The Time Traveler’s Wife Best Quotes (TV Series)

Our list of the best quotes from HBO’s fantasy romantic drama TV series, The Time Traveler’s Wife, based on the novel of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger. The story follows the marriage of Clare and Henry (Rose Leslie and Theo James), which is complicated by time travel.

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1. Episode One

'You have two things to do with your time on this Earth. One, find the love of your life. Two, die as slowly as possible.' - Henry DeTamble (The Time Traveler's Wife) Click To Tweet

Clare Abshire: Why is love intensified by absence?

Henry DeTamble: How does it feel? How does it feel? Normal. You know. Like nothing. Like your attention wandered for a moment, and suddenly the book you’re reading is gone, your coffee’s gone, the room is gone, and you’re ankle-deep in a ditch. Or in the middle of a highway. Or in a field full of cows. And of course, you’re naked. Back in time, and naked.

'The future is what you're going to make. Sometimes, you can see the future in a bowl of slop. Other times, you remember that the future is just what shows up when you're looking for something else.' - Clare Abshire Click To Tweet

Clare Abshire: The bedsheets will go slack. Or the shower will keep running. Or the bacon will keep frying. Or you’ll hear a coffee cup smash on the floor, and you realize, he’s gone. It’s happened again. He’s just a pile of clothes. And then it starts. The waiting.

Henry DeTamble: Time travel. It’s not a super power. It’s a disability. It’s what’s wrong with me. I can’t keep hold of the current moment. I just slide off. And I fall back in time.

'Two people trying to be the person the other one already thinks they are. Love, basically.' - Henry DeTamble (The Time Traveler's Wife) Click To Tweet

Clare Abshire: When he’s gone, I wait, and I worry. I wonder where he is, when he is. If he’s in danger.

Henry DeTamble: Sometimes you ping straight back to where you were. You know, to your book, to your coffee, and it’s fine. It’s nothing. Five minutes, a nap. Sometimes it’s days, weeks, months, and you have to survive. Now, three things I got good at. Running, fighting, and stealing. You have to be good at those, when wherever you go, you’re naked.

'You know what's even worse, than being terrified all the time? The future. The future is the scariest thing in the world. Because suddenly, you are all in. No choice. Anyone can stand any kind of torture, except hope.' Click To Tweet

See more Episode 1 Quotes

Henry DeTamble: When did we first meet? First meet? Define “first”.

Clare Abshire: I married a time traveler. It’s complicated.

Clare Abshire: If you’re not a time traveler, the past is what you’re stuck with. If you’re an artist, or think you might be, the future is what you’re going to make. Sometimes, you can see the future in a bowl of slop. Other times, you remember that the future is just what shows up when you’re looking for something else.

Henry DeTamble: People think libraries are quiet places. To me a library is a crowd. If you’re a time traveler, the past is alive. It’s still happening, still dangerous. All those books on all those shelves are like the bars on a cage, and the beast inside is pacing. For everybody else, the past is over. For me, well, I’m still trying to survive it.

Matt: Henry. I’ve been meaning to ask you. Why do you leave piles of clothes all over the place?
Henry DeTamble: Doesn’t everyone?
Matt: No.
Henry DeTamble: It’s complicated.
Matt: Okay. I’m listening.
Henry DeTamble: It’s a long story.
Matt: Time isn’t a problem for me.
Henry DeTamble: Lucky you.

Clare Abshire: I wasn’t expecting to meet you today. I mean, definitely not in a library. You’re a librarian?
Henry DeTamble: Well, yeah.
Clare Abshire: A librarian.

Henry DeTamble: So, we’ve met then?
Clare Abshire: Yes. Well, no. I’ve met you. I saw that birthmark fourteen years ago. I’ve known you for fourteen years, and now you’re standing there looking like you’ve never seen me before.
Henry DeTamble: I haven’t.
Clare Abshire: I know.

Clare Abshire: You’re so young. You’re younger than I’ve ever seen you.
Henry DeTamble: Okay, do you understand why I don’t recognize you?
Clare Abshire: Yes.
Henry DeTamble: So, you know about my, you know.
Clare Abshire: Problem? Yes.
Henry DeTamble: Who told you?
Clare Abshire: You told me.

Henry DeTamble: Okay, we can’t talk here. We should get a coffee.
Clare Abshire: Or a drink.
Henry DeTamble: Okay, a drink.
Clare Abshire: Dinner!
Henry DeTamble: That escalated quickly.
Clare Abshire: Fourteen years.

Clare Abshire: So, has this never happened to you before? Like meeting someone in the wrong order?
Henry DeTamble: No.
Clare Abshire: Didn’t he warn you about this kind of thing?
Henry DeTamble: Didn’t who warn me?
Clare Abshire: The guy who trained you.

Henry DeTamble: In the future, in my future, I’m going to start showing up in your past.
Clare Abshire: Yes.
Henry DeTamble: For fourteen years.
Clare Abshire: One hundred and fifty-two times.
Henry DeTamble: How old was I back then?
Clare Abshire: I mean, oldest I’ve seen you is like forty something. And youngest, maybe about thirty. How old are you now?
Henry DeTamble: I’m twenty-eight.
Clare Abshire: You look so different. It’s like you’ve been all, tightened, you know. Renovated.

Henry DeTamble: Why you? Why would I go see you so many times?
Clare Abshire: We’re going to have to come back to that one.
Henry DeTamble: But there is a reason?
Clare Abshire: There’s a reason. Yeah.

Henry DeTamble: Any hobbies? Any favorite books? Any unusual sexual proclivities I should be aware of?
Clare Abshire: One.
Henry DeTamble: What’s that?
Clare Abshire: I’m going to marry you. I was going to build up to that. But there it is. I’m your future wife.

Henry DeTamble: You’re my wife?
Clare Abshire: Your future wife. Yes.
Henry DeTamble: I met you four hours ago, we haven’t even ordered yet.
Clare Abshire: I know. I know. I do. I mean, I get it. I get it. It’s like fourteen years for me. Just earlier today for you, it’s a lot.

Clare Abshire: Please, don’t do that.
Henry DeTamble: Do what?
Clare Abshire: Swallow, when I say the word “couple”.
Henry DeTamble: Did I just swallow?
Clare Abshire: Yeah, audibly. The next table looked over.

Young Clare Abshire: [after she meets Henry for the first time] Nell, you know what an imaginary friend is.
Nell: Sure.
Young Clare Abshire: I found one in the woods, and I’m going to dress him up, because he’s naked.

Young Clare Abshire: You’re bleeding.
Henry DeTamble: Well, you threw a shoe at me.
Young Clare Abshire: I’m not saying sorry.
Henry DeTamble: Why should you?

Young Clare Abshire: What’s that mark?
Henry DeTamble: Oh, that? That’s just a birthmark. Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt.
Young Clare Abshire: It looks like you stood on a strawberry and squished it.
Henry DeTamble: Someone else said that. No.
Young Clare Abshire: What’s wrong?
Henry DeTamble: Well, it wasn’t someone else.

Young Clare Abshire: Have you seen dinosaurs?
Henry DeTamble: I tickled a dinosaur’s tummy once. Twice actually, but it was in the Natural History Museum.
Young Clare Abshire: Real ones.
Henry DeTamble: Well, I travel in time, but not that far back. I tend to stay in the same time since I was born.
Young Clare Abshire: Is that not dinosaurs?
Henry DeTamble: No, Clare. That is not dinosaurs.

Young Clare Abshire: [referring to his wife] What’s her name?
Henry DeTamble: Well, funnily enough, her name’s Clare.
Young Clare Abshire: Like me.
Henry DeTamble: Yeah. Like you.
Young Clare Abshire: Was it love at first sight?
Henry DeTamble: God, I hope not.

Young Henry DeTamble: How do I get back home?
Henry DeTamble: It’ll just happen. Sometimes you don’t go straight back. You go to another time first. Once I went to three different times in a row, but mostly you ping straight back home.
Young Henry DeTamble: Can I go to the future too?
Henry DeTamble: Yeah. Sometimes. Not so often, but it happens.

Young Henry DeTamble: What do we do?
Henry DeTamble: What do you mean, “What do we do?”
Young Henry DeTamble: We’re time travelers. Do we solve crimes?
Henry DeTamble: No, Henry. Sorry. We don’t solve crimes, we commit them. We run, we steal, we fight. Wherever we show up in time, we’re naked, and we’re sick. We don’t get a choice.
Young Henry DeTamble: Are we the bad guys?
Henry DeTamble: Survivors are always the bad guys. That’s why it’s my job, to teach you how to be the baddest guy out there.

Young Henry DeTamble: So, I’m going to see you again?
Henry DeTamble: Yeah, lots of times.
Young Henry DeTamble: Do you promise?
Henry DeTamble: Yeah, I promise. In fact, when I was your age, exactly your age, there was a guy who came back in time and he trained me. So now, it’s my turn to train you.
Young Henry DeTamble: So, there’s lots of us?
Henry DeTamble: Yeah. There’s lots of us time travelers.

Henry DeTamble: How does that all sound, Henry? Me training you.
Young Henry DeTamble: Scary.
Henry DeTamble: Well, the world’s a scary place. So, you know what you got to be? You got to be scarier.

Henry DeTamble: [after he knocks out her date] What’s going to happen now is I’m going to take your boyfriend’s clothes and just go. If you like, you can put him in the recovery position and call the cops. Give them my description by all means, but I’m naked, you’ll find details surprisingly difficult to remember. Did he give you those flowers?
Donna: Yeah.
Henry DeTamble: Oh, that’s nice. He doesn’t seem like the type. Seeing as he’s kind of an a**hole, and this is a s**tty date anyway. Mind if I take them? I’m late for someone.

Clare Abshire: You know it’s funny, I’ve known you almost all my life, and you’re not what I was expecting.
Henry DeTamble: Am I a disappointment?
Clare Abshire: No. No. Oh, you’re just, well, you’re different.
Henry DeTamble: Well, different good or bad?
Clare Abshire: Just different.

Henry DeTamble: [as she starts to take off his clothes] Always been me who makes that move.
Clare Abshire: Yeah, it never will be again.

Henry DeTamble: If it’s something I’m not supposed to know yet, it’s probably best I don’t.
Clare Abshire: That’s what you said the last time.
Henry DeTamble: Good old me.

Clare Abshire: Why aren’t you permanently terrified?
Henry DeTamble: There’s always going to be days that you bleed, right? That’s true for everyone, not just me. All you can do is be happy it’s not today.
Clare Abshire: Henry.
Henry DeTamble: Yeah.
Clare Abshire: It’s not today.

Henry DeTamble: [as they’re kissing] Do you always get what you want?
Clare Abshire: Oh, always. I mean, I am horrible. It’s okay, you’re horrible too.
Henry DeTamble: I’m horrible?
Clare Abshire: Yeah.

Henry DeTamble: I’ve never seen you before in my life, and now you’re telling me you’re my wife. Doesn’t that sound a tiny bit scary mad to you?
Clare Abshire: Well, if I’m a scary mad person, why did you have sex with me?
Henry DeTamble: Well, to be honest I’d never need that good a reason.

Clare Abshire: So, you’re happy to f*** crazy women?
Henry DeTamble: Well, it would seriously limit my options if I wasn’t, wouldn’t it!

Henry DeTamble: Well, I didn’t mean any of those things I said.
Clare Abshire: Yeah, you did.
Henry DeTamble: So, I ran all the way here to tell you that, but then being stupid, I just stood outside and watched you at the window for about ten minutes.
Clare Abshire: Ten minutes? I only just sat down.

Clare Abshire: I’ve missed you.
Henry DeTamble: Well, you just slept with me.
Clare Abshire: No. No, I didn’t.
Henry DeTamble: Hey, come on. You just got yourself a new young man. What kind of guy do you think I am?
Clare Abshire: As it turns out, an a**hole. Was that the big secret you were keeping from me all these years? You’re a secret a**hole?
Henry DeTamble: It’s kind of every man’s secret.

Clare Abshire: I grew up waiting for you. Longing for you.
Henry DeTamble: I know.
Clare Abshire: No, you don’t. I formed myself around you. The idea of you. And you’re an a**hole.
Henry DeTamble: Well here’s the thing. The man you formed yourself around, shock twist, formed himself around you.
Clare Abshire: That’s f***ed up.
Henry DeTamble: Yep. So f***ed up, it has a name. Marriage.

Henry DeTamble: Two people trying to be the person the other one already thinks they are. Love, basically.
Clare Abshire: You didn’t hear what he just said.
Henry DeTamble: Clare, I said what he just said. You want to know why I said it? Because time travel is awful. It is s**t scary. It is waiting for the next storm to hit. Wondering if this time it’s going to kill you. That boy out there, time travel has never done one nice thing for him. Until today. Today he gets the winning lottery ticket.

Henry DeTamble: You know what’s even worse, than being terrified all the time? The future. The future is the scariest thing in the world. Because suddenly, you are all in. No choice. Anyone can stand any kind of torture, except hope.
Clare Abshire: Why didn’t he just say all that?
Henry DeTamble: He did. It just took me a while.

Clare Abshire: That’s a s**t jacket.
Henry DeTamble: Well, muggers can’t be choosers.

Clare Abshire: Older me gets you. And I get younger you, who’s a d**k. It’s not fair.
Henry DeTamble: No, he’s not a d**k. And you know that.
Clare Abshire: He’s not you. Seriously, how does he get to be you? What happens to him? Does he get hit by a f***ing meteorite?
Henry DeTamble: Yeah, going by the name of Clare.
Clare Abshire: Is that a compliment?
Henry DeTamble: I just called you a meteorite. Take it any way you like.

Henry DeTamble: Look on the bright side. He is way hotter than me.
Clare Abshire: No, he’s not.
Henry DeTamble: [as he waves to his younger self] Sure, he is. It’s okay. I don’t mind. In fact, I agree with you. I’ve f***ed him too.

Henry DeTamble: A boring old man told me something a very long time ago. He said you have two things to do with your time on this Earth. One, find the love of your life. Two, die as slowly as possible. You did part one tonight. Part two starts now. Play time is over.
Henry DeTamble (28): Do you ever get bored of hearing yourself talk?
Henry DeTamble: I don’t know. You tell me. No more time to waste, junior. You’ve seen the blood, you know something’s coming.
Henry DeTamble (28): Yeah. But not today.

Clare Abshire: I’m sorry I threw my shoe at you.
Henry DeTamble: Well, it’s about time.

Clare Abshire: Long ago, men went to sea and women waited for them. Standing on the edge of the water, scanning the horizon for the tiny ship. Now, I wait for Henry.

Henry DeTamble: I hate to be where she is not. And yet I’m always going and she can’t follow.

Clare Abshire: Why does he always go where I cannot follow?

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