A scene from His Girl Friday 1940
Hildy

Listen to me, you great big bumble-headed baboon.

Walter

I'll make it thirty-five bucks and not a cent more.

Hildy

Walter, are you gonna listen?

Walter

But good grief, how much is that other paper gonna pay you?

Hildy

There isn't any other paper.

Walter

Oh! Well in that case, the raise is off. You go back to your old salary...

Hildy

Walter, I want to show you something. It's here. It's a ring. Take a good look at it. Do you know what it is? It's an engagement ring. I tried to tell you right away, but you would start reminiscing. I'm getting married, Walter, and I'm also getting as far away from the newspaper business as I can get.

Walter

What?

Hildy

I am through.

Walter

You can marry all you want to, Hildy, but you can't quit the newspaper business.

Hildy

Oh! Why not?

Walter

I know you, Hildy. I know what quitting would mean to you.

Hildy

And what would it mean?

Walter

It would kill ya.

Hildy

You can't sell me that, Walter Burns.

Walter

Who says I can't? You're a newspaperman.

Hildy

That's why I'm quitting. I want to go someplace where I can be a woman.

Walter

You mean be a traitor.

Hildy

A traitor? A traitor to what?

Walter

A traitor to journalism. You're a journalist, Hildy.

Hildy

A journalist? Hell, what does that mean? Peeking through keyholes? Chasing after fire engines? Waking people up in the middle of the night to ask them if Hitler's gonna start another war? Stealing pictures off old ladies? I know all about reporters, Walter. A lot of daffy buttinskis running around without a nickel in their pockets and for what? So a million hired girls and motormen's wives'll know what's going on. Why-... Golly, what's the use? Walter, you-you wouldn't know what it means to want to be respectable and live a half-way normal life. The point is, I-I'm through.

In this scene

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His Girl Friday 1940 · 54 quotes · 7 characters All His Girl Friday quotes →
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