavin'.
[Michael begs her not to go]
Rory: Michael, don't beg, it's undignified... Michael, parakeets don't mate with armadillos, that's the end of it!
Siobhan: That's a filthy bloody thing to tell him!
Rory: Is it? It's the truth!
Siobhan: Oh, it's the truth you want, is it? Okay, here's some. If you want to be equal, then you have to show people the SAME respect that you demand of them! In the real world, if you INSULT some guy in a pub, you EXPECT to get hammered! If you come home in the middle of the night, you don't EXPECT to find the help waiting in and if a woman says no to you, you accept that maybe you're NOT the right man for her. You don't ASSUME you have an automatic right to love because you're in a wheelchair!
Rory: Siobhan... You said you were goin'. I think you should go... Fuck off! I mean it!
Siobhan: You know what your disability is? You're an arsehole!

Interview Panelist: What was your purpose in coming here today?
Michael Connolly: A right must exist independently of its exercise.

Rory: [explaining why he can understand Michael's speech] I spent six years in a class sitting next to a kid that makes you sound like Laurence Fucking Olivier.