Roger Thornhill [sending candy to his ex-wife]
Oh well, put 'Something for your sweet tooth, baby, and all your other sweet parts.'
Most-quoted character in North by Northwest (1959): in 26 of its 34 quotes
Most scenes with: Eve (9), The Professor (3), Clara Thornhill (2)
Ah, Maggie, in the world of advertising, there's no such thing as a lie. There's only the expedient exaggeration. You ought to know that.
More lines from Roger Thornhill
8 quotes Roger Thornhill Roger Thornhill Mother, this is your son, Roger Thornhill...No, no, Mother. I have not been drinking. No, no. These two men, they poured a whole bottle of bourbon into me. No, they didn't give me a chaser.
Roger Thornhill The train, it's safer...Well, because there's no place to hide on a plane if anyone should recognize me...oh, you want me to jump off a moving plane?
Roger Thornhill [to Eve]
You're the smartest girl I ever spent the night with on the train.
Roger Thornhill [to Vandamm]
I didn't realize you were an art collector. I thought you just collected corpses...I'll bet you paid plenty for this little piece of sculpture...She's worth every dollar of it, take it from me. She puts her heart into her work. In fact, her whole body.
Roger Thornhill [to The Professor]
Now you listen to me, I'm an advertising man, not a red herring. I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me, and I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting myself "slightly" killed.
Roger Thornhill [to Vandamm]
I want the girl to get what's coming to her. You turn her over to me and I'll see there's enough pinned on her to keep her uncomfortable for the rest of her life. You do that and I'll look the other way tonight.
Roger Thornhill I don't like the way Teddy Roosevelt is looking at me.
Scenes with Roger Thornhill
17 scenes Roger And what the devil is all this about? Why was I brought here?
Games, must we?
Roger Not that I mind a slight case of abduction now and then, but I have tickets for the theatre this evening, to a show I was looking forward to and I get, well, kind of unreasonable about things like that.
With such expert play-acting, you make this very room a theatre. My secretary is a great admirer of your methods, Mr. Kaplan. Elusiveness, however misguided ...
Roger (interrupting)
My name is Thornhill, Roger Thornhill! It's never been anything else ... So obviously, your friends picked up the wrong package when they bundled me out here in the car.
I don't see why you want me along.
Roger Well, you lend a certain air of respectability.
Don't be sarcastic, Roger.
Roger, I think we should go.
Roger Don't be nervous.
I'm not nervous. I'll be late for the bridge club.
Roger Good, you'll lose less than usual.
Ticket Seller [Roger is wearing sunglasses to hide his identity]
Something wrong with your eyes?
Roger Yes, they're sensitive to questions.
I tipped the steward five dollars to seat you here if you should come in.
Roger Is that a proposition?
I never discuss love on an empty stomach.
Roger You've already eaten!
But you haven't.
...
Roger Oh, you're that type.
What type?
Roger Honest.
Not really.
Roger Good, because honest women frighten me.
Why?
Roger I don't know. Somehow they seem to put me at a disadvantage.
Because you're not honest with them?
Roger Exactly.
...
Roger The moment I meet an attractive woman, I have to start pretending I have no desire to make love to her.
What makes you think you have to conceal it?
Roger She might find the idea objectionable.
Then again, she might not.
...
I'm Eve Kendall. I'm twenty-six and unmarried. Now you know everything.
Roger Tell me. What do you do besides lure men to their doom on the Twentieth Century Limited?
I'm an industrial designer.
Roger Jack Phillips. Western sales manager for Kingby Electronics.
No, you're not. You're Roger Thornhill of Madison Avenue, and you're wanted for murder on every front page in America, and don't be so modest.
Roger Whoops!
Oh, don't worry, I won't say a word.
Roger How come?
I told you. It's a nice face.
Roger Is that the only reason?
It's going to be a long night.
Roger True.
And I don't particularly like the book I've started.
Roger Ahhh.
You know what I mean?
Roger Uh, let me think. [Pause] Yes, I know exactly what you mean...
...
Incidentally, I wouldn't order any dessert if I were you.
Roger I get the message.
That isn't exactly what I meant. This train seems to be making an unscheduled stop, and I just saw two men get out of a police car as we pulled into the station. They weren't smiling.
I'm a big girl.
Roger Yeah, and in all the right places too. [They share a lingering kiss.]
You know, this is ridiculous, you know that don't you?
Roger Yesss.
I mean, we've hardly met.
Roger That's right.
How do I know you aren't a murderer?
Roger You don't.
Maybe you're planning to murder me right here tonight?
Roger Shall I?
Please do. [Another long kiss.]
Roger Beats flying, doesn't it?
We should stop.
Roger Immediately.
I want to know more about you.
Roger What more could you know?
You're an advertising man, that's all I know.
Roger That's right. [They shift positions.] The train's a little unsteady.
Who isn't?
Roger What else do you know?
You've got taste in clothes, taste in food...
Roger ...and taste in women. I like your flavor.
You're very clever with words. You can probably make them do anything for you. Sell people things they don't need. Make women who don't know you fall in love with you.
Roger I'm beginning to think I'm underpaid.
...
Roger Now where were we?
Here. [They kiss again passionately.]
Roger Yes. Nice of you to have opened the bed.
Yes.
Roger Only one bed.
Yes.
Roger That's a good omen, don't you think?
Wonderful.
Roger You know what that means?
Hmmm.
Roger What? Tell me.
It means you're going to sleep on the floor.
Roger To a long and lasting friendship, meaning from now on, I'm not going to let you out of my sight, sweetheart.
I'm afraid you'll have to.
Roger Oh no.
I do have plans of my own, you know, and you do have problems.
Roger Well, wouldn't it be nice if my problems and your plans were somehow connected? Then we could always stay close to each other and not have to go off in separate directions. Togetherness, you know what I mean?
I want you to do a favor for me. A big, big favor.
Roger Name it.
I want you to leave right now. Stay far away from me and don't come near me again. We're not going to get involved. Last night was last night and it's all there was and that's all there is. There isn't going to be anything more between us. So please, goodbye, good luck, no conversation, just leave.
Roger [After a valet tells him he will return his pressed suit in 20 minutes]
Now, what can a man do with his clothes off for twenty minutes? Couldn't he have taken an hour?
You could always take a cold shower. [She helps him remove his suit jacket.]
Roger That's right. When I was a little boy, I wouldn't even let my mother undress me.
You're a big boy now.
Roger Yes, tell me. How does a girl like you get to be a girl like you?
Lucky, I guess.
Roger No, not lucky. Naughty, wicked, up to no good. Ever kill anyone? Because I bet you could tease a man to death without half trying. So stop trying, huh?
What possessed you to come blundering in here like this? Could it be an overpowering interest in art?
Roger Yes, the art of survival.
He followed me here from the hotel.
Leonard He was in your room?
Roger Sure. Isn't everybody?
...
Has anyone ever told you that you overplay your various roles rather severely, Mr. Kaplan? First, you're the outraged Madison Avenue man who claims he's been mistaken for someone else. Then you play the fugitive from justice, supposedly trying to clear his name of a crime he knows he didn't commit. And now, you play the peevish lover, stung by jealousy and betrayal. It seems to me you fellows could stand a little less training from the FBI and a little more from the Actor's Studio.
Roger Apparently, the only performance that will satisfy you is when I play dead.
Your very next role. You'll be quite convincing, I assure you.
Roger I wonder what subtle form of manslaughter is next on the program. Am I to be dropped into a vat of molten steel and become part of a new skyscraper, or are you going to ask this female to kiss me again and poison me to death?
Roger [Eve tries to slap him]
Who are you kidding? You have no feelings to hurt.
Roger [at an art auction]
How do we know it's not a fake? It looks like a fake.
Bidder Well, one thing we know. You're no fake. You are a genuine idiot.
Roger Thank you.
Roger You're police, aren't you? Or is it FBI?
FBI, CIA, ONI... we're all in the same alphabet soup.
...
Roger Of what?
Oh, government secrets perhaps.
If I thought there was any chance of changing your mind, I'd talk about Miss Kendall, of whom you so obviously disapprove.
Roger Yes, for using sex like some people use a fly swatter.
I wanted to tell you, I mean apologize.
Roger No need. I understand. All in the line of duty.
I did treat you miserably.
Roger I, uh, I hated you for it.
I didn't want you to go on thinking that I...
Roger I, I used some pretty harsh words, I'm sorry.
They hurt deeply.
Roger Naturally if I'd known.
I couldn't tell you.
Roger Of course not.
Could I?
Roger No, I guess not.
...
I guess I had nothing to do that weekend, so I decided to fall in love.
Roger That's nice.
Eventually, the Professor and his Washington colleagues approached me with a few sordid details about Philip. They told me that my relationship with him made me uniquely valuable to them.
Roger Mm-mmm. So you became a Girl Scout, huh?
Maybe it was the first time anyone ever asked me to do anything worthwhile.
Roger Has life been like that?
Mm-hmm.
Roger How come?
Men like you!
Roger What's wrong with men like me?
They don't believe in marriage.
Roger I've been married twice.
See what I mean?
Roger Now I may go back to hating you: it was more fun. [They kiss passionately.]
You're supposed to be critically wounded.
Roger I never felt more alive.
Whose side are you on?
Roger Yours always, darling.
Roger I don't like the games you play, Professor.
War is hell, Mr. Thornhill, even when it's a cold one.
Roger If you fellas can't lick the Vandamms of this world, without asking girls like her to bed down with him and fly away with him and probably never come back, perhaps you ought to start learning how to lose a few cold wars!
I'm afraid we're already doing that.
Roger If we ever get out of this alive, let's go back to New York on the train together, all right?
Is that a proposition?
Roger It's a proposal, sweetie.
What happened to the first two marriages?
Roger My wives divorced me.
Why?
Roger Well, I think they said I led too dull a life.
Other characters in North by Northwest
More Cary Grant characters
Mortimer Brewster
Walter Burns
John Robie
Dr. David Huxley
Jerry Warriner
Dexter
T.R. Devlin
Johnnie Aysgarth