Charly Quotes

Charly Gordon: Marry me, pretty girl, marry me.

Alice Kinnian: We will marry at... quarter past Wednesday on the 74th of November, and our anniversary will happily be... on those days where we both remember.

Charly Gordon: What's enough love?

Alice Kinnian: Always a little more than anyone ever gets.

Charly Gordon: [Charly picks up a book and reads from it] "My name is Dick. I live in a house. I have a sister named Jane and a dog named Spot."

Charly Gordon: [He throws the book away] My name is Charly Gordon and I live in a room, and I got no sister and no dog, and I am stupid!

Charly Gordon: Say, Miss Kinnian... where's Mr. Kinnian?

Alice Kinnian: He died, Charly.

Alice Kinnian: [writes a sentence on the blackboard for Charly to punctuate] Punctuate it. Go ahead, punctuate it.

[Charly does, and does it correctly]

Alice Kinnian: That's very good!

Charly Gordon: Now I have something for you to punctuate!

[Turns over blackboard where he has written a sentence]

Alice Kinnian: That does not make sense!

Charly Gordon: [Starts to punctuate it] 'That that is

[adds a comma]

Charly Gordon: , is

[adds a period]

Charly Gordon: . That that is not

[adds a comma]

Charly Gordon: , is not

[adds a period]

Charly Gordon: .'

Alice Kinnian: [Figures it out] 'Is that it?'

Charly Gordon: 'It is!'

Alice Kinnian: So. Student surpasses the teacher!

[Charly nods eagerly]

Charly Gordon: Are there any questions? Did you enjoy the film?

Convention speaker #1: Mr. Gordon... how do you feel at the present moment, about your development?

Charly Gordon: Grateful, sir.

Convention speaker #1: You are happy about it?

Charly Gordon: Yes.

Convention speaker #2: Why?

Charly Gordon: Because it has allowed me to... see.

Convention speaker #3: To see what?

Charly Gordon: The world.

Convention speaker #4: And what do you see in that world?

Charly Gordon: Well... my eyes are new, doctor, I...

Convention speaker #4: And what do they *see*, Mr. Gordon?

Charly Gordon: Things as they are.

Convention speaker #4: And?

Charly Gordon: And what they are becoming.

Convention speaker #5: Can you give me an example Mr. Gordon?

Charly Gordon: [quickly] No sir, you give me one.

Convention speaker #5: Very well...

Charly Gordon: Very well.

Convention speaker #5: Modern science.

Charly Gordon: Rampant technology, conscience by computer.

Convention speaker #1: Modern art.

Charly Gordon: Dispassionate draftsmen.

Convention speaker #4: Foreign policy.

Charly Gordon: Brave new weapons.

[laughter]

Convention speaker #1: Today's youth.

Charly Gordon: Joyless, guideless.

Convention speaker #6: Today's religion.

Charly Gordon: Preachment by popularity polls.

Convention speaker #3: Standard of living.

Charly Gordon: A TV in every room.

[laughter]

Convention speaker #4: Education.

Charly Gordon: [agitated] A TV in every room.

[more laughter]

Convention speaker #1: The world's future, Mr. Gordon.

Charly Gordon: Brave new hates, brave new bombs, brave new wars.

Convention speaker #7: The coming generation.

Charly Gordon: Test-tube conception, laboratory birth, TV education, brave new dreams, brave new hates, brave new wars; a beautifully purposeless process of society suicide.

[silence]

Charly Gordon: Any more questions?

[Alice slaps Charly on the face after been hardly kissed by him]

Alice Kinnian: You - you think anyone would ever want you, you stupid moron!

[Charly leaves Alice crying]

Charly Gordon: Any more questions? In the back, any more questions about things as they are and what they're becoming? No? I have a question.

[turns to Nemur and Strauss]

Charly Gordon: Professor Nemur. Charly Gordon.

[Nemur does not answer]

Charly Gordon: Come on, professor, you know. Charly Gordon.

[Nemur still does not answer]

Charly Gordon: You know, but you haven't told me.

[turns to the audience]

Charly Gordon: Anybody out there answer the question 'Charly Gordon'?

[no answer comes from the audience]

Charly Gordon: Anyone in the back answer the question 'Charly Gordon'?

[still no answer]

Charly Gordon: No? Well, I'm disappointed in you, doctors. You're not very smart. You're not even as smart as a mouse. Because he knows. Algernon showed me. The answer to the question, 'Charly Gordon' is: Charly Gordon is a fellow who will very shortly be what he used to be.

[the whole room is silent as Charly turns to Nemur and Strauss, puts his hand in his pocket and takes out Algernon who is now dead]

Charly Gordon: Professor Nemur, why didn't you tell me the success of the operation was only temporary?

[Nemur and Strauss looked at each other in bewildered looks]

[Charly finds Alice waiting for him in his room]

Alice Kinnian: Saw your cycle outside.

Charly Gordon: It's for sale.

Alice Kinnian: What did you learn?

Charly Gordon: I'm back. What did you learn?

Alice Kinnian: I'm here.

[Alice walks to him in a smile]

Alice Kinnian: Any questions?

Charly Gordon: [upset about getting fired from his job] Yeah, I was wonder why people that would never dream of laughing at a blind or a crippled man would laugh at a moron.

Alice Kinnian: What happened?

Charly Gordon: My friends at the bakery got up a petition and then I got fired.

Alice Kinnian: Oh...

Charly Gordon: Is that an automatic law, something like gravity? Increased intelligence equals lost friends?

Dr. Anna Strauss: [after witnessing Charly painting nude women, furiously at Richard] What are you trying to turn him into, some kind of a sideshow freak?

Dr. Richard Nemur: Now, Anna, don't be ridiculous.

Dr. Anna Strauss: You're pushing your program for his intellectual development much too rapidly. It has to keep pace with my program for his emotional development, or the imbalance will become dangerous! I thought we were to be satisfied with a minor miracle...

Dr. Richard Nemur: What are you afraid of?

Dr. Anna Strauss: ...to help a retarded human being become a more productive member of society.

Dr. Richard Nemur: He has shown no indication of any mental ceiling. So why are you afraid to reach for whatever that ceiling may be? In any event, we shall have to give Mrs. Kinnian her notice.

Dr. Anna Strauss: What?

Dr. Richard Nemur: All she can do now is ask him questions out of books that he's already absorbed. What he needs at this point is a giant step forward - new conceptualization, inductive thinking. And that calls for experts, not Alice Kinnian.

Dr. Anna Strauss: I will say it once more, Richard: Charly Gordon is still a child emotionally.

Dr. Richard Nemur: I don't agree.

[last lines]

Alice Kinnian: Marry me?

[Charly goes silent by refusing]

Alice Kinnian: [sits down] All right, don't marry me.

Charly Gordon: [smiles] Motion carried.

Alice Kinnian: But I'm going to stay right here. Whenever you feel like telling me to go, just let me know - just tell me so. I'll go, I'll leave.

Charly Gordon: Leave.

[Alice goes stunned]

Charly Gordon: Please, leave.

Alice Kinnian: [solemnly] All right...

[Alice hesitates then slowly heads to the door]

Alice Kinnian: Good night.

Charly Gordon: [without looking at her] Good night.

[Alice leaves]

Dr. Richard Nemur: [as Charly intelligence fades comes back with the results] Charly, your evaluations were correct.

Charly Gordon: [half-sarcastic] It's too bad. It was such a promising theory.

Dr. Richard Nemur: It is. It's still is.