Badlands Quotes

Holly Sargis: At this moment, I didn't feel shame or fear, but just kind of blah, like when you're sitting there and all the water's run out of the bathtub.

Holly Sargis: One day, while taking a look at some vistas in Dad's stereopticon, it hit me that I was just this little girl, born in Texas, whose father was a sign painter, who only had just so many years to live. It sent a chill down my spine and I thought where would I be this very moment, if Kit had never met me? Or killed anybody... this very moment... if my mom had never met my dad... if she had never died. And what's the man I'll marry gonna look like? What's he doing right this minute? Is he thinking about me now, by some coincidence, even though he doesn't know me? Does it show on his face? For days afterwards I lived in dread. Sometimes I wished I could fall asleep and be taken off to some magical land, and this never happened.

Holly Sargis: He needed me now more than ever, but something had come between us. I'd stopped even paying attention to him. Instead I sat in the car and read a map and spelled out entire sentences with my tongue on the roof of mouth where nobody could read them.

Kit Carruthers: Hey, I found a toaster.

Kit Carruthers: Suppose I shot you. How'd that be?

Holly Sargis: [voice over narration] Little did I realise that what began in the alleys and back ways of this quiet town would end in the Badlands of Montana.

Holly Sargis: [voice over narration] Of course I had to keep all of this a secret from my Dad. He would had a fit because Kit was ten years older than me and came from the wrong side of the tracks so called.

Holly Sargis: [voice over narration] Then sure enough Dad found out I been running around behind his back. He was madder than I ever seen him. His punishment for deceiving him: he went and shot my dog. He made me take extra music lessons everyday after school, and wait there 'till he came to pick me up. He said that if the piano didn't keep me off the streets, maybe the clarinet would.

Father: [to Kit] I don't want you hanging anymore. I don't wanna see you again. Understand?

Kit Carruthers: [recording a message] My girl Holly and I decided to kill ourselves. The same way I did her Daddy. Big decision, you know. Uh, the reasons are obvious. I don't have time to go into right now. But, one thing though, he was provoking me when I popped him. Well that's what it was like. Pop. I'm sorry. I mean, nobody's coming out of this thing happy. Especially not us. I can't deny we've had fun though.

Holly Sargis: [voice over narration] We hid out in the wilderness down by a river in the grove of Cotton Woods. Being the flood season we built our house in the trees.

Holly Sargis: [voice over narration] We planned a huge network of tunnels under the forrest floor, and our first order of business every morning was to decide on a new pathway for the day.

Holly Sargis: [voice over narration] They hadn't found but one set of bones in the ashes of the house so we knew they'd be looking for us. Kit made sure we'd be prepared. He gave me lectures on how a gun works, how to take it apart, and put it back together again, in case I had to carry on without him. He said that if the devil came at me, I'd shoot him with a gun. One day I carried thirty pounds of wood a distance of five miles. Another day while hiding in the forest I covered my eyes with make up to see how they'd come out.

Kit Carruthers: Get out of here! Run! Someone's coming! Hide! Hey! Holly.

Kit Carruthers: [recording a message] Listen to your parents and teachers. They got a line on most things, so don't treat em like enemies. There's always an outside chance you can learn something. Try to keep an open mind. Try to understand the viewpoints of others. Consider the minority opinion. But try to get along with the majority of opinion once it's accepted. Of course Holly and I have had fun, even if it has been rushed. And uh, so far a good sign, hadn't got caught. Excuse the grammar.

Holly Sargis: [voice over narration] At the very edge of the horizon we could make out the gas fires of the refineries at Missoula, while to the south we could see the lights of Cheyenne, a city bigger and grander than I'd ever seen.

Holly Sargis: [Voiceover narration] Kit was glad to leave South Dakota behind, and cursed its name. He said that if the Communists ever dropped the atomic bomb, he wished they'd put it right in the middle of Rapid City.

Holly Sargis: [telling a joke to Cato] Did you hear about the guy at the nuthouse that walked around naked except for hat and gloves? This nurse came up to him and said, "You can't walk around that way." And the guy says, "It's okay, nobody comes around here anyway." And the nurse says, "Well, what do you have on the hat and gloves for?" And the guy says, "Well, you never know..."

Kit Carruthers: [after shooting her father] Oh, uh... if you wanna call the police, it's fine. Won't be so hot for me.

Holly Sargis: [voiceover narration] It was better to live a week with someone who loved me for what I was, then years of loneliness.

Kit Carruthers: We'll keep headin' for that mountain. Just remember I said it wasn't such a hot idea.

Kit Carruthers: I always wanted to be a criminal, I guess. Just not this big of a one.

Holly Sargis: [voiceover] In the stench and slime of the feedlot he'd remember how I'd looked the night before. How I ran my hand through his hair and traced the outline of his lips with my fingertip. He wanted to die with me, and I dreamed of being lost forever in his arms.

Father: What do you think'll happen to her if she stuck with you, Kit? A guy like you?

Holly Sargis: [voiceover] On Thursday, the governor of Oklahoma sent out the National Guard to stand watch at the Federal Reserve Bank in Tulsa when word got out that Kit meant to rob it. It was like the Russians had invaded.

Holly Sargis: [voiceover] I left Kit in the parlor and went for a stroll outside the house. The day was quiet and serene but I didn't notice, for I was deep in thought and not even thinking about how to slip off. The world was like a faraway planet to which I could never return. I thought what a fine place it was full of things that people can look into and enjoy.

Kit Carruthers: That guy must pay through the nose to keep this place up. Lawn, gas and electric. Bagworms. Plus the upkeep on the cars. You get a little money in your pocket and you think all your problems are solved. Well, let me tell you. They're not.

Holly Sargis: [voiceover] We lived in utter loneliness, neither here nor there. Kit said that "solitude" was a better word, 'cause it meant more exactly what I wanted to say. Whatever the expression, I told him we couldn't go on livin' this way.

Holly Sargis: [voiceover] He took and buried some of our things in a bucket. He said that nobody else would know where we put 'em and we'd come back someday, maybe, and they'd still be sittin' here just the same, but we'd be different. And if we never got back, well somebody might dig 'em up 1,000 years from now and wouldn't they wonder.

Holly Sargis: [voiceover] Kit took the bottle and spun it around leaving to fate which direction we should take.

Holly Sargis: [voiceover] l made up my mind to never again tag around with the hell-bent type no matter how in love with him I was.