Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking, the erroneous notion that a different time period is better that the one one is living in. It's a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.
This statement is actually revealing on a number of levels; on the fact of it, it demonstrates Paul's conviction that he is intellectually superior to everyone else, and that he is able to judge others and their flaws from his elevated position. However, his statement is also a conclusion that Gil comes to himself towards the end of the film. He has always been nostalgic for the 1920s and this is why his time travel begins during this time period. He believes it to be the golden age, and so he is rather surprised when the iconic figures he meets yearn to have been a part of what they believe to have been the true golden age - the Renaissance. Adriana believes that when they travel back to the late eighteen hundreds, this is the age she wants to be a part of.
Gil realizes that everyone is yearning for another time, and that any time, when one becomes used to it, can become jaded if one doesn't appreciate fully the glory of it. In this way he surprisingly agrees with Paul, but the epiphany enables him to make changes in his life that enable him to enjoy it fully, and therefore enjoy the present more.
If it's bad, I'll hate it because I hate bad writing. If it's good, I'll be envious and hate it all the more.
Gil is trying to complete his first novel. He gives the draft to Ernest Hemingway when they meet at a Paris bar. Ernest is keen to read it, and to show it to his friend Gertrude Stein. He explains that he hates bad writing because it offends his sensibilities; he appreciates good writing and so bad writing is an affront to both his own talent as a writer, and his intelligence as a reader.
However, if the novel is good, and well written, he will hate it all the more, because he will envy Gil's prose, and the way in which the book is written. He will wish that he had written it, and this means that he will like it so much that he will hate it.
This content is illuminating in terms of portraying writing as both a group activity and a competitive sport, and it also shows that Hemingway was envious of those who wrote well, and easily, because at times he suffered terribly from writers' block, and a well written novel during this period would make him extremely jealous.
We don't have the big things in common, we have the little things.For example, we both like Indian food. Well, not all Indian food, but the pita bread. We both like pita bread.
Clearly, Gil is in denial about his relationship. On the fact of it, his statements are incredibly sweet; he sees the little things as important and the glue that can bind a couple together even when they disagree on the bigger things. However, the little things that they have in common get ever smaller, diminishing as he thinks about the statement he has just made. They both like pita bread. This is the only thing that they have in common; traveling to Paris and experiencing his own "golden age" has only served to illuminate just how wrong he and Inez are for each other.
