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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: 

sweetsmellofsuccess2.jpg

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?

OUT_OF_THE_PAST1_120170827225023993.jpg

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.

 

Sterling Silver Dialogue #14

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

 

(After arriving at a secret hiding place for stolen money) "My uncle's grave. He was always good at keeping money so I thought I'd let him keep mine safe."

 

(A beautiful woman upon accidentally bumping into a man) "Oh, I'm sorry."

(the man looking her over) "I'm not."

 

 

Pool Attendant: "They kept it all incognito. They're gonna collect the body in an ice cream van."

(response) "Well there's a lot of dignity in that, in't there? Going out like a raspberry ripple."

 

Casino Manager: "It was a good night. Nothing unusual."

(response) "'Nothing unusual', he says! Eric's been blown to smithereens, Colin's been carved up, and I've got a bomb in me casino, and you say nothing unusual."

 

"Walk to the car, Billy, or I'll blow your spine off."

(response) "That's not a shooter, is it, Harold?"

(reply) "Oh don't be silly, Billy. Would I come hunting for you with me fingers?"

 

 

"I'd look good in a mink coat, honey."

(response) "You'd look good in a shower curtain."

 

"You wouldn't kill me in cold blood, would ya?"

(response) "No, I'll let ya warm up a little."

 

 

"Diamond, the only trouble with you is, you'd like to be me. You'd like to have my organization, my influence, my fix. You can't, it's impossible. You think it's money. It's not. It's personality. You haven't got it Lieutenant, you're a cop. Slow. Steady. Intelligent. With a bad temper and a gun under your arm. With a big yen for a girl you can't have. First is first and second is nobody."

 

 

(Nathan, to board members at an advertising agency) "Gentlemen I'd like you to meet Dr. Alvin Weasley. Dr. Weasley is one of the most respected motivational researchers in the country. Harvey's beer has dropped 84 percent. So Dr. Weasley will tell us how the American public really feels about beer. Dr. Weasley."

(Dr. Weasley) "Beer is for men who doubt their masculinity. That's why it's so popular at sporting events and poker games. On a superficial level a glass of beer is a cool, soothing beverage. But in reality... a glass of beer is:  pee-pee dickie! That's it."

(Nathan) Beautiful!... Beautiful!

 

 

"You know you don't have to act with me, Steve. You don't have to say anything, and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and... blow."

 

 

"Well, you're about as romantic as a pair of handcuffs."

 

(looking over an undistinguished hotel room) "Hey, I like this. Early nothing."

 

"The main thing is to have the money. I've been rich and I've been poor. Believe me, rich is better."

 

 

(after an assassination) "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."

 

 

"Hope's a funny thing. You can have it even when there ain't no reason for it."

 

"I do think I oughta' kiss you just once, though, for all the times I won't."

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #14 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #13

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

 

"You always have a very smooth explanation ready."

(response) "What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?"

 

"I certainly wish you would have invented a more reasonable story. I felt distinctly like an idiot repeating it."

(response) "Don't worry about the story's goofiness. A sensible one would have had us all in the cooler."

 

"Well sir, here's to plain speaking, clear understanding. You're a close-mouthed man?"

(response) "Nah, I like to talk."

(reply) "Better and better. I distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking's something you can't do judiciously, unless you keep in practice. Now, sir. We'll talk, if you like. I'll tell you right out, I am a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk."

 

"That's wonderful sir, wonderful. I do like a man who tells you right out he's looking out for himself. Don't we all? I don't trust a man who says he's not."

 

"By Gad sir, you are a character, that you are! There's never any telling what you'll say or do next, except that it's bound to be something astonishing."

 

"Keep on riding me and they're gonna be picking iron out of your liver."

 (reply) "The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter."

 

 

"Look, I'll make it easy for you. The time has come when you must tell me you have a wife and two adorable children... and this madness between us can't go on any longer."

(response) "Bet you've heard that line often enough."

 

"This is a very strange love affair."

(response) "Why?"

(reply) "Maybe the fact that you don't love me."

 

 

"Oh man... Don't hit me with them negative waves so early in the morning."

"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves?!! Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?"

"Woof, woof, woof woof! That's my other dog imitation."

"Always with the negative waves Moriarty. Always with the negative waves."

 

 

"I'm a seeker too. But my dreams aren't like yours. I can't help thinking that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man. Has to be."

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #13 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #12

 

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

 

"There's something about the sound of my own voice that fascinates me."

 

Veda: (regarding a gift from her mother) "The dress. It's awful cheap material. I can tell by the smell."

Kay: (Veda's sister) "What did you expect? Want it inlaid with gold?"

Veda: "Well, it seems to me, if you're buying anything, it should be the best. This is definitely not the best."

Kay: "Oh, quit. You're breakin' my heart."

Veda: "Oh it's impossible. Look at it. Ruffles. Oh I wouldn't be seen dead in this rag. It's horrible! How could she have bought me such a thing?"

 

Veda: (to her mother) "With this money I can get away from you. From you and your chickens and your pies and your kitchens and everything that smells of grease. I can get away from this shack with its cheap furniture. And this town and its dollar days, and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls."

Veda: (to her mother) "You think just because you made a little money you can get a new hairdo and some expensive clothes and turn yourself into a lady. But you can't, because you'll never be anything but a common frump whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing. With this money I can get away from every rotten stinking thing that makes me think of this place or you!"

 

"Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young."

 

"You know I like Mexico; it's so... Mexican."

 

 

"This isn't the real Mexico, you know that. All border towns bring out the worst in a country. I can just imagine your mother's face if she could see our honeymoon hotel."

 

 

"From here on it's Mexico, Mr. Thornton."

(reply) "What's the closest town of any size?"

(response) "Agua Verde."

(reply) "What's in Agua Verde?"

(response) "Mexicans. What else?"

 

 

(philosophically about himself) "Mongo only pawn in game of life."

 

 

"Go home Martins, like a sensible chap. You don't know what you're mixing in. Get the next plane."

Martins: "As soon as I get to the bottom of this, I'll get the next plane."

(reply) "Death's at the bottom of everything, Martins. Leave death to the professionals."

Martins: "Mind if I use that line in my next Western?"

 

"I told you to go away, Martins. This isn't Santa Fe. I'm not a sheriff and you aren't a cowboy. You've been blundering around with the worst bunch of racketeers in Vienna, your precious Harry's friends, and now you're wanted for murder."

Martins: "Put down drunk and disorderly too."

(reply) "I have."

 

"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

 

 

"I think you're a very stupid person. You look stupid, you're in a stupid business, and you're on a stupid case."

(reply) "I get it. I'm stupid."

 

"It was one of those transient motels, something between a fleabag and a dive."

 

(on being shaken by the lapels) "Now wait a minute. I've been slapped, scratched, punched, knocked unconscious, drugged, and shot at, looking for your Velma, so quit trying to make a milkshake out of my insides, will you?"

 

"This car sticks out like spats at an Iowa picnic."

 

 

(upon finding someone he's been searching for) "I spotted your car."

(reply) "You spotted my car? Will it wash off? That's a rental."

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #12 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #11

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

 

"How singularly innocent I look this morning."

"Young woman, either you have been raised in some incredibly rustic community, where good manners are unknown, or you suffer from a common feminine delusion that the mere fact of being a woman exempts you from the rules of civilized conduct. Possibly both."

"I don't use a pen. I write with a goose quill dipped in venom."

"I'll neither consider, endorse or use the Wallace pen. I hate pens. If your employer wishes me to publish that statement in my column, you may tell them that I should be delighted to oblige."

"In my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention."

"I'm not kind, I'm vicious. It's the secret of my charm."

"I cannot stand these morons any longer. If you don't come with me this instant, I shall run amok."

"You'd better watch out, McPherson, or you'll end up in a psychiatric ward. I don't think they've ever had a patient who fell in love with a corpse."

"... and thus as history has proved, love is eternal. It has been the strongest motivation for human actions throughout centuries. Love is stronger than life. It reaches beyond the dark shadow of death."

"The best part of myself. That's what you are. Do you think I'm going to leave it to the vulgar pawing of a second rate detective who thinks you're a dame? Do you think I could bear the thought of him holding you in his arms, kissing you, loving you?!"

 

 

"What the hell are you doin' here?" (reply)  "I'm lookin' at a tin star with a... drunk pinned on it."

 

 

"You appear with the tedious inevitability of an unloved season."

"At least I shall have the pleasure of putting you out of my misery."

 

 

"I've always wanted to know somebody who's been to China. Tell me about it."   (reply)   "A lot of Chinese live there."

 

"Do you think my husband would like to see a picture of me hanging over the fireplace?"

(reply)  "I think your husband would like to see you hanging anyplace."

 

 

 

"Am I the worst oaf in the world?" (reply) "The world's a big place. You're the worst one in my life."

 

 

"Love is like the measles. You only get it once, and the older you are, the harder you take it."

 

"Well, it wouldn't hurt you to learn some manners, too."  (reply)  "What do I need manners for? I already got me a wife."

 

 

"If my answers frighten you Vincent, then you should cease asking scary questions."

 

"Then basically I'm just gonna walk the earth."  (reply)  "What'cha mean walk the earth?"  (response)  "You know, like Caine in 'Kung Fu'. Walk from place to place. Meet people. Get into adventures."

 

"You see that, young lady? Respect. Respect for one's elders gives character."  (reply)  "I have character."  (response)   "Just because you are a character doesn't mean that you have character."

 

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go home and have a heart attack."

 

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #11 are here.

 

 

 

 

Sterling Silver Dialogue #10

 

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

 

"Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war?"

(reply) "No, I don't think I do sir. No."   

(response)  "He said war was too important to be left to the generals. When he said that, 50 years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

 

(Advocating a stronger nuclear attack to offset a further Soviet retaliation)  "Mr. President, we are rapidly approaching a moment of truth both for ourselves as human beings and for the life of our nation. Now, truth is not always a pleasant thing. But it is necessary now to make a choice, to choose between two admittedly regrettable, but nevertheless distinguishable, postwar environments: One where you got twenty million people killed, and the other where you got a hundred and fifty million people killed."

(reply)  "You're talking about mass murder, General, not war!"

(response)  "Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks."

(reply)   "I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler."

(response)   "Perhaps it might be better, Mr. President, if you were more concerned with the American People than with your image in the history books."

 

"Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk... ice cream? Ice cream, Mandrake, children's ice cream."

Mandrake: "Lord, Jack."

Jack: "You know when fluoridation first began?"

Mandrake: "I... no. I don't, Jack."

Jack: "Nineteen hundred and forty-six. 1946, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works."

Mandrake: "Uh, Jack, Jack, listen... tell me, tell me, Jack. When did you first... become... well, develop this theory?"

Jack: "Well, I, uh... I... I... first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love. Yes, a uh, a profound sense of fatigue... a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I... I was able to interpret these feelings correctly: Loss of essence. I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women uh... women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I, uh... I do not avoid women, Mandrake. But I... I do deny them my essence."

Mandrake: "Yes, Jack."

 

"I was a nervous child.  I was a bed wetter. When I was younger, I, I uh, used to sleep with an electric blanket and I was constantly electrocuting myself."

 

 

"Sometimes it isn't being fast that counts, or even accurate, but willing. Most men will draw a breath or blink an eye before they shoot. I won't."

 

 

"A gun is a tool, Marian, no better, no worse than any other tool: An axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that."

 

 

"If you work for a living, why do you kill yourself working?"

 

 

(complaining about a steak he ordered) "Hey Hombre. This horse is still fighting for his life."

 

 

"What a dump!"

 

 

(impersonating the above) "What a dump!"

 

 

"You've just had a bad day, that's all."  (reply)   "That's a masterpiece of understatement."

 

 

"Is your handwriting legible?"   (reply)   "Except on weekends."

 

"She offered me free love. At the time, that was all I could afford."

 

"Just who the hell do you think you are? How dare you come sniffing in here like Napoleon ordering me about! You are a traitor! Does it occur to you? A wanted, spent, dishonest man, the lowest currency of the Cold War. We buy you - we sell you - we lose you - we even can shoot you! Not a bird would stir in the trees outside. Not even a single pheasant would turn his head to see what fell."

 

"What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not! They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me: little men, drunkards, queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong?"

 

"I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons."

 

 

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #10 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #9

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

 

"Hey, you ain't lookin' too good. The sight of blood bother you or somethin'?"

(reply) "Only my own."

 

"It's the stuff dreams are made of."

 

 

"Some men just don't like to be driven."  

(reply) "No, some men just don't like to be taken for a ride."

 

"How do you know that? How do you know my friends call me Domino?"  

(reply) "It's on the bracelet on your ankle."

(response) "So... what sharp little eyes you've got."   (reply)  "Wait 'til you get to my teeth."

 

(after leaving an Irrigation Therapy Room) "See you later...irrigator."

 

 

"You buy nice drinks, mister but you talk so much."

 

"Occasionally I always drink too much."

 

(first look at their new residence) "Well, the place looks lived in."

(reply) "Yeah, but by what?"

 

"Would you kill me, Rocky?"  (reply)  "Wouldn't you?"

 

"You drinkin' that stuff so early?"   (reply)  "Listen, doll girl, when you drink as much as I do, you gotta start early."

 

(to Nancy) "I wouldn't give a nickel for your husband's chances before that parole board with all this going on."

(to Rocky) "And I wouldn't give a nickel for your chances with those two apes running around looking for you."

(to Castro) "For you, I just wouldn't give a nickel."

 

 

"Look Johnny, you know me. You get in my way... I'll kill you."   (reply)  "You took the words right out of my mouth."

 

 

"I'm no Humphrey Bogart. He gets slugged and he's ready for action; I get slugged and I'm ready for pickling."

 

"Lili, a sizzler at the Fol-de-Rol. A figure like champagne and a heart like the cork."

 

 

"We have a saying in India..."  (reply) "Yes?"   (response) "Yes."  (reply)  "Well?"

(response) "Well what?"

 

"Who do you think you are?"  

(reply) "In India, we don't think who we are. We know who we are."

 

"You meshuga!"   (reply)  "I am not your sugar."

 

"Num Num" "Birdie Num Num"

 

 

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #9 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #8

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

 

"You know, once, off the hump of Brazil I saw the ocean so darkened with blood it was black and the sun faintin' away over the lip of the sky. We'd put in at Fortaleza, and a few of us had lines out for a bit of idle fishing. It was me had the first strike. A shark it was. Then there was another, and another shark again, 'till all about, the sea was made of sharks and more sharks still, and no water at all. My shark had torn himself from the hook, and the scent, or maybe the stain it was, and him bleeding his life away, drove the rest of them mad. Then the beasts took to eating each other. In their frenzy... they ate at themselves. You could feel the lust of murder like a wind stinging your eyes, and you could smell the death, reeking up out of the sea. I never saw anything worse... until this little picnic tonight. And you know, there wasn't one of them sharks in the whole crazy pack that survived."

 

"The only way to stay out of trouble is to grow old, so I guess I'll concentrate on that."

 

 

"'Course I'm respectable. I'm old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough."

 

"You see Mr. Gitts, most people never have to face the fact... the right time and the right place, they're capable of... ANYTHING."  

 

 

"Well, I was curious. So many important people in one place..."  (reply)  "The rats usually desert a sinking ship. In my case, they appear to be flocking on board."

 

 

"Have you no human consideration?"  (reply)  "Show me a human, and I might have."

 

"And there's a message from the bartender. Does Miss Channing know she ordered domestic gin by mistake?"  (reply)  "The only thing I ordered by mistake is the guests. They're domestic, too, and they don't care what they drink as long as it burns!" 

 

"I'm afraid Mr. DeWitt would find me boring before too long."  (reply)  "You won't bore him honey, you won't even get a chance to talk."

 

"How about calling it a night?"  (reply)  "And you, pose as a playwright? A situation pregnant with possibilities and all you can think of is everybody go to sleep."

 

"I'll admit I may have seen better days, but I'm still not to be had for the price of a cocktail, like a salted peanut." 

 

"Why not read my column to pass the time? The minutes will fly like hours." 

 

 

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #8 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #7

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

 

"All right, all right, how much you pay?"  (response)  "Well, just how tough are ya?"  (reply)  "Well, you pay a little bit, we're a little bit tough. You pay-a very much, we're-a very much tough. You pay-a too much we're a too much tough. How much you pay?"  (response) "I pay plenty!"  (reply) "We'll... then we're plenty tough."

 

 

"I'm a homing pigeon, I always come back to the stinking coop no matter how late it is."

 

"The only reason I took the job is because my bank account was trying to crawl under a duck." 

 

"She was a charming middle aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud. I gave her a drink. She was a gal who would take a drink if she had to knock you down to get the bottle." 

 

"I'm afraid I don't like your manner." (reply) "Yeah, I've had complaints about it, but it keeps getting worse." 

 

 

"She tried to sit on my lap while I was standing up."

 

"I don't like your manners."  (reply)  "And I'm not crazy about yours. I didn't ask to see you. I don't mind if you don't like my manners, I don't like them myself. They are pretty bad. I grieve over them on long winter evenings. I don't mind your ritzing me or drinking your lunch out of a bottle, but don't waste your time trying to cross-examine." 

 

"Why did you have to go on?"  (reply)  "Too many people told me to stop."

 

 

"You're never around when I need you."  (reply)  "You never need me when I'm around." 
 

 

"I was thinking about that dame upstairs, and the way she had looked at me, and I wanted to see her again, close, without that silly staircase between us."

 

"We're both rotten."  (reply)  "Only you're a little more rotten."

 

 

"You know it's quite possible Octavian that when you die... you will die without ever having been alive." 

 

"Queens. Queens. Strip them naked as any other woman, they are no longer queens!" (reply) "It is also difficult to tell the rank of a naked general. Generals without armies are naked indeed."

 

 

"I have often wondered, Countess... why did you leave Warsaw?"  (reply)  "Bombs were falling. I felt I was in the way." 

 

"Many of our German friends before the War would come as our guests to hunt wild pig. I refused to invite Goering. I couldn't tolerate his killing a wild pig. It seemed too much like brother against brother."

 

"The source of your money has never concerned you any more than your source of electric light.  They became worrisome only when they were shut off."

 

 

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #7 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #6

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from? Answers coming soon.

 

 

"Chicolini you're charged with high treason, and if found guilty, you'll be shot." (reply) "I object." (response) "You, object. On what grounds?" (reply) "I couldn't think of anything else to say."

"Chicolini, when were you born?" (reply) "I don't remember. I was just a little-a baby." (response) "Isn't it true you tried to sell Freedonia's secret war code and plans?" (reply) "Sure, I sold a code and two pair of plans."  

"I even offered to pay as high as 18 dollars but I no could-a get somebody to defend me." (response) "My friends, this man's case moves me deeply. Look at Chicolini. He sits there alone. An abject figure." (Chicolini:) "I abject."

 

"Something must be done! War would mean a prohibitive increase in our taxes."
(reply) "Hey, I got an uncle lives in Taxes." (response) No, I'm talking about taxes - money, dollars!" (reply) "Dollars! There's-a where my uncle lives! Dollars, Taxes!"

"Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot."

 

"Your Excellency... Haven't we seen each other somewhere before?" (reply) "I don't think so. I'm not sure I'm seeing you now; it must be something I ate."

"Don't look now, but there's one man too many in this room, and I think it's you."

"I could dance with you until the cows come home. On second thought, I'd rather dance with the cows till you come home."

 

"I was continuing to shrink. To become... what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a human being? Or was I... the man of the future? If there were other bursts of radiation, other clouds drifting across seas and continents, would other beings follow me into this vast new world? So close - the infinitesimal and the infinite. But suddenly I knew they were really the two ends of the same concept. The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet... like the closing of a gigantic circle. I looked up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens. The universe, worlds beyond number, God's silver tapestry spread across the night. And in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of man's own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature: That existence begins and ends is man's conception, not nature's. And I felt my body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing. My fears melted away and in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation, it had to mean something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something, too. To God, there is no zero. I still exist."

 

"You know, the worst ain't so bad when it finally happens. Not half as bad as you figure it'll be before it's happened."

 

 

"Who do you think you are... my guardian angel?" (response) "Not me, honey. I lost those wings a long time ago."

"I hate him when he looks at me like that. If he were mean or vicious or if he'd bawl me out or something, I'd like him better."

 

"This place is a mess! There's not any food in the house! Half the time you look like you fell out of bed! You spend more time in bed than any other human being past the age of 6 months than I ever heard of!" (reply) "The reason I sleep all day is 'cause I can't stand my life." (response) "What life?!!" (reply) "Sleeping all day!" 

 

 

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #6 are here.

Sterling Silver Dialogue #5

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

 

"You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big."

(reply) "I am big. It's the pictures that got small."

(response) "Uh huh, I knew there was something wrong with them." 

 

"I'm not an executive, just a writer."

(reply) "You are? Writing words, words, more words! Well, you've made a rope of words and strangled this business: A-ha! But there's a microphone right there to catch the last gurgle, and Technicolor to photograph the red, swollen tongue!"

 

 

"Roger O. Thornhill. What does the O stand for?"

(reply) "Nothing." 

 

 

"Now wait a minute you listen to me: I'm an advertising man, not a red herring. I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders dependent upon me, and I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting myself slightly killed." 

 

 

"It shrinks my liver, doesn't it, Nat? It pickles my kidneys, yes. But what does it do to my mind? It tosses the sandbags overboard so the balloon can soar. Suddenly I'm above the ordinary. I'm competent, supremely competent. I'm walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. I'm one of the great ones. I'm Michelangelo, molding the beard of Moses. I'm Van Gogh, painting pure sunlight. I'm Horowitz, playing the Emperor Concerto. I'm John Barrymore before the movies got him by the throat. I'm Jesse James and his two brothers, all three of 'em. I'm W. Shakespeare. And out there it's not Third Avenue any longer, it's the Nile, Nat. The Nile and down it moves the barge of Cleopatra. Come here: Purple the sails, and so perfumed that the winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver, which to the tune of flutes kept stroke..."

 

 

(After getting the drink orders from his guests he turns to his wife) "Martha?... Rubbing alcohol for you?" 

 

 

“I'd like to say I didn’t intend to kill her, but when you have a gun, you always intend when you have to…”

 

 

"And as for going around with you, I still pick my own gutters."

 

 

"You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal! That is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems. One vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petrodollars, Electro-Dollars, MultiDollars, Reichmarks, RINs, Rubles, Pounds, and Shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature! And YOU. WILL. ATONE!  Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, mini-max solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that... perfect world... in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock. All necessities provided, all anxieties tranquillized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen... you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel." 

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #5 are here.