Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Movie Quotes
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
I've got the guts to die. What I want to know is, have you got the guts to live?
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Brick Pollitt
What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Just staying on it I guess, long as she can.
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[last lines]
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Thank you for keeping still, for backing me up in my lie.
Brick Pollitt
Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door.
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Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?
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Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
You can be young without money, but you can't be old without it.
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Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
This was what my father left me, this lousy old suitcase! And on the inside was nothing, nothing but his uniform from the Spanish-American war. That was his legacy to me! Nothing at all! And I built this place from nothing.
Brick Pollitt
That was all he left you?
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
He was a hobo, the best-known tramp on the boxcar circuit. He'd worked once in awhile as a field hand, and I'd tag along. Sat on my bare bottom in the dirt, waiting for him. Outside of hunger, the first thing I remember is shame. I was ashamed of that miserable old tramp. I was riding boxcars with him when I was nine, something you never had to do. You'll never have to bury me the way I buried him. I buried him in a meadow alongside a railroad track. He was running to catch a freight and his heart give out. You know something? That old tramp died laughing.
Brick Pollitt
Laughing at what?
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Himself, I guess. Old hobo tramp, not a nickel to his name, no future, no past.
Brick Pollitt
Maybe he was laughing because he was happy. Happy at having you with him. He took you everywhere. He kept you with him.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
I don't want to talk about that.
[pause]
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Yeah, I loved him. I reckon I never loved anything as much as that lousy old tramp.
Brick Pollitt
And you say he left you nothing but a suitcase with a uniform in it?
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
And some memories.
Brick Pollitt
And love.
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Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity!
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Dixie Pollitt
Why is Uncle Brick on the floor?
Brick Pollitt
Because I tried to kill your Aunt Maggie. But I failed. And I fell.
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Dr. Baugh
Sometimes I wish I had a pill to make people disappear.
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Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
You've got to.
Brick Pollitt
I don't have to do anything I don't want to! Now, you keep forgetting the conditions on which I agreed to stay on living with you.
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
I'm not living with you! We occupy the same cage, that's all.
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Brick Pollitt
Careful Maggie, your claws are showing.
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Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Maggie the cat is alive. I'm alive.
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Brick Pollitt
I'm ashamed, Big Daddy. That's why I'm a drunk. When I'm drunk, I can stand myself.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
But it's always there in the mornin', ain't it? The truth and it's here right now!
[They run outside into the rain]
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
You're just feeling sorry for yourself; that's all it is! Self-pity!
[Inside the carport]
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
You didn't kill Skipper. He killed himself. You and Skipper and millions like you are living in a kids' world. Playing games, touchdowns, no worries, no responsibilities. Life ain't no damn football game. Life ain't just a buncha high spots.
[He grabs Brick]
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
You're a thirty-year-old kid. Soon you'll be a fifty-year-old kid. Pretendin' you're hearin' cheers when there ain't any. Dreamin' and drinkin' your life away. Heroes in the real world live twenty-four hours a day, not just two hours in a game. Mendacity! You won't...
[winces in obvious pain]
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
You won't live with mendacity? Well, you're an expert at it! The truth is pain and sweat and payin' bills and makin' love to a woman that you don't love any more. Truth is dreams that don't come true, and nobody prints your name in the paper 'til you die.
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Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
You know what I feel like? I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.
Brick Pollitt
Then jump off the roof, Maggie. Jump off it. Cats jump off roofs and land uninjured. Do it. Jump.
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Jump where? Into what?
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Brick Pollitt
But, how in hell on earth can you imagine you're gonna have a child with a man who cannot stand you.
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Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Look, Mama, he's wearing Brick's birthday present. I haven't given you my present yet, but I will now. I have an announcement to make.
Mae Pollitt
What kind of an announcement?
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
An announcement of life beginning. A child is coming, sired by Brick out of Maggie the cat. I have Brick's child in my body, and that is my present to you.
Mae Pollitt
Did you ever in all your born days hear such a bold-faced lie?
Gooper Pollitt
Shut up.
Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
[kissing Maggie]
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Yes indeed, this girl has life in her body. And that's no lie. Gooper, I want to talk to my lawyer in the morning. Brick?
Brick Pollitt
Yes, Big Daddy?
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
I'm going to go out and look this place over before I give it up. The place and the people on it.
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Brick Pollitt
A family crisis brings out the best and the worst in every member of the family.
Gooper Pollitt
That's the truth.
Mae Pollitt
You want to talk about the truth? You're not pregnant!
Gooper Pollitt
Keep still, Mae.
Mae Pollitt
She's making it up!
Gooper Pollitt
I said shut up.
Mae Pollitt
Don't you try to kid us, Maggie!
Brick Pollitt
Mae, she's not kidding you.
Mae Pollitt
How can she be pregnant by you when you won't even...
Gooper Pollitt
Mae, will you be quiet!
Mae Pollitt
We occupy the next room and the walls between aren't soundproof. We hear the nightly pleadings and the nightly refusals!
Brick Pollitt
Not everybody makes as much noise about love as you do.
Mae Pollitt
Brick, I never thought you would stoop to her level!
Brick Pollitt
You heard what Big Daddy said. That girl's got life in her body.
Mae Pollitt
That's a lie!
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Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
[Wincing with pain]
It'll kill the senses too! You... you got pain - at least you know you're alive.
[groans]
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
- It's easin' somewhat now. When you got pain, it's better to judge yourself of a lot of things. I'm not gonna stupify myself with that stuff. I wanna think clear. I want to see everything, and I want to feel everything. Then I won't mind goin'. I've got the guts to die. What I want to know - do you have the guts to live?
Brick Pollitt
I don't know.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
We can start by helping each other up this stairs.
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Brick Pollitt
People like doing what they used to do, after they've stopped being able to do it.
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Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
I'm talking in Big Daddy's languge now. I'm his wife, not his widow. I'm still his wif!
Gooper Pollitt
What we've got here...
Mae Pollitt
What Gooper's saying is just a plan, a basis.
Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
I'll tell you what your plan is. Margaret, what is it Big Daddy always says when he's disgusted?
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
He says bull when he's disgusted.
Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
Yes, that's right. I say bull too, like Big Daddy.
Mae Pollitt
Well, coarse language don't seem called for to me.
Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
Bull!
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Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Stop that, ya little no-neck monster!
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Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
So you bought me a birthday present, huh?
Brick Pollitt
No sir, Maggie bought it.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
She's got good taste, that girl.
Brick Pollitt
In some things, yes, but not in men.
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Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
When marriage goes on the rocks, the rocks are there.
[pats the bed]
Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
Right there.
[pats the bed again for emphasis]
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Gooper Pollitt
I don't give a damn whether Big Daddy likes me, or don't likes me. Or did or never did. Or will or will never.
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Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Why did you and Brick suddenly decide to drive up from New Orleans?
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
For your birthday, what else?
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
I had a birthday last year and the year before that. Didn't see you then.
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Well, you know how Brick is sometimes.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Maybe he thought he'd be coming to my funeral, instead of my birthday.
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
But Brick loves you! He does!
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
But does he love you?
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
What do you want, proof?
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
If I was married to you three years, you'd have the living proof. You'd have three kids already and a fourth in the oven.
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Mae Pollitt
[to Big Mama]
Gooper is your first born. Why he always had to carry a bigger load of the resposibilities than Brick? Brick never carried a thing in his life but a football or a high ball.
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Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
We never were a very happy family. There just wasn't much joy in this house. It wasn't Big Daddy's fault. It was just... you know how some families are happy.
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Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
Do you make Brick happy?
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Why don't you ask if he makes me happy?
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Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
We've still got one thing on our side. No, two things. Are my seams straight? Big Daddy dotes on you, Brick. He can't stand Brother Man and Brother Man's wife. That fertility monster, she's downright odious to him, I can tell. That's the second thing we've got on our side. He likes me. The way he looks me up and down and over, he's still got an eye for girls.
Brick Pollitt
That kind of talk is disgusting.
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Did anybody ever tell you you're a back-aching Puritan, Brick? I think it's a fine thing that a man on the doorstep of death can still look at a woman like me with what I call deserved appreciation.
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Brick Pollitt
Why'd you let Mama buy all this stuff?
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
The human animal is a beast that must die. If he's got money, he buys and buys and buys everything he can, in the crazy hope one of those things will be life-everlasting, which it can never be. I've suddenly noticed you don't call me Big Daddy anymore. If you needed a big daddy, why didn't you come to me? If you needed someone to lean on, why Skipper? Why not me? I'm your father! Why didn't you come to your kinfolk, the people that love you?
Brick Pollitt
You don't know what love means! To you, it's just another four-letter word.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
You've got a mighty short memory! What was there you ever wanted that I didn't buy?
Brick Pollitt
You can't buy love!
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Who do you think I bought it for? It's yours! The place, the money, everything's yours!
Brick Pollitt
I don't want things!
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Gooper Pollitt
You said I never loved Big Daddy. How would you know? How would he know? Did he ever let anybody love him? It was always Brick, always. From the day he was born, he was always partial to Brick. Why? Big Daddy wanted me to become a lawyer. I became a lawyer. He said to get married, I got married. He said to have kids, I had kids. He said to live in Memphis, I lived in Memphis. Whatever he said to do, I did.
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Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Would ya look at all this stuff? Bought most of it when I took your mother to Europe on that Cook's Tour. Never had such a lousy time in my life. I tell you that Europe ain't nothin' but a wore-out auction, just a great big fire sale, the whole rotten thing. Boy, Big Mama just wild in it, and she just bought and bought and bought. Sure is lucky I'm a rich man, yes, sirree, sure is lucky. Got any idea how much I'm worth, son? Ask Gooper. He knows. He knows to the penny 'less I missed my guess. Close on ten million dollars in cash and blue chip stocks besides twenty-eight thousand of the richest acres this side of the Valley Nile.
Brick Pollitt
Well, that is pretty rich to be.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
But, there's one thing you can't buy at any European fire sale,
[clears cobwebs from broken clock]
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
or any other market on Earth. That's your life. You can't buy back your life when it's finished.
Brick Pollitt
No, sir, no-one can.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Feelin' sorry for me, or for you?
Brick Pollitt
For you, Papa.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
That's good, 'cause you're gonna miss me, boy.
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Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Let's go home.
Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
Don't you want to ride with the children, honey?
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
No!
Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
[laughing]
He's his sassy old self again, all right!
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Be quiet, woman!
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Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
This is a deliberate campaign to ruin Brick!
Mae Pollitt
He don't need no help.
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
[crying]
And for the most sordid reasons on earth! Greed! Avarice and greed!
Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
Margaret, darling, don't cry.
Mae Pollitt
Well, that takes the cake! Who are the tears for? Brick? Big Daddy? Or are they for yourself? Are you crying cause you're childless? You know why she's got no kids? Ask her big, beautiful husband!
Gooper Pollitt
Mae!
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Brick Pollitt
Big Daddy, Big Daddy. Now, what makes him so big? His big heart, his big belly, or his big money?
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Gooper Pollitt
The point is I won't see this place run into the ground by a drunken ex-football hero.
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
You shut up about my husband!
Mae Pollitt
You shut up!
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Gooper Pollitt
[to Maggie]
Why don't you go up there and drink with Brick if the conquerin' hero hasn't passed out already? He may have to pass up the Sugar Bowl this year or was it the Rose Bowl he made his famous run in?
Mae Pollitt
It was the punch bowl, Honey, the cut-glass punch bowl.
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Brick Pollitt
Don't make a fool of yourself, Maggie.
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
I don't mind making a fool of myself over you.
Brick Pollitt
Well, I mind. I feel embarrassed for you.
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Feel embarrassed? Well, I can't live on this way.
Brick Pollitt
You agreed to accept that condition.
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
I know I did. But I can't! I can't!
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Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
I'm gonna pick me a choice woman and I'm gonna smother her in minks and choke her with diamonds. Boy, I'm gonna be happy.
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Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
What's all this about?
Gooper Pollitt
Doc, Big Mama wants the whole truth about the report we got from the clinic today.
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
The truth, the truth! Everybody keeps hollering about the truth. Well, the truth is as dirty as lies!
Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
Is there something I don't know, Doc?
Dr. Baugh
Well, Ida...
Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
I want to know! Somebody must be lying! I want to know about my husand!
Dr. Baugh
He had the most thorough examination ever given at the Oppenheim clinic.
Gooper Pollitt
It's one of the best in the country.
Mae Pollitt
It's the best in the country, bar none.
Gooper Pollitt
They were ninety-nine percent sure before they even started.
Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
Sure of what?
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Not now!
Mae Pollitt
The test was positive!
Gooper Pollitt
Mae, shut up.
Dr. Baugh
It's helpless, Ida. He knows it, too.
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Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Grown-ups don't hang up on their friends! And they don't hang up on their wives and they don't hang up on life! That's the truth and that's what you can't face!
Brick Pollitt
Can you face the truth?
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Try me.
Brick Pollitt
Sure, somebody else's truth.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
So you're running again?
Brick Pollitt
Yeah, I am! Running from lies like birthday congratulations and many happy returns when there won't be any!
[pause]
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
What did you say?
Brick Pollitt
Forget it.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Won't be any happy returns?
Brick Pollitt
Please just let me go home. Leave the place to Goober and Mae.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Leave the place? Who said I was gonna leave the place? I'll outlive you! I'll bury you!
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Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
You're a drinker and i'm childless.
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Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Did the storm cause any damage, Big Daddy?
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
Which storm you talking about, the one on the outside or the hullabaloo I heard going on in here? Heard some mighty loud talking. What's the powwow about?
Mae Pollitt
Nothing, Big Daddy, nothing at all.
Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt
What's in them important-looking documents you got there, Gooper?
Gooper Pollitt
Nothing, sir, nothing much of anything at all.
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Mae Pollitt
Gooper?
[calling his name inquisitively]
Mae Pollitt
What have all the chil'ens been shot for?
Gooper Pollitt
Everything 'cept shootin' chickens, I guess.
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Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Where did I fail you? Where did I make my mistake?
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Brick Pollitt
Now why did you call Gooper's kiddies no-neck monsters?
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Cause your brother's children got no necks, that's why.
Brick Pollitt
Oh.
Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
At least none visible. Their fat little heads sit on their fat little bodies without a bit of connection.
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Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt
Did you ever hear so many dogs' names tagged on to children?
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Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt
I don't like locked doors in my house.
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