Psycho 1960 quotes, page 2

No! I tell you no! I won't have you bringing some young girl in for supper! By candlelight, I suppose, in the cheap, erotic fashion of young men with cheap, erotic minds!

Norman Bates

Mother, please...!

And then what? After supper? Music? Whispers?

Norman Bates

Mother, she's just a stranger. She's hungry, and it's raining out!

"Mother, she's just a stranger"! As if men don't desire strangers! As if... ohh, I refuse to speak of disgusting things, because they disgust me! You understand, boy? Go on, go tell her she'll not be appeasing her ugly appetite with MY food... or my son! Or do I have to tell her because you don't have the guts! Huh, boy? You have the guts, boy?

Norman Bates

Shut up! Shut up!

Norman Bates

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.

Norman Bates

You mean an institution? A madhouse?

Marion Crane

No, I didn't mean it like --

Norman Bates

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.

Norman Bates

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.

Norman Bates

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.

Norman Bates

Thank you, Norman.

Marion Crane

Norman.

Norman Bates

Now, mother, I'm going to uh, bring something up...

Haha... I am sorry, boy, but you do manage to look ludicrous when you give me orders.

Norman Bates

Please, mother.

No! I will not hide in the fruit cellar! Ha! You think I'm fruity, huh? I'm staying right here. This is my room and no one will drag me out of it, least of all my big, bold son!

Norman Bates

They'll come now, mother! He came after the girl and now someone will come after him. Please, mother, it's just for a few days, just for a few days so they won't find you!

'Just for a few days'? In that dark, dank fruit cellar? No! You hid me there once boy, and you'll not do it again, not ever again, now get out! I told you to get out, boy.

Norman Bates

I'll carry you, mother.

Norman! What do you think you're doing? Don't you touch me, don't! Norman! Put me down, put me down, I can walk on my own...

Norman Bates

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.

Norman Bates

I was born into mine. I don't mind it anymore.

Marion Crane

Oh, but you should. You should mind it.

Norman Bates

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...

Norman Bates

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.

Norman Bates

You-you eat like a bird.

Marion Crane

And you'd know, of course.

Norman Bates

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.

Sam Loomis

I'm not saying that you shouldn't be contended here, I'm just doubting that you are. I think if you saw the chance to get out from under you would unload this place.

Norman Bates

This place? This place happens to be my only world. I grew up in that house up there. I happen to have a very happy childhood. My mother and I were more than happy.

Sam Loomis

I've been doing all the talking so far, haven't I? I thought it was the people who were all alone all the time who did most of the talking when they got the chance. Here you are doing all the listening. You're alone here aren't you? Drive me crazy.

Norman Bates

I think that would be a rather extreme reaction, don't you?

Sam Loomis

Just an expression. What I meant was, I'd do just about anything to get away, wouldn't you?

Norman Bates

No.

Sam Loomis

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.

Sam Loomis

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?

Sam Loomis

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.

Sam Loomis

Married couples deliberately spend an occasional night in a cheap hotel.

Marion Crane

I know marriage can do a lot of things deliberately.

Sam Loomis

You sure talk like a girl who's been married.

Marion Crane

Sam, this is the last time.

Sam Loomis

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.

Sam Loomis

All right, what do we do instead? Write each other lurid love letters?

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.

Caroline

I declare!

Tom Cassidy

I don't! That's how I get to keep it!

George Lowery

Tom, uh... cash transactions of this size! Most irregular.

Marion

A man should have a hobby.

Norman

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?

Norman

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?

Norman

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.

Norman

Where are you going? I didn't mean to pry.

Marion

I'm looking for a private island.

Norman

What are you running away from?

Marion

Wh-why do you ask that?

Norman

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.

Norman

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.

Norman

I was born in mine. I don't mind it anymore.

Marion

Oh, but you should! You should mind it!

Norman

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...

Norman

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.

Norman

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.

Norman

A son is a poor substitute for a lover.

Marion

Why don't you go away?

Norman

To a private island, like you?

Marion

No, not like me.

Norman

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.

Sam

You look frightened. Have I been saying something frightening?

Norman

I-I-I don't know what you've been saying.

Sam

I've been talking about your mother. About your motel. How you're gonna do it?

Norman

Do what?

Sam

Buy a new one in a new town where you won't have to hide your mother.

Norman

Why don't you just get in your car and drive away from here, OK?

Sam

Where will you get the money to do that, Bates? Or do you already have it, socked away?

Norman

Shut up!

Sam

A lot of it, $40,000. I bet your mother knows where the money is and what you did to get it. I think she'll tell us.

Norman Bates

Dirty night.

Norman Bates

A hobby should pass the time, not fill it.

Norman Bates

Are you sure you wouldn't like to stay just a little while longer? Just for talk?