The Shining Quotes

  • Dick Hallorann: Mrs. Torrance, your husband introduced you as Winifred. Now, are you a Winnie or a Freddy?

    Wendy Torrance: I'm a Wendy.

    Dick Hallorann: Oh. That's nice. That's the prettiest.

  • Wendy Torrance: [crying] Stay away from me.

    Jack Torrance: Why?

    Wendy Torrance: I just wanna go back to my room!

    Jack Torrance: Why?

    Wendy Torrance: Well, I'm very confused, and I just need time to think things over!

    Jack Torrance: You've had your whole fucking life to think things over, what good's a few minutes more gonna do you now?

    Wendy Torrance: Please! Don't hurt me!

    Jack Torrance: I'm not gonna hurt you.

    Wendy Torrance: Stay away from me!

    Jack Torrance: Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just going to bash your brains in!

    [Wendy gasps]

    Jack Torrance: [laughs] Gonna bash 'em right the fuck in!

    Wendy Torrance: Stay away from me! Don't hurt me!

    Jack Torrance: [sarcastically] I'm not gonna hurt ya...

    Wendy Torrance: Stay away! Stop it!

    Jack Torrance: Stop swingin' the bat. Put the bat down, Wendy. Wendy? Give me the bat...

  • [Past guests at the Overlook Hotel]

    Stuart Ullman: Four presidents, movie stars...

    Wendy Torrance: Royalty?

    Stuart Ullman: All the best people.

  • Dick Hallorann: Some places are like people: some shine and some don't.

  • Lloyd: Women: can't live with them, can't live without them.

    Jack Torrance: Words of wisdom, Lloyd my man. Words of wisdom.

  • [about Wendy]

    Delbert Grady: [voice-over] I feel you will have to deal with this matter in the harshest possible way, Mr. Torrance.

    Jack Torrance: There's nothing I look forward to with greater pleasure, Mr. Grady.

  • Injured Guest: [to Wendy] Great party, isn't it?

  • Lloyd: What will you be drinking, sir?

    Jack Torrance: Hair of the dog that bit me, Lloyd.

    Lloyd: Bourbon on the rocks.

    Jack Torrance: That'll do her!

  • Jack Torrance: Wendy, let me explain something to you. Whenever you come in here and interrupt me, you're breaking my concentration. You're distracting me, and it will then take me time to get back to where I was. Understand?

    Wendy Torrance: Yeah.

    Jack Torrance: Fine. Then we're going to make a new rule. Whenever I'm in here and you hear me typing

    [types]

    Jack Torrance: or whether you don't hear me typing, whatever the fuck you hear me doing, when I'm in here, that means that I am working, that means don't come in. Now, do you think you can handle that?

    Wendy Torrance: Yeah.

    Jack Torrance: Good. Now why don't you start right now and get the fuck out of here? Hm?

  • Danny Torrance: Redrum. Redrum. REDRUM!

    [Wendy sees the word in the mirror which spells "murder" backward]

  • Danny Torrance: Mom?

    Wendy Torrance: Yeah?

    Danny Torrance: Do you really want to go and live in that hotel for the winter?

    Wendy Torrance: Sure I do. It'll be lots of fun.

    Danny Torrance: Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, there's hardly anybody to play with around here.

    Wendy Torrance: Yeah, I know. It always takes a little time to make new friends.

    Danny Torrance: Yeah, I guess so.

    Wendy Torrance: What about Tony? He's lookin' forward to the hotel, I bet.

    Danny Torrance: [Moving his finger to speak as "Tony" in a high-pitched voice] No I ain't, Mrs. Torrance.

    Wendy Torrance: Now come on, Tony, don't be silly.

    Danny Torrance: [as Tony] I don't want to go there, Mrs. Torrance.

    Wendy Torrance: Well, how come you don't want to go?

    Danny Torrance: [as Tony] I just don't.

    Wendy Torrance: Well, let's just wait and see. We're all going to have a real good time.

  • Danny Torrance: [as Tony] Danny isn't here, Mrs. Torrance.

  • [last lines]

    Jack Torrance: Danny!

  • Jack Torrance: What are you doing down here?

    Wendy Torrance: [sobbing] I just wanted to talk to you.

    Jack Torrance: Okay, let's talk. What do you wanna talk about?

    Wendy Torrance: I can't really remember.

    Jack Torrance: You can't remember... Maybe it was about... Danny? Maybe it was about him. I think we should discuss Danny. I think we should discuss what should be done with him. What should be done with him?

    Wendy Torrance: I don't know.

    Jack Torrance: I don't think that's true. I think you have some very definite ideas about what should be done with Danny and I'd like to know what they are.

    Wendy Torrance: Well, I think... maybe... he should be taken to a doctor.

    Jack Torrance: You think "maybe" he should be taken to a doctor?

    Wendy Torrance: Yes.

    Jack Torrance: When do you think "maybe" he should be taken to a doctor?

    Wendy Torrance: As soon as possible...?

    Jack Torrance: [mocking/imitating her] As soon as possible...?

    Wendy Torrance: Jack! What are... you...

    Jack Torrance: You think his health might be at stake.

    Wendy Torrance: Y-Yes!

    Jack Torrance: You are concerned about him.

    Wendy Torrance: Yes!

    Jack Torrance: And are you concerned about me?

    Wendy Torrance: Of course I am!

    Jack Torrance: Of course you are! Have you ever thought about my responsibilities?

    Wendy Torrance: Oh Jack, what are you talking about?

    Jack Torrance: Have you ever had a single moment's thought about my responsibilities? Have you ever thought, for a single solitary moment about my responsibilities to my employers? Has it ever occurred to you that I have agreed to look after the Overlook Hotel until May the first. Does it matter to you at all that the owners have placed their complete confidence and "trust" in me, and that I have signed a letter of agreement, a "contract," in which I have accepted that responsibility? Do you have the slightest idea what a "moral and ethical principal" is? Do you? Has it ever occurred to you what would happen to my future, if I were to fail to live up to my responsibilities? Has it ever occurred to you? Has it?

    Wendy Torrance: [swings the bat] Stay away from me!

  • [Repeated line]

    Jack Torrance: [as he chases his son with an ax] Danny, I'm coming!

  • Wendy Torrance: [Wendy has Jack locked in the storage closet] I'm gonna go now.

    Jack Torrance: Uh... Wendy?

    Wendy Torrance: I'm gonna try and get Danny down to Sidewinder in the Snow Cat. I'll send back a doctor...

    Jack Torrance: Wendy?

    Wendy Torrance: Yes?

    Jack Torrance: You got a big surprise coming to you. You're not going anywhere! Go check out the Snow Cat and the radio and you'll see what I mean. Go check it out. *Go!* Go check it out! Go check it out!

  • Delbert Grady: [referring to Jack murdering his wife and son] Mr. Torrance, I see you can hardly have taken care of the business we discussed.

    Jack Torrance: No need to rub it in, Mr. Grady.

  • Delbert Grady: [to Jack, who's locked in the pantry] Your wife appears to be stronger than we imagined, Mr. Torrance. Somewhat more... resourceful. She seems to have got the better of you.

    Jack Torrance: For the moment, Mr. Grady. Only for the moment.

  • Dick Hallorann: What flavor ice cream do you want?

    Danny Torrance: Chocolate.

    Dick Hallorann: Then chocolate it shall be.

  • [first lines]

    Jack Torrance: Hi, I've got an appointment with Mr. Ullman. My name is Jack Torrance.

  • Stuart Ullman: When the place was built in 1907, there was very little interest in winter sports. And this site was chosen for its seclusion and scenic beauty.

    Jack Torrance: [laughs] Well, it's certainly got plenty of that.

    Stuart Ullman: ...The winters can be fantastically cruel. And the basic idea is to cope with the very costly damage and depreciation which can occur. And this consists mainly of running the boiler, heating different parts of the hotel on a daily, rotating basis, repair damage as it occurs, and doing repairs so that the elements can't get a foothold.

    Jack Torrance: Well, that sounds fine to me.

    Stuart Ullman: Physically, it's not a very demanding job. The only thing that can get a bit trying up here during the winter is, uh, a tremendous sense of isolation.

    Jack Torrance: Well, that just happens to be exactly what I'm looking for. I'm outlining a new writing project and, uh, five months of peace is just what I want.

    Stuart Ullman: That's very good Jack, because, uh, for some people, solitude and isolation can, of itself become a problem.

    Jack Torrance: Not for me.

    Stuart Ullman: How about your wife and son? How do you think they'll take to it?

    Jack Torrance: They'll love it.

  • Wendy Torrance: Hey. Wasn't it around here that the Donner Party got snowbound?

    Jack Torrance: I think that was farther west in the Sierras.

    Wendy Torrance: Oh.

    Danny Torrance: What was the Donner Party?

    Jack Torrance: They were a party of settlers in covered-wagon times. They got snowbound one winter in the mountains. They had to resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive.

    Danny Torrance: You mean they ate each other up?

    Jack Torrance: They had to, in order to survive.

    Wendy Torrance: Jack...

    Danny Torrance: Don't worry, Mom. I know all about cannibalism. I saw it on TV.

    Jack Torrance: See, it's okay. He saw it on the television.

  • Dick Hallorann: We've got canned fruits and vegetables, canned fish and meats, hot and cold syrups, Post Toasties, Corn Flakes, Sugar Puffs, Rice Krispies, Oatmeal... and Cream of Wheat. You got...

    [then, telepathically to Danny]

    Dick Hallorann: How'd you like some ice cream, Doc?

    Dick Hallorann: ...a dozen jugs of black molasses, we got sixty boxes of dried milk, thirty twelve-pound bags of sugar... Now we got dried peaches, dried apricots, dried raisins and dried prunes. You know Mrs. Torrance, you got to keep regular, if you want to be happy!

  • Danny Torrance: Dad?

    Jack Torrance: Yes?

    Danny Torrance: Do you like this hotel?

    Jack Torrance: Yes, I do. I love it. Don't you?

    Danny Torrance: I guess so.

    Jack Torrance: Good. I want you to like it here. I wish we could stay here forever... and ever... and ever.

  • Danny Torrance: Tony, I'm scared.

    [as Tony]

    Danny Torrance: Remember what Mr. Hallorann said. It's just like pictures in a book, Danny. It isn't real.

  • Jack Torrance: The most terrible nightmare I ever had. It's the most horrible dream I ever had.

    Wendy Torrance: It's okay, it's okay now. Really.

    Jack Torrance: I dreamed that I, that I killed you and Danny. But I didn't just kill ya. I cut you up in little pieces. Oh my God. I must be losing my mind.

  • Jack Torrance: [disappointed at finding the bar empty] God, I'd give anything for a drink. I'd give my goddamned soul for just a glass of beer.

  • Delbert Grady: Did you know, Mr. Torrance, that your son is attempting to bring an outside party into this situation? Did you know that?

    Jack Torrance: No.

    Delbert Grady: He is, Mr. Torrance.

    Jack Torrance: Who?

    Delbert Grady: A nigger.

    Jack Torrance: A nigger?

    Delbert Grady: A nigger cook.

    Jack Torrance: How?

    Delbert Grady: Your son has a very great talent. I don't think you are aware how great it is. That he is attempting to use that very talent against your will.

    Jack Torrance: He is a very willful boy.

    Delbert Grady: Indeed he is, Mr. Torrance. A very willful boy. A rather naughty boy, if I may be so bold, sir.

    Jack Torrance: It's his mother. She, uh, interferes.

    Delbert Grady: Perhaps they need a good talking to, if you don't mind my saying so. Perhaps a bit more. My girls, sir, they didn't care for the Overlook at first. One of them actually stole a pack of matches, and tried to burn it down. But I "corrected" them sir. And when my wife tried to prevent me from doing my duty, I "corrected" her.

  • Lloyd: How are things going, Mr. Torrance?

    Jack Torrance: Things could be better, Lloyd. Things could be a whole lot better.

  • Jack Torrance: [typed] All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

  • Jack Torrance: [smashing the door to bits with an axe] Wendy, I'm home.

  • Jack Torrance: Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in. Not by the hair of your chiny-chin-chin? Well then I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in.

    [axes the door]

  • Jack Torrance: Mr. Grady, you were the caretaker here. I recognize ya. I saw your picture in the newspapers. You, uh, chopped your wife and daughters up into little bits. And then you blew your brains out.

    Delbert Grady: [after a short pause] That's strange, sir. I don't have any recollection of that at all.

  • Jack Torrance: [staring at the drink in his hand] Here's to five miserable months on the wagon, and all the irreparable harm it has caused me.

  • Grady DaughterGrady Daughter: Hello, Danny. Come and play with us. Come and play with us, Danny. Forever... and ever... and ever.

  • Jack Torrance: Come out, come out, where ever you are.

  • Jack Torrance: I'll just set my bourbon and advocaat down right there.

  • Jack Torrance: Here's Johnny!

  • Stuart Ullman: The police thought that it was what the old-timers used to call cabin fever. A kind of claustrophobic reaction which can occur when people are shut in together over long periods of time.

  • Jack Torrance: I like you, Lloyd. I always liked you. You were always the best of them. Best goddamned bartender from Timbuktu to Portland, Maine. Or Portland, Oregon, for that matter.

  • Dick Hallorann: Larry, just between you and me, we got a very serious problem with the people taking care of the place. They turned out to be completely unreliable assholes.

  • Jack Torrance: Hi, Lloyd. Little slow tonight, isn't it?

    [laughs maniacally]

    Lloyd: Yes, it is, Mr. Torrance.

  • Delbert Grady: I and others have come to a belief, that your heart is not in this. That you don't have the belly for it.

  • Jack Torrance: [angry] Wendy, listen. Let me out of here and I'll forget the whole damn thing! It'll be just like nothing ever happened.

    [softens his voice in an attempt to trick Wendy to opening the door]

    Jack Torrance: Wendy, baby, I think you hurt my head real bad. I'm dizzy, I need a doctor. Honey, don't leave me here.

  • Wendy Torrance: [to Danny] I can't get out! I can't get out! Run! Run and hide!

  • Stuart Ullman: I don't suppose they told you anything in Denver about the tragedy we had in the Winter of 1970.

    Jack Torrance: I don't believe they did.

    Stuart Ullman: My predecessor in this job left a man named Charles Grady as the Winter caretaker. And he came up here with his wife and two little girls, I think were eight and ten. And he had a good employment record, good references, and from what I've been told he seemed like a completely normal individual. But at some point during the winter, he must have suffered some kind of a complete mental breakdown. He ran amuck and killed his family with an axe. Stacked them neatly in one of the rooms in the West wing and then he, he put both barrels of a shot gun in his mouth.

  • Jack Torrance: Well, that is quite a story.

    Stuart Ullman: Yeah it is. It's still hard for me to believe it happened here. It did, and I think you can appreciate why I wanted to tell you about it.

    Jack Torrance: I certainly can and I also understand why your people in Denver left it for you to tell me.

    Stuart Ullman: Well obviously some people can be put off by staying alone in a place where something like that actually happened.

    Jack Torrance: Well you can rest assured, Mr. Ullman, that's not going to happen with me. And as far as my wife is concerned, I'm sure she'll be absolutely fascinated when l tell her. She's a confirmed ghost story and horror film addict.

  • [Wendy is serving Jack breakfast in bed]

    Wendy Torrance: Good morning, hon. Your breakfast is ready.

    Jack Torrance: What time is it?

    Wendy Torrance: It's about 11:30.

    Jack Torrance: Jesus!

    Wendy Torrance: I guess we've been staying up too late.

    Jack Torrance: I know it.

    Wendy Torrance: It's really pretty outside. How about taking me out for a walk after you finish your breakfast?

    Jack Torrance: I suppose I ought to try to do some writing first.

    Wendy Torrance: Any ideas yet?

    Jack Torrance: Lots of ideas. No good ones.

    Wendy Torrance: Well, something'll come. It's just a matter of settling back into the habit of writing every day.

    Jack Torrance: Yeah... that's all it is.

    Wendy Torrance: It's really nice up here, isn't it?

    Jack Torrance: I love it. I really do. I've never been this happy, or comfortable anywhere.

    Wendy Torrance: Yeah. It's amazing how fast you get used to such a big place. I tell you, when we first came up here, I thought it was kinda scary.

    Jack Torrance: I fell in love with it right away. When I came up here from my interview, it was as though I had been here before. I mean, we all have moments of déjà vu, but this was ridiculous. It was almost as though I knew what was going to be around every corner.

    [Jack makes spooky noises and Wendy laughs]

  • Wendy Torrance: [to Jack] You son of a bitch! You did this to him, didn't you! How could you! How could you!

  • Jack Torrance: [to Lloyd] I never laid a hand on him, goddamn it. I didn't. I wouldn't touch one hair on his goddamn little head. I love the little son of a bitch! I'd do anything for him. Any fucking thing for him. But that *bitch*... as long as I live she will never let me forget what happened.

    [turns head to make sure no one else is listening in; conspiratorially]

    Jack Torrance: I did hurt him once, okay? Completely unintentional. Could've happened to anybody. And it was THREE GODDAMN YEARS AGO! The little fucker had thrown all my papers all over the floor! All I tried to do was pull him up!

    [calms down]

    Jack Torrance: A momentary loss of muscular coordination. I mean, a few extra foot-pounds of energy, per second, per second.

    [snaps fingers, gestures Danny's arm breaking]

    Jack Torrance: [Wendy comes racing down the hall into the Gold Room where Jack is sitting. Noticeably, Lloyd and all the liquor is gone]

    Wendy Torrance: [sobbing] Jack! Jack! Thank God you're here! There's someone else in the hotel with us! There's a crazy woman in one of the rooms! She tried to strangle Danny!

    Jack Torrance: Are you out of your fucking mind?

    Wendy Torrance: It's the truth, I swear it! Danny told me. He went up to one of the bedrooms. The door was open, and he saw this crazy woman in the bathtub! She tried to strangle him!

    Jack Torrance: [beat] Which room was it?

  • Danny Torrance: Who's Tony?

    Danny Torrance: He's the little boy that lives in his mouth.

  • Jack Torrance: [chasing Danny with an axe] Danny! Daddy's home!

  • [Wendy and Danny are having a race through the hedge maze while Jack works]

    Wendy Torrance: The loser has to keep America clean!

    [free of litter?]

    Danny Torrance: Alright!

    Wendy Torrance: [later] Whoo, we made it! I didn't think it was gonna be this big, did you?

    Danny Torrance: nope!

  • Jack Torrance: [to Lloyd] I just happen to have two 20s and two 10s right here in my wallet. I was afraid they were going to be there until next April. So here's what: you slip me a bottle of bourbon, a little glass and some ice. You can do that, can't you? You're not too busy, are you?

    Lloyd: No, sir. I'm not busy at all.

    Jack Torrance: Good man. You set 'em up, and I'll knock 'em back - one by one.

  • Wendy Torrance: Mr Hallorann. How did you know we call Danny Doc?

    Dick Hallorann: Excuse me?

    Wendy Torrance: Doc. You just called Danny Doc twice now. We call him that sometimes like in the Bugs Bunny cartoons.

    Dick Hallorann: You must have called him that.

    Wendy Torrance: Maybe, but I don't remember calling him that since I came here.

    Dick Hallorann: Well he looks like a Doc to me.

    [to Danny, in a Bugs Bunny voice]

    Dick Hallorann: Eh... What's up Doc?

  • Dick Hallorann: [Dick has returned to the hotel after Danny has sent him a psychic SOS] Hello? Anybody here?

  • Jack Torrance: White Man's Burden, Lloyd, my man! White Man's Burden.

  • Delbert Grady: Your son has quite an extradordinary talent. I don't think you realise how extraordinary it is.

  • Jack Torrance: [silently counts to 35 on his left hand] Mr. Grady, haven't I seen you somewhere before?

  • Jack Torrance: I'll just hold this open for you, ol' Jeevsy!

  • Jack Torrance: We don't drink.

  • Dick Hallorann: Do you know how I knew your name was 'Doc'? You know what I'm talking about, don't you? I can remember when I was a little boy your age... my grandmother and I could hold entire conversations without ever opening our mouths. She called it "shining". And for a long time I thought it was only the two of us who had the shine... just like you who thought you was the only one. But there are other folks who don't know it or don't believe it. How long have you been able to do it?

    [Danny does not reply]

    Dick Hallorann: Why don't you want to talk about it?

    Danny Torrance: I'm not supposed to.

    Dick Hallorann: Who says you ain't supposed to?

    Danny Torrance: Tony.

    Dick Hallorann: Who's Tony?

    Danny Torrance: Tony's a little boy who lives in my mouth.

    Dick Hallorann: Does Tony tell you things?

    Danny Torrance: Yes.

    Dick Hallorann: How does he tell you things?

    Danny Torrance: It's like when I go to sleep, he shows me things. But when I wake up, I can't remember everything.

    Dick Hallorann: Does your mom and dad know about Tony?

    Danny Torrance: Yes.

    Dick Hallorann: Do they know that Tony tells you things?

    Danny Torrance: Tony told me never to tell them.

    Dick Hallorann: Has Tony ever told you anything about this place? About the Overlook Hotel?

    Danny Torrance: I don't know. I don't remember.

    Dick Hallorann: Now think hard, Doc. Think real hard and try to remember.

  • Danny Torrance: [reading Halloran's thoughts] Mr. Hallorann, are you scared of this place?

    Dick Hallorann: No. There ain't nothing here. It's just that... you know some places are like people. Some shine and some don't. It's just that the Overlook Hotel has something like "shining".

    Danny Torrance: Is there something bad here?

    Dick Hallorann: [after a long pause] Well... you know Doc, when something happens it can leave a trace of itself behind. Say like... it's when someone burns toast. When some things happen, it can leave other traces behind. Not things anyone can notice, but things that only people with shine can see. Just like they can see things that haven't happened yet, sometimes they can see things that happened a long time ago. I think a lot of things happened in this particular hotel over the years... and not all of them was good.

    Danny Torrance: What about Room 237.

    Dick Hallorann: Room 237?

    Danny Torrance: You're scared of Room 237, ain't you?

    Dick Hallorann: [after a short pause] Uh... no I ain't.

    Danny Torrance: Mr. Hallorann, what is in Room 237?

    Dick Hallorann: [firm tone] Nothing! There ain't nothing in Room 237. But you ain't got no business going in there anyway. So, stay out of Room 237. You understand? Stay out!

  • Lloyd: No charge to you, Mr Torrance.

    Jack Torrance: No charge?

    Lloyd: Your money is no good here. Orders from the house.

    Jack Torrance: Orders from the house?

    Lloyd: Drink up, Mr Torrance.

    Jack Torrance: I'm the kind of man who likes to know who's buying their drinks, Lloyd.

    Lloyd: It's not a matter that concerns you, Mr Torrance. At least not at this point.

    Jack Torrance: Anything you say, Lloyd. Anything you say.

  • Delbert Grady: You've always been the caretaker. I should know, sir. I've always been here.