Bird Movie Quotes
Doctor at Nica's
[while Bird's body is being retired]
Charles Christopher Parker, Junior. Preliminary diagnosis: heart attack. Stocky, male, negro. Approximately 65 years of age.
Baroness Nica
[with a sad look]
He was 34.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
There's going to be a Birdland in every city one day. There's gonna be a Birdland in Chicago, a Birdland in Detroit, a Birdland right across the street from Camarillo. I am the liberator of Paris and you are a motherfucking afterthought!
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Ain't it a bitch? I go to a liver doctor and I pay him $50. And it don't help me. I go to an ulcer doctor. Same thing, except I pay him $75. But I go to some little cat up in a house somewhere and pay him $10 for a bag of shit and a little peace. My ulcers don't hurt, liver don't hurt. My heart trouble is gone. And this is the man I'm supposed to stay away from? Mr. Gillespie, my comrade in arms, that is what I call a paradox.
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Dizzy Gillespie
Here we are. Brothers. I'm a reformer, you trying to be a martyr. They always remember the martyrs longer. They gonna talk about you when you're dead, Bird. More than they do now. They gonna shovel you under like they love to do. They gonna talk about you. My secret. My secret is, if they kill me - it won't be because I helped them.
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Dizzy Gillespie
No, no... what you're really asking me is, how come when I'm supposed to hit at 9:30, I hit at 9:30... huh? How come I land on a cat I love almost as much as I love you and then fire his ass for showing up late or stoned... I can hold a group together... why I'm a leader.
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
That's what I'm asking.
Dizzy Gillespie
Because they don't expect me to be. Because deep down they like it if the nigger turns out to be unreliable. Because that's the way they think it's supposed to be. Because I won't give them the satisfaction of being right.
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Chan Parker
Dizzy sent you a birthday card. Seems he's back in town. Do you owe him a phone call?
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
I owe Dizzy everything... except a phone call.
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Chan Parker
I'm half Jewish and my hero's Duke Ellington. I mean, wow!
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
[on the phone]
Western Union? Telegram to Mrs. Chan Parker. 151 Avenue B, New York City. Chan... comma... Help... period. Charlie Parker.
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Chan Parker
[after seeing Charlie having a overdose]
That was stupid. Now I have to call an ambulance.
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Mayor of 52nd Street
Hey, sailor! Come here. Listen, you leave the street and don't see Miss Virginia Knight, you'll live to regret it. She goes all the way for servicemen. Right down to the curlicues. You know what I'm talkin' about?
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Chan Parker
I remember when Don Byas was leaving Dizzy's group. I knew the club 's press agent. I asked him, "Who could you possibly get to replace Don?" And he said, "Some cat in Kansas City. His name is Charlie Parker. " And I said, "Is he cute?" And my friend said, "No, but you'll dig him."
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Benny Tate
When the gig is over, you still be scuffling to find the next one. If there is a next one. You can't earn no living - playing jazz - in the States.
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Diz can. Duke can.
Benny Tate
Well, you ain't Diz - and you sure as hell ain't Duke.
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
And they ain't me.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Junkies dream their lives away just thinking about living in places like this. What was I thinking about, pudding?
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
[voiceover, as he stares at himself in the mirror]
Come, fill the cup, And in the fire of spring, Your winter garment of repentance fling, The bird of time, Has but a little way to flutter, And bird is on the wing.
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Chan Parker
Okay. You walked me home. You got me alone. You managed to get me talking and I've told you some of my girlish secrets. But you haven't told me a thing. What's going on?
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
There's one night in my life I never want to forget. I never want to go through it again. I was 15 and I woke up feeling more pain than I've ever felt. I didn't know why until somebody told me I was strung out. Somebody had to tell me that. You know, I always thought that, if I hadn't asked, then I wouldn't be. You make me feel very peaceful. You know?
Chan Parker
You're not my type, man.
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
I know that.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
I'm going on the road again. To Hollywood, back with Dizzy. You know, I hear things about it that make me jumpy.
Chan Parker
What?
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Stuff's not easy to find, for one thing. Tough cops. We'll be the first group to play the new sound out there. I don't know how they'd like that. What do you think about keeping me company?
Chan Parker
[sarcastically]
Oh, yeah. Hunt for drugs during the day and - lead the applause at night.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
You know, Audrey, if we could really hear every sound in the world we'd go crazy. He must be. Crazy, you know?
Audrey
He always looked fairly normal to me.
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Yeah, well, I'm talking about Stravinsky.
Audrey
So am I. We go to the same dentist.
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Chan Parker
Hey. If men could get pregnant, how many kids would you have - by now?
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
We start off with a tour. Ten nights. $150 per man. Per night.
Red Rodney
Really? That's great. Where?
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
South. We drive. Fresh air, scenery - unsophisticated pussy.
Red Rodney
All right.
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
You don't get that with Woody Herman, man.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
It's my wish that you remain my child wife. Would you do that for me?
Chan Parker
You've switched from Bette Davis movies to Jane Eyre. Come on home and eat, Rochester.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
This is the year I'm supposed to die.
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Red Rodney
Bird, are you crazy? Forget about the fact that nobody's going to believe I'm an albino!
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
I believe it.. Whoever heard of a Jewish cat playing trumpet the way you do? Toot toot. Right? Toot toot.
Red Rodney
Cut the crap! The main thing is that I can't sing. I got a voice like a dying animal!
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Anybody can sing the blues!
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Me and the piano player, we got together and we were working on "Cherokee." Now, this was a song that I had played 10,000 times and I was sick of this song. But, I found this new way of extending the chord changes so it was like - a whole new song. And it still fit. That's been what I've trying to do this since they gonged me off the Reno Club. The bridge of "Cherokee." That's the bridge I crossed - two days before Christmas 1939. What a Christmas present.
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Benny Tate
I don't go for that shit you people play; but, over here, they are crazy about it. Now, you don't get rich, but you live. And they treat you like a man.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
You don't know her. You're too young. You're too young. She's probably dead by now. But, Violet: the vibrant Violet of song. They billed her at the Apollo. This is the chick I was playing behind when I found my style. I was just backing her up. I didn't even have a regular gig. I was just washing dishes and jamming after hours. Of course, that's before I became the titanic commercial success that you see sitting before you. That's before I captured the fancy of the adoring public. But I started playing these little - these figures behind her, see? And - they fit with the song - but, it was like going *inside* the melody. And she says, right on the stage, she says: Nigger, don't be playin' that shit behind me while I'm trying to sang.
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Mayor of 52nd Street
Here we are on the street of dreams. Swing's the thing, jazz is the king. You like it hot, you've come to the right place. Step in.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
I can't do anything right anymore.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Just tell me the secret.
Dizzy Gillespie
What secret? I know my own secrets, just like you know yours. What you're really asking me is how come when I'm supposed to hit at 9: 30, I hit at 9:30? How can I land on a cat I love as much as I love you and then fire his ass for showing up late or stoned? Why I can hold a group together? Why I'm a leader?
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Yeah. That's what I'm asking.
Dizzy Gillespie
Because they don't expect me to be. Because, deep down, they like it if the nigger turns out unreliable. Because that's the way they think it's supposed to be. And because I won't give them the satisfaction of being right.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Work that psychology on him. He's just an overgrown, goddamn adolescent anyway. Dangerous when contradicted, but - an adolescent!
Chan Parker
God, you're weird.
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
God, I'm weird? Is that what they say in Westchester?
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Dizzy Gillespie
Got a gig. I gotta go.
Red Rodney
Yard, whenever you get to where you're going, call me. All right?
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Steinberg - he got one of the camera girls to take a picture of me in the midst of my disorientation.
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Dizzy Gillespie
You got a woman in there?
Red Rodney
Yeah, I got a woman in there. I married her so she'd stay in there with me.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Everyone knows I lost that gig.
Chan Parker
That's right.
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
That's right.
Chan Parker
So?
Chan Parker
So why are we conning each other?
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
I'm getting on right now.
Red Rodney
Yeah, I know.
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
You know? The less you know about getting on, the better off you be. Another thing, junior. If I ever hear about you using this shit, I will come from my grave and I will haunt you. Have we met?
Red Rodney
No, sir.
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Chan Parker
I don't want to make anybody feel peaceful, man. I was born to drive men crazy!
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
I learned something. They can get it out of your blood.
Chan Parker
Sure.
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
But they can never get it out of your mind.
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Dizzy Gillespie
"Bebop tends to pervert young minds."
Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Who said that?
Dizzy Gillespie
Somebody with enough juice to get 12 radio stations to turn us off. So we going home tomorrow.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
You could use a vacation from me. Hold this home together. We both want to do that, right?
Chan Parker
Oh, Bird. You and your George Brent dialogue.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Smooth as butter and sweet as a little sister's ass.
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Charlie 'Bird' Parker
You know where I can get me some stuff?
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Mayor of 52nd Street
Bebop, the music of the future. Give it a break. What do you got to lose? Oop-bop-sha-bam.
Buster Franklin
Oop-bop, my ass!
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Benny Tate
I'm not talking about what you do on the bandstand. Everybody said you the man. Well, that's great. Until you mess up. And you always mess up.
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