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Alice Paul: I'm having dinner with Helen Keller.
Ben Weissman: Don't stare, she hates that.
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Movie patron: Would you please be quiet?
Alice Paul: My sister is blind; I have to read her the subtitles.
Lucy Burns: [to Alice] That's it, you've ruined it. We're leaving.
[Inez starts flailing her arms in front of her when she stands up, pretending to be blind]
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Dr. White: "Give me liberty or give me death." Patrick Henry, an American hero.
District commissioner #1: Apples and oranges.
Dr. White: In oranges and women courage is often mistaken for insanity.
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Lucy Burns: To pay the fine would be admitting guilt. We haven't broken a law. Not one dollar!
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Mabel Vernon: We are called the Iron Jawed Angels. Is that supposed to be an insult? Oh, and Carrie Catt told the Times that we were no better than anarchists and draft dodgers.
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Alice Paul: It's warm in here. Can you open a window?
Matron Herndon: Get to work.
Alice Paul: Can't you see she looks faint? All I ask is that you open a window.
Lucy Burns: Matron, my needle broke. Can I have another?
[Alice takes off her shoe and throws it at the window, breaking it]
Alice Paul: That's better, isn't it?
Matron Herndon: Put her in solitary.
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Lucy Burns: [crying] Tell me what you did! If you do anything to hurt that girl! Do you hear me?
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Carrie Chapman Catt: This will get out to the foreign press. You can tell the President that he can look like a damn fool or he can deal me in.
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Alice Paul: I found someone who designs parade floats.
Lucy Burns: Whoa, I thought we were going to keep this small.
Alice Paul: Why?
Lucy Burns: Because you've never organized a parade before. Neither have I. It's not like giving a dinner party.
Alice Paul: Have you ever given a dinner party?
Lucy Burns: No.
Alice Paul: Then what are you worried about?
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Alice Paul: We're legitimate citizens. We're taxed without representation. We're not allowed to serve on juries so we're not tried by our peers. It's unconscionable, not to mention unconstitutional. We don't make the laws but we have to obey them like children.
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Inez Mulholland: Men plan. God laughs.
Alice Paul: I'm not a man.
Inez Mulholland: Ever wish you were?
Alice Paul: Once, when I saw my brother peeing his name in the snow.
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Lucy Burns: [talking about Carrie] I don't think she is a woman. Seriously, has anyone seen her naked?
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Lucy Burns: We're political prisoners. We wear our own clothes.
Matron Herndon: You'll wear what they all wear.
Lucy Burns: I want to see the warden.
Matron Herndon: You want to see him naked?
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Senator Leighton: I don't know a judge in this district that will give you custody right now.
Emily Leighton: You won't take my children.
Senator Leighton: And how are you going to stop me? Can you afford an attorney?
Emily Leighton: An attorney? To prove what? That I'm their mother? What will *your* judge say? That this is *your* house and *your* children? What am I to you, Tom, in your house? Chattel? This is how you punish me? I am their mother! They are not your children to take!
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Alice Paul: When you're alone, you can make any choice you want. But when someone loves you, you lose that right. I won't give anything away 'til we have it all. I can't.
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Emily Leighton: They are the only reason I am here.
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Alice Paul: I was put in a straight jacket and taken to the psychopathic ward. I could not see my family or friends, counsel was denied me. I saw no other prisoners and heard nothing of them. I could see no papers. Today I was force fed for the third time, I refused to open my mouth. My left nostril, throat, and muscles of my neck are very sore. I vomit continuously during the process.
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Lucy Burns: Don't you ever want to get married?
Alice Paul: I'm busy that day.
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Emily Leighton: I really don't follow politics, Ms. Burns. I haven't the head for it.
Lucy Burns: We're citizens or we're chattle: you don't really need a degree from Harvard to figure that out.
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Lucy Burns: Don't argue with me! You're mama duck, we follow you. If you go down, they'll scatter. Use your head.
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Lucy Burns: I can see it now. I'm gonna end up back in Brooklyn with a hairless cat. Called Lester.
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Alice Paul: [on the phone] Helen Keller's in town. Arrange for me to meet her.
[pause]
Alice Paul: No I don't know what hotel.
[pause]
Alice Paul: Well she's deaf and blind. If she found it, I'm sure you can.
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Lucy Burns: [mimicking/mocking Carrie] Do me a favor, don't question Susan's thoughts on cheese. We worked side by side with Susan. We worked cheek to cheek with Susan. She despised cheddar and she loathed Muenster.
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Dr. White: You refuse to eat. Can you tell me why?
Alice Paul: The hunger strike was a tradition in Old Ireland. You starve yourself on someone's doorstep until restitution is made. And justice is done.
Dr. White: Doesn't sound like a very effective method.
Alice Paul: A stinking corpse on your doorstep? What will the neighbours say?
Dr. White: So you stand on the president's doorstep. He's treated you very badly, hasen't he?
Alice Paul: It's the law that treats women badly.
Dr. White: But you picketed President Wilson, he's the one that put you here.
Alice Paul: We picketed the office of the presidency. It has nothing to do with Mr Wilson and everything to do with the position he holds.
Dr. White: But he's responsible for your treatment here.
Alice Paul: I believe I was sent here by a district commissioner.
Dr. White: You call yourself a suffragist.
Alice Paul: Yes.
Dr. White: Tell me about your cause. Just talk freely. Explain yourself. Do you understand the question?
Alice Paul: You asked me to explain myself. I just wonder what needs to be explained. Let me be very clear. Look into your own heart. I swear to you, mine's no different. You want a place in the trades and professions where you can earn your bread? So do I. You want some means of self expression? Some way of satisfying your own personal ambitions? So do I. You want a voice in the government in which you live? So do I. What is there to explain?
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Parade Heckler #1: [taunting the women marchers] Get off the streets! Go home to your mothers!
Woman in Parade: My mother is here!
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Ida Wells-Barnett: I'm told you expect Negro women to march in a separate unit. At the back.
Alice Paul: Southern Suffrage groups threatened to withdraw...
Ida Wells-Barnett: Are the ladies afraid we'll march out of step? Call their bluff.
Alice Paul: We can't afford to lose their support. Not with the Democrats in office.
Ida Wells-Barnett: Who's we? Women? Or just white women?
Lucy Burns: Now wait a minute...
Alice Paul: We have one agenda. Suffrage. Add another issue...
Ida Wells-Barnett: If we don't stand up now, what happens to Negro women when you finally get the vote? They'll keep us out of the polling places any way they can.
Alice Paul: Other colored groups have agreed to the compromise.
Lucy Burns: Not perfect, but we've got to be practical.
Ida Wells-Barnett: Dress up prejudice and call it politics? I expected more from a Quaker. I'll march with my peers, or not at all.
Iron Jawed Angels Quotes
Extended Reading
