-
[Gay is giving Roslyn a ride back to town]
Gay: You're a - real - beautiful - woman. It's almost kind of an honor sittin' next to ya'. You just shine in my eyes. That's my true feelin' Roslyn.
-
Gay: What makes you so sad? I think you're the saddest girl I ever met.
Roslyn: You're the first man that ever said that. I'm usually told how happy I am.
Gay: That's because you make a man feel happy.
[He tries to kiss her, but she demurs]
Roslyn: I don't feel that way about you, Gay.
Gay: Well, don't get discouraged girl, you might.
-
Roslyn: Did you ever think about gettin' married again?
Gay: Oh, I think about it; never in daylight.
-
Gay: Let's just live.
-
Perce: How come you got such trust in your eyes?
Roslyn: I do?
Perce: Like you was just born.
-
Gay: Honey, we all got to go sometime, reason or no reason. Dyin's as natural as livin'. The man who's too afraid to die is too afraid to live.
-
Perce: So what I want to know... what I want to know is: who do you depend on?
Roslyn: I don't know. Maybe all there really is is just the next thing. The next thing that happens. Maybe you're not supposed to remember anybody's promises.
-
Gay: What's eatin' you?
Guido: Just my life.
-
[Last lines]
Roslyn: I'll leave tomorrow, okay?
Gay: God bless you girl.
Roslyn: Gay, if there could be one person in the world, a child who could be brave from the beginning. I was scared to, when you asked me. But, I'm not so much now, are you?
Gay: No.
Roslyn: How do you find your way back in the dark?
Gay: Just head for that big star straight on. The highway's under it. It'll take us right home.
-
Guido: Have you ever been outside Reno, Ms. Taber?
Roslyn: Once I walked to the edge of town; doesn't look like there's much out there.
Gay: Everything's there!
Roslyn: Like what?
Gay: The country!
Roslyn: Well, what do you do with yourself?
Gay: Just live.
Roslyn: How does anyone "just live"?
Gay: Well, you start by going to sleep. You get up when you feel like it. You scratch yourself. You fry yourself some eggs. You see what kind of a day it is; throw stones at a can, whistle.
-
Roslyn: We're all dying aren't we. All the husbands and all the wives. Every minute. And we're not teaching each other what we really know, are we?
-
Roslyn: If I'm going to be alone, I want to be by myself.
-
Isabelle Steers: One thing about this town, it's always full of interesting strangers.
-
Guido: She wasn't like any other woman. Stood by me 100%, uncomplaining as a tree.
Roslyn: Maybe that's what killed her.
-
Gay: You know, sometimes when a person don't know what to do, the best thing is to just stand still.
-
Perce: Do you belong to Gay?
Roslyn: I don't know where I belong.
-
Roslyn: [to Perce] Didn't anyone ever cry for you before?
-
Gay: Honey, nothing can live unless something dies.
-
Roslyn: uh, you never had any idea, huh?
Gay: Nah, you know in those days I thought you got married and that was it, but nothing is it, not forever.
-
Guido: You have the gift for life, Roslyn. The rest of us, we're just looking for a place to hide and watch it all go by.
-
Roslyn: You have to get something to be human? You never felt anything for anybody in your life. All you know is the sad words. You could blow up the world and all you would feel is sorry for yourself!
-
Guido: She's crazy. They're all crazy. You try not to believe it because you need them. She's crazy. You struggle, you build, you try, you turn yourself inside out for 'em, but its never enough. So they put the spurs to you - I know, I got the marks. I know this racket, I just forgot what I knew for a while.
-
Roslyn: Horse killers! Killers! Murderers! You're liars! All of you, liars! You're only happy when you can see something die! Why don't you kill yourself to be happy? You and your God's country! Freedom! I pity you! You're three dear, sweet, dead men!
-
Gay: I just need to find another way to feel alive, that's all.
-
Isabelle Steers: The Leave It state. Ya got money you want to gamble? Leave it here. You got a wife you want to get ride of? Get rid of her here. Extra atom bomb you don't need? Blow it up here. Nobody's gonna mind in the slightest.
-
Isabelle Steers: I love Nevada. You know, they don't have regular meal times here. Never met so many people didn't own a watch! Might have two wives at the same time, but, no watch. Bless them all.
-
Guido: Boy, am I in the right place?
Roslyn: Have you seen the vegetable garden? It took Gay about a week just to get the soil turned over.
Gay: Yeah, I moved the grass. Sprayed them flowers too. Oh, I got your windows unstuck. Fireplace don't smoke anymore.
Guido: Roslyn, you must be a magician. The only thing this boy ever did for a woman was get out the ice cubes.
-
Perce: Hey go in there and get me a bottle of whiskey to keep me primed for the rodeo
-
Gay: I hope your sober.
Perce: Man I have won buckets of money in towns I couldn't even remember the names of!
-
[first lines]
Isabelle Steers: Young man, do you have the time? I got six clocks in the house and none of them work.
Guido: Twenty after nine.
Isabelle Steers: After? It's twenty after, dear. Dahlin'. Five minutes.
Roslyn: What about you?
Isabelle Steers: I'm all set, I just tyin' my sling. The lawyer said nine thirty sharp, dahlin'.
Roslyn: Okay.
-
Isabelle Steers: No, you're just a cowboy, darlin'. You fellas won't move unless its rainin' down your neck.
-
Gay: Damn 'em all. They changed it, changed it all around. Smeared it all over with blood. I'm finished with it. It's like roping a dream now. I just gotta find another way to be alive, that's all. If there is one anymore.
-
Roslyn: [to Guido, who is driving drunkenly at breakneck speed] Please, Guido! Don't kill us!
Guido: How do you get to know somebody, kid? I can't make a landing, and I... can't get up to God, either. Help me. I never said "help me" in my life. I don't know anybody. So how do I land, honey? Will you give me a little time? Say yes.
[Sourly]
Guido: At least say, "Hello, Guido".
Roslyn: [Nervously] Yes, Guido. Hello, Guido.
Guido: [a pause between the two] Hello, Roslyn.
-
Roslyn: Why can't I just say he wasn't there. He - I mean you could touch him, but he wasn't there.
Isabelle Steers: Darling, girl, if that was grounds for divorce, there'd only be about 11 marriages left in the United States.
-
Isabelle Steers: This'll be my 77th time I've witnessed for a divorce. Two 7s! That's lucky, darling!
Roslyn: Oh, Is, I hope.
-
Guido: Listen, now, if you're not going back East right away, I'd be glad to take you out and show you the country. Beautiful country around here, you know.
Roslyn: Well, I don't know were I'll be, but, okay. Thanks, again.
Isabelle Steers: My name is Isabelle Steers.
Guido: Isabelle. Well, okay, you come along too.
Isabelle Steers: That's a sweet afterthought. You Reno men!
-
Roslyn: I can't memorize this. It's not the way it was.
Isabelle Steers: Just say it. It doesn't have to be true. This isn't a quiz show, it's only a court.
-
Guido: Which one was that?
Gay: Susan. Swell sport, that woman.
-
Guido: I just met me a girl sweet enough to eat, Gay. Fine lookin' woman. Only trouble is, when I think of the useless talkin' you gotta do, I get discouraged.
-
Gay: I'm dyin' for some fresh air and no people - male or female. Why don't we take out for the mountains. Maybe we can even do a little mustangin' out there.
-
Roslyn: You're a mechanic too?
Isabelle Steers: Him? He's a cowboy!
Gay: How'd you know?
Isabelle Steers: I can smell, can't I.
Gay: Hey, you can't smell cows on me.
Isabelle Steers: I can smell the look on your face, cowboy. But, I love every miserable one of you. Of course, you're all good for nothin' as you well know.
-
Roslyn: Me, I never finished high school.
Gay: Well, that's real good news.
Roslyn: You don't like educated women?
Gay: They're alright. Always wantin' to know what you're thinkin', that's all.
-
Isabelle Steers: Look, here girl, I think I better tell you somethin' about cowboys.
Roslyn: You really worry about me, don't you.
Isabelle Steers: Well, you're too believin'! Cowboys are the last real men left in the world and they're about as reliable as jackrabbits.
-
Guido: She's kinda hard to figure out, you know. One minute she looks kinda dumb, brand new like a kid. And the next minute - she sure moves though, don't she?
Gay: Mmm. She's real prime.
-
Isabelle Steers: The slogan of Nevada is: Anything goes, but don't complain if it went.
-
Roslyn: Who was he? Maybe they know him.
Isabelle Steers: Darling, you can't go around lookin' for a man
Gay: What'd - he take off?
Isabelle Steers: No. Not exactly.
[laughs]
Isabelle Steers: He just never came back.
-
Gay: Did you ever hear the story about the city man out in the country? And he sees this fella sittin' on his porch. So he says, "Mister, could you tell me how I could get back to town?" The fella says, "No." "Well, could you tell me how to get to the Post Office?" The fella says, "No." "Well, do you know how to get to the Railroad Station?" "No." "Boy," he says, "you sure don't know much, do ya?" The fella says, "No. But I ain't lost."
-
Gay: Hey, you really go all out, don't cha? Even the way you eat. I like that. Women generally pick.
Roslyn: [smiles] You like me, huh?
-
Roslyn: I've known of so-called happily married couples. One time, the wife was in the hospital - to have the baby. And the husband calling me up. I mean, he was calling - *me*. They're still supposed to be happily married.
Gay: I guess you believe in true love.
-
Roslyn: Listen, if you want to go somewhere, I don't mind being alone.
Gay: Do I look like I want to leave?
Roslyn: I just mean I want you to do what you feel like.
Gay: You ain't kiddin'. Even when you're kiddin' you ain't kiddin'. No. You make me feel peaceful.
-
Roslyn: That's what I can't get used to. Everything keeps changing.
-
Roslyn: Let's go out in the sunshine. Come on. - - Let's just live, like you said in the bar. I don't know where I am yet.
-
Roslyn: I never really saw anything grow before. How tiny those seeds were and yet they know they were supposed to be lettuces.
Gay: [laughs] You say the darnedest things. You know that, don't you?
-
Gay: Honey, when you smile, it's like the sun comin' up.
-
Guido: What kind of dancin' you do?
Roslyn: Oh, interpretive dancing. You know, nightclubs and that sort of thing.
Perce: I was in a nightclub once. I was in a nightclub in Kansas City called: The Naked Truth. And they wasn't kiddin'!
-
Perce: I don't like to see the way they grind up women around here. Although, I guess, a lot of them don't mind, do they?
Roslyn: Some do.
Perce: Don't you, don't you let them grind you up here.
-
Guido: [drunk] We're all blind bombardiers, Roslyn. We kill people we never even saw. I bombed nine cities. I sure must have broken a lot of dishes, but I never saw them. You think of all the puppy dogs and mail carriers, eyeglasses, must've gone up. Boy, you know droppin' a bomb is like tellin' a lie.
-
Roslyn: What if, someday, you suddenly turn around and you don't like me anymore? Like before, when Perce got hurt, you started to give me a look. I know that look and it scares me, Gay. I couldn't be with strangers anymore.
Gay: [Drunkenly] Honey, honey, I got a little mad, that's all. That don't mean I didn't like ya. Didn't your Papa ever spank you and then pick you up and give you a big kiss? He did, didn't he?
Roslyn: He was never there long enough. Strangers spanked me for kicks. Oh, Gay, love me, love me!
-
Guido: That star is so far away, that by the time the light from it reaches us here on earth, it might not even be up there any more.
Perce: Boy, you sure know a lot, don't you Pilot.
Guido: Astronomy is in all the library books, Perce. Nothin' to it but readin'.
Roslyn: Still, it's wonderful to know things.
Guido: Knowing things don't matter much. You got somethin' a lot more important.
Roslyn: What?
Guido: You care. Whatever happens to anybody, it happens to you. You're really hooked into the whole thing, Roslyn. It's a blessing.
Roslyn: People say I'm just nervous.
-
Gay: I can't put on that this is all as bad as you make it. All I know is everything else is wages. I herd these horses to keep myself free. So I'm a free man.
-
Gay: Honey, a kind man can kill.
Roslyn: No! He can't.
-
Gay: If it's bad, maybe you have to take a little of the bad with good. Else, you'll be runnin' for the rest of your life.
-
Gay: We start out doin' somethin', meaning no harm, something that's naturally in us to do. But, somewhere along the line, it gets changed around into something bad! Like dancin' in a nightclub. You started out just wanting to dance, didn't ya? But, little by little it turns out that people ain't interested in how good you danced, they're gawkin' at you with somethin' entirely different in their minds. And they turn it sour, don't they? I coulda looked down my nose at you too. Showin' yourself off at nightclubs for so much a night. But, I took my hat off to ya. Cause I know the difference.
-
Roslyn: How quiet it is. You can hear your skin against your clothes.
-
Gay: It's better than wages, ain't it? - - I said it's better than wages, ain't it?
Perce: Sure, anything's better than wages.
-
Gay: Boy, I'm beginin' to smell wages all over you.
-
[repeated line]
Gay: Get that horse, cowboy!
-
Gay: I never thought of it, but, I guess the fewer you kill, the worst it looks.
-
Gay: Don't want nobody makin' up my mind for me, that's all.
-
Guido: Listen, do you want me to stop this? I know how you feel, Roslyn. I never liked this part myself. Truthfully, the only part I enjoyed is the flying. You want me to stop it?
Roslyn: You would?
Guido: You're through with Gay now, right? Well, tell me. He doesn't know what you're all about. He'll never know. Tell me, Roslyn. I been waitin'. I'm goin' out of my mind with waitin'. Come back with me. Give me a week, two weeks. Let me show you what I am. Tell me, Roslyn. Give me a reason and I'll stop it. There'll be hell to pay, but give me a reason and I'll do it.
Roslyn: A reason? You, a sensitive fellow. So sad for his wife. Crying about the bombs you dropped and the people you killed. You have to get something to be human? You never felt anything for anybody in your life. All you know is the sad words. You could blow up the world, and all you'd feel is sorry for yourself!
-
Raymond Taber: I just got off the plane. I'm not too late, am I?
Roslyn Taber: I don't want to hear anything. My mind is made up. I want a divorce...
Raymond Taber: Just give me five minutes. After two years of marriage, five minutes is all I ask...
Roslyn Taber: [interrupting] You can't have me just so you can want me, that's all. Please, I'm not blaming you. It's just... I never looked at it any different. I just don't believe in the whole thing anymore. You left your pregnant wife for me, but you never gave me any attention.
Raymond Taber: Kid, I understand. I understand.
Roslyn Taber: You don't understand. You're not there, Raymond. If I'm going to be alone, I want be all by myself. Go back. You're not going to make me feel sorry for you anymore.
-
Roslyn: Come on, let's have lots of drinks.
-
Isabelle Steers: Well, here's to Nevada - the 'leave it' state.
-
Perce: I was in a nightclub in Kansas City, called 'The Naked Truth,' and they weren't kiddin'.
-
Gay: Just come out in one piece, now, 'cause you gotta go mustangin' tomorrow.
-
Roslyn: How do you feel?
Perce: [after riding and being thrown by a rode bull] How do I feel? Well, like I was kicked by a bull.
Gay: Oh, I want no part of that bull except on a plate, medium rare.
-
Gay: Honey, a kind man can kill.
Roslyn: No, he can't.
The Misfits Quotes
Extended Reading
