How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
Quote #4
MIKE: […] this is my town and, to be honest, most people don't give a s*** about you here.
FAN LADY: You're Riggan Thomson, right? Would you mind having a picture with us here?
RIGGAN: No, no, no, no.
FAN LADY: Just, oh, thanks. [handing her phone to Mike] Would you mind? The button's on the bottom. [Mike takes the picture.] Oh, thank you. You're such a doll—so sweet…handsome [she kisses his cheek as her husband pulls her away].
Sure, Mike says he doesn't care for popularity but he's wrong to imply that Riggan isn't popular. This scene tells us that Birdman is right, Riggan was living the good life, full of fame an adoring fans. Now instead of pleasing the people the only person he has to please is the woman writing the theater reviews.
Quote #5
RIGGAN: Look, I'm trying to do something that's important.
SAM: This is not important.
RIGGAN: It's important to me, okay! Maybe not to you and your cynical friends whose only ambition is to go viral. But to me, my God, this is my career! This is my chance to finally do some work that means something!
SAM: That means something to who? You had a career, dad, before the third comic book movie. Before people started to forget who was inside that bird costume. You are doing a play based on a book that was written sixty years ago, for a thousand rich, old white people whose only real concern is gonna be where they go to have their cake and coffee when it's over. Nobody gives a s*** but you. And, let's face it dad, you are not doing this for the sake of art, you are doing this because you want to feel relevant again.
Riggan's only response to Sam is a downward glance. He has nothing to say because he knows she's right. The play has to be successful, not for the sake of the play itself, but for Riggan.
Quote #6
LESLEY: Why don't I have any self-respect?
LAURA: You're an actress, honey.
Maybe it's constantly pretending to be someone you're not that draws actors to their profession. Their willingness to sell their true, authentic selves to play a character that doesn't exist off the screen. Or maybe this is a commentary on how many awful movies Nick Cage has done…either way.