Out of the Past Quotes

  • [Petey and Jeff watch Meta walking away]

    Petey: Nice!

    Jeff: Awfully cold around the heart.

  • Jeff: How big a chump can you get to be? I was finding out.

  • Jeff: You say to yourself, "How hot can it get?" Then, in Acapulco, you find out.

  • Fisher: You know, a dame with a rod is like a guy with a knitting needle.

  • Jeff: You know, maybe I was wrong and luck is like love. You have to go all the way to find it.

    Ann: You do to keep it.

  • Jeff: I sell gasoline, I make a small profit. With that I buy groceries. The grocer makes a profit. We call it earning a living. You may have heard of it somewhere.

  • Whit: My feelings? About ten years ago, I hid them somewhere and haven't been able to find them.

  • Jeff: You can never help anything, can you? You're like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another.

  • Jeff: It was the bottom of the barrel, and I was scraping it.

  • Whit: Joe couldn't find a prayer in the Bible.

  • Kathie: Don't you see? You've only me to make deals with now.

    Jeff: Well, build my gallows high, baby.

  • Ann: She can't be all bad. No one is.

    Jeff: Well, she comes the closest.

  • Jeff: I never saw her in the daytime. We seemed to live by night. What was left of the day went away like a pack of cigarettes you smoked. I didn't know where she lived. I never followed her. All I ever had to go on was a place and time to see her again. I don't know what we were waiting for. Maybe we thought the world would end.

  • Ann: They say the day you die your name is written in the clouds.

  • Kathie: I didn't know what I was doing. I, I didn't know anything except how much I hated him. But I didn't take anything. I didn't, Jeff. Don't you believe me?

    Jeff: Baby, I don't care.

  • [Kathie is playing roulette]

    Jeff: That's not the way to win.

    Kathie: Is there a way to win?

    Jeff: There's a way to lose more slowly.

  • Kathie: I think we deserve a break.

    Jeff: We deserve each other.

  • Eels: All women are wonders, because they reduce all men to the obvious.

    Meta Carson: So do martinis.

  • Jeff: [answering the door] Well, the last guy in the world...

    Whit: I hate surprises myself. You wanna just shut the door and forget it?

  • Jeff: Now, do you wanna talk business, or do you wanna play house?

  • Whit: You just sit and stay inside yourself. You wait for me to talk. I like that.

    Jeff: I never found out much listening to myself.

  • Kathie: Can't you even feel sorry for me?

    Jeff: I'm not going to try.

    Kathie: Jeff...

    Jeff: Just get out, will you? I have to sleep in this room.

  • Kathie: Oh Jeff, you ought to have killed me for what I did a moment ago.

    Jeff: [dryly] There's time.

  • Jeff: [allowing one slap but blocking a second] That evens us. Now fold your hands or I'll fold 'em for you!

  • Joe: I often wondered what happened to him. Then one day I'm breezing through here, and there's his name up on a sign.

    Marney - Diner Owner: It's a small world.

    Joe: Yeah. Or a big sign.

  • Marney - Diner Owner: Two things I can smell inside a hundred feet: a burnin' hamburger and a romance.

    Jim: You got a customer.

    Marney - Diner Owner: [to Joe] What'll ya have?

    Joe: [not bothering to take the cigarette out of his mouth] Coffee.

    Marney - Diner Owner: Nothing else?

    Joe: Cream.

  • Jeff: Why me?

    Whit: Well, I know a lot of smart guys, and a few honest ones. And you're both.

  • Eels: Your uh... cousin is a very charming young lady.

    Jeff: No he isn't. His name is Norman, and he's a bookmaker in Cleveland, Ohio.

  • Jeff: Nothing in the world is any good unless you can share it.

  • Whit: You're gonna take the rap and play along. You're gonna make every exact move I tell you. If you don't, I'll kill you. And I'll promise you one thing: it won't be quick. I'll break you first. You won't be able to answer a telephone or open a door without thinking, 'This is it.' And it when it comes, it still won't be quick. And it won't be pretty. You can take your choice.

  • Kathie: I don't want to die.

    Jeff: Neither do I, baby, but if I have to, I'm going to die last.

  • Kathie: I'm sorry he didn't die.

    Jeff: Give him time.

  • Jeff: Let's go down to the bar. We can cool off while we try to impress each other.

  • Kathie: Did you miss me?

    Jeff: No more than I would my eyes.

  • Jeff: Very difficult girl.

    Jose Rodriguez: Is there one who is *not* so, Señor?

  • Jeff: I didn't know you were so little.

    Kathie: I'm taller than Napoleon.

    Jeff: You're prettier, too.

  • Meta Carson: You are an idiot.

    Jeff: So's he.

    Meta Carson: You think so?

    Jeff: Why not? He's in love with you.

  • Kathie: If it gets too lonely, there's a little cantina down the street called Pablo's. It's nice and quiet. The man there plays American music for a dollar. Sip bourbon and shut your eyes... it's like a little place on 56th Street.

    Jeff: I'll wear my earrings.

    Kathie: I sometimes go there.

  • Kathie: You don't know Whit. He won't forget.

    Jeff: Everybody forgets.

    Kathie: Not Whit.

    Jeff: So we'll send him a postcard every Christmas.

    Kathie: Jeff, I'm glad you're not afraid of him.

    Jeff: I've been afraid of half the things I ever did.

    Kathie: And this time?

    Jeff: I'm only afraid you might not go.

    Kathie: Don't be. I'll be there tomorrow.

  • Jeff: I like surprises. When I was a kid, we were so busted that if we got anything at all for Christmas it was a big surprise.

  • Kathie: Oh, Jeff. I've missed you. I've wondered about you and prayed you'd understand. Can you understand?

    Jeff: You prayed, Kathie?

  • Jeff: If you'll drop this Junior League patter we may get the conversation down where it belongs.

    Meta Carson: You worried about something?

    Jeff: I don't know. Should I be?

    Meta Carson: Not if you do what you're told.

    Jeff: That's why I'm here. I do what I'm told. People trust me. Whit even trusts me twice. Do you?

    Meta Carson: Just as far as I have to.

  • Meta Carson: I was expecting you.

    Jeff: Well... I wasn't expecting you.

    Meta Carson: Should I take that as a compliment?

  • Jeff: We got a call to come over and see a big Op.

    Ann: A what?

    Jeff: An operator. A gambler. He didn't come to see us because he was too high-powered a character. Also because some dame had taken four shots at him with his own 38. Made one of 'em good.

  • Joe: Newspaper guys. Wise guys! Who do they think they're kidding? So, he shot himself cleaning a cap pistol. So, I shot the ace of spades out of a sleeve during a gin game. A guy can't even get shot in his own apartment by a dame without the whole town starting to buzz like a, like a...

    Whit: Like you? Smoke a cigarette, Joe.

  • Fisher: She must be quite a dame. A wild goose with 40 Gs.

  • Jeff: [voice-over] Near the Plaza was a little cafe called La Mar Azul, next to a movie house. I sat there in the afternoons and drank beer. I used to sit there half asleep with a beer in the darkness, only the music from the movie next door kept jarring me awake. And then I saw her - coming out of the sun. And I knew why Whit didn't care about that 40 grand.

  • Jeff: I could go down to the cliff and look at the sea like a good tourist. But, it's no good if there isn't somebody you can turn to and say, "Nice view there." It's the same with the churches, the relics, the moonlight or a Cuba Libre.

  • Jeff: [voice-over] I went to Pablo's that night. I knew I'd go every night until she showed up and I knew she knew it.

  • Jeff: [voice-over] She waited until it was late. Then, she walked in out of the moonlight, smiling.

  • Kathie: You know, you're a curious man.

    Jeff: You're going to make every guy you meet a little bit curious.

    Kathie: It's not what I mean.

  • Kathie: You don't ask questions. You don't even ask me what my name is.

    Jeff: All right, what's your name?

    Kathie: Kathie.

    Jeff: I like it.

    Kathie: Or where I come from?

    Jeff: I'm thinking about where we're going.

  • Kathie: You know, I'm a much better guide than Jose Rodriguez. Want to try me?

  • Jeff: I don't like playing games when I'm the fall guy. You might remember that, Whit.

  • Jeff: You get your five grand back and Stephanos can take over from here.

    Whit: You're wrong. I fire people but nobody quits me. You started this an you'll end it.

  • Jeff: [voice-over] I went alone to LA and I made it easy for him to follow me. He was a good gumshoe. It was the one thing he could really do.

  • Jeff: You wanna lift, baby?

    Kathie: You know, I really hadn't ought.

    Jeff: You're a cute little package to be out walking alone at night.

    Kathie: You're kinda cute yourself.

  • Fisher: Your picture don't do you justice, baby.

    Kathie: Why don't you break his head, Jeff?

    Fisher: Cute.

  • Jeff: I can give you a tip. You tell Whit where we are, he might slip you a sawbuck.

  • Fisher: Just pay me off and I'm quiet. But use cash. Don't try to pay me off with a pitch handed to you by this cheap piece of baggage!

  • Jeff: Well, I told you it wasn't a nice story.

    Ann: And I told you once that whatever happened was done.

    Jeff: Yeah, but you should have known about it long ago.

    Ann: It's all right. I understand. But, it's all past.

    Jeff: Maybe it isn't.

  • Whit: Well, you told me about your business. Mine is a little more precarious and I earn considerably more.

    Jeff: So I've heard.

    Whit: So has the government.

    Jeff: Well, this may sound ridiculous, but you could pay 'em.

    Whit: Oh, that would be against my nature.

  • Whit: You know San Francisco, don't you?

    Jeff: Yeah, I was there once for a party.

    Whit: And you got around?

    Jeff: Like the monkey and the weasel.

  • Meta Carson: Would you like a gin and tonic?

    Jeff: That'd be nice.

    Meta Carson: You may have whiskey if you like.

    Jeff: That'd be even nicer.

  • Jeff: Just remember, I'm coming out of this in one piece, Miss Carson.

    Meta Carson: Do you always go around leaving your fingerprints on a girl's shoulder? Not that I mind, particularly. You've got nice strong hands.

  • Jeff: Keep the martinis dry. I'll be back.

  • Meta Carson: For a man who appears to be clever, you can certainly act like an idiot.

    Jeff: That's one way to be clever! Look like an idiot.

    Meta Carson: You look like an underweight ghost.

  • Jeff: Was there a slip up, baby?

  • Jeff: I'm the fall guy. There's only one thing missing. The plant. What was it that gives me a motive? I wouldn't kill a guy for a martini.

  • Kathie: I've never stopped loving you. I was afraid and no good, but, I've never stopped. Even if you'd hated me - did you?

    Jeff: Yes.

  • Jeff: You know, sometimes a bad memory is like what they call an ill wind - it can blow somebody luck.

  • Jeff: Well, we meet in in all kinds of places.

  • Kathie: You can't make deals with a dead man, Joe.

  • Kathie: I never told you I was anything but what I am. You just wanted to imagine I was. That's why I left you.

  • Kathie: We're starting all over. I want to go back to Mexico. I want to walk out of the sun again and find you waiting. I want to sit in the same moonlight and tell you all things I never told you - until you don't hate me, until sometime you love again.

  • Kathie: If you'e thinking of anyone else, don't. It wouldn't work. You're no good for anyone but me. You're no good and neither am I. That's why we deserve each other.

  • Kathie: I'm running the show, don't forget it.

    Jeff: I doubt you'll ever let me.

  • Jeff: Remember La Mar Azul?

    Kathie: I remember you were a very clumsy flirt - but I like that.

  • Kathie: Dirty double-crossing rat!

  • [last lines]

    Ann: Was he going away with her? I have to know. Was he going away with her?

  • Jeff: [to Kathie, when they first meet, in Mexico] My name is Jeff Markham, and I haven't talked to anybody who hasn't tried to sell me something in ten days. If I don't talk, I think. It's too late in life for me to start thinking.

  • Kathie: [In Mexico, at a roulette table] Don't you like to gamble?

    Jeff: Not against a wheel.

  • Jim: I was going to kill you.

    Jeff: Who isn't?

  • Jeff: Love me?

    Kathie: Poco.

    Jeff: What's that?

    Kathie: Little.

    Jeff: Mucho.

  • Marney - Diner Owner: Seems like everything people ought to know, they just don't want to hear. I guess that's the big problem with the world.