Clarissa Saunders Don Quixote with bill will get to his feet in a minute and speak two important words. Willet Creek. When that happens, the Silver Knight will fall off his tightrope and Puss will jump out of his boots.
Played by Jean Arthur 
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) · 36 quotes
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) · 36 quotes
Tied for 2nd most-quoted character in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939): in 9 of its 36 quotes
Most scenes with: Jefferson Smith (5)
Why don't you go home?...This is no place for you - you're half-way decent. You don't belong here. Now go home.
More lines from Clarissa Saunders
2 quotes Clarissa Saunders Clarissa Saunders I wonder Diz, if this Don Quixote hasn't got the jump on all of us. I wonder if it isn't a curse to go through life wised up like you and me.
Scenes with Clarissa Saunders
6 scenes Clarissa Saunders Do you mind if I give you a rough idea of what you're up against?
No. Nope. Go ahead.
Clarissa Saunders Well, Senator has a bill in mind, like your camp...Now, what does he do? He has to sit down first and write it up - the why, when, where, how, and everything else. Now that takes time.
But this one is so simple.
Clarissa Saunders Oh I see, this one's simple.
Yeah, and with your help...
Clarissa Saunders Oh, I'm helping, yeah. Simple and I'm helping, so we knock it off in record-breaking time of, let's say, three or four days.
Oh, a-a day.
Clarissa Saunders [incredulous]
A day?
Yes, just tonight.
Clarissa Saunders Tonight. I don't mean to be complaining Senator, but in all civilized countries, there's an institution called dinner.
Clarissa Saunders You get to your feet in the Senate, take a long breath, and start spouting, but not too loud because a couple of the Senators might want to sleep. Then a curly-headed page boy takes it up to the desk where a long-faced clerk reads it, refers it to the right committee...
...Why?
Clarissa Saunders Look, committees are small groups of Senators that have to sit the bill down, look into it, study it and report to the whole Senate. You can't take a bill nobody ever heard about and discuss it among ninety-six men. Where would you get?...Now days are going by, Senator. Days, weeks! Finally, they think it's quite a bill. It goes over to the House of Representatives for debate and a vote. But it has to wait it's turn on the calendar...That's the order of business. Your bill has to stand way back there in line unless the steering committee thinks it's important.
What's that?
Clarissa Saunders ...Do you really think we're getting anywhere?
Oh yes Miss Saunders. Now tell me, what's the steering committee?
Clarissa Saunders A committee of the majority party leaders. They decide when a bill is important enough to be moved up toward the head of the list.
Well, this is!
Clarissa Saunders ...Where are we now?...Oh yeah, House. More amendments, more changes and the bill goes back to the Senate. If the Senate doesn't like what the House did to the bill, they make more changes. If the House doesn't like those changes, stymied.
So?
Clarissa Saunders So they appoint men from each House to go into a huddle called a conference and they battle it out. Finally, if your bill is still alive after all this vivisection, it comes to a vote. Yes sir, the big day finally arrives [pause] and Congress adjourns. [The smile on Smith's face droops.] Catching on, Senator?
Uh huh. Shall we start on it right away or order dinner first?
Did you ever have so much to say about something, you just couldn't say it?
Clarissa Saunders Try sitting down.
I did - I got right back up again.
Clarissa Saunders Now look. Let's get down to particulars. How big is this thing? Where's it gonna be? How many boys will it accommodate? You've got to have all of that in it, you know.
Yeah, yeah, and something else, Miss Saunders. The uh, the spirit of it. The idea - the - '[[He snaps his fingers] How do ya say it? [He walks to the window in which the lighted Capitol Dome is seen. He points out at the Dome] That's what's got to be in it!
Clarissa Saunders What?
The Capitol Dome.
Clarissa Saunders On paper? [She lifts her eyebrows a little]
I want to make that come to life for every boy in this land. Yes, and all lighted up like that too! You see, you see, boys forget what their country means by just reading 'the land of the free' in history books. And they get to be men - they forget even more. Liberty's too precious a thing to be buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say: 'I'm free to think and to speak. My ancestors couldn't. I can. And my children will.' Boys want to grow up remembering that.
[Saunders looks at Smith with a new expression - she has stopped taking notes]
And that-that steering committee, or whatever it is, they've got to see it like that. And I know Senator Paine will do all he can to help me, because he's a wonderful man, isn't he Miss Saunders? You know, he knew my father real well.
Clarissa Saunders [uneasy]
He did.
Yeah, yeah. We need a lot more like him, his kind of character, his ideals.
Clarissa Saunders I see. When you get home, what are you gonna tell those kids?
I'll tell 'em the truth. Might as well find it out now as later.
Clarissa Saunders I don't think they'll believe you, Jeff. You know, they're liable to look up at you with hurt faces and say, 'Jeff, what did you do? Quit? Didn't you do something about it?'
Well, what do you expect me to do? An honorary stooge like me against the Taylors and Paines and machines and lies...
Clarissa Saunders Your friend Mr. Lincoln had his Taylors and Paines. So did every other man whoever tried to lift his thought up off the ground. Odds against 'em didn't stop those men. They were fools that way. All the good that ever came into this world came from fools with faith like that. You know that Jeff. You can't quit now. Not you! They aren't all Taylors and Paines in Washington. Their kind just throw big shadows, that's all. You didn't just have faith in Paine or any other living man. You had faith in something bigger than that. You had plain, decent, every day, common rightness. And this country could use some of that. Yeah - so could the whole ****-eyed world. A lot of it. Remember the first day you got here? Remember what you said about Mr. Lincoln? You said he was sitting up there waiting for someone to come along. You were right! He was waiting for a man who could see his job and sail into it. That's what he was waiting for. A man who could tear into the Taylors and root 'em out into the open. I think he was waiting for you Jeff. He knows you can do it. So do I.
What? Do what, Saunders?
Clarissa Saunders You just make up your mind you're not gonna quit and I'll tell you what. I've been thinkin' about it all the way back here. It's a forty foot dive into a tub of water, but I think you can do it.
Clarissa, where can we get a drink?
Clarissa Saunders [slapping his knee]
Now you're talkin'!
President of Senate [The filibuster begins]
The Chair recognizes... Senator Smith!
Thank you, sir.
Clarissa Saunders Diz, here we go.
Well, I guess the gentlemen are in a pretty tall hurry to get me out of here. The way the evidence has piled up against me, I can't say I blame them much. And I'm quite willing to go, sir, when they vote it that way - but before that happens I've got a few things I want to say to this body. I tried to say them once before, and I got stopped colder than a mackerel. Well, I'd like to get them said this time, sir. And as a matter of fact, I'm not going to leave this body until I do get them said.
Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
President of Senate Will the Senator yield?
No, sir, I'm afraid not, no sir. I yielded the floor once before, if you can remember, and I was practically never heard of again. No sir. And we might as well all get together on this yielding business right off the bat, now.
[laughter from the gallery]
Now, I had some pretty good coaching last night, and I find that if I yield only for a question or a point of order or a personal privilege, that I can hold this floor almost until doomsday. In other words, I've got a piece to speak, and blow hot or cold, I'm going to speak it.
Will the Senator yield?
President of Senate Will Senator Smith yield?
Yield how, sir?
Will he yield for a question?
For a question, alright.
Diz Moore [dictating into phone]
In protest, the whole Senate body rose and walked out.
Clarissa Saunders No! No, not that straight stuff. Now listen, kick it up, get on his side, fight for him! Understand?
Diz Moore You love this monkey - don't you?
Clarissa Saunders What do you think? Now listen, go to work. Do as I tell you.
Diz Moore [into phone]
Throw out that last, take this. This is the most titanic battle of modern times. A David without even a slingshot rises to do battle against the mighty Goliath, the Taylor machine, allegedly crooked inside and out. Yeah, and for my money, you can cut out the "allegedly."
