Dr. Louise Banks: If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?
Ian Donnelly: Well, the cornerstone of civilization isn't language, it's science.
Dr. Louise Banks: And "purpose" requires an understanding of intent. We need to find out, do they make conscious choices or is their motivation so instinctive that they don't understand a "why" question at all. And-And biggest of all, we need to have enough vocabulary with them that we understand their answer.
Costello: Abbott is death process.
Dr. Louise Banks: Come back to me.
Ian Donnelly: You know I've had my head tilted up to the stars for as long as I can remember. You know what surprised me the most? It wasn't meeting them. It was meeting you.
Dr. Louise Banks: You can understand communication and still end up single.
Answer: The Heptapods' "present" encompassed about 6000 years of our human past, present and future. So, they perceived 3000 years of our past and 3000 years of our future simultaneously. It's a confounding idea to humans, but the Heptapods already knew, 3000 years in advance, that Louise was the critical contact for the evolution of communication between our species. For the Heptapods, there was no coincidence or impatience or blind luck; they already knew exactly when and how to start communicating with her.
Charles Austin Miller