Memorable quotes for
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) More at IMDbPro »

Stella: I never listen to you when you're being morbid.
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Blanche DuBois: Is there something wrong with me?
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Blanche DuBois: Please don't get up.
Stanley Kowalski: Nobody's going to get up, so don't get worried.
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Stella: You think you're going bowling now?
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Blanche DuBois: Deliberate cruelty is unforgivable, and the one thing of which I have never,ever been guilty of.
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Blanche DuBois: But some things are not forgivable. Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable! It is the one unforgivable thing, in my opinion, and the one thing of which I have never, never been guilty.
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Blanche DuBois: [telephone rings]
[rises out of seat]
Blanche DuBois: That's for me, I'm sure.
Stanley Kowalski: [pushes her back down roughly] Just keep your seat, I'm not so sure.
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Stanley Kowalski: [to Blanche] Will you shut up!
[Resumes talking on the phone]
Stanley Kowalski: No, we got a noisy woman in the place.
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Blanche DuBois: This old maid, she had a parrot that cursed a blue streak and knew more vulgar expressions than Mr. Kowalski.
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Stanley Kowalski: Some canary bird...
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Stanley Kowalski: Hey, toots! Canary bird, will you get out of the bathroom!
[pounds on the door]
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Blanche DuBois: Young, young man. Did anyone ever tell you you look like a young prince out of the 'Arabian Nights'?
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Blanche DuBois: Oh, Stanley! What sign were you born under?
Stanley Kowalski: What sign?
Blanche DuBois: Astrological sign. I'll bet you were born under Aries. Aries people are forceful, dynamic, they dote on noise. They love to bang things around.
Stella: Stanley was born just five minutes after Christmas.
Blanche DuBois: Capricorn - the goat!
[long silence follows as Stanley stares at Blanche]
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Stella: He smashed all the lightbulbs with the heel of my slipper.
Blanche DuBois: And you let him? Didn't run, didn't scream?
Stella: Actually, I was sorta thrilled by it.
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Mitch: I like you to be exactly the way that you are, because in all my experience, I have never known anyone like you.
[Blanche laughs suddenly]
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Blanche DuBois: Oh look, we have created enchantment.
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Blanche DuBois: I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.
Mitch: I guess we must strike you as being a pretty rough bunch.
Blanche DuBois: I'm very adaptable to circumstances.
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Blanche DuBois: Tarantula was the name of it. I stayed at a hotel called the Tarantula Arms.
Mitch: Tarantula Arms?
Blanche DuBois: Yes, a big spider. That's where I brought my victims. Yes, I've had many meetings with strangers.
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Stanley Kowalski: I never met a dame yet that didn't know if she was good-looking or not without being told, and there's some of them that give themselves credit for more than they've got.
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Blanche DuBois: Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
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Blanche DuBois: I know I fib a good deal. After all, a woman's charm is 50% illusion.
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Blanche DuBois: I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic. I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things. I don't tell truths. I tell what ought to be truth.
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Stanley Kowalski: Hey, STELLA.
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Mitch: Poker should not be played in a house with women.
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Stanley Kowalski: How 'bout cuttin' the re-bop?
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Blanche DuBois: I said I was sorry three times!
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Stanley Kowalski: Be comfortable. That's my motto up where I come from. You gonna shack up here? Well, I guess I'm gonna strike you as being the unrefined type, huh?
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Stanley Kowalski: Now will you just open your eyes to this stuff here. Now I mean, what - has she got this stuff out of teacher's pay?... Will you look at these fine feathers and furs that she comes to bring herself in here. What is this article? That's a solid gold dress, I believe... Now what is that? There's a treasure chest of a pirate... That's pearls, Stella, ropes of 'em. What is your sister - a deep sea diver? Bracelets, solid gold. (To Stella) Where are your pearls and gold bracelets?... And here you are. Diamonds. A crown for an empress... Here's your plantation Stella, right here... Well, the Kowalskis and the DuBois - there's just a different notion on this.
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Blanche DuBois: My, but you have an impressive, judicial air.
Stanley Kowalski: You know, if I didn't know that you was my wife's sister, I would get ideas about you... Don't play so dumb. You know what.
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Blanche DuBois: You're married to a madman.
Stella: I wish you'd stop taking it for granted that I'm in something I want to get out of.
Blanche DuBois: What you are talking about is desire - just brutal Desire. The name of that rattle-trap streetcar that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another.
Stella: Haven't you ever ridden on that streetcar?
Blanche DuBois: It brought me here. Where I'm not wanted and where I'm ashamed to be.
Stella: Don't you think your superior attitude is a little out of place?
Blanche DuBois: May I speak plainly?... If you'll forgive me, he's common... He's like an animal. He has an animal's habits. There's even something subhuman about him. Thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he is. Stanley Kowalski, survivor of the Stone Age, bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle. And you - you here waiting for him. Maybe he'll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you, that's if kisses have been discovered yet. His poker night you call it. This party of apes.
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Stanley Kowalski: You're gonna kill who, you dumb jerk? You don't even know when you get wised up. Come on.
Mitch: You don't have to wise me up.
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Stanley Kowalski: She is as famous in Laurel as if she was the President of the United States, only she is not respected by any party.
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Stanley Kowalski: She moved to the hotel called Flamingo which is a second class hotel that has the advantages of not interfering with the private and social life of the personalities there. Now the Flamingo is used to all kinds of goings-on. But even the management of the Flamingo was impressed by Dame Blanche. And in fact, they were so impressed that they requested her to turn in her room-key for permanently. And this, this happened a couple of weeks before she showed here... The trouble with Dame Blanche was that she couldn't put on her act any more in Oriel because they got wised up. And after two or three dates, they quit and then she goes on to another one, the same old line, the same old act, and the same old hooey. And as time went by, she became the town character, regarded not just as different but downright loco and nuts. She didn't re. sign temporarily because of her nerves. She was kicked out before the spring term ended. And I hate to tell you the reason that step was taken. A seventeen-year-old kid she got mixed up with - and the boy's dad learned about it and he got in touch with the high-school superintendent. And there was practically a town ordinance passed against her.
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Stella: Mr. Kowalski is too busy making a pig of himself... Your face and your fingers are disgustingly greasy.
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Stanley Kowalski: Now that's how I'm gonna clear the table. Don't you ever talk that way to me. 'Pig,' 'Pollack,' 'disgusting,' 'vulgar,' 'greasy.' Those kind of words have been on your tongue and your sister's tongue just too much around here. What do you think you are? A pair of queens? Now just remember what Huey Long said - that every man's a king - and I'm the King around here, and don't you forget it.
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Stanley Kowalski: I am not a Pollack. People from Poland are Poles. They are not Pollacks. But what I am is one hundred percent American. I'm born and raised in the greatest country on this earth and I'm proud of it. And don't you ever call me a Pollack.
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Stanley Kowalski: Listen, baby, when we first met - you and me - you thought I was common. Well, how right you was. I was common as dirt. You showed me a snapshot of the place with them columns, and I pulled you down off them columns, and you loved it, having them colored lights goin'. And wasn't we happy together? Wasn't it all okay till she showed here? And wasn't we happy together? Wasn't it all OK? Till she showed here. Hoity-toity, describin' me like a ape.
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Mitch: Oh I don't mind you being older than what I thought. But all the rest of it. That pitch about your ideals being so old-fashioned and all the malarkey that you've been dishin' out all summer. Oh, I knew you weren't sixteen anymore. But I was fool enough to believe you was straight."
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Blanche DuBois: Straight? What's 'straight'? A line can be straight, or a street. But the heart of a human being?
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Blanche DuBois: Marry me, Mitch.
Mitch: No, I don't think I want to marry you anymore... No, you're not clean enough to bring into the house with my mother.
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Stanley Kowalski: How about a few more details on that subject... Let's cop a gander at the bill of sale... What do you mean? She didn't show you no papers, no deed of sale or nothin' like that?... Well then, what was it then? Given away to charity?... Oh I don't care if she hears me. Now let's see the papers... Now listen. Did you ever hear of the Napoleonic code, Stella?... Now just let me enlighten you on a point or two... Now we got here in the state of Louisiana what's known as the Napoleonic code. You see, now according to that, what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband also, and vice versa... It looks to me like you've been swindled baby. And when you get swindled under Napoleonic code, I get swindled too and I don't like to get swindled... Where's the money if the place was sold?
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Stanley Kowalski: Take a look at yourself here in a worn-out Mardi Gras outfit, rented for 50 cents from some rag-picker. And with a crazy crown on. Now what kind of a queen do you think you are? Do you know that I've been on to you from the start, and not once did you pull the wool over this boy's eyes? You come in here and you sprinkle the place with powder and you spray perfume and you stick a paper lantern over the light bulb - and, lo and behold, the place has turned to Egypt and you are the Queen of the Nile, sitting on your throne, swilling down my liquor. And do you know what I say? Ha ha! Do you hear me? Ha ha ha!
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Stanley Kowalski: You think I'm gonna interfere with you?... You know, maybe you wouldn't be bad to interfere with.
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[as Stanley's friends gather to play poker]
Stella: The blind are leading the blind!
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Stanley Kowalski: You know what luck is? Luck is believing you're lucky, that's all... To hold a front position in this rat-race, you've got to believe you are lucky
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Stanley Kowalski: Tiger, tiger. Drop that bottle top. Drop it.
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Stanley Kowalski: Hey you two hens, cut out that cacklin' in there.
Stella: You can't hear us...
Stanley Kowalski: Well you can hear me, now knock it off!
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[first lines]
A Sailor: Can I help you, ma'am?
Blanche DuBois: Why, they told me to take a streetcar named Desire and then transfer to one called Cemetery and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields.
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[last lines]
Stanley Kowalski: Stella! Come on, Stella!
Stella: I'm not going back in there again, not this time, never going back, never.
Stanley Kowalski: Hey, Stella! Hey, Stellaaa!
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[Blance enters into the spare bedroom and closes the curtain. She looks at her suitcase which is in complete disaray then she starts to undress and talks to Stanley who is sitting in the kitchen]
Blanche DuBois: I understand there's to be a card game here tonight to which we ladies are cordially not invited.
Blanche DuBois: That's right.
Blanche DuBois: Where's is Stella?
Stanley Kowalski: She's out there on the porch.
[Blanche walks over to the window and looks out. Across the street Stella is talking to someone. Blanche starts walking back to the curtain]
Blanche DuBois: I'm going to ask a favor of you in a moment.
Stanley Kowalski: Well now, what's that going to be, I wonder?
Blanche DuBois: Well, some buttons in back.
[She opens the curtain]
Blanche DuBois: You may enter.
Stanley Kowalski: [Stanley stands up and walks into the bedroom]
Blanche DuBois: How do I look?
Stanley Kowalski: You look okay.
Blanche DuBois: Well thank you. Now the buttons.
Stanley Kowalski: [He fumbles with them for a moment] I can't do no more with them.
Blanche DuBois: You mean with your big clumsy fingers. May I have a drag of your cig?
[He hands her a cigarette]
Stanley Kowalski: Yeah, have one yourself.
Blanche DuBois: Well thank you. It uh It looks like my trunk has exploded.
Stanley Kowalski: Me and Stella was helping you unpack.
Blanche DuBois: Well, you certainly did a fast and thorough job.
Stanley Kowalski: It certainly looks like you raided some stylish shops of Paris, Blanche.
Blanche DuBois: Clothes are my passion.
Stanley Kowalski: How much does it cost for a string of furs like that?
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Blanche DuBois: Why, those were a tribute from an admirer of mine.
Stanley Kowalski: He must have had a lot of admiration.
Blanche DuBois: Oh, in my youth I excited some admiration. But look at me now! Would you think it possible that I was once considered to be attractive?
Stanley Kowalski: Your looks are okay.
Blanche DuBois: I was fishing for a compliment Stanley.
Stanley Kowalski: I don't go in for that stuff.
Blanche DuBois: What stuff?
Stanley Kowalski: Compliments to women about their looks. I never met a dame yet that didn't know if she was good-looking or not without being told, and some of them give themselves credit for more than they've got. I once went out with a dame who told me, " I'm the glamorous type," she says, "I am the glamorous type!" I say, "So What?"
Blanche DuBois: And what did she say then?
Stanley Kowalski: She didn't say nothing. That shut her up like a clam.
Blanche DuBois: Did it end the romance?
Stanley Kowalski: It ended the conversation that was all. You know that some men are taken in by all this Hollywood glamour and some just aren't.
Blanche DuBois: I'm sure you belong in the second category.
Stanley Kowalski: That's right.
Blanche DuBois: I cannot imagine any witch of a woman casting a spell over you.
Stanley Kowalski: That's right.
Blanche DuBois: You're simple, straightforward and honest, a little bit on the primitive side, I should think. To interest you a woman would have to...
Stanley Kowalski: To lay her cards out on the table.
Stanley Kowalski: Well I never did care for wishy-washy people. That was why when you walked in last night, I said to myself, "my sister has married a man". Of course that was all I could hope to...
Stanley Kowalski: [He yells at her] How about cutting the rebop!
Stella: [Entering the room] Stanley! Stanley, you come outside with me and left Blanche finish dressing!
Blanche DuBois: I've finished dressing honey.
Stella: Well you come out then.
Stanley Kowalski: Your sister and I are having a talk.
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Stanley Kowalski: Man,liquor goes fast in the hot weather.You want a shot?
Blanche DuBois: No,I rarely touch it.
Stanley Kowalski: Well,there's some people that really touch it,but it touches them often.
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Stanley Kowalski: Man,liquor goes fast in the hot weather.You want a shot?
Blanche DuBois: No,I rarely touch it.
Stanley Kowalski: Well,there's some people that rarely touch it,but it touches them often.
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Stanley Kowalski: Hey Stella!
Eunice: You quit that howling down there and go back to bed!
Stanley Kowalski: Eunice, I want my girl down here!
Eunice: You shut up! You're gonna get the law on you!
Stanley Kowalski: Hey Stella!
Eunice: You can't beat on a woman and then call her back! You're gonna have a baby! I hope they haul you in and turn the fire hose on you like they did last time!
Stanley Kowalski: Eunice, I want my girl down here!
Eunice: You stinker!
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Stanley Kowalski: [sarcastically: picking up Blanche's tiara] Well what is that? A crown for an empress?
Stella: A rhinestone tiara she wore to a costume ball!
Stanley Kowalski: [serious] What is rhinestone?
Stella: Next door to glass.
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Stanley Kowalski: Hey you hens! Cut out the cackling in there!
Stella: You can't hear us!
Stanley Kowalski: Well you can hear me, and I told you to hush up!
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Stanley Kowalski: Hey MIIIITCH!
Mitch: COMIIING!
Blanche DuBois: Gracious! What lung power!
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