Marion Crane [To Sam]
You make respectability sound disrespectful.
Played by Janet Leigh 
Psycho (1960) · 48 quotes
Psycho (1960) · 48 quotes
2nd most-quoted character in Psycho (1960): in 16 of its 48 quotes
Most scenes with: Norman Bates (6), Sam Loomis (3), Caroline (2)
Headaches are like resolutions. You forget them as soon as they stop hurting.
More lines from Marion Crane
2 quotes Marion Crane Marion Crane I'll lick the stamps.
Scenes with Marion Crane
13 scenes
Highway Patrol officer Uh... hold it there. In quite a hurry.
Marion Crane [nervously]
Yes. Uh... I didn't intend to sleep so long. I almost had an accident last night, from sleepiness. So I decided to pull over.
Officer
You slept here all night?
Marion Crane Yes. As I said, I couldn't keep my eyes open.
Officer
There are plenty of motels in this area. You should've... I mean, just to be safe.
Marion Crane I didn't intend to sleep all night! I just pulled over. Have I broken any laws?
Officer
No, ma'am.
Marion Crane Then I'm free to go?
Officer
Is anything wrong?
Marion Crane Of course not. Am I acting as if there's something wrong?
Officer
Frankly, yes.
Marion Crane Please... I'd like to go.
Officer
Well, is there?
Marion Crane Is there what? I've told you there's nothing wrong, except that I'm in a hurry and you're taking up my time.
Officer
[starts car engine]
Now, just a moment! Turn off your motor, please. May I see your license?
Marion Crane Why?
Officer
Please.
Marion Crane I've caused you some trouble.
No. Mother, my mother, uh, what's the phrase? She isn't quite herself today.
Marion Crane You should have bothered. I really don't have that much of an appetite.
Oh, I'm sorry. I wish you could apologize for other people.
I'm in no mood for trouble.
Marion Crane What?
There's an old saying, "First customer of the day is always the trouble!" But like I say, I'm in no mood for it so I'm gonna treat you so fair and square that you won't have one human reason to give me...
Marion Crane Can I trade my car in and take another?
Do anything you've a mind to. Bein' a woman, you will. That yours?
Marion Crane Yes, it's just that -- there's nothing wrong with it. I just --
-- sick of the sight of it! Well, why don't you have a look around here and see if there's somethin' that strikes your eyes and meanwhile I'll have my mechanic give yours the once over. You want some coffee? I was just about --
Marion Crane No, thank you. I'm in a hurry. I just want to make a change, and --
One thing people never oughtta be when they're buyin' used cars and that's in a hurry. But like I said, it's too nice a day to argue. I'll uh -- shoot your car in the garage here.
It's the first time the customer ever high-pressured a salesman. I figure roughly... your car plus seven hundred dollars.
Marion Crane Seven hundred dollars?
You always got time to argue money, huh?
Marion Crane All right.
You-you eat like a bird.
Marion Crane [Looking around at the stuffed birds]
And you'd know, of course.
No, not really. Anyway, I hear the expression 'eats like a bird' -- it-it's really a fals-fals-fals-falsity. Because birds really eat a tremendous lot. But I-I don't really know anything about birds. My hobby is stuffing things. You know -- taxidermy. And I guess I'd rather stuff birds because I hate the look of beasts when their stuffed -- you know, foxes and chimps. Some people even stuff dogs and cats -- but, oh, I can't do that. I think only birds look well stuffed because -- well, because they're kind of passive to begin with.
You never did eat your lunch, did you?
Marion Crane I better get back to the office. These extended lunch hours give my boss excess acid.
Why don't you call your boss and tell him you're taking the rest of the afternoon off? It's Friday, anyway -- and hot.
Marion Crane What do I do with my free afternoon? Walk you to the airport?
Well, you could laze around here a while longer.
Marion Crane Hmm. Checking out time is 3 PM. Hotels of this sort are interested in you when you come in, but when your time is up. Oh Sam, I hate having to be with you in a place like this.
Married couples deliberately spend an occasional night in a cheap hotel.
Marion Crane I know marriage can do a lot of things deliberately.
You sure talk like a girl who's been married.
Marion Crane Sam, this is the last time.
For what?
Marion Crane For this, meeting you in secret so we can be secretive. You come down here on business trips. We steal lunch hours. I wish you wouldn't even come.
All right, what do we do instead? Write each other lurid love letters?
Marion Crane Oh, we can see each other. We can even have dinner but respectably in my house with my mother's picture on the mantel and my sister helping me broil a big steak for three.
And after the steak, do we send sister to the movies? Turn mama's picture to the wall?
Marion Crane Sam!
All right.
Tom Cassidy Yeah, tomorrow's the day! My sweet little girl -- [He leers over at Marion] -- Oh, oh, not you -- my daughter, a baby. And tomorrow she stands her sweet self up there and gets married away from me. I want you to take a look at my baby. Eighteen years old, and she never had an unhappy day in any of those years!
George Lowery Come on, Tom. My office is air conditioned.
Tom Cassidy You know what I do about unhappiness? I buy it off. Are, uh, are you unhappy?
Marion Crane Not inordinately.
Tom Cassidy I'm buying this house for my baby's wedding present. Forty thousand dollars, cash! Now that's not buying happiness. That's just buying off unhappiness. [waves money in front of Marion] I never carry more than I can afford to lose! Count 'em.
I declare!
Tom Cassidy [staring at Marion]
I don't! That's how I get to keep it!
George Lowery Tom, uh... cash transactions of this size! Most irregular.
You know what I think? I think that we're all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and we claw, but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch.
Marion Crane Sometimes, we deliberately step into those traps.
I was born into mine. I don't mind it anymore.
Marion Crane Oh, but you should. You should mind it.
Oh, I do, [laughs] but I say I don't.
Marion Crane You know -- if anyone ever talked to me the way I heard -- the way she spoke to you...
Sometimes -- when she talks to me like that -- I feel I'd like to go up there, and curse her, and-and-and leave her forever! Or at least defy her! But I know I can't. She's ill.
If you love someone, you don't do that even if you hate them. You understand that I don't hate her -- I hate what she's become. I hate the illness.
Marion Crane Wouldn't it be better if you put her... someplace.
You mean an institution? A madhouse?
Marion Crane No, I didn't mean it like --
[suddenly angry]
People always call a madhouse "someplace", don't they? "Put her in someplace."
Marion Crane I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean it to sound so uncaring.
What do you know about caring? Have you ever seen the inside of one of those places? The laughing, and the tears, and the cruel eyes studying you? My mother there? Oh, but she's harmless! She's as harmless as one of those stuffed birds!
Marion Crane I am sorry. I only felt... it seems she's hurting you. I tried to mean well.
People always mean well! They cluck their thick tongues, and shake their heads and suggest, oh, so very delicately! Of course, I've suggested it myself. But I hate to even think about it. She needs me. It-it's not as if she were a maniac -- a raving thing. She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you.
Marion Crane Yes. Sometimes just one time can be enough. Thank you.
Thank you, Norman.
Marion Crane Norman.
[taking pill bottle out of purse]
I've got something -- not aspirin. My mother's doctor gave them to me the day of my wedding. Teddy was furious when he found out I had taken tranquilizers!
Marion Crane [applying lipstick]
There any calls?
Teddy called me -- my mother called to see if Teddy called. Oh, your sister called to say she's going to Tucson to do some buying and she'll be gone the whole weekend, and --
[coversation interrupted]
Marion [about Norman's taxidermy]
A man should have a hobby.
Well, it's, it's more than a hobby. [He fondles a stuffed bird on the bureau next to him] A hobby's supposed to pass the time, not fill it.
Marion Is your time so empty?
No, uh. Well, I run the office and uh, tend the cabins and grounds and, and do a little, uh, errands for my mother. The ones she allows I might be capable of doing.
Marion Do you go out with friends?
Well, a boy's best friend is his mother. You've never had an empty moment in your entire life, have you?
Marion Only my share.
Where are you going? I didn't mean to pry.
Marion I'm looking for a private island.
What are you running away from?
Marion Wh-why do you ask that?
People never run away from anything.
Note: bolded portion ranked #56 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.
The rain didn't last long, did it? [Pause] You know what I think? I think that we're all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and we claw, but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch.
Marion Sometimes, we deliberately step into those traps.
I was born in mine. I don't mind it anymore.
Marion Oh, but you should! You should mind it!
Oh, I do, [laughs] but I say I don't.
Marion You know, if anyone ever talked to me the way I heard — the way she spoke to you...
Sometimes — when she talks to me like that — I feel I'd like to go up there, and curse her, and-and-and leave her forever! Or at least defy her! But I know I can't. She's ill.
Marion She sounded strong.
No, I mean... ill. She had to raise me all by herself after my father died. I was only five and it must have been quite a strain for her. She didn't have to go to work or anything like that. He left her a little money. Anyway, a few years ago, Mother met this man, and he talked her into building this motel. He could have talked her into anything. And when he died too, it was just too great a shock for her. And, and the way he died. I guess it's nothing to talk about while you're eating. Anyway, it was just too great a loss for her. She had nothing left.
Marion Except you.
A son is a poor substitute for a lover.
Marion Why don't you go away?
To a private island, like you?
Marion No, not like me.
I couldn't do that. Who'd look after her? She'd be alone up there. The fire would go out. It'd be cold and damp like a grave. If you love someone, you don't do that to them - even if you hate them. You understand that I don't hate her. I hate what she's become. I hate the illness.
