Max Von Mayerling Madame is the greatest star of them all.
Norma Desmond
Gloria Swanson · 11 quotes
Joe Gillis
William Holden · 6 quotes
Betty Schaefer
Nancy Olson · 3 quotes
Most scenes together: Joe Gillis & Betty Schaefer (3), Norma Desmond & Joe Gillis (2)
Sunset Boulevard quotes
Page 1 of 2 Max Von Mayerling Don't you sometimes hate yourself?
Constantly.
I didn't know you were planning a comeback.
I hate that word. It's a return, a return to the millions of people who have never forgiven me for deserting the screen.
I've got some ideas myself. One of them being this is New Year's Eve. How about living it up a little?
As for instance?
Well....
We could make some paper boats and have a regatta. Or we could turn on the shower full blast.
How about capturing the kitchen and barricading the door?
Are you hungry?
Hungry? After twelve years in the Burmese jungle. I am starving, Lady Agatha -- starving for a white shoulder --
Phillip, you're mad!
Girl You can have the phone now.
No, Phillip, no. We must be strong. You're still wearing the uniform of the Coldstream Guards! Furthermore, you can have the phone now.
O.K. [He gets up, starts out, turns] Suddenly I find myself terribly afraid of losing you.
You won't. [She takes the glass out of his hand] I'll get us a refill of this horrible liquid.
You'll be waiting for me?
With a wildly beating heart.
Life can be beautiful! [He leaves.]
May I say that you smell really special?
It must be my new shampoo.
That's no shampoo. It's more like freshly-laundered linen handkerchiefs, like a brand new automobile.
Well, this is where you came in. Back at that pool again, the one I always wanted. It's dawn now, and they must have photographed me a thousand times. Then they got a couple of pruning hooks from the garden and fished me out, ever so gently. Funny how gentle people get with you once you're dead. They beached me like a harpooned baby whale and started to check the damage, just for the record. By this time, the whole joint was jumping - cops, reporters, neighbors, passersby, as much hoopdedoo as we get in Los Angeles when they open a supermarket. Even the newsreel guys came roaring in. Here was an item everybody could have some fun with, the heartless so-and-sos! What would they do to Norma? Even if she got away with it in court - crime of passion, temporary insanity - those headlines would kill her: 'Forgotten Star a Slayer,' 'Aging Actress,' 'Yesterday's Glamour Queen'...
You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
I am big. It's the pictures that got small.
Note: bolded line is ranked #24 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.
Max Are you ready, Norma?
What is the scene? Where am I?
Max This is the staircase of the palace.
Max (shouting)
All right. Cameras! Action!
First assistant director
[after hearing that Norma Desmond has come to see DeMille]
I can tell her you're all tied up in the projection room. I can give her the brush.
Cecil B. DeMille Thirty million fans have given her the brush. Isn't that enough?
Note: bolded portion is ranked #7 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.
I just want to tell you all how happy I am to be back in the studio, making a picture again! You don't know how much I've missed all of you. And I promise you I'll never desert you again because after Salome we'll make another picture and another picture. You see, this is my life! It always will be! There's nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!… All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.
No one leaves a star. That's what makes one a star.
The stars are ageless, aren't they?
There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Talk! TALK!
They took the idols and smashed them, the Fairbankses, the Gilberts, the Valentinos! And who've we got now? Some nobodies!