Norma Rae Movie Quotes
Norma Rae Webster
Forget it! I'm stayin' right where I am. It's gonna take you and the police department and the fire department and the National Guard to get me outta here!
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Reuben Warshowsky
On October 4, 1970, my grandfather, Isaac Abraham Warshowsky, aged eighty-seven, died in his sleep in New York City. On the following Friday morning, his funeral was held. My mother and father attended, my two uncles from Brooklyn attended, my Aunt Minnie came up from Florida. Also present were eight hundred and sixty-two members of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and Cloth, Hat and Cap Makers' Union. Also members of his family. In death as in life, they stood at his side. They had fought battles with him, bound the wounds of battle with him, had earned bread together and had broken it together. When they spoke, they spoke in one voice, and they were heard. They were black, they were white, they were Irish, they were Polish, they were Catholic, they were Jews, they were one. That's what a union is: one... Ladies and gentlemen, the textile industry, in which you are spending your lives and your substance, and in which your children and their children will spend their lives and their substance, is the only industry in the whole length and breadth of the United States of America that is not unionized. Therefore, they are free to exploit you, to cheat you, to lie to you, and to take away what is rightfully yours - your health, a decent wage, a fit place to work. I would urge you to stop them by coming down to room 207 at the Golden Cherry Motel, to pick up a union card and to sign it... It comes from the Bible - according to the tribes of your fathers, ye shall inherit. It comes from Reuben Warshowsky - not unless you make it happen.
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Norma Rae Webster
How long I been comin' to this church, Reverend?
Reverend Hubbard
Since you were a little girl.
Norma Rae Webster
That's right. I accepted Christ when I was six years old, didn't I? Well, would you call me a good Christian?
Reverend Hubbard
With a lapse or two, I'd say so.
Norma Rae Webster
'With a lapse or two.' Would you call yourself a good Christian?
Reverend Hubbard
That's for the Lord to say.
Norma Rae Webster
I want this church for a union meetin' next Saturday. Blacks and whites sittin' together.
Reverend Hubbard
This is a house of God.
Norma Rae Webster
I'm waitin' to see whether it is or it isn't.
Reverend Hubbard
You're comin' mighty close to blasphemy.
Norma Rae Webster
I've come here and said I sinned and I'm sorry, and I asked for God to forgive me. I wanna see what this church stands for. I wanna see if you'll stand up and say there oughta be justice, a union, and if you're smitten, rise and the Lord'll be on your side. And if you don't, then I say there ain't nothin' good for me in that church, and I'm gonna leave it flat.
Reverend Hubbard
We're gonna miss your voice in the choir, Norma.
Norma Rae Webster
You're gonna hear it raised up someplace else.
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[last lines]
Reuben Warshowsky
I don't say goodbye. I have been known to cry.
Norma Rae Webster
Well, whadda you say?
Norma Rae Webster
Same to you.
Reuben Warshowsky
[stuttering]
Best wishes don't seem hardly enough, but I'd like to thank you. I do. I, I thank you for your companionship, your stamina, your horse sense, and a hundred and one laughs. I also enjoyed very much looking at your shining hair and your shining face.
Norma Rae Webster
Reuben, I think you like me.
Reuben Warshowsky
I do.
Norma Rae Webster
I was gonna buy you a tie clip or some shaving lotion or something, but I didn't know what you'd like.
Reuben Warshowsky
Norma, what I've had from you has been sumptuous.
[they shake hands, and stare long and hard at each other before Reuben gets in his packed up car and drives away]
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Reuben Warshowsky
I know the first time you're in is bad. It comes with the job. I saw a pregnant women on a picket line get hit in the stomach with a club. I saw a boy of 16 shot in the back. I saw a guy blown to hell and back when he tried to start his car in the morning. You just got your feet wet on this one.
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Norma Rae Wilson
You a Jew?
Reuben Warshowsky
I beg your pardon?
Norma Rae Wilson
Are you a Jew?
Reuben Warshowsky
Born and bred.
Norma Rae Wilson
I heard you all had horns.
Reuben Warshowsky
Heh. Circumcised, yes. Horns, no.
Norma Rae Wilson
Well, as far as I can see, you don't look any different from the rest of us.
Reuben Warshowsky
Well, we are.
Norma Rae Wilson
Yea? Well, what makes you different?
Reuben Warshowsky
History.
Norma Rae Wilson
Oh...
Reuben Warshowsky
You got it now?
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Reuben Warshowsky
Gentlemen, your average working man is not stupid. He just gets tired.
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Norma Rae Wilson
[Reuben walks with Norma after witnessing an argument between her and an ex-beau]
I guess it seems like every time you run into me, I'm hassling with some other guy.
Reuben Warshowsky
That's what it seems like.
Norma Rae Wilson
What you think of me, I wonder.
Reuben Warshowsky
I think you're too smart for what's happenin' to ya.
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Vernon Wichard
[addressing the man at his front door]
Who are you?
Reuben Warshowsky
My name is Reuben Warshowsky.
Vernon Wichard
Warshowsky... what kind of name is that?
Reuben Warshowsky
The kind you have to spell for telephone operators and head waiters.
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Norma Rae Webster
Reuben, you need yourself a woman.
Reuben Warshowsky
Funny you should mention it - tonight's the night.
Norma Rae Webster
My, my, what would Dorothy say?
Reuben Warshowsky
Wear a rubber.
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Sonny
Did you ever sleep with him?
Norma Rae Webster
No. But he's in my head.
Sonny
I'm gonna see you through gettin' tired... gettin' sick... gettin' old. I'm gonna see you through anything that comes up. And there's nobody else in my head. Just you.
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Norma Rae Wilson
Why did you tell him that, we don't even have a dog?
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Norma Rae Webster
Who's this? Dylan Thomas?
Reuben Warshowsky
He was a poet. A genius and a drunk.
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Norma Rae Wilson
Well, I'm gonna let this pot soak.
Vernon Wichard
There's one soakin' from breakfast.
Norma Rae Wilson
Then it's got company.
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Reuben Warshowsky
[hands Norma a bag of ice to put on her nose after being punched by her date]
Here, put this on. I thought everybody down South was Ashley Wilkes.
Norma Rae Wilson
You lie down with dogs, you get fleas.
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Norma Rae Webster
I love you kids. That's the first thing. And Sonny loves you. You got the both of us. Second thing is... I'm a jailbird. Now, you're gonna be hearing that, and a lot of other things. But you're gonna hear it from me first. Millie, your daddy, his name was Buddy Wilson. And he died four months after you was born. Craig, I wasn't never married to your daddy. And he wasn't Buddy. And he's not Sonny. He's another man. And there have been others in my life. You're gonna be hearing about them too. I'm not perfect. I made mistakes. Millie, these are pictures of your daddy. Craig, I got pictures of your daddy. They belong to you. If you go in the mill, I want life to be better for you than it is for me. That's why I joined up with the union, and that's why I got fired for it. You understand me? Now, you kids, you know what I am. And you know that I believe in standing up for what I think is right. Go to the bathroom before you get back into bed. Take your pictures. Go on.
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Norma Rae Wilson
[handing back the ice pack for her bloodied nose caused from being punched by a date]
Thanks a lot for the ice.
Reuben Warshowsky
Anytime.
Norma Rae Wilson
Christ, I hope not.
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Ellis Harper
Hello, Norma.
Ellis Harper
You're looking fine.
Ellis Harper
You changed your hair.
Norma Rae Wilson
It grew.
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Gardner
Norma, you got the biggest mouth in this mill. "Give us a longer break... ." "Give us more smokin' time..." "Give us a Kotex pad machine..."
Norma Rae Webster
Do it and I'll shut up!
Gardner
Well, we'll do better than that. We figure the only way to close that mouth is to hand you a promotion. You're going up in the world, honey.
Norma Rae Webster
Yeah? How far and for how much?
Gardner
Well, we're gonna put you on spot-checking.
Norma Rae Webster
It sure ain't gonna make me any friends.
Gardner
It'll make you another dollar and a half an hour.
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Sonny
She had one call and she called you. She knew I could make bail. You come in here, you mix her up, you turn her head all around. She's all changed. I didn't want that. I didn't want her to be a frontrunner. What's gonna happen to us now?
Reuben Warshowsky
She stood up on a table. She's a free woman. Maybe you can live with it, maybe you can't.
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