Ragtime Movie Quotes
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
I read music so good, white folks think I'm fakin' it.
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Younger Brother
I design fireworks. That's my job.
[the black anarchists laugh in derision]
Younger Brother
. I can make bombs.
[They stop laughing and take him seriously]
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Rheinlander Waldo
That library over there is worth millions
Willie Conklin
So?
Rheinlander Waldo
And people keep telling me you're a worthless piece of slime.
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Coalhouse Walker Jr.
[praying]
Lord, I'd hoped I'd have the courage to know what I should do now. You must see how sick at heart I've been - and how I've performed this thing with little appetite.
[sobbing]
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
I'd hoped - you'd reveal to me along the way why you put such a *rage* in my heart.
[a brief pause]
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
Tell me what to do now!
[another pause]
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
Please.
[sighs]
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
God, tell me what to do.
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Black Lawyer
[Coalhouse tries to sue for his car being damaged]
Well, what's your financial situation like?
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
[sighs]
I have a little laid by. I planned to use it on my wedding, but I guess it'll have to wait.
Black Lawyer
Hmm. Mr. Walker, let me give you some advice. You spend the money on your wedding. Build yourself a home and a family where you can find some comfort. And just forget that some damn white man caused you offense.
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
And that's your advice?
Black Lawyer
That's my advice, and I pray you take it to heart.
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
Just forget it? Is that it?
Black Lawyer
I've spent my whole life forgetting. You're a young man. You better start learning now.
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
Learning what? How to be a nigger?
Black Lawyer
[after a pause]
Mr. Walker, I'll thank you to leave. I have some charity cases you know nothing of. I got clients with real problems - starvation, illness, dispossession. Yes, I want justice for our people. Yes, I do. I want it so bad, I can taste it. If you think I'll go to Westchester County pleading on the behalf of a colored man that somebody dirtied his fancy car, you are very much mistaken. Now, please, you take this and leave my office.
[Gives Coalhouse papers]
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Coalhouse Walker Jr.
[Speaking to Booker T. Washington]
You speak like an angel, Mr. Washington. It's too bad we're living on the earth.
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Younger Brother
What kind of music do you play?
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
Anything they ask me to, and then I play ragtime.
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Rheinlander Waldo
Where is J. P. Morgan?
Vernon Elliott
Oh, he's on an expedition down the Nile... in Egypt.
Rheinlander Waldo
Hmmm... Lucky him!
[Looks at the Captain]
Police Captain #1
Yes, sir!
Rheinlander Waldo
And contact some colored big shots to talk to us in case we need to negotiate.
Police Captain #1
Very good, sir. Anything else?
Rheinlander Waldo
Yeah, he said something about a car and a fire chief.
Police Captain #1
Conklin. Willie Conklin.
Rheinlander Waldo
Get him. I want to meet him.
Police Captain #2
Sir, that number doesn't answer. What do you want me to do?
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Rheinlander Waldo
[refering to the anarchists in the library]
Well, Mr. Elliot, why don't you go in and have a word with them?
Vernon Elliott
I beg your pardon?
Rheinlander Waldo
Just explain the value of the library, see what they want, that sort of thing.
Vernon Elliott
That hardly seems like the appropriate response, Mr. Waldo, and if you're making a joke at my expense, I assure you there's nothing amusing about my responsibilities as the curator of Mr. Morgan's library.
Rheinlander Waldo
Mr. Elliot, as long as those guys are in there, you're not curator of anything!
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Sarah
[about Coalhouse]
He say one thing, and then he say another thing. And he make it all sound so good. It ain't nuthin' but talk, Ma'am. It ain't nuthin' but talk!
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[Coalhouse has just learned that his friends have safely escaped]
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
Just go on. I'll be with you.
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
[exploding]
GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! Don't you understand ANYTHING, white man?
Father
[terrified, rushes out of the library]
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Evelyn's Dance Instructor
And ladylike. That's it. And around we go. And around. Beautiful. Now the horsey. Now another horsey. And a peekaboo. There we are.
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Coalhouse Walker Jr.
I wasn't living any kind of life I could ask a woman to share with me-- playing in beer halls, moving-picture houses. Some of those places aren't even safe for a man to be in.
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Willie Conklin
The toll. Let's see. Today is Sunday. Twenty-five dollars. We're trying to raise a little cash for a fire wagon with an engine. Hell, we want to drive to our fires in style, just like you drive to your cathouses.
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Tateh
Now, my toast is for this - what make me possible to do everything. Do you know what's it? Light. You see the light of the candle? It's very nice. It shine through the glass. It's refract. The chandelier. It's convert. It's transferring. Small star. And now we make pictures from the light. People pay a couple of penny and they watch, in a short time, the whole life of man - how they fight, how they eat, how they love. It's no limits for our opportunities in the photoplay.
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Coalhouse Walker Jr.
I have a great admiration for you, sir.
Booker T. Washington
Truly?
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
Yes, sir.
Booker T. Washington
How can you say that when your actions are a mockery of everything I stand for?
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
I had no choice in that, sir.
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Booker T. Washington
Vengeance does nothing but perpetuate more vengeance and on and on until some race can find the strength to say, "No!
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Rheinlander Waldo
That's damn big of you, but I'm afraid your belief isn't the iron-plated guarantee that I need here!
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Rheinlander Waldo
Shut up, Willie. You're going to help us now. You're going to talk to that troublemaker, and I mean talk hard like you never talked before. Because he wants you, Willie. And if you can't make him change his demands, he's gonna get you.
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Rheinlander Waldo
That's it. Keep your fingers crossed, gentlemen. I'll believe it all when it happens.
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Father
You may find this hard to believe right now, but I believe, I really do believe, that your situation, legally speaking, isn't at all hopeless.
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
You think so?
Father
You're an impressive and articulate man. Certainly nothing like people have been led to expect.
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
I'd like to believe you. I really would like that.
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Old Lady - T.O.C.
Can't somebody please tell me what is going on? Can you just give me a rough idea?
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Old Lady - T.O.C.
It's my own room in there. What do you mean, I can't go in there? What are they doing in there that they don't want me to see them doing?
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Inspector McNeil
These niggers drop babies like rabbits. Fellow runs off, and, of course, the woman tries to get rid of it.
Mother
What's going to happen to her?
Inspector McNeil
She'll get six to eight months-- child abuse, abandonment, attempted murder. And then she'll get pregnant again.
Mother
What'll happen to the baby?
Inspector McNeil
They've got places for them. Pickaninny farms, I call them.
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Willie Conklin
I'll tell you exactly what happened, Frankie. This here fancy nigger parked in front of the firehouse.
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Willie Conklin
Go out and arrest every nigger in the neighborhood. One of them's bound to know where he is. They all know everything about each other, right?
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Willie Conklin
That's that crazy nigger with the car!
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Willie Conklin
Hey, listen to me, you crazy nigger. I've had enough of you, you hear me? You can't be thinking that they're gonna give me to the likes of you. No. I know you - I - I know you ain't that stupid. No. You're one of them smart niggers.
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Willie Conklin
You can't talk to that nigger bastard! Jesus to Hell!
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MSG Singer
[singing] Oh, I could love a million girls, With every girl, a twin, I could love a Chinese girl, An Eskimo, a Finn, I could love a German girl, A girl with golden curls...
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Coalhouse Walker Jr.
Think about it. If I get out of here, I'd be hunted every day of my life. And that's no kind of life for a man. Is it? But no one's seen you. No one knows what you look like. Tomorrow you'll be free in the streets. And you can start gettin' folks to talkin'. Now that's got to be better than five dead niggers.
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Rheinlander Waldo
Let's say his men got away. All right. There he is, sitting on the detonator and he knows he's a dead man. The only freedom he's got left is how to die. He can let us fry him in the electric chair or he can go *bang* and carry the library to heaven with him.
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Father
I'm no judge of these things, Mr. Waldo. I know the man isn't responsible for his actions, but in everything he's done there's been a certain logic - and, you'll excuse me for saying it, an integrity. I think he wants to - be heard. That's all. I think that's what he's wanted all along.
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Evelyn Nesbit
This little piggy went - wee weee wee wee all the way to the bank!
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P.C. O'Donnell
Nobody's intimidating me, Mister. You just don't know what you're getting yourself into, and I'm trying to keep your nose clean. Now, would you be a good boy and just get along.?
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
I want my car cleaned!
P.C. O'Donnell
Clean it then, damn you! Clean it and go!
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
I want the man who did it to clean it!
P.C. O'Donnell
All right, all right, let me pit it this way. I can arrest you for blocking a public service exit, for creating a public nuisance, and about ten other things I ain't gonna mention. Now, am I making myself clear?
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
Yes.
P.C. O'Donnell
Good.
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
Officer, I still want my car cleaned.
P.C. O'Donnell
Oh, for Christ's sake! Ain't you got any sense in your head? I'm trying to help you! You leave me no choice.
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
I'm sorry.
P.C. O'Donnell
You're under arrest!
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Booker T. Washington
[to Walker in the library]
What you have done here has set our race back a distance I can't measure.
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Younger Brother
You never know when someone might try to take advantage of you.
Evelyn Nesbit
Whoops! All my clothes went away.
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Delmas
You don't really want to see your husband electrocuted, do you?
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Rheinlander Waldo
You shouldn't have any trouble spotting the target car, unless there are a lot of new Model Ts full of colored people driving around all night.
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Evelyn Nesbit
Do you want to know everything?
Delmas
Please.
Evelyn Nesbit
Well, all right. He had these whips. This was in this castle in Austria that he took me for vacation. Well, he put me in a room and he locked the door. And then he told me that if I made any noise that he'd do something to me - something terrible.
Delmas
Wait just a minute. Whom are you talking about? You're talking about Stanford White!
Evelyn Nesbit
Oh, no, no, no. No. No. Stanny? Stanny would never do anything like this. He was lovely. Lovely man. He admired me. No, I'm talking about Harry, my husband.
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Delmas
What you're saying is, your husband did all this.
Evelyn Nesbit
Yes. He had a whip, a kind of a - dog whip, and he started to beat me with it.
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