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Vicki Lester: [Norman has returned to find her in a nightclub. She walks over to him with a small laugh] Hello, Mr. Maine. You turn up in the strangest places.
Norman Maine: Don't I now?
Vicki Lester: [stops laughing, suddenly shocked] And you're cold sober.
Norman Maine: Well, you'd better make the most of it!
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Norman Maine: Do you ever go fishing?
[Esther looks confused]
Norman Maine: Well, do you like prizefi--have you ever watched a great fighter?
Esther Blodgett: I-I uh--
Norman Maine: I'm trying to tell you how you sing.
Esther Blodgett: Do you mean like a prizefighter or a fish?
Norman Maine: Look...em--
[leads her into a kitchen]
Norman Maine: There are certain pleasures that you get--
[realizes that the sound of clanging dishes is intolerable and they depart for the outside]
Norman Maine: There are certain pleasures you get, little-little jabs of pleasure when a swordfish take a hook, or-or when you see a great fighter get in right for the kill, see?
[Esther still looks confused]
Norman Maine: You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?
Esther Blodgett: No, not yet. Why don't you try bullfights?
Alan DeWitt
Extended Reading