Pixar’s Soul: 20 Best Quotes From The Movie

Pixar’s Soul has breathtaking animation, characters the audience can root for, and it’s fun for kids, while also offering some thoughtful expressions about life to the adults in the audience.

The characters express these sentiments in a way that’s accessible for the younger crowd (it is Pixar, after all), but unlike most other mainstream entertainment targeted at kids, there’s actually a message and point behind most of the dialogue.

Updated on January 16th, 2022 by Mark Birrell: Pixar’s movies are known for their inspiring quotes and Soul has plenty to add to the company’s list so far. From Joe and 22 to the Jerrys, Soul is bursting with insight, philosophy, and heartfelt emotion. Its musings and its gags will both live on with some of the most memorable Pixar quotes of all time.

Joe Explains What Motivates Him

“And I wanted to learn how to talk like that. That’s when I knew I was born to play.”

The main subject of Soul, beyond spiritualism and the afterlife, is music. However, despite the movie’s focus on sound and music, the subject is really a representation of any creative discipline.

True believers in a particular form of artistic expression often equate their chosen medium to a form of language, through which they can truly communicate with others in a way that normal everyday interaction doesn’t allow for. Joe is a true believer in music and this early quote in the film from him makes that very clear for the audience from the get-go.

Looking At The Great Beyond

“This beats my dream about the walrus.”

When Joe first ends up on the conveyor leading up to the Great Beyond, he talks to three other souls who help him understand that he’s experiencing death. One of them remarks on how the experience beats their dream about a walrus and, according to a review in The Globe and Mail, this is in the Inuit language, Inuktitut.

The exact meaning of the walrus is open to interpretation and it may just be a simple gag, though, as per JaMonkey, some have interpreted it as a reference to Inuit mythology.

Joe Knows A Lot About Music

“See, the tune is just an excuse to bring out the you.”

As Joe explains the passion that he feels for music to 22, he’s clearly deeply involved with the process of making music, knowing and loving each and every aspect of the methods behind it.

Joe also clearly has his sense of identity tied to music and his feelings toward it. While his sentiment is relatable and inspiring for anyone creatively minded, there’s a naivety to his words that only really becomes apparent later.

Dorothea Williams’ Story

“This is water. What I want is the ocean.”

After living his dream and playing with Dorothea Williams, Joe is left in an odd position, having finally achieved something that he had dreamed of for most of his life and not knowing what to do next.

Dorothea points out that all there is to do is to do it again the following evening and continue. She then tells Joe a story about a fish searching for the ocean, echoing a famous quote from The Wire about the way that life slips past people. Not being able to see the forest for the trees–or the ocean for the water–is Joe’s main issue, as Dorothea points out with this insightful comparison.

A Harsh Reality

“You can’t eat dreams for breakfast, Joey.”

Joe’s mother is often an intimidating figure throughout the movie, but ultimately the closest person Joe has in his life also. She’s very grounded and this clashes with Joe while he has his head in the clouds.

When they finally have it out in the movie, Joe gets to express to her that he feels like she hasn’t been supporting his passion in life and she gets to reason her case for being cautious. Neither of them is fully right or wrong, it’s a complex situation as outlined by this undeniable truth from Joe’s mother.

Jerry Tries To Explain The Inner Workings Of The Universe

“I Am The Coming Together Of All Quantized Fields Of The Universe Appearing In A Form Your Feeble Human Brain Can Comprehend.”

Jerry the counselor meets Joe when he arrives in the afterlife and Joe is, understandably, confused by his current situation. Joe doesn’t accept his fate and tries to reason with Jerry, but before he does, he asks Jerry who he is.

Jerry responds with this line saying that he’s a counselor whose job is to counsel souls who have newly arrived in the afterlife and help them adjust to their new reality, but Jerry chooses to appear in a more friendly form when greeting the souls. It shows just how high-concept the idea of the movie is, which makes its execution all the more impressive.

Joe Only Has One Wish

“Music Is All I Think About. From The Moment I Wake Up In The Morning To The Moment I Fall Asleep At Night.”

Joe is obviously passionate about music throughout the entire movie and while the movie says it’s good to have a passion, or a spark, in life it’s also important not to let this passion overly consume a person.

After his experience, Joe learns to appreciate every little thing in his life while still appreciating music and not allowing himself to be overwhelmed by the possibility of not achieving exactly what he wants with his passion. This line is a great example of how the dialogue in Soul is recontextualized and takes on new meanings as the story progresses.

22 Is Unteachable

“The World Doesn’t Revolve Around You, 22!”

After she’s introduced, there’s a hilarious and very meta montage of 22 going through several famous mentors including Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, and Nicolaus Copernicus.

Copernicus says this line referencing his discovery that everything does not revolve around the Earth, and delivers a quintessential Pixar gag that’s smart while still being enjoyable for both kids and adults.

Moonwind Gives Some Good Advice

“The Zone Is Enjoyable. But When That Joy Becomes An Obsession, One Becomes Disconnected From Life.”

Moonwind tries to help Joe and 22 return to their own bodies as he’s able to see through life, the afterlife, and the zone. The zone is full of people who have become all consumed by their passions and spark in life.

Moonwind has a great line about how having a passion and living in the zone temporarily is enjoyable, but letting that one thing completely consume a person’s life is dangerous.

Joe Needs To See The Wider World

“Life Is Full Of Possibilities. You Just Need To Know Where To Look.”

Joe spends the movie learning how to better approach life so he can be more appreciative of the time he has on Earth instead of being so worried and upset about his achievements, or failures, with music.

Joe learns that there’s more to life than just pursuing a dream and that he can enjoy the little things instead of being obsessed with his career, and in so doing he finds inspiration from the tiny details of life that he’d disregarded before.

Joe Knows Exactly What He Wants To Do With His Life

“My only purpose on this planet is to play. It’s what I was meant to do and nothing’s gonna stop me.”

Joe says this line to Dorothea when he’s convincing her to let him have another shot at playing with her and her band. He means every word of it when he says it and it’s essentially proven true by the previous events of the movie.

Music is everything to Joe and he lives and breathes it. Once he lands in the Soul World, he believes music is his “spark” — hence him being literally born to play. Joe’s journey throughout Soul isn’t clear-cut, with his love of music neither being a fully positive nor negative thing about him. Nevertheless, his self-assuredness is inspiring.

Joe’s Mother Tells The Truth

“Lord Knows We Need More Teachers In This World.”

This line is spoken by Libba, Joe’s caring but often overbearing mother, and while it might not have been what Joe wanted to hear, it is an essential truth.

The audience sees throughout the movie how Joe’s teaching impacts his students, particularly Curley, who went on to play with The Dorothea Williams Quartet, and Connie, who despite being young, seems to have a natural talent for music.

22 Knows All About Earth

“Can’t Crush A Soul Here. That’s What Life On Earth Is For.”

This witty line comes from 22 in The Great Before, after Joe witnesses a piece of the landscape falls on a group of souls who then scatter away, unharmed.

For someone who’s never been on Earth, 22 sure knows a lot about it — but her knowledge actually gives her all the more reason to be skeptical.

22 Asks The Big Question

“Is All This Living Really Worth Dying For?”

One of Soul‘s more poignant lines also comes from 22, who muses whether “living” is really worth dying for. She seems fine with her routine at the You Seminar, solving sudoku puzzles and getting to torment a new mentor once a week.

However, once she spends some time in Joe’s body, she realizes how beautiful and amazing life on Earth really is.

The Cruelty Of 22

“I’ve Been Messing With This Team For Decades.”

A more jokey line from the movie, also from 22, serves as a jab at the New York Knicks. While showing Joe around “the Zone,” 22 hits a basketball player, who then proceeds to miss his dunk and lose the game for the Knicks.

22 then jokes “I’ve been messing with this team for decades.” The line was actually put in by Soul co-writer Kemp Powers, a self-professed die-hard Knicks fan.

Joe’s Worst Fear

“I’m Just Afraid That If I Died Today My Life Would Have Amounted To Nothing.”

Near the film’s climax, Libba finds out that Joe’s going to play for The Dorothea Williams Quartet, despite his insistence that he would accept the full-time teaching position.

This initially seems to disappoint her, but once Joe makes his impassioned plea (one that’s all the more fitting considering he did die that day), she agrees to help him out. Joe’s vulnerability in this scene with his mother is heartwarming and produces some of Pixar’s most emotional scenes ever.

A Soul’s Purpose

“A Spark Isn’t A Soul’s Purpose.”

Joe is initially trying to find the thing 22 is destined to do in life, believing that to be her “spark,” but he eventually learns through his encounters with Dez and Jerry that a “spark” isn’t a soul’s purpose, rather, it’s just a sign that they’re ready to live life on Earth.

This revelation enables him to give 22’s Earth Pass back. Joe’s obsession with purpose and fulfillment has kept some important and obvious truths from him and this is perhaps the film’s biggest whammy moment.

Soul Is All About Going With The Flow

“You’re Really Good At Jazzing.”

While 22 is in Joe’s body, she begins to love all the different things life has to offer, from music to pizza to even just walking. She begins to refer to living in general as “jazzing”.

By the end of the movie, when Joe has realized that 22 was ready to live life all along and just needed encouragement, he tells her she’s “really good at jazzing” and it’s one of the movie’s sweetest moments.

The Counselors Consider Inspiration

“We’re In The Business Of Inspiration, Joe, But It’s Not Often We Find Ourselves Inspired.”

The abstract counselors that inhabit the Great Before do their best to help every soul, but for thousands of years, they never found a way to show 22 the joys of life.

Joe, by giving her the chance to experience it for herself, has done what none of them could do. The Jerrys find this inspiring, and it’s what encourages them to give Joe a second chance at life, tying a satisfying bow on the movie’s journey.

Joe’s Parting Words

“I’m Going To Live Every Minute Of It.”

Joe’s motives finally come full circle by the end of the movie, with him realizing that the best part of living isn’t chasing ambition or catching hold of a fleeting dream — it’s just living.

With his renewed sense of self and the second chance he received courtesy of the Jerrys, he’s ready to truly live every minute and these words close out the movie perfectly.

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