Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan quotes from The Help (2011)

View Quote [to Stuart] I'm sorry, but were you dropped on your head as an infant, or were you just born stupid?

View Quote Aibileen: I was born 1911, Chicksaw County, Piedmont Plantation.
Skeeter: And did you know as a girl growing up that one day you'd be a maid?
Clark: Yes ma'am, I did.
Skeeter: And you knew that because...
Aibileen: My mama was a maid. My grandmama was a house slave.
Skeeter: [whispering as she writes down] "house slave..." Did you ever dream of being something else? [Aibileen nods yes] What does it feel like to raise a white child when your own child's at home being looked after by somebody else?

View Quote Hilly: They carry different diseases than we do. That's why I've drafted the Home Health Sanitation Initiative.
Skeeter: The what?
Hilly: A disease-preventative bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help. It's been endorsed by the White Citizen's Council.
Skeeter: Maybe we should just build you a bathroom outside, Hilly.
Hilly: You ought not to joke about the colored situation. I will do whatever it takes to protect our children.

View Quote Stuart: I've never met a woman that says exactly what she's thinking.
Skeeter: Well, I got plenty to say.

View Quote Hilly: [confronting Skeeter at her house about the book] I've contacted my lawyer, Hibbie Goodman! He's the best libel attorney in the state. Oh missy, you are goin' to jail!
Skeeter: You can't prove anything.
Hilly: Oh I 100% know you wrote it, 'cause nobody else in town is as tacky as you!
Skeeter: You don't know anything, Hilly!
Hilly: [shoving Skeeter] Oh, I DON'T, do I?! You tell Aibileen that the next time she wants to write about my dear friend Elizabeth - uh huh, remember her, had you in her wedding? - let's just say, Aibileen ought to have been a little bit smarter before puttin' in about that L-shaped scratch in poor Elizabeth's dining table. And that **** Minny... do I have plans for her.
Skeeter: [calmly] Careful Hilly, that's Chapter Twelve. Don't give yourself away now.
Hilly: That was NOT ME!!! [storms over to the front door] I've come to tell your mother what a hippie you've become! She's going to be disgusted by you-!
Charlotte: [opens door before Hilly] Why, Hilly! Is everything okay, you two?
Hilly: Mrs. Phelan...
Charlotte: Hilly, you're a sweaty mess. Are you ill?
Hilly: No, ma'am...
Charlotte: [referring to the cold sore on Hilly's face] Darlin', oh, no husband wants to come home and see that.
Hilly: Oh... I didn't have time to get it fixed up.
Charlotte: You know, Hilly, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you've been eating too much pie.
Hilly: Mrs. Phelan, I...
Charlotte: In fact, I'm sure of it. Now you get your raggedy ass off my porch. Go on. Get off my property! NOW! Before we all get one of those disgusting things on our lips!
[Hilly, stunned, obeys and drives off]