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.
Most-quoted role: Big Mama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), 4 quotes
Movies Big Mama 
I put up with a lot of bull around here because I thought I was dyin'. That's when you started takin' over. Your loud voice and your old busybody buttin' in here, there, and everywhere. Sashayin' around here, makin' a big noise like a boss. I'm the only boss around here. I built this place with no help from you. And I'll run this place 'til the day I die. Now is that plain to ya, Ida? Is that perfectly clear to ya? Now I ain't gonna die. There ain't nothin' wrong with me but a spastic colon! Made spastic, I reckon, by all the lies and liars I've had to put up with around here. And all the hypocrisy I've had to live with these forty years I've lived with you.
Big Mama In all these years, you never believed I loved you. And I did. I did so much. I did love you. I even loved your hate and your hardness.
Big Mama Oh shoot, Maggie, you just don't like children.
Why that's not true! I adore them - well brought up.
Big Mama Well why don't you have some then and bring them up well instead of all the time pickin' on Gooper's an' Mae's?
...Big Mama, what you said about havin' children, it's still kind of a secret but...
Big Mama Oh shoot, Maggie, stop playing so dumb. I mean, is he still drinkin' this stuff much?
Oh, well he may have had a little highball...
Big Mama Don't laugh about it! Some single men stop drinking when they get married. Others start. Brick never touched liquor before he was...
Big Mama Fair or not fair. I want to ask you a question, one question: 'Do ya make Brick happy?' Well?
Why don't you ask me if he makes me happy?
Big Mama Cause I know that ...
It works both ways.
Big Mama Somethin' ain't right. You're childless and our son drinks... [she pats the bed for emphasis] When a marriage goes on the rocks, the rocks are there, right there!
Anne Treadwell Shelby, why don't you come to your senses? You know it's all over between you and Laura or it soon will be. You haven't lost me. Why don't we get married - now?...You need me. We'll get the best lawyer that money can buy. And when it's all over, we'll go away - anywhere you want - and forget about all this.
Anne Treadwell [to Laura]
McPherson suspects Shelby...Oh, I don't think he did it, but he's capable of it....Anybody's better for you than Shelby. Anybody is. Shelby's better for me...'cause I can afford him and understand him. He's no good, but he's what I want. I'm not a nice person, Laura, and neither is he. He knows I know he's just what he is. He also knows that I don't care. We belong together because we're both weak and can't seem to help it. That's why I know he's capable of murder. He's like me.
There are two or three things in here belong to me. This vase, for instance. And that, uh, clock of course, and antique fire screen. I only lent them to Laura, you know.
Anne Oh really, Waldo.
Yes, really. This vase is the gem of my collection. I intend to have it back. And the clock and the screen too.
They aren't yours. You gave them to Laura. I won't permit it.
Does an alleged fiance have any voice in this matter? I'll take the vase with me now and send someone to collect the other things this very day.
Nothing's leaving here except you, Lydecker.
Mrs. Danvers [to the 2nd Mrs. de Winter]
Why don't you go? Why don't you leave Manderley? He doesn't need you. He's got his memories. He doesn't love you - he wants to be alone again with her. You've nothing to stay for. You've nothing to live for really, have you? Look down there. It's easy, isn't it? Why don't you? Why don't you? Go on. Go on. Don't be afraid!
Mrs. Danvers I watched you go down just as I watched her a year ago. Even in the same dress you couldn't compare.
You knew it. You knew that she wore it. And yet you deliberately stressed that I wear it. Why do you hate me? What have I done to you that you should ever hate me so?
Mrs. Danvers You tried to take her place. You let him marry you. I've seen his face, his eyes. They're the same as those first weeks after she died. I used to listen to him, walking up and down, up and down, all night long, night after night, thinking of her. Suffering torture because he lost her.
I don't want to know. I don't want to know.
Mrs. Danvers You thought you could be Mrs. de Winter. Live in her house. Walk in her steps. Take the things that were hers. But she's too strong for you. You can't fight her. No one ever got the better of her. Never. Never. She was beaten in the end, but it wasn't a man. It wasn't a woman. It was the sea.
Oh, stop it! Stop it! Oh, stop it!
Mrs. Danvers You wouldn't think she'd been gone so long, would you? Sometimes, when I walk along the corridor, I fancy I hear her just behind me, like a quick light step. I couldn't mistake it anywhere, not only in this room, but in all the rooms in the house. I can almost hear it now. Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?
I don't believe it.
Mrs. Danvers Sometimes, I wonder if she doesn't come back here to Manderley, to watch you and Mr. de Winter together. You look tired. Why don't you stay here and rest, and listen to the sea? It's so soothing. Listen to it. Listen.