How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Quote #1
We see a girl walk up to a memorial for the Author and hang a hotel key below his bust. She looks at her pink book, titled The Grand Budapest Hotel.
The Author is remembered and celebrated, and he's remembered because of the book he wrote about the Grand Budapest (hence the hotel room keys)… which is in turn a memory of Mustafa, who tells the Author the original story.
Quote #2
The girl turns over her book and on the back we see a black and white photograph of the Author. As we zoom into the picture, the photograph comes alive and we find ourselves watching a living Author in 1985.
Just like the Author goes from dead to living, so will the past come alive thanks to the people who tell of it. The Author becomes in many ways like Mustafa who is in many ways like Gustave. Each of them leaves behind a legacy powerful enough to be remembered by those who come after.
Quote #3
THE AUTHOR: I decided to spend the month of August in the spa town of Nebelsbad below the Alpine Sudetenwaltz, and had taken up rooms in the Grand Budapest, a picturesque, elaborate, and once widely celebrated establishment. I expect some of you will know it. It was off season and, by that time, decidedly out of fashion, and it had already begun its descent into shabbiness and eventual demolition.
The Grand Budapest isn't so grand anymore. Yet, although past its prime, the Author admires it for the beauty it once held. As he speaks, the image of the hotel changes from its pastel beauty to its current old, grey state. Just as this transition occurs, the Author's narration suddenly changes, from the old self we just saw to the voice of his younger self.