"See Venice and die," is what they say? Or is it Rome?
Tom Ripley
Matt Damon · 20 quotes
Dickie Greenleaf
Jude Law · 14 quotes
Marge Sherwood
Gwyneth Paltrow · 8 quotes
Peter Smith Kingsley
Jack Davenport · 5 quotes
Freddie Miles
Philip Seymour Hoffman · 4 quotes
Alvin MacCarron
Philip Baker Hall · 3 quotes
Herbert Greenleaf
James Rebhorn · 2 quotes
Most scenes together: Tom Ripley & Dickie Greenleaf (6), Tom Ripley & Marge Sherwood (6), Tom Ripley & Peter Smith Kingsley (3)
The Talented Mr. Ripley quotes
Page 1 of 3Did you know that in Princeton, Dickie Greenleaf half killed a boy? At a party over some girl. Kicked the kid several times in the head, put him in the hospital. Boy had a wire fixed in his jaw, lost some hearing. Why do you think Dickie's father sent him to Europe in the first place? The Rome police didn't think to ask Mr. Greenleaf, nor did they think to check on whether a Thomas Ripley had ever been a student at Princeton University. Oh, uh, I turned up a Tom Ripley who had been a piano tuner in the music department. You see, in America we are taught to check a fact before it becomes a fact. Taught to nose around when a girl drowns herself, find out if that girl is pregnant. Find out if Dickie had an embarrassment there. Mr. Greenleaf appreciates your loyalty, he really does. Marge, she has a hundred theories. There's a few things that she doesn't know. We hope she never knows.
I hope she never knows.
Three different people saw Dickie get into Freddie's car. One man will not testify because he was jumping somebody else's wife at the time, saw Dickie removing license plates from a red sports car. The police know about this man because he happens to be a policeman. [holds out two license plates] I found these in the basement of Dickie's apartment. They belong to Freddie's car. Mr. Greenleaf has asked me to lose these in the canal this evening. [puts the license plates down] Mr. Greenleaf feels that there was a silent promise in Dickie's letter to you which he intends to honour. He also intends to transfer a good portion of Dickie's income from his trust into your name.
Did I know you at Princeton, Tom? I don't think I did.
I...
I mean it as a compliment . You've got such great taste. Most of the thugs at Princeton have tasted everything and had no taste. I used to say , "The Cream of America: Rich and thick." Freddie's the perfect example.
Well... then, I'll take it as a compliment!
Ha! I knew it! Marge and I had a bet! Do you even like jazz, or was that just for my benefit?
I've gotten to like it.
Yes!
I've gotten to like everything about the way you live. It's one big love affair.
Everybody should have one talent, what's yours?
Telling lies, forging signatures and impersonating almost anybody.
That's three. Nobody should have more than one talent. So, do an impression.
What, now?
Yeah.
"Oh, I love to sail, believe me, I love to sail. Instead, I make sailboats, and other people sail them."
Stop! It's too much. You're making the hairs on my neck stand up!
"Oh, yes, jazz? Let's face it, jazz is insolent noise."
It's like he's here. Horrible, like the old bastard's here! That's brilliant! Brilliant! How do you know him?
Oh, I met him in New York.
Marge, you have to hear this! This is scary. Marge Sherwood, I'd like you to meet my father, Herbert Richard Greenleaf, the First.
"How do you do, Marge. Dickie's made a fine catch. I know Emily thinks so."
I... I don't get it.
It's uncanny!
"I'd pay you if you would go to Italy and persuade my son to come home. I'd pay you a thousand dollars."
In fact, the only thing that looks like Dickie is you.
Hardly.
Have you done something to your hair?
Freddie, do you have something you'd like to say?
What? I think I'm saying it. Something's going on. He's either converted to Christianity... or to something else.
I suggest you ask Dickie that yourself. Otello's is on delle Croce, just off the Corso.
Is it on [mocks Tom in an effeminate voice] "delle Croce, just off the Corso?" You're a quick study, aren't you? Last time you didn't know your ass from your elbow, now you're giving me directions. [sneers] That's not fair, you probably do know your ass from your elbow. I'll see you.
Marge, you like everybody.
[Imitating Marge's voice]
I like him. [imitating Dickie's voice] Marge, you like everybody.
The thing with Dickie... it's like the sun shines on you, and it's glorious. And then he forgets you and it's very, very cold.
So I'm learning.
When you have his attention, you feel like you're the only person in the world, that's why everybody loves him so much. [bitterly] And that's just the boys...
Why do I think there's never been a Ripley rainy day?
What?
Can you imagine, though, if he did kill Freddie, what that must be like? Just to wake up every morning. I mean, how can you? Just wake up and be a person? Drink your coffee?
Well, whatever you do, however terrible, however hurtful, it all makes sense, doesn't it, in your head? You never meet anybody who thinks they're a bad person.
Well maybe, but you're still tormented. You must be. You've killed someone.
Don't you just take the past, and put it in a room in the basement, and lock the door and never go in there? That's what I do.
God, yes. Though in my case, it's probably a whole building.
And then you meet someone special, and all you want to do is to toss them the key and say, open up, step inside. But you can't, because it's dark, there are demons... and if anybody saw how ugly it is...
That's the music talking. It's hard to be gloomy if you're playing "Ease Up, Mother Brown". [takes Tom's hands and plays a more light-hearted tune]
I keep wanting to do that, fling the door open just let light in and clean everything out.
Sorry, I'm completely lost.
I know. I'm lost. I'm going to be stuck in the basement, aren't I? [voice cracking] That's my, that's my... terrible, and alone, and dark, and I've lied about who I am, and where I am, and now no one will ever find me.
What do you mean... lied about who you are?
What are you talking about? You're not a nobody. That's the last thing you are.
Peter. Tell me some good things about Tom Ripley.
[Tom lays down next to Peter, preparing to strangle him]
No, no, don't get up. Just tell me nice things, some nice things about Tom Ripley.
I want to tell you my plan.
So tell me.
Well, I thought... I'd come back in the new year, under my own steam.
Really? To Italy?
Of course. And I figured, just for argument's sake, say I got a place. Or say we split the rent on a house. I could get a job, or, better still, if I got a place in Rome, and then when we're there, we could be there, and when we're here, we could be here.
See, particularly with the Marge problem. You just blame me.
Marge and I are getting married.
How?
Dickie Greenelaf
[laughs]
How?
Yesterday, you were ogling girls on the terrace. Today you're getting married? That's absurd.
I love Marge.
You love me. You're not marrying me.
Tom, I don't love you.
No, I don't mean that as a threat.
To be honest, I'm-I'm a little relieved you're going. I think we've seen enough of each other for a while.
What?
You can be leech! You know that. It's boring. You can be quite boring.
Boring.
I've been absolutely honest with you...about my feelings.
Boring..
But you... first of all, I know there's something. That evening when we played chess, for instance, it was obvious.
Oh sure, no, no, it's too dangerous for you to take on. Oh, no, no, we're brothers. Hey. And then you do this sordid thing with Marge. **** her on the boat so we all had to listen. Which was excruciating! And you follow your **** around and now you're getting married! I'm bewildered, forgive me. You're lying to Marge and then you're getting married to her. You're knocking up Silvana. You're ruining everybody. You wanna play the sax, you wanna play the drums. I mean, which is it, Dickie? What do you actually play?!
[enraged]
Who are you? Huh? Some third class mooch? Who are you? Who are you to say anything to me? Who are you to tell me anything?! [slaps Tom in the face] Actually I really, really do not want to be on this boat with you. I can't move without you moving. And it gives me the creeps. You give me the creeps! I can't move without you moving...
Shut up...
...I can't breathe without you following me around! You move without [mocks Tom with a falsetto voice] "Dickie, Dickie, Dickie!", like a little girl all the time!
SHUT UP! [hits Dickie in the side of the face with the oar he just grabbed. Dickie grabs his face with both hands. Tom, shocked, puts the oar down] Oh God, Dickie...
[with an unmarked cut on his face, suddenly split open causing his face to be disfigured with blood]
For God's sake...
Oh, God! OK. OK. We have to get... OK.
Dickie Greeneleaf
[Dickie suddenly lunges at him]
You're dead! You're dead!
[Panicked, Tom hits Dickie several times with the oar, until he is finally still] Tom Ripley': Stop it! Stop it!
Nothing is more naked than your handwriting. See how nothing's quite touching the line? That's vanity.
Well, we certainly know that that's true.
That ring is superb.
Oh, Tom, I love you! See?
I had to promise, capital p, to never take it off. Otherwise I'd give it to you.
Isn't it great? I found it in Naples. I had to bargain for it for about two weeks!
Uh, I hope it wasn't cheap, Marge?
Oh, it was!
[Marge has found Dickie's rings in Tom's pocket; Tom is about to kill her to keep her quiet] [terrified]
I wasn't snooping. I was just looking for a needle and thread to mend my bra.
That scent you're wearing... I bought that for you, not Dickie. The thing about Dickie... so many things... That day when he was late coming back from Rome? I tried to tell you this. He was with another girl. I'm not talking about Meredith, either. Another girl who we met in a bar. He couldn't be faithful for five minutes. So when he makes a promise, it doesn't mean what it means when you make a promise, or I make a promise. He has so many realities, Dickie, and he believes them all. He lies, he lies, and that's his... and half the time he doesn't even realize he's doing it! Today, I actually started wondering if he may have actually killed Freddie.
[Marge notices that blood is seeping into Tom's robe pocket, obviously from a concealed knife]
He would get so crazy if anyone contradicted him — well, you know that. You know that. And that's the irony, Marge — I loved you. You may as well know that now. I loved you. I don't know, maybe it's grotesque of me to say that now, so... just write it on a piece of paper and save it for a rainy day. "Tom loves me." "Tom loves me."
Why do you have Dickie's rings?
I told you. He gave them to me.
Why? When?
I feel as if you haven't been listening to anything I've been saying.
I don't believe you!
It's all true.
I don't believe a single word you've said!
Marge, you're shivering, look at you. Can I hold you? Please, let me hold you.
[Marge screams in fright, when suddenly Peter walks through the door] [running into his arms, sobbing]
Oh, God, Peter! Get me out of here, get me out of here!
Marge, what's going on? Tom, are you okay?
Tom Ripley You try. You try talking to her. I give up.
[upon seeing Tom spying on Dickie and Marge]
Tommy, how's the peeping? Tommy, how's the peeping? Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy?