Cat on a Hot Tin Roof quotes

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 Maggie: [after Brick tells her that Big Daddy has terminal cancer] Oh, poor Big Daddy. I'm fond of him. I'm genuinely fond of that old man. I really am, you know. Oh, when he finds out. I wouldn't want to be the one to tell him. That's why you want to go now.
Brick: Yeah, that's why I want to leave now. You gotta do this for me, Maggie, please.
Maggie: And leave the field to Gooper and that wife of his? No sir. Let's face facts, baby. You're a drinker, and that takes money.
Brick: I don't want his money.
Maggie: Are you ready to settle for ten cent beer? 'Cause that's just what Gooper will dole out to you when they freeze you out. They got a plan, baby. Oh you should have heard them layin' it on Big Daddy - a mile a minute. Big Mama's already on their side. You're a drinker and I'm childless. We got to beat that plan. We just got to. I-I been so disgustingly poor all my life. That's the truth, Brick.
Brick: Have you, Maggie?
Maggie: You-you don't know what it's like to have to suck up to people you can't stand just 'cause they have money. You don't know what it's like. Never havin' any clothes. That dress I married you in was a hand-me-down from a snotty rich cousin I hated. You can be young without money, but you can't be old without it. Where did I fail you? Where did I make my mistake? Make that your last drink until after the party, please honey!

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

View Quote Big Daddy: You expect me to turn over twenty-eight thousand acres of the richest land this side of valley Nile to a fool on the bottle?
Brick: No sir.
Big Daddy: I like you son, but why should I subsidize worthless behavior? Rot? Corruption?
Brick: Then turn it over to Gooper and Mae.
Big Daddy: I can't stand Gooper and Mae and those five screamin' monkeys. You know, I don't have to turn it over to any of ya. This day, I ain't made no will. And now I don't have to. The pressure's off. I can just wait and see if you pull yourself together or if you don't... [tenderly] Let's don't leave it like this, like all them other talks we've had. We always seem to talk around things. We seem to leave things unsaid and unspoken. But now we gotta talk straight.

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 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 Big Daddy: Why did you and Brick suddenly decide to drive up from New Orleans?
Maggie: For your birthday, what else?
Big Daddy: I had a birthday last year and the year before. I didn't see ya then.
Maggie: Well, you know how Brick is sometimes.
Big Daddy: Maybe he thought he was comin' to my funeral instead of my birthday?
Maggie: Why Brick loves you! Well he does.
Big Daddy: But does he love you?
Maggie: What do you want - Truth?
Big Daddy: If I was married to you three years, you'd have the livin' proof. You'd have three kids already and the fourth in the oven.

View Quote Big Mama: The exploratory operation proved there's nothin' wrong with Big Daddy. Nothin' at all. Just a little ol' spastic colon and that's all.
Maggie: That's the best birthday present of all.
...
Big Daddy: Well, I'm gonna live, Maggie, I'm gonna live. You know, they had me real scared. You know, I've wasted so much time, you know, I've got a million different kinds of feelings left in me. And I want to use 'em. I want to use 'em all.

View Quote Big Daddy: They say Maggie sleeps on the bed and you sleep on the sofa. Is that true or not? If you don't like Maggie, get rid of her! What are you doin' over there now?
Brick: Fresh'nin' up my drink.
Big Daddy: Son, you know you got a real liquor problem?
Brick: Yes sir, I know.
Big Daddy: Is that why you quit your job, sports announcin', because of the liquor?
Brick: I guess so, yes sir, that's it.
Big Daddy: Don't guess about it, son, it's too important.

View Quote Mae: Gooper is your first born. Why, he always had to carry a bigger load of the responsibilities than Brick. Brick never carried a thing in his life but a football or a highball.
Gooper: ...The point is, I'm not gonna see this place run into the ground by a drunken ex-football hero. [about Big Daddy] For him, it was always Brick, always. From the day he was born, he was always partial to Brick. Why? Big Daddy wanted me to become a lawyer. I became a lawyer. He said: 'Get married.' I got married. He said: 'Have kids.' I had kids. He said: 'Live in Memphis.' I lived in Memphis. Whatever he said: 'Do!' I did all right. I don't give a damn whether Big Daddy likes me or don't like me, or did or never did or will or will never. I've appealed for common decency and fair-play. Well, now I'm tellin' ya. I intend to protect my interests. I'm not a corporation lawyer for nothin'...

View Quote Brick: Skipper and I were friends. Can you understand that?
Big Daddy: Gooper and Mae said that Skipper...
Brick: [interrupting] Skipper is the only thing that I've got left to believe in. And you are draggin' it through the gutter!
Big Daddy: Now just a minute!
Brick: You are making it shameful and filthy, you...!
[Brick lashes out at his father and misses - and falls to the floor.]
Big Daddy: You and Skipper played football together. Made a few touchdowns. Does that make him God Almighty?
Brick: I could depend on him.
Big Daddy: On the football field?
Brick: At any time, anywhere, anyplace, I could depend on him.
Big Daddy: Are you sure of that?
Brick: Yes sir. Sure.
Big Daddy: Bull. Why did your big strong man fall apart? Why did Skipper crack up?
Brick: All right. You're askin' for it. We're gonna have that talk. That straight true talk. It's too late to stop now.

View Quote Brick: [about Maggie and Mae] Well, they're a couple of cats. They're sittin' on the middle of a big piece of land, you know, twenty-eight thousand acres - that's a lot of land. And they're both squarin' off, each determined to knock off a bigger piece whenever you let go.
Big Daddy: Well, I got a surprise for them babies. I ain't gonna let go for a long time yet if that's what they're waitin' for.

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 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 I hate apologies, especially for the truth.