Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Quotes

Honey: Oh, I don't know, a little brandy maybe. "Never mix, never worry!"

George: Martha? Rubbing alcohol for you?

Martha: Sure! "Never mix, never worry!"

[Martha has changed into an embarrassingly tight and revealing outfit]

George: Why Martha! Your Sunday chapel dress!

Honey: They dance like they've danced before.

George: It's a familiar dance, monkey nipples, they both know it.

Martha: You make me puke.

George: That wasn't a very nice thing to say, Martha.

Nick: To you, everybody's a flop. Your husband's a flop, I'm a flop.

Martha: You're all flops. I am the Earth Mother, and you are all flops.

George: So you get testy, naturally, don't worry about it! Anybody who comes here ends up getting testy, it's expected. Don't be upset.

Nick: I'm not upset.

George: You're testy.

Nick: Yes.

Nick: Who did the painting?

George: Some Greek with a moustache that Martha attacked one night.

Martha: I disgust me. You know, there's only been one man in my whole life who's ever made me happy. Do you know that?

[pause]

Martha: George, my husband... George, who is out somewhere there in the dark, who is good to me - whom I revile, who can keep learning the games we play as quickly as I can change them. Who can make me happy and I do not wish to be happy. Yes, I do wish to be happy. George and Martha: Sad, sad, sad. Whom I will not forgive for having come to rest; for having seen me and having said: yes, this will do.

George: I'm very impressed.

Martha: You're damn right.

George: I said I was impressed. I'm beside myself with jealousy. What do you want me to do, throw up?

Martha: [derogatorily, to George] Hey, swamp! Hey swampy!

George: Yes, Martha? Can I get you something?

Martha: Ah, well, sure. You can, um, light my cigarette, if you're of a mind to.

George: No. There are limits. I mean, a man can put up with only so much without he descends a rung or two on the old evolutionary ladder, which is up your line. Now, I will hold your hand when it's dark and you're afraid of the boogeyman and I will tote your gin bottles out after midnight so no one can see but I will not light your cigarette. And that, as they say, is that.

Martha: Jesus.

Martha: Well, you're going bald.

George: So are you.

Nick: [to Honey] We'll go in a little while.

George: Oh no. No, you mustn't. Martha is changing, and Martha is not changing for me, Martha hasn't changed for me in years. If Martha is changing, that means we're going to be here for days. You're being accorded an honor, and you mustn't forget that Martha is the daughter of our beloved boss. She is his right... arm. I was going to use another word, but we'll leave that sort of talk to Martha.

[George takes a corner far too fast, tossing everyone in the car from side to side. Pause]

Martha: Aren't you going to apologize?

George: Not my fault, the road should've been straight.

Martha: No, aren't you going to apologize for making Honey throw up?

George: I didn't make her throw up.

Martha: What, you think it was sexy back there? You think he made his own wife sick?

George: Well, you make me sick.

Martha: That's different.

Martha: Hey!

George: Hark! Jungle sounds.

Martha: Hey!

George: Animal noises.

George: You're a monster - You are.

Martha: I'm loud and I'm vulgar, and I wear the pants in the house because somebody's got to, but I am not a monster. I'm not.

George: You're a spoiled, self-indulgent, willful, dirty-minded, liquor-ridden...

Martha: SNAP! It went SNAP! I'm not gonna try to get through to you any more. There was a second back there, yeah, there was a second, just a second when I could have gotten through to you, when maybe we could have cut through all this, this CRAP. But it's past, and I'm not gonna try.

Martha: I looked at you tonight and you weren't there... And I'm gonna howl it out, and I'm not gonna give a damn what I do and I'm gonna make the biggest god-damn explosion you've ever heard.

George: Try and I'll beat you at your own game.

Martha: Is that a threat George, huh?

George: It's a threat, Martha.

Martha: You're gonna get it, baby.

George: Be careful Martha. I'll rip you to pieces.

Martha: You're not man enough. You haven't the guts.

George: Total war.

Martha: Total.

George: I used to drink brandy.

Martha: You used to drink bergen, too.

George: Did you really think I was going to kill you, Martha?

Martha: You, kill me? That's a laugh.

George: Well now, I might some day.

Martha: Fat chance.

Honey: I'm gonna be sick.

George: Ah yeah that's nice.

Honey: I'm gonna die.

George: Good, good. Go right ahead.

George: Martha's got money because Martha's father's second wife, not Martha's mother but after Martha's mother died, was a very old lady with warts who was very rich.

Nick: She was a witch!

George: She was a good witch, and she married the white mouse with the tiny red eyes and he must have nibbled her warts or something like that, because she went up in a puff of smoke almost immediately. Poof!

Nick: Poof!

George: Poof! And all that was left, aside from some wart medicine, was a big fat will.

Nick: Your wife never mentioned a stepmother.

George: Maybe it isn't true.

Nick: Who did the painting?

George: Some Greek with a mustache Martha attacked one night.

Nick: It's got a...

George: Quiet intensity?

Nick: Well, no, a...

George: Well then, a certain noisy relaxed quality maybe?

Nick: No, what I meant was...

George: How about a quietly noisy relaxed intensity?

George: Now that's it! You can take over a few classes from the older men, but until you start plowing pertinent wives, you really aren't working. The broad, inviting avenue to man's job is through his wife, and don't you forget it.

Nick: And I'll bet your wife has the broadest, most inviting avenue of the whole damn campus.

[long pause]

Nick: Her father president and all.

George: You can sit around with the gin running out of your mouth; you can humiliate me; you can tear me to pieces all night, that's perfectly okay, that's all right.

Martha: You can stand it!

George: I cannot stand it!

Martha: You can stand it, you married me for it!

Nick: May I use the... uh... bar?

George: Oh, yes... yes... by all means. Drink away... you'll need it as the years go on.

[first lines]

Martha: [with disgust] What a dump.

Martha: [regarding "What a dump!"] It's from some damn Bette Davis picture, some goddamn Warner Brothers epic.

George: Martha, I can't remember all the pictures that came out of Warner Brothers.

George: [to Honey] Hi, sexy. You wanna dance, angel boobs?

Nick: What'd you call my wife?

George: Now, I think we've been having a real good evening, all things considered. We sat around, we've got to know each other, and we've had fun and games. Curl up on the Floor, for example. The tiles. Snap the Dragon.

Honey: Peel the Label"

George: Peel... Peel the What?

Martha: Label. Peel the Label.

Martha: [holds up a wine bottle] I peel labels.

George: [bringing the core of the movie down to one simple line] We all peel labels, sweetie.

Nick: You're gonna' regret this.

George: No doubt. I regret everything.

Nick: No, no, I mean *I'm* gonna' *make* you regret this.

George: Go clean up the mess.

Nick: You just wait, mister.

Martha: [after George has said hurtful things to humiliate Nick and Honey] You really are a bastard.

George: That's all right for you. You can go around like a hopped-up Arab, slashing at everything in sight, scarring up half the world if you want to. But let somebody else try it? No.

[last lines]

George: Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf?

Martha: I am, George...

George: Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Martha: I am, George... I am.