Cat on a Hot Tin Roof quotes

View Quote Big Mama: There ain't nothin' wrong with Big Daddy but nerves...He's as sound as a dollar, and now he knows he is. That's why he ate such a supper. He had a load off his mind, knowin' he wasn't doomed to what he'd thought he was doomed to.

View Quote Brick: [after Maggie closes and locks the door] Now what did you do that for, Maggie?
Maggie: To give us a little privacy for a while.
Brick: Don't make a fool of yourself, Maggie.
Maggie: I don't mind makin' a fool of myself over you.
Brick: Well I mind. I feel embarrassed for you.
Maggie: Feel embarrassed! But I can't live on this way.
Brick: Now you agreed to accept that condition.
Maggie: I know I did, but I can't, I can't. [She fiercely hugs him.]
Brick: Let go, Maggie. [She doesn't respond and he pulls her away.] Now let go, Maggie.

View Quote Brick: Why you heard what Big Daddy said? 'That girl's got life in her body.'
Mae: That's a lie.
Brick: No. No, truth is something desperate and Maggie's got it. Believe me, it is desperate and she has got it.
Mae: [to Gooper] Why don't you say somethin', honey?
Gooper: All right, honey. Shut-up!
Brick: Maggie?
Maggie: Yes?
Brick: Come on up here.
Maggie: Yes sir.
...
Maggie: Thank you for keepin' still, for backin' me up in my lie.
Brick: Maggie, we are through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door!

View Quote One of those no-neck monsters hit me with some ice cream. Their fat little heads sit on their fat little bodies without a bit of connection...you can't wring their necks if they got no necks to wring. Isn't that right, honey?...Think of it, they've got five monsters and number six comin' up.

View Quote [to Brick] I'll tell you what they're up to, boy of mine! They're up to cutting you out of your father's estate...There's some things you gotta face, baby. There's some things in this world you simply got to face.

View Quote [to Brick] Big Daddy dotes on you, honey. And he just can't stand Brother Man and Brother Man's wife, that monster of fertility. She's downright odious to him. I can tell. Just like I can tell he likes me. That's the second thing we got on our side. He likes me. The way he looks me up and down, over, he's still got an eye for girls.

View Quote [about Big Daddy] I think it's mighty fine the way that ole fellow on the doorstep of death still takes in my shape with what I consider deserved appreciation.

View Quote Truth! Truth! Everybody keeps hollerin' about the truth. Well, the truth is as dirty as lies.

View Quote I hate apologies, especially for the truth.

View Quote Close around ten million dollars in cash and blue-chip stocks. Besides, with twenty-eight thousand acres of the richest land this side of the valley Nile...But there's one thing you can't buy in a Europe firesale or in any other market on earth. And that's your life. You can't buy back your life when it's finished...The human animal is a beast that eventually has to die. And if he's got money, he buys and he buys and he buys. The reason why he buys everything he can is because his crazy hope is one of the things he buys will be life everlasting - which you never can be.

View Quote What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it Brick? Didn't you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?...There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity...You can smell it. It smells like death.

View Quote Mae Flynn Pollitt: [about her children] They're all Pollitts, I'm proud to say, every one of 'em. And I know that Big Daddy's just as proud as we are knowin' there's a whole dynasty of his flesh and blood waitin' to take over.

View Quote Brick Pollitt: Family crisis brings out the best and the worst in every member of the family.

View Quote Maggie: Why are you looking at me like that?
Brick: Like what, Maggie?
Maggie: Like you were just lookin'.
Brick: I wasn't conscious of lookin' at you, Maggie.
Maggie: [seductively] I was conscious of it. [He coldly turns from her and rises on his crutches] If you were thinkin' the same thing I was...
Brick: No, Maggie.
Maggie: Why not?!
Brick: Will you please keep your voice down?
Maggie: No! I know you better than you think. I've seen that look before. And I know what it used to mean. And it still means the same thing now.
Brick: You're not the same woman now, Maggie.
Maggie: Oh, don't you think I know that? Don't you think I know that...
Brick: [cooly detached] Know what, Maggie?
Maggie: That I've gone through this horrible transformation, that I've become hard and frantic and cruel...Oh Brick, I get so lonely.
Brick: Everybody gets that.
Maggie: Living with somebody you love can be lonelier than living entirely alone - if the one you love doesn't love you.
Brick: ...Would you like to live alone, Maggie?
Maggie: No! No, I wouldn't.

View Quote Maggie: Why can't you lose your good looks, Brick? Most drinkin' men lose theirs. Why can't you? I think you've even gotten better-lookin' since you went on the bottle. You were such a wonderful lover...You were so excitin' to be in love with. Mostly, I guess, 'cause you were... If I thought you'd never never make love to me again... why I'd find me the longest, sharpest knife I could and I'd stick it straight into my heart. I'd do that. Oh Brick, how long does this have to go on? This punishment? Haven't I served my term? Can't I apply for a pardon?
Brick: Lately, that finishin' school voice of yours sounds like you was runnin' upstairs to tell somebody the house is on fire.
Maggie: Is it any wonder? You know what I feel like? I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.
Brick: Then jump off the roof, Maggie, jump off it. Now cats jump off roofs and they land uninjured. Do it. Jump.
Maggie: Jump where? Into what?
Brick: Take a lover.
Maggie: [angrily] I don't deserve that! I can't see any man but you. With my eyes closed, I just see you. Why can't you get ugly Brick? Why can't you please get fat or ugly or somethin' so I can stand it?
Brick: You'll make out fine. Your kind always does.
Maggie: Oh, I'm more determined than you think. I'll win all right.
Brick: Win what? What is, uh, the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?
Maggie: Just stayin' on it, I guess. As long as she can.