-
T. Lawrence Shannon: Miss Fellowes is a highly moral person. If she ever recognized the truth about herself it would destroy her.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: Nothing could be worse for a girl in your unstable condition, to be mixed up with a man in, in my unstable condition because two people in unstable conditons are like two countries facing each other in unstable conditons. The, eh, destructive potential, eh, could blow the whole world to bits!
-
Hannah Jelkes: Nothing human disgusts me, Mr. Shannon, unless it's unkind, violent.
-
Hannah Jelkes: There are worse things than chastity, Mr. Shannon.
T. Lawrence Shannon: Yes: lunacy and death.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: The Fantastic Level and the Realistic Level are the two levels upon which we live.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: I thought you were sexless. But you've just become a woman. You know how I know that? Because you not me are taking pleasure in my being tied up. All women, whether they want to face it or not, want to see a man in a tied-up situation. They spend their lives trying to get a man into a tied-up situation. Their lives are fulfilled when they can get a man or as many men as they can, into a tied-up situation.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: I'm panicking!
Hannah Jelkes: I know that.
T. Lawrence Shannon: A man can die of panic!
Hannah Jelkes: Not when he enjoys it as much as you do, Dr. Shannon.
-
Hannah Jelkes: Who wouldn't like to atone for the sins of themselves, and the world, if it could be done in a hammock with ropes, instead of on a Cross, with nails? On a green hilltop, instead of Golgotha, the Place of the Skulls? Isn't that a comparatively comfortable, almost voluptuous Crucifixion to suffer for the sins of the world, Mr. Shannon?
-
Judith Fellowes: [t Charlotte Goodall] Dreadful girl. You defied me. You *deliberately* defied me.
[slaps Charlotte across the face; Charlotte exits]
T. Lawrence Shannon: What did you think we were doing out there, Miss Fellowes? Spawning?
Judith Fellowes: Oh, you beast. You beast!
[sobbing]
Judith Fellowes: You beast!
-
Hannah Jelkes: Oh God, please can't we stop now?
-
Hannah Jelkes: I can't stand for a person I respect to behave like a small, cruel boy.
T. Lawrence Shannon: And what do you respect in me, miss thin, standing-up, female Buddha?
-
Maxine Faulk: So you appropriated the young chick and the old hens are squawking, huh?
T. Lawrence Shannon: It's very serious. The child is emotionally precocious.
Maxine Faulk: Bully for her.
T. Lawrence Shannon: Also, she is traveling under the wing of a military escort of a butch vocal teacher.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: [talking to Maxine] I wonder how long it takes to sweat the faculty of a Baptist Female College out of a bus that's parked in the sun when it's a 100 degrees in the shade.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: [as the disatisfied Ms. Fellowes runs to speak to Shannon] Look at her, charging like a bull elephant on a rampage.
-
Judith Fellowes: [Yelling at Shannon] You thought you outwitted me, didn't you, having your paramour here cancel my call.
Maxine Faulk: Miss Fellowes, honey, if paramour means what I think it does you're gambling with your front teeth.
-
Maxine Faulk: What's this mess supposed to be?
Chang: Soup.
Maxine Faulk: Well, it's burnt!
[walks over to Chang, who is smoking marijuana]
Maxine Faulk: Chang... I've warned you before. I don't allow this stuff on the premises, even if you're on vacation. You remember the time you got it in the enchiladas?
-
Maxine Faulk: What... uh... subject do you teach back in that college of yours, honey?
Judith Fellowes: Voice... if that's got anything to do with it.
Maxine Faulk: Well geography is my speciality. Did you know that if it wasn't for the *dikes*, the plains of Texas would be engulfed by the gulf?
T. Lawrence Shannon: Maxine!
Judith Fellowes: Let's level for awhile, butch, old gal, you know what you're sore about? What you're really sore about? That little quail of your's has a natural preference for *men*! Instead of...
T. Lawrence Shannon: Maxine!
Judith Fellowes: What is she talking about?
T. Lawrence Shannon: You better go now, Miss Fellowes, the party's over. Right now I'm no longer in a position to discharge my responsibility of protecting you. A responsibility from which you discharged me. Just go, Miss Fellowes. Just go.
-
Maxine Faulk: What the hell are you doing, Shannon?
T. Lawrence Shannon: I just cut loose one of God's creatures at the end of his rope.
Maxine Faulk: What for?
T. Lawrence Shannon: So that one of God's creatures could be free from panic, and scamper home safe and free. A little act of grace, Maxine.
-
Barkeeper: [to Charlotte Goodall] We do not want our sons to know that young girls can be like you!
-
Maxine Faulk: Hey! Now just a flippin' minute!
-
Maxine Faulk: [to Miss Fellowes] Well, if you're not going to eat him, I'd better go see about food for dinner.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: [to Charlotte] You're as dangerous as you are young and lovely. And it's you're being young and lovely that makes you so dangerous, that gives you this destructive potential over a destructible man.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: I want to explain something to you... A man has got just so much in his emotional bank balance. Mine has run out. It's stone dry. I can't draw a check on it. There's nothing left to draw out.
-
Hannah Jelkes: Some people take a drink. Some people take a pill. I just take a few deep breaths.
-
Maxine Faulk: Even I know the difference between lovin' somebody, and just goin' to bed with them. Even I know that.
-
Maxine Faulk: Well she's done a pretty good job of destroying you!
T. Lawrence Shannon: Maxine, don't rob me of the credit for my own small accomplishments.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: Shannon has been collecting evidence... man's inhumanity to God.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: What has that got to do with the price of rice in China? What has that got to do with the price of coffee in Brazil?
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: There's no need for the shawl. God has played God, and set him free.
-
Maxine Faulk: The trouble is Shannon - I caught the vibrations between you two.
Hannah Jelkes: Mrs. Faulk, I'm a New England spinster who is pushing forty.
Maxine Faulk: Well who the hell isn't?
-
Nonno: We're going to clean up in this place!
T. Lawrence Shannon: You bet we're going to clean up.
-
Maxine Faulk: [final lines] Why don't we go down to the beach?
T. Lawrence Shannon: I can get down the hill, Maxine, but I'm not too sure about getting back up.
Maxine Faulk: I'll get you back up, baby. I'll always get you back up.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: I wonder as we examine our hearts together, in this place set aside for worship, how many of us here can say, "I rule my own spirit." For, how weak is man? How often do we - how often - how often do we stray from the straight and narrow? For only when we abide in the Lord are we like cities without walls. Only then can we defend ourselves against Satan and his temptations. We cannot rule ourselves alone.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: Men with men's hearts. Wild and free hearts of men. They knew hunger and they fed their appetites. They fed their appetites! Appetites that I have inherited! I defy you! Shannon defies you! Get out your tomahawks! Get out your scalping knives! Sharpen your scalping knives. Scalp me!
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: I will not and cannot continue to conduct services in praise and worship of this angry, petulant old man in whom you believe. You've turned your backs on the God of love and compassion and invented for yourselves this cruel, senile, delinquent who blames the world and all that he created for his own faults! Close your windows. Close your doors! Close your hearts - against the truth of our God!
-
Tourist Teacher #1: Did you see that? Look, there's another. What have those boys got, Dr. Shannon?
T. Lawrence Shannon: Iguanas - giant lizards native to this part of Mexico. It is alleged they taste like chicken.
Tourist Teacher #2: You mean they really eat those awful looking creatures?
-
Tourist Teacher #3: My brother in Abilene... has a chain of 23 laundromats. He says all he wants on his tombstone is: he liberated the women of Texas from the bondage of washing.
-
Judith Fellowes: I assume you know that Charlotte is underage, Dr. Shannon?
T. Lawrence Shannon: What's that got to do with our itinerary?
Judith Fellowes: If you know what's good for you, leave her alone.
T. Lawrence Shannon: Miss Fellowes, are you aware that you're speaking to an ordained clergyman?
Judith Fellowes: Stop leading her on. I don't know what happened back in Tierra Caliente and I don't want to know; because, if I did know, I'd have to take steps. Don't make me take steps, Dr. Shannon!
T. Lawrence Shannon: Nothing happened back in Tierra Caliente. The room clerk got our keys mixed up. That's all. Just a mistake. Pure and simple. Whatever suspicions you may be harboring are quite groundless. I can assure you of that.
Judith Fellowes: Just leave her alone. Don't make me take steps!
-
Charlotte Goodall: Have you been drinking, Larry?
T. Lawrence Shannon: Look, if I'd been drinking I wouldn't be here. I'd still be drinking.
Charlotte Goodall: What's wrong? Why are you all hot and sweaty?
-
Charlotte Goodall: That boy back home told me that I had skin that no girl had any right to. He said you should be licensed to have skin as soft as mine. Wasn't it silly of him?
T. Lawrence Shannon: No. Yes. No. No. It should be licensed. I mean, at least until you're old enough for a - a driver's license. Now, you get out of my room. Would you get off my bed! I-I'll keep my eyes shut until you've gone out of my room.
Charlotte Goodall: Have I grown up too early, Larry?
T. Lawrence Shannon: Yes. No! I mean, yes. Yes. Lord, lead me not unto temptation. Now, go on home and find my way all by myself.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: No!
Charlotte Goodall: Yes!
T. Lawrence Shannon: "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls."
Charlotte Goodall: I'll woo your spirit. I'll hold you.
T. Lawrence Shannon: No.
Charlotte Goodall: Yes!
T. Lawrence Shannon: No. No.
Charlotte Goodall: Yes.
T. Lawrence Shannon: No!
Charlotte Goodall: Yes.
[deep kiss]
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: Where's Fred?
Maxine Faulk: Dead.
T. Lawrence Shannon: Did you say dead?
Maxine Faulk: That's what I said. Fred's dead.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: I thought Fred could tame them. He was a fisherman and I've got a busload of man-eating sharks.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: Maxine, you got to help me with her, honey. She's not only trying to get me fired, she's also trying to pin on me a rape charge, a charge of statutory rape.
Maxine Faulk: What's statutory rape? I've never known what that was.
T. Lawrence Shannon: That's when a man is seduced by a girl under 20.
-
Maxine Faulk: Why do you always want the young ones, honey?
T. Lawrence Shannon: I don't want any. Any! Regardless, of age.
Maxine Faulk: Then why do you take them, Shannon? Why, Shannon?
T. Lawrence Shannon: Well, people need human contact, Maxine.
-
Hannah Jelkes: My grandfather is the oldest living and practicing poet *and* he gives recitations. I - paint - watercolors and I'm a quick sketch artist. We travel together and we pay our way as we go, by my grandfather's recitations and by the sale of quick character sketches in charcoal and pastel.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: They're chasing an iguana.
Hannah Jelkes: What will they do with it?
Maxine Faulk: Tie 'em up, fatten 'em up, and eat 'em up.
-
Hannah Jelkes: Just rest for a few moments Nonno.
Nonno: How calmly does the olive branch, Observe the sky begin to blanch, Without a cry, without a prayer, With no betrayal of despair...
-
Hannah Jelkes: I'll leave Nonno in here and I'll take that room.
T. Lawrence Shannon: I think that's the one with the leaky roof which you won't find out about until it rains and then it'll be too late to do anything about it except to swim out of it.
-
Judith Fellowes: Seducer!
T. Lawrence Shannon: What?
Judith Fellowes: Seducer!
T. Lawrence Shannon: Now what's the squawk now?
-
Maxine Faulk: I know what you're up to, honey. You want to make yourself useful so I'll let you and old Gramps stay on here free.
Hannah Jelkes: Oh, I wouldn't do anything so obvious - not with a woman of your practicality.
-
Maxine Faulk: [with admiration] Miss Jelkes, honey, you're a hustler! A fantastic, cool hustler! You're completely broke, huh?
Hannah Jelkes: Yes, we are. Completely.
-
Maxine Faulk: I loved old Fred. Wouldn't anybody guess the way I carried on; except, Fred. He knew. You see, he was 28 years older than me and we hadn't slept together in I don't know when. Fred used to say - I guess he was impotent. But, if you ask me, honey, he just plain lost interest.
Hannah Jelkes: What - other interests did he have, Mrs. Faulk.
Maxine Faulk: Only fishing. He'd catch 'em and throw 'em back in. Unless he swallowed the hook and then we'd have 'em for supper. Fred lived and let lived.
-
Maxine Faulk: When I hired them beach boys, did Fred care? Did he raise hell when I started going night swimming with them? Hell no. He just went night fishing all night long.
-
Maxine Faulk: I remember one time, he came down here out of season, like now. And I went on the make for him. But, Shannon wasn't having any, on account of his friendship with Fred.
Hannah Jelkes: [referring to fish she is preparing] Well, they're all ready for steaming.
Maxine Faulk: So was I, Miss Jelkes. So was I! But I couldn't tell him that Fred didn't give a damn. It didn't seem fair to Fred.
Hannah Jelkes: You know I think you're quite a remarkable person too, Mrs... Faulk.
Maxine Faulk: Don't you try to con me, honey. I understand men. But, I still got my biological urges.
-
Maxine Faulk: Even I know the difference between lovin' somebody - and *just* going to bed with 'em. Even I know that.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: Who saw you coming here?
Charlotte Goodall: Nobody but an iguana.
-
Charlotte Goodall: I hate that little snitch of a bitch that ruined you in Virginia!
T. Lawrence Shannon: You're ruining me in Mexico! Now, get out of here. It's indecent.
-
Hannah Jelkes: What is this, Mr. Shannon?
T. Lawrence Shannon: Hell and damnation.
-
Hannah Jelkes: Why did they lock you out?
T. Lawrence Shannon: For fornication and conduct unbecoming a man of the cloth.
Hannah Jelkes: What were the - eh - circumstances of the first offense?
T. Lawrence Shannon: Fornication? A very young Sunday School Teacher asked to see me privately in my study and - well, she - she declared herself to me - widely.
Hannah Jelkes: A declaration of love?
T. Lawrence Shannon: Don't make fun of me Miss, Miss Jelkes.
Hannah Jelkes: I wasn't.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: I said to this girl, I said, "Let us, let us kneel down and pray together." And we did. We knelt. And then all of the sudden the - kneeling position turned into a reclining position.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: Shannon has been collecting evidence.
Hannah Jelkes: Evidence of what?
T. Lawrence Shannon: Man's inhumanity to God.
Hannah Jelkes: What do you mean by that?
T. Lawrence Shannon: The pain we cause him. We've poisoned his atmosphere. We've slaughtered his creatures of the wild. We've polluted his rivers. We've even taken God's noblest creation, Man, and - and brainwashed him into becoming our own product, not God's.
-
Maxine Faulk: Miss Fellowes, honey, I know you got a beef or two; but, why don't you just relax with a little complimentary Rum Coco?
Judith Fellowes: Save them for your friend, Mr. Shannon. I don't imbibe.
Maxine Faulk: And how about a little Pot? I don't usually serve it to my guests; but, you look like you could use somthin' special.
-
Maxine Faulk: All right, honey, calm down.
Hannah Jelkes: I am perfectly calm, Mrs. Faulk.
Maxine Faulk: Well, I'm not! That's the trouble. The trouble is Shannon. I caught the vibrations between you two.
Hannah Jelkes: Mrs. Faulk, I'm a New England spinster who is pushing 40.
Maxine Faulk: Well, who the hell isn't!
-
Maxine Faulk: I'm good at catchin' vibrations. And there were vibrations between you, and mutual vibrations, the minute you got here! And just that, believe me, just that is enough to put me in a lather. And don't ask me why. Look at him! Broke, spooked, and good as fired.
Hannah Jelkes: Those are only his circumstances, Mrs. Faulk. Not the man himself.
Maxine Faulk: Ah, any how, forget what I said. I wasn't sore at you. I was sore at Shannon.
-
Nonno: "Love's an old remembered song, A drunken fiddler plays, Stumbling crazily along, Crooked alleyways - "
Hannah Jelkes: Not now, Nonno.
Nonno: "When his heart is mad with music, He will play the - "
Hannah Jelkes: Nonno, please.
[Nonno sits down]
Hannah Jelkes: He thinks someone called for a recitation of one of his poems.
Maxine Faulk: Sure, Hann. In this crowd, old Gramps is the life of the party.
-
Hannah Jelkes: Will Mr. Shannon be all right, do you think?
Maxine Faulk: All right? Honey, I don't know. He cracks up like this so regular, you could sell a calendar by it. About, twice a year. He's done it twice down here! Fred used to say it had something to do with the moon. I sure wish old Fred was here right now.
-
Maxine Faulk: [laughing] Shannon, you were vicious, after all time, on Miss Fellowes suitcase. I've heard of a *dog* cockin' his leg!
-
Maxine Faulk: Why don't you buzz off on your broomstick!
-
Maxine Faulk: Baby, you've got the daddy of all spooks! It's the blue plate special!
-
Hannah Jelkes: Listen to him. Saying them over and over. The lines of his new poem. Like a blind man climbing a staircase that leads nowhere.
-
Hannah Jelkes: Drink isn't your problem, Mr. Shannon.
T. Lawrence Shannon: And what is my problem, Miss Jelkes?
Hannah Jelkes: The oldest one in the world. The need to believe in someone - or something, almost anyone, almost anything.
-
Hannah Jelkes: We make a home for each other, my grandfather and I. Oh, I don't mean a regular home; because, I don't regard a home as a - place, a building, bricks, wood, stone. I think of a home - as something two people have between them. In which each can - nest, rest, live in - emotionally speaking.
-
Hannah Jelkes: I'm a human being. And when one of that unique species builds its nest in the heart of another, the questions of permanence and propagation aren't the first or even the last things to be considered. What is important - is that one is never alone.
-
Hannah Jelkes: When I was 16, every Saturday I would go to the Saturday Matinee at the Nantucket Movie Theater. That was soon after my parents were killed in an automobile accident and I was very alone. Well, one day a young man sat down beside me and pushed his knee against mine. I moved over; but, he moved over too and continued the pressure. I jumped up and screamed - and he was arrested for molesting a minor.
T. Lawrence Shannon: Is he still in the Nantucket jail?
Hannah Jelkes: No. No, I got him out. I told the police it was a Garbo picture. It was a Garbo picture and that I was just overexcited.
-
Hannah Jelkes: Grandfather went up to bed and I went out in the sampan with the Aussie underwear salesman.
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: He's got to the end of his rope. Any further, he cannot get.
-
Hannah Jelkes: Mr. Shannon, cut him loose!
T. Lawrence Shannon: All right. We'll play God tonight, like kids play houses with old broken crates and boxes. We'll cut the damn lizard loose so he can go back to his bushes, cause God won't do it and we are playing God here tonight.
-
Nonno: "Oh courage! Could you not as well, Select a second place to dwell, Not only in that golden tree, But in the frightened heart of me?"
-
T. Lawrence Shannon: You can't go on all alone. Think of how it will feel after so many years.
Hannah Jelkes: I shall know how it feels when I feel it.
-
Maxine Faulk: My only reason for including you on this deal is that a man's presence is required. There's gotta be a man. That's one of the basic principals of hotel administration! There's gotta be a man to make the place attractive to the ladies.
-
Maxine Faulk: She's not going to take me up on my proposition?
The Night of the Iguana Quotes
Extended Reading
Director: John Huston
Language: English,Spanish Release date: August 6, 1964