Sterling Silver Dialogue #24

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

“All women are wonders because they reduce all men to the obvious."

(response) “So do martinis.”

“So you’re going to break this marriage up. Have you decided yet how you’re going to do it? Are you going to do it with an axe?!”

“You want [to see] me, Pa?”

(response) “Before you was born I did.”

"I've never forgotten you. You were even in my dreams. You saved me from growing old, dull and used up. My life was so empty. I felt so alone. But I kept thinking: I've no right to be sad. I'm happy. Someone loved me."

“I came to New York from upstate. I was gonna be a dancer. I was a brunette. Started on my toes and wound up on my heels.”

“It was a hot afternoon, and I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all along that street. How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?”

"Sister, I've known some pretty hard cases in my time; you make 'em all look like putty. You're not talking about a sack of gumdrops that's gonna be smashed - you're talking about a dame's life! You may think it's a funny idea for a woman with a kid to stop a bullet for you, only I'm not laughing!"

“Bick, you shoulda shot that fella a long time ago. Now he's too rich to kill.”

“All I want is to enter my house justified.”

"Somewhere in here I was born .. and there I died. It was only a moment for you, you took no notice."

“As you were leaving the room, you turned at the door, didn't you? And you said, ‘For a moment, I thought...’ What did you think? What did you think? Did you think that Dr. Jekyll was falling in love with you? You, with your cheap little dreams? Or did you think, perhaps - that in him, you saw a bit of me, Hyde?”

“Yes, I can be very cruel. I have been taught by masters.”

"It's human to lie. Most of the time we can't even be honest with ourselves.”

“Now it isn't that I don't like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I'm strangely drawn toward you, but - well, there haven't been any quiet moments.”

“Your husband keeps lousy company Mrs. Sampson… as bad as there is in L.A. And that’s as bad as there is.” 

“… but what the hell, a hole is a hole is a hole as they say.”

"Ya know something Verna, if I turned my back long enough for Big Ed to put a hole in it, there'd be a hole in it."

“I’m funny how? I mean funny like I’m a clown… I amuse you?”

“When Man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new world. What we'll eventually find in that new world, nobody can predict.”

“It’s a hard world for little things.”

“A strange calm possessed me. I thought more clearly than I had ever thought before - as if my mind were bathed in brilliant light. I recognised that part of my illness was rooted in hunger, and I remembered the food on the shelf, the cake thredded with spider web. I no longer felt hatred for the spider. Like myself it struggled blindly for the means to live.”

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #24 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #23

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

Special Film Noir Edition

"You know how it is, early in the morning, on the water. Everything’s quiet, except for the seagulls, a long way off. And you feel great. Then you come ashore, and it starts. And in no time at all, you’re up to your ears in trouble. And you don’t know where it began."

"You ever been locked up?"

(response) "Not the way you mean."

(reply) "I don't care what way it is. Some people can stand it and some people can't. The ones who can't would kill themselves and anybody else just to get out for five minutes."

"You don't think very much of people, do you?"

(response) "I don't think very much of anything."

"In this world, you turn the other cheek and you get hit with a lug wrench."

"Don’t ever change Tiger. I don’t think I’d like you with a heart."

"She looked like a very special kind of dynamite, neatly wrapped in nylon and silk. Only I wasn't having any. I'd been too close to one explosion already. I was powder shy."

"Too bad Nick took the car."

(response) "Even if the car were here we couldn't take it, not unless we'd want to spend the first night in jail. Stealing a man's wife, that's nothing... but stealing his car, that's larceny."

"I don't like this place."

(response) "It's a good spot. I used to come here with my girl when I was a kid.

(reply) It's more frightening than romantic.

(response) It's the way love is when you're young... life is when you're older."

"What’s happened to business, anyway? Got nothin’ to do but sit here dopin’ the horses. How do you like Killie in the 7th?"

(response) "Eh, she’ll still be runnin’ when they start the 8th."

"Oh, your breakfast is on the table, darling."

(response) "Where else would it be?"

"They tried to get her last night."

(response) "They. A wonderful word. And who are they? They're the nameless ones who kill people for the great whatsit. Does it exist? Who cares. Everyone everywhere is so involved in the fruitless search for what. Why don't you turn her over to Pat? It's his job to protect her, if she needs protection. Or to question her if that's what's needed. Why are you always tryin' to make a noise like a cop?"

"I never met Parry... but I know psychologically he's no killer. He was just dumb.

(response) "What makes you think you're so smart. All you know is T-squares and drafting boards and not even much about them or anything else!"

(reply) "We've been through all of that before! A couple of hundred thousand times. A couple of hundred thousand years ago when I was a monkey and thought I wanted to marry you."

(To the partygoers) "Seems I've lost my manners or would anyone here know the difference?"

"What do you know about anything? You probably had your bread buttered on both sides since the day you were born. Safe. Safe on first, second, third, and home."

"You're dead, son. Get yourself buried."

"Don't remove the gangplank, Sidney, you may wanna get back onboard."

"The cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river."

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #23 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #22

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

Special Film Noir Edition

"I can be framed easier than 'Whistler's Mother'.

"Those gates only open three times: when you come in, when you've served your time, or when you're dead."

"Is he dead?"

(response) "He was dead for a long time... He just didn't know it."

"Wanna drink?"

(response) "I never drink. You're very nervous."

(reply) "That's because I've never been killed before." 

"Do you fall in love with all of your clients?"

(response) "Only the ones in skirts."

"Mr. Campbell, as long as we're on this little jaunt together, you and I are going to stick so close together, we could wear the same pair of suspenders." 

"I saw the two of you, the way you were looking at each other tonight, like a couple of wild animals. Almost scared me."

(response) "It should. He's a man."

"Charles, at times your charm wears dangerously thin. Right now it's so thin I can see through it."

"You know a dame with a rod is like a guy with a knitting needle."

"Besides, Joe couldn't find a prayer in the Bible."

"You're no good and neither am I. That's why we deserve each other." 

"It's a dirty job but I pay clean money for it."

"Experience has taught me never to trust a policeman. Just when you think one's all right, he turns legit."

"A policeman's job is only easy in a police state."

"Come on, read my future for me."

(response) "You haven't got any."

(reply) "Hmm... What do you mean?"

(response) "Your future's all used up."

"Why should the Falls drag me down here at 5 o'clock in the morning? To show me how big they are and how small I am? To remind me they can get along without any help? All right, so they've proved it. But why not? They've had ten thousand years to get independent. What's so wonderful about that? I suppose I could too, only it might take a little more time."

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #22 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #21

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

(realising the pianist has composed the music he is playing) "You made that up?"

(response) "Yes."

(reply) "But you must be brilliant."

(response) "Oh, dazzling. People have to wear sunglasses."

"Oh, waiter... "

(response) "That isn't a waiter, my dear, that's a butler."

(reply) "Well I can't yell 'Oh butler', can I? Maybe somebody's name is Butler." 

(response) “You have a point. An idiotic one, but a point.” 

“Don’t wipe it away, Nat. Let me have my little vicious circle. You know, the circle is the perfect geometric figure: No end, no beginning."

"The only question I ever ask any woman is 'What time is your husband coming home?'"

"You ever been married?"

(response) "Not so you'd notice."

"You bastard."

(response) "Yes, sir. In my case an accident of birth. But you, you're a self-made man."

"You know, Jill, you remind me of my mother. She was the biggest whore in Alameda and the finest woman that ever lived. Whoever my father was, for an hour or for a month, he must have been a happy man."

"Tell me, was it necessary that you kill all of them? I only told you to scare them."

(response) "People scare better when they're dying."

"This country is crawling with Indians, and you're going fishing."

(response) "There are lots of ways to die. Starving to death isn't my favourite."

(about to be killed) “Don’t you want to hear my last words?”

(response) “I just did.” 

“What’s your name or what do they call ya?” 

(response) “My name’s Maxine and they call me Maxine. What are ya, a dick?”

(reply) “What are you scared? My name’s Hammer and they call me Hammer.”

(response) “And just as subtle.”

"Is there too much of a draft? Should I roll up the window?"

(response) "Just roll up your mouth, you talk too much. If I had known how much you talk I'd never have come out of my coma."

"You make me sick to my stomach."

(response) "Well use your own sink."

"Leo has the right idea. I like him. He's honest and he has a heart."

(response) "So opposites attract."

"I've been hoping to run into you."

(response) "What for? To recover the knife you stuck in my back?"

“There’ll always be a bottle of champagne burning in the window.”

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #21 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #20

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

Special Film Noir Edition

"Art is one of the remaining ecstasies that is neither immoral nor illegal.."

“We didn’t exactly believe your story, Miss O’Shaughnessy. We believed your two hundred dollars. I mean, you paid us more than if you’d been telling us the truth, and enough more to make it all right.” 

"I won't because all of me wants to regardless of consequences... and because you've counted on it.”

"I've got a pretty good bottle of rye in my pocket and I'd rather get wet in here.”

"You know what he’ll do when he finds out don't you? He'll beat my teeth out, then kick me in the stomach for mumbling.”

"Doesn’t it bother you at all that you’re married?"

(response) "What I want to know is, does it bother you?”

“I hate you so much I think I’m going to die from it.”

(at a roulette wheel) "That’s not the way to win."

(response) "Is there a way to win?"

(reply) "There’s a way to lose more slowly.”

"Maybe I’ll live so long that I’ll forget her. Maybe I’ll die trying.” 

"Maybe you shouldn’t dress like that."

(response) "This is a blouse and skirt. I don’t know what you’re talking about."

(reply) "You shouldn’t wear that body.” 

 “I wouldn’t give you the skin off a grape.” 

"Look, you’re a nice girl, but in case you’re thinking of mothering me, forget it. I’m no stray dog you can pick up, and I like my neck without a collar. Now get lost!” 

"I told you to keep away from that radio. If that battery is dead, it'll have company."

“A woman doesn’t care how a man makes his living, only how he makes love.”

"Okay Marlowe," I said to myself, ‘You’re a tough guy. You’ve been sapped twice, choked, beaten silly with a gun, shot in the arm until you’re as crazy as a couple of waltzing mice. Now let’s see you do something really tough—like puttin' your pants on.”

“Kiss me, Mike. I want you to kiss me. Kiss me. The liar’s kiss that says I love you and means something else. You're good at giving such a kiss. Kiss me." 

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #20 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #19

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies:  

Do you know where they're from?

"I'm surprised that you're going away with him."

(response) "I'm surprised you think I would. Why the guy's no good, never was any good, never will be any good. He was born that way. His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."

“The stork that brought you should have been arrested for peddling dope.”

"You, on the level? Why, for six bits you'd hang your mother on a meat-hook."

"You'll always be a two-bit cannon and when they pick you up in the gutter dead, your hand'll be in a drunk's pocket."

"I remember the first time you told me that... that you were just one punch away from the title. Don't you see Bill, you'll always be one punch away."

"... you don't know what a love affair is."

(response) "It's what goes on between a man and a .45 pistol that won't jam.

"Prayer's not gonna keep you from being killed."

(response) "People don't pray to keep from dying. They pray to keep from being disappointed when they do."

"It was the bottom of the barrel and I scraped it, but I didn't care. I had her."

"Oh Jeff, you ought to have killed me for what I did a moment ago."

(response) "There's still time."

"If I had been a ranch they would have named me the Bar Nothing."

"You know, Johnny, when you play solitaire you can only beat yourself."

"My old man always said, liquor doesn't drown your troubles... just teaches 'em to swim."

"You can't take the law into your own hands! Things aren't done that way!"

(response) "That depends on who's doing them."

"Of course, killing you is killing myself. It's the same thing. But you know, I'm pretty tired of both of us."

"This guy's got 'em like that. He's everything they say he is!

(response) "What about you, Sal? Are you everything they say you are?"

"There's a lot of nobility in this room. Must be the panelling."

"Beware the beast man... for he is the devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport... or lust... or greed. Yea he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home, and yours. Shun him. Drive him back into his jungle lair: for he is the harbinger of death."

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #19 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #18

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies:  

Do you know where they're from?

(to her grocer) "What do you have in the way of steaks?"

(reply) "Nothing in the way of steaks, I can get right to them."

(checking his watch) "This sun dial is ten minutes slow."

(his wife) "Yes, the sun is wrong, but your watch is right. Of course."

(a barber) "Would you like to have anything before lunch?"

(reply) "Yes, breakfast."

"I don't like this innuendo."

(reply) "That's what I always say: love flies out the door when money comes innuendo."

"Nice old piece of melodrama, kidnapping a girl. You've been reading too many dime novels."

"Why don't you go home to your wife? I'll tell you what, I'll go home to your wife, and outside of the improvement she'll never know the difference."

"Dad, let me congratulate you. I'm proud to be your son."

(reply) "My boy, you took the words right out of my mouth. I'm ashamed to be your father. You're a disgrace to our family name of Wagstaff, if such a thing is possible."

"I married your mother because I wanted children. Imagine my disappointment when you arrived."

(predicting what kind of "dish" a mob wife is before meeting her) ”Sixty-cent special. Cheap, flashy. Strictly poison under the gravy.”

"You know that because you’re perfectly sane."
(reply) "I’d rather be insane and alive than sane and dead."

"Well, could I get in touch with you?"

(reply) "You've touched enough already!”

"Alright, get lost. Take a couple of drop dead pills."

"She is beautiful as well as interesting, isn't she?"

(reply) "She's beautiful - that's always interesting."

"Well, what did you think of the picture?"

(reply) "Oh, it was fine. It was just a little long - about an hour and a half."

"Well, you see how it is: fools get away with the impossible."

(reply) "That's because they're the only ones who try it."

"They tell me you killed Ferraro. How did it feel?"

(reply) "He didn't say."

“When I get to likin' someone, they ain't around long.”

(reply) “I notice when you get to DISlikin' someone, they ain't around for long neither.”

"A little earlier I gave some thought to stealin' a kiss from you, although you are very young... and you're unattractive to boot. But now I'm of a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt."

(reply) "Well, one would be as unpleasant as the other."

"Whenever you want sanctuary, babe, here's where you'll find it...(taps thumb to chest) right here, in the ol' temple."

(reply) "Don't tap your heart, you'll break your finger. And if you're sanctuary, I'll take whatever else is lying around."

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #18 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #17

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies:  

Do you know where they're from?

"How tall are you, Yolanda?"
(reply) "With heels or without?"
(response) "With anyone. Me, for instance."
 

“Young lady! Are you trying to show contempt for this court?”
(response) “No. I’m doin’ my best to hide it.”

(about to gamble at cards) "Is this a game of chance?"
(response) "Not the way I play it, no."

"I didn't squawk about the steak, dear. I merely said I didn't see that old horse that used to be tethered outside here."

“You know I’ve been mad about you from the first time I laid eyes on you. Why, you’re my whole world! What do you want to do, drive me to the mad house?!”
(response) “No. I’ll call you a taxi.”

“Great town St. Louis. You were born there?”
(reply) “Yes”
(response) “What part?”
(reply) “Why, all of me.”

"Ruby, I must have you... your golden hair, your fascinating eyes, your alluring smile, and lovely arms, your form divine..."
(response) "Wait a minute, wait a minute. Is this a proposal, or are ya takin' inventory?"

“Are you in town for good?”
(reply) “I expect to be here but not for good.”

(announcing to several men at a bar) “It’s better to be looked over than overlooked.”

"What if she's right - he didn't do it, and they give him the chair?"
(response) "Suppose they do? What difference does it make? There's too many people in the world anyway."
(reply) "What's the use of talking to you? You think everything's a joke."
(response) "My son, it is. If it weren't, life wouldn't be worth living."

(a fake substitute teacher announcing to his students) "It's gonna be a really tough project. It's going to test your head, your brain, and your mind, too."

(to his “fellow” teachers during a meeting) “Those that cannot do, teach. Those that cannot teach, teach gym.”

(to his students) "Ok, here's the deal. I have a hangover. Who knows what that means?"
Frankie: "Doesn't that mean you're drunk?"
(teacher's response) "No. It means I was drunk yes-ter-day."

"What’s your nationality?"
(reply) "I’m a drunkard."

"Don't talk to me about self-respect. Self-respect is something you tell yourself you've got when you've got nothing else."

"Well, don't you even say 'Good night'?"
(response) "It's good-bye, and it's tough to say good-bye."
(reply) "Why is it? You've never seen me before tonight."
(response) "Every guy's seen you before somewhere. The trick is to find you."

"You see, if you make believe hard enough that something is true, then it is true for you."

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #17 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #16

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies:  

Do you know where they're from?

"You've got a nasty reputation Mr. Gitts. I like that."

Jake Gittes: “How much are you worth?”
Noah Cross: “I have no idea. How much do you want?”
Jake Gittes: “I just wanna know what you’re worth. More than 10 million?”
Noah Cross: “Oh my, yes!”
Jake Gittes: “Why are you doing it?” How much better can you eat? What could you buy that you can’t already afford?”
Noah Cross: “The future, Mr. Gitts! The future!” 

"My purpose is madness....the only way you know what really happens in war. By lying you can open the door a little crack on the truth."

"Sure I know I've got lots of faults, but being in love with you isn't one of them, is it?"

"I am not putting the knock on dolls. It's just that they are something to have around only when they come in handy... like cough drops."

"You like money. You got a great big dollar sign there where most women have a heart."

"You have my sympathies, then. You have not yet learned that in this life you have to be like everyone else - the perfect mediocrity; no better, no worse. Individuality's a monster and it must be strangled in its cradle to make our friends feel confident. You know, I've often thought that the gangster and the artist are the same in the eyes of the masses. They are admired and hero-worshiped, but there is always present underlying wish to see them destroyed at the peak of their glory."

Fisher: "Sounds pretty mysterious. What's it all about?"

(response) "There are some things, my dear Fisher, which bear not much looking into. You have undoubtedly heard of the Siberian goat herder who tried to discover the true nature of the sun; he stared up at the heavenly body until it made him blind. There are many things of this sort, including love, and death, and... maybe we'll discuss this later today. Please remember to make that call if I'm not back at 6:30."

(as she’s dying) "It isn't fair. I never had anybody but you. Not a real husband. Not even a man. Just a bad joke without a punch line."

"What she meant we'll never know. It's what she said that counts."

"The fact is, Morgan is an uncivilized brute. Sometimes he drinks heavily. A night like this will set him going. Once he's drunk he's rather dangerous."

(recurring line) “Have a potato.”

"They were all godless here. They used to bring their women here - brazen, lolling creatures in silks and satins. They filled the house with laughter and sin, laughter and sin. And if I ever went down among them, my own father and brothers - they would tell me to go away and pray. They wouldn't tell Rachael to go away and pray. (she laughs) And I prayed - and left them with their lustful red and white women."

(feels the fabric of a guest’s low-cut gown) "That's fine stuff, but it'll rot."
(touches her skin above the neckline) "That's finer stuff still, but it'll rot too... in time!"

(recurring line) “No beds!”

"What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?"
(reply) "My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters."
(response) "The waters? What waters? We're in the desert."
(reply) "I was misinformed."

"Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"You know, I have the strangest feeling this is the beginning of a beautiful hatred."

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #16 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #15

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies:  

Do you know where they're from?

"You wanna be worshiped? Go to India and moo."

"You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word."

"Welcome to Chicago. This town stinks like a whorehouse at low tide."

"Ah Maggie, in the world of advertising, there's no such thing as a lie. There's only expedient exaggeration. You ought to know that."

(Referring to the drinks they've already had) "We've gotten a head start here, Mr. Thornhill."

Roger Thornhill: (just arriving) "That won't last long."

(singing) "I've grown accustomed to my bourbon."

(on the telephone) "No. No, Mother, I have not been drinking. No. No, these two men, they poured a whole bottle of bourbon into me... No, they didn't give me a chaser."

"We'll get 'em. We'll throw the book at 'em. Assault and kidnapping. Assault with a gun and a bourbon and a sports car. We'll get 'em."

"You're marking time is what you are. You're backing off. You're hiding out. You're waiting for a bus that you hope never comes because you don't wanna get on it anyway because you don't wanna go anywhere, all right?"

"Two people dead, just so we can live without working!"

"We go together, Annie. I don't know why. Maybe like guns and ammunition go together."

"I didn't want a house. I didn't want all those pots and pans. I didn't want anything but you. It's God's own blessing I didn't get you."

(reply) "Why?"

(response) "Cause I'm a loner clear down deep to my very guts. Know what a loner is? He's a born cripple. He's a cripple because the only person he can live with is himself. It's his life, the way he wants to live. It's all for him. A guy like that, he'd kill a woman like you. Because he couldn't love you, not the way you are loved."

"I've had hangovers before, but this time, even my hair hurts."

"If there's anything worse than a woman living alone, it's a woman saying she likes it."

"You're told that the girl you were with last night was found in Benedict Canyon, murdered. Dumped from a moving car. What's your reaction? Shock? Horror? Sympathy? No... just petulance at being questioned. A couple of feeble jokes. You puzzle me, Mr. Steele."

Dixon Steele: "Well, I grant you, the jokes could've been better, but I don't see why the rest should worry you... that is, unless you plan to arrest me for lack of emotion."

"You know, Miss Gray, you're one up on me - you can see into my apartment but I can't see into yours."

(reply) "I promise you, I won't take advantage of it."

(response) "I would, if it were the other way around."

"I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me."

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #15 are here.