In Cold Blood (1967) · 16 quotes
Most-quoted character in In Cold Blood (1967): in 9 of its 16 quotes
Most scenes with: Dick Hickock (4)
It doesn't make sense. I mean what happened. It had nothing to do with the Clutters. They never hurt me. They just happened to be there. I thought Mr. Clutter was a very nice gentleman... I thought so right up to the time I cut his throat.
Perry Smith When it first began.... Who knows when anything really begins? When Dick first told me the plan, it didn't even seem real. Then, the closer we got, the more real it became. Like the crazy stunt had a life of its own and nothing could stop it. Like I was reading a story...and I had to know what was gonna happen. How it would end.
Perry Smith I despise people who can't control themselves.
Perry Smith I'd like to apologize, but... who to?
Perry It's true! Really true! We're on our way and never coming back. Never! And no regrets.
For you. You're leaving nothing. What about my old man... and my mother? They'll still be there when my checks start bouncing.
Perry It's nice the way you think about your folks.
Yeah! I'm a real thoughtful bastard.
Perry That was stupid - stealin' a lousy pack of razor blades! To prove what?
It's the national pastime, baby, stealin' and cheatin'. If they ever count every cheatin' wife and tax chiseler, the whole country would be behind prison walls.
Where are the black stockings?
Perry They didn't have black.
Stop someplace else.
Perry Where?
A Catholic hospital.
Perry Sure. We'll just barge in like it was a goddamn five-and-dime.
Sister, sweetie, we gotta have some black stockings to hide our face.
Perry Okay, forget it. Anyway, nuns are bad luck.
Kind of sexy, though.
Perry You wouldn't think so if you'd lived in one of those orphan homes... with those black widows always at you. Always sneaking up in the dark, spying while you sleep. Hitting you with a flashlight for wetting the bed. That's the first time I was saved by the yellow bird.
The what?
Perry Sort of a parrot. Taller than Jesus. Brilliant yellow, like a sunflower. It attacked those nuns like an avenging angel. The nuns begged for mercy. But the yellow bird slaughtered them anyway. Then the bird folded me in its wings...and lifted me up to paradise.
That's one hell of a bird to have on your side.
Perry Anyway, that's why I have an aversion to nuns...and God and religion.
Forget it. Black stockings are a waste of time. No one's gonna remember us because we're leaving no witnesses.
Next move... Mexico. Once we beat it out of the country.
Perry On what? $43 and a smile and bullshit.
You guessed it, chief. It's the smile that does it. Like it says in the commercials, the family that sticks together lives forever.
Perry When you hit the end of the rope... your muscles lose control. I'm afraid I'll mess myself.
It's nothing to be ashamed of. They all do it.
