The Secret of My Success (1987)

Michael J. Fox: Brantley Foster, Carlton Whitfield

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Quotes 

• [after sex] 

  Brantley Foster : Can I make a personal observation?

  Vera Prescott : Um, anything but the thighs.

  Brantley Foster : You know, somebody sold you a bill of goods and convinced you you had to be 21 forever. That's bullshit. I think you're terrific; I think the only thing wrong with you is your husband is a jerk. You're beautiful, you're intelligent, you're sensuous...

  Vera Prescott : Say that again!

  Brantley Foster : Which part?

  Vera Prescott : All of it!

  [sounds of car] 

  Vera Prescott : Oh, no.

  Brantley Foster : What, what is it?

  Vera Prescott : It's the jerk.

  [Brantley rushes to the window] 

  Vera Prescott : My husband.

  Brantley Foster : My uncle!

  Vera Prescott : Your what?

  Brantley Foster : Oh God, that makes you...

  Vera Prescott : Auntie Vera?

  Brantley Foster : Oh! God!

  [Vera laughs] 

  Brantley Foster : Oh God, oh God, oh God! What's my mother going to say? I've disgraced my whole family!

  Vera Prescott : Oh, the hell you did!

• Christy Wills : [Groans in frustration]  Why do you keep saying the exact opposite of what I say?

  Brantley Foster : Because you keep saying such stupid things.

• [after reviewing Brantley's (faked) résumé] 

  Mrs. Meacham : Outstanding! Outstanding!

  Brantley Foster : You're not going to tell me I have too much experience, are you?

  Mrs. Meacham : Certainly not - you're perfect for the job.

  Brantley Foster : Great!

  Mrs. Meacham : Except...

  Brantley Foster : No! No exceptions! I want this job, I need it, I can do it. Everywhere I've been today there's always been something wrong, too young, too old, too short, too tall. Whatever the exception is, I can fix it. I can be older, I can be taller, I can be anything.

  Mrs. Meacham : Can you be a minority woman?

• Christy Wills : Just tell me one more time what your solution is to this crisis.

  Brantley Foster : We don't cut, we expand.

  [the waitress, Sheila, arrives] 

  Sheila : I agree. Expansion is a positive reaction to the universe, while retraction, or cutting back, or pulling off, those are all negative forces. I used to be very negative, and then I took this personality workshop - my whole life turned around. Hiya, my name's Sheila. You make a good-looking couple - how long you been going together?

  Brantley Foster : About 20 minutes.

  Sheila : Ohhhhh, first date, huh? Good luck.

  Christy Wills : No, we're business colleagues.

  Sheila : Colleagues, who needs that? You should go together. You look good together. - Oh, oh, d'you want to order?

  Brantley Foster : Yeah, we need to see some menus, Sheila.

  Sheila : Menus! I'm sorry. - I'm studying to be an actress. I'm a much better actress than I am a waitress. Concentration, that's my big problem. I'll be right back.

  Brantley Foster : Well, Sheila's in favor of expansion.

  Christy Wills : We should bring her to our next executive meeting. I think Art Thomas would like her a lot.

  Brantley Foster : Sheila is also in favor of us seeing each other.

  Christy Wills : Yes, well, Sheila is clearly a nut.

  Sheila : [from across the room]  I heard that! You should try to be more positive with your life, or you're gonna wind up miserable.

  Christy Wills : [hiding behind her hand]  She heard me!

• Howard Prescott : Let me get this straight - Brantley is Whitfield?

  Brantley Foster : That's right. Brantley is Whitfield; Whitfield is Brantley.

  Vera Prescott : And Christy is the bimbo! Well, now that we've all had Mouseketeer roll call, I'm just going to go call my lawyer.

  Howard Prescott : [lying]  No, wait a minute. Christy is not the bimbo I was screwing around with at the office.

  Christy Wills : People better stop calling me bimbo!

  Howard Prescott : It was an entirely different bimbo altogether.

  Vera Prescott : That's fine; how many bimbos would you say there were?

  Howard Prescott : I misspoke myself. There weren't any bimbos at all.

  Brantley Foster : Except Christy.

  Howard Prescott : Right. No!

• Brantley Foster : No, the question is how many people *did* you sleep with in order to get to the top?

  [Christy throws a vase at Brantley, smashing it] 

  Vera Prescott : That was a very expensive vase, you BITCH!

  Christy Wills : *SHUT UP*! What I did was my business, not yours!

  Brantley Foster : No, you mean it was *company business*!

  Christy Wills : [snarkily]  That's right! And that's all it was. Business!

  Brantley Foster : I'll tell you something, sweetheart. You're very good at your job.

  [Brantley leaves, Christy starts crying] 

• Unnamed employer : I'm sorry, Mister...

  Brantley Foster : Foster.

  Unnamed employer : I'm sorry, Mr. Foster. We need someone with experience.

  Brantley Foster : But how can I get any experience until I get a job that GIVES me experience?

  Unnamed employer : If we gave you a job just to give you experience, you'd take that experience and get a better job. Then that experience would benefit someone else.

  Brantley Foster : Yeah, but I was trained in college to handle a job like this, so in a sense I already have experience.

  Unnamed employer : What you've got is college experience, not the practical, hard-nosed business experience we're looking for. If you'd joined our training program out of high-school, you'd be qualified for this job now.

  Brantley Foster : Then why did I go to college?

  Unnamed employer : [laughs]  Had fun, didn't you?

• Brantley Foster : What's up? You seem kind of upset.

  Christy Wills : I hate men.

  Brantley Foster : Well! Glad I'm not one of 'em.

• Brantley Foster : Look, I like you, I really like you, but I gotta tell you, I have become seriously and emotionally involved with someone who isn't my aunt.

  Vera Prescott : I forgive you, Brantley.

  [continues trying to seduce him] 

• Vera Prescott : I'm going to introduce you to the most powerful money men in New York, and if you can do to them what you've done to me...

  Brantley Foster : I can't do that!

  Vera Prescott : I mean bowl them over, darling! You're irresistible when you turn on that boyish charm.

• Brantley Foster aka Carlton Whitfield : Okay, so you don't eat lunch. Do you eat dinner?

  Christy Wills : Occasionally.

  Brantley Foster aka Carlton Whitfield : Tonight?

  Christy Wills : Booked.

  Brantley Foster aka Carlton Whitfield : Tomorrow night?

  Christy Wills : Booked.

  Brantley Foster aka Carlton Whitfield : All right, but don't beg, okay? It's embarrassing.

• Brantley Foster : Please God, help me get out of this. I swear I'll go all over the world telling people not to screw the boss's wife.

• Brantley Foster : [reading mail while sorting]  Some of this stuff doesn't make any sense. They send requisitions through two departments to get procurements for a third. What kind of thinking is that?

  Fred Melrose : That's suit thinking. Something happens to a man when he puts on a necktie. Cuts off all the oxygen to his brain.

• Fred Melrose : Hey, you look like death on a cracker, man. What happened to you?

  Brantley Foster : Well, I was chased by a 200 pound dog with a mouth as big as my head. And that was the best thing that happened last night.

  Fred Melrose : What was the worst thing?

  Brantley Foster : Got laid.

  Fred Melrose : Not sure you got your priorities straight, Brantley.

• Grace Foster : Take this. It's Uncle Howard's phone number in New York.

  Brantley Foster : I've got an uncle in New York?

  Grace Foster : My cousin Ellen married his half-sister's nephew, before she got bit by that dog and died.

• [on entering his newly rented apartment] 

  Brantley Foster : All right, listen up. If there are any bugs in here, or rats, or anything that has more legs than I do, you just stay on your side of the room, okay? I'll stay on mine. I should warn you, I'm packing an iron.

• Brantley Foster : We have a problem.

  Vera Prescott : What?

  Brantley Foster : It's your husband: he's my boss.

  Vera Prescott : O-oh, him. We won't tell him. Besides, Howard's working late tonight - on whom, I have no idea.

• Brantley Foster : At least I didn't sleep with the boss.

  Christy Wills : No, you slept with the boss's wife!

  Brantley Foster : She seduced me!

  Christy Wills : He seduced ME! What's the difference?

  Brantley Foster : I couldn't help it. You went willingly.

  Christy Wills : I suppose *you* were tied up in chains.

• Brantley Foster : Davidson, tell him! You wrote a memo to Mr. Thomas here explaining exactly what I'm talking about.

  Davidson : [embarrassed]  Well, h-how did you know I wrote that memo?

  [all the executives look at Brantley] 

  Brantley Foster : How did I know you wrote that memo? Who else could write that memo, Davidson? That memo was famous. That memo was a masterpiece. Clear, concise, to the point. That was the best damn memo I ever read! In fact, that memo wasn't even a memo. That memo was literature.

  Davidson : Well, thank you.

  Brantley Foster : You're welcome.

  Christy Wills : [dryly]  If you have finished your book report, I wonder, could you explain what your point is?

  Brantley Foster : All right. Look, the point is, we gotta be bold.

  Davidson : That's my point.

  Brantley Foster : We gotta build!

  [other executives agree] 

  Brantley Foster : We gotta expand!

  Davidson : Expanding is the only way to help the situation.

  Brantley Foster : We gotta make this company so damn strong, Davenport won't be able to find anyone willing to give up Pemrose stock. It'll be too damn valuable. Then we'll buy his ass out!

• Grace Foster : Take this. It's uncle Howard's phone number in New York.

  Brantley Foster : I've got an uncle in New York?

  Grace Foster : My cousin Ellen married his half-sister's nephew before she got bit by that dog and died, but he's still kin, and kin is kin.

• [Brantley has to change from his mail-room uniform to suit and tie in the elevator, then back again. To buy time, he hits the emergency stop button on the elevator between floors. However, the elevator becomes unstuck in the middle of him changing back while he is only in his boxers and tie, so when the elevator door opens up on Jean, he poses like a bodybuilder, then sees it's her] 

  Brantley Foster : Hi, Jean.

  [Brantley tosses her his dress pants] 

  Brantley Foster : Could you take those to the cleaners?

  [Jean looks shocked as the elevator doors close] 

• [Brantley said "good morning" to an executive] 

  Fred Melrose : Not the suits, man! You never consort with the suits unless they consort with you first.

  Brantley Foster : Wait a minute, that's ridiculous! He's a person, I'm a person. I can't say hello to him?

  Fred Melrose : He's not a person, he's a suit! You're mailroom. No consorting.

• [at Brantley's apartment] 

  Brantley Foster : Oh, God. What are you doing here?

  Vera Prescott : Brantley, darling, I heard you calling me telepathically - I'm VERY psychic - so of COURSE I rushed right over.

  Brantley Foster : I would've used the phone...

  Vera Prescott : Mental telepathy's much more reliable.

• [Vera tries to seduce Brantley at the office] 

  Brantley Foster : Aunt Vera, listen, since the last time we met there's been a change.

  Vera Prescott : Yes... nice suit, Brantley!

  [she starts undressing him; he tries to escape] 

  Brantley Foster : Agh! Ow! Look, what I mean to say is... Oh, Christ! I'm not free any more!

  Vera Prescott : What, you're going to charge me? Oh ho, you're getting awfully cynical - does your mother know about this?

  Brantley Foster : Ohh, no, I am not available.

  Vera Prescott : Oh, good, you're not going to charge me.

• Brantley Foster : Whoa, whoa, listen, I'm going to need your help, both of you.

  Fred Melrose : Is it something I could get fired for?

  Brantley Foster : Absolutely.

  Fred Melrose : I like it!

• [Brantley is carrying a briefcase into the mailroom] 

  Fred Melrose : What's in there?

  Brantley Foster : My lunch.

  Fred Melrose : Your lunch? In a briefcase?

  Brantley Foster : Yeah. I ran out of brown bags.

• Howard Prescott : Why are you wearing a suit?

  Brantley Foster : Because of the funeral.

  Howard Prescott : Whose funeral?

  Brantley Foster : A friend. He died. We buried him.

• Brantley Foster : How do I get to Litchfield?

  Barney Rattigan : You'll find it. Just follow the smell of money.

• Brantley Foster : Just when I thought it was safe to go back in the water.

• Brantley Foster : Doin' this for you as much for me, Mom. All those years of college, they're gonna start payin' off.

• Art Thomas : How old are you, Mr. uh, Mr. uh...

  Brantley Foster : Whitfield.

  Art Thomas : Yes.

  Brantley Foster : 24.

  Art Thomas : Well, I think you should keep quiet until you're at least 25.

  Davis : If I may, I don't think Mr. Whitfield's age should be an issue here.

  Art Thomas : No one is interested in your opinion, Davis.

• Barney Rattigan : Stay outta my way, don't use the stamp machine for personal letters and take off that stupid-lookin' tie, it looks like you shot your couch. You got any questions?

  Brantley Foster : Yeah, what do I call you?

  Barney Rattigan : You call me God.