Quotes

Travis Bickle: I realize now how much she's just like the others, cold and distant, and many people are like that, women for sure, they're like a union.

Travis Bickle: [Travis is trying his guns on the mirror] Huh? Huh?

[Draws]

Travis Bickle: Faster than you, fucking son of a... Saw you coming you fucking... shitheel.

[Reholsters]

Travis Bickle: I'm standing here; you make the move. You make the move. It's your move...

[Draws]

Travis Bickle: Don't try it you fuck.

[Reholsters]

Travis Bickle: You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? OK.

[Draws]

Travis Bickle: June twenty-ninth. I gotta get in shape. Too much sitting has ruined my body. Too much abuse has gone on for too long. From now on there will be 50 pushups each morning, 50 pullups. There will be no more pills, no more bad food, no more destroyers of my body. From now on will be total organization. Every muscle must be tight.

Travis Bickle: Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man... June 8th. My life has taken another turn again. The days can go on with regularity over and over, one day indistinguishable from the next. A long continuous chain. Then suddenly, there is a change.

[last lines]

Betsy: Travis, I'm... how much was it?

[Travis clears meter]

Travis Bickle: So long.

Travis Bickle: I'll tell you why. I think you're a lonely person. I drive by this place a lot and I see you here. I see a lot of people around you. And I see all these phones and all this stuff on your desk. It means nothing. Then when I came inside and I met you, I saw in your eyes and I saw the way you carried yourself that you're not a happy person. And I think you need something. And if you want to call it a friend, you can call it a friend.

Betsy: Are you gonna be my friend?

Travis Bickle: Yeah.

Wizard: All right, look. Look at it this way. You know, a man takes a job, you know? And that job - I mean, like that - you know, that becomes what he is. You know, like - you do a thing and that's what you are. I mean like I've been a cabbie for 17 years. Ten years at night. I still don't own my own cab. You know why? Because I don't want to. That must be what I want. You know, to be on the night shift drivin' somebody else's cab. You understand? I mean, you become - you get a job, you become the job. I mean, one guy lives in Brooklyn. One guy lives in Sutton Place. You got a lawyer. Another guy's a doctor. Another guy dies. Another guy gets well. And, you know, people are born. I envy you, your youth. Go on, get laid, get drunk, you know. Do anything. But, you got no choice, anyway. I mean, we're all fucked. More or less, you know.

Travis Bickle: I don't know. That's about the dumbest thing I ever heard.

Wizard: It's not Bertrand Russell. But what do you want? I'm a cabbie, you know. What do I know? I mean, I don't even know what the fuck you're talking about.

Travis Bickle: I don't know. Maybe I don't know either.

Wizard: Don't worry so much! Relax, kid, you're gonna be all right.

Travis Bickle: This city here is like an open sewer, you know, it's full of filth and scum. Sometimes I can hardly take it. Whatever ever becomes the President should just - really clean it up, know what I mean? Sometimes I go out and I smell it. I get headaches, it's so bad, you know. It's like - they just never go away, you know. It's like I think that the President should clean up this whole mess here. He should flush it down the fuckin' toilet.

Travis Bickle: I would say he has quite a few problems. His energy seems to go in the wrong places. When I walked in and I saw you two sitting there, I could just tell by the way you were both relating that there was no connection whatsoever. And I felt when I walked in that there was something between us. There was an impulse that we were both following. So that gave me the right to come in and talk to you. Otherwise I never would have felt that I had the right to talk to you or say anything to you. I never would have had the courage to talk to you. And with him I felt there was nothing and I could sense it. When I walked in, I knew I was right. Did you feel that way?

Betsy: I wouldn't be here if I didn't.

Personnel Officer: Wanna work uptown at nights? South Bronx? Harlem?

Travis Bickle: I'll work anytime, anywhere.

Personnel Officer: Will you work on Jewish holidays?

Travis Bickle: Anytime, anywhere.

Travis Bickle: Let me tell you something. You're in a hell, and you're gonna die in a hell, just like the rest of 'em!

Betsy: Taking me to a place like this is about as exciting as saying to me "Let's fuck."

Travis Bickle: May 10th. Thank God for the rain which has helped wash away the garbage and trash off the sidewalks. I'm workin' long hours now, six in the afternoon to six in the morning. Sometimes even eight in the morning, six days a week. Sometimes seven days a week. It's a long hustle but it keeps me real busy. I can take in three, three fifty a week. Sometimes even more when I do it off the meter. All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets. I go all over. I take people to the Bronx, Brooklyn, I take 'em to Harlem. I don't care. Don't make no difference to me. It does to some. Some won't even take spooks. Don't make no difference to me.

Travis Bickle: Twelve hours of work and I still can't sleep. Damn. Days go on and on. They don't end.

Sport: Well, take it or leave it. If you want to save yourself some money, don't fuck her. Cause you'll be back here every night for some more. Man, she's twelve and a half years old. You never had no pussy like that. You can do anything you want with her. You can cum on her, fuck her in the mouth, fuck her in the ass, cum on her face, man. She get your cock so hard she'll make it explode. But no rough stuff, all right?

Iris: I don't like what I'm doing, Sport.

Sport: Ah, baby, I don't want you to like what you're doing. If you like what you're doing, then you won't be my woman.

Iris: I think that... that Cancers make the best lovers.

[first lines]

[a telephone rings loudly]

Personnel Officer: [to the dispatcher] Harry, answer that.

[to Travis]

Personnel Officer: So whaddya want to hack for, Bickle?

Travis Bickle: I can't sleep nights.

Personnel Officer: There's porno theaters for that.

Travis Bickle: Yeah, I know. I tried that.

Personnel Officer: So what do you do now?

Travis Bickle: Well, I ride around nights mostly... subways, buses... I figure, you know, if I'm gonna do that I might as well get paid for it.

Passenger: Did you ever see what it can do to a woman's pussy? Now, that you should see! That you should see what a .44 Magnum's gonna do to a woman's pussy. You should see.

Travis Bickle: You got a .44 magnum?

Andy, Gun Salesman: It's an expensive weapon.

Travis Bickle: That's all right. I got money.

Andy, Gun Salesman: It's a real monster. It'll stop a car at a hundred yards. Put a round right through the engine block.

Travis Bickle: Twelve hours of work and I still can't sleep. Damn. Days go on and on. They don't end.

Travis Bickle: I first saw her at Palantine Campaign headquarters at 63rd and Broadway. She was wearing a white dress. She appeared like an angel. Out of this filthy mess, she is alone. They... cannot... touch... her.

Travis Bickle: June 29th. I gotta get in shape now. Too much sittin' is ruinin' my body. Too much abuse has gone on for too long. From now on, it will be fifty push-ups each morning, fifty pull-ups. There'll be no more pills, there'll be no more bad food, no more destroyers of my body. From now on, it will be total organization. Every muscle must be tight.

Senator Charles Palantine: We meet at a crossroads in history. No longer will the wrong roads be taken.

Street drummer: Now back to Gene Krupa's syncopated style

Concession Girl: Can I help you?

Travis Bickle: Hi, what's your name. My name's Travis.

Concession Girl: That's nice. What can I do for you?

Travis Bickle: Well, I'd like to know your name.

Concession Girl: [sighs] Give me a break.

Travis Bickle: All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don't believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention. I believe that someone should become a person like other people.

Travis Bickle: I realize now how much she's just like the others - cold and distant, and many people are like that. Women for sure. They're like a union.

Travis Bickle: The idea had been growing in my brain for some time. True force. All the king's men cannot put it back together again.

Senator Charles Palantine: When we came up with our slogan, 'We are the People,' when I said let the people rule, I felt that I was being somewhat overly optimistic. I must tell you that I am more optimistic now than ever before. The people are rising to the demands that I have made on them. The people are beginning to rule. I feel it is a groundswell. I know it will continue through the primary. I know it will continue in Miami. And I know it will rise to an unprecedented swell in November.

Iris: I don't like what I'm doing, Sport.

Sport: Baby, I never wanted you to like what you're doing. If you ever liked what you were doing, you wouldn't be my woman.

Iris: You never spend any time with me anymore.

Sport: I've got to attend to business, baby. You miss your man, don't you? I don't like to be away from you, either. You know how I feel about you. I depend on you. I'd be lost without you. Don't you ever forget that. How much I need you. Come to me, baby. Let me hold you. When you're close to me like this, I feel so good. I only wish every man could know what it's like to be loved by you. That every woman everywhere... had a man that loves her like I love you. God, it's good so close. You know, at times like this... I know I'm a lucky man. Touching a woman who wants me and needs me. Yeah, it's only you that keeps me together.

Charlie T: My man is loaded.

Iris: Listen, mister, it's your time. Fifteen minutes ain't long. When that cigarette burns out, your time is up.

Sport: See ya later, copper!

Travis Bickle: I'm no cop, man.

Sport: Well, if you are, then it's entrapment already.

Wizard: Then I pick up these two fags. You know, they're going downtown. They're wearin' these rhinestone T-shirts. They start arguing. They start yelling. The other says, "You bitch!" - starts beating him on the head. I say, "Look, l don't care what you do in the privacy of your own home, behind closed doors. This is an American free country. We've got a pursuit of happiness thing. You're consenting. You're adult. *But* in, you know, when you're in my fucking cab, don't go busting heads. You know what I mean? God loves you. Do what you want.

Doughboy: Tell them to go to California. 'Cause out in California, when two fags split up, one's gotta pay the other alimony.

Wizard: Not bad. They're way ahead out there. You know what I mean? California.

Tom: Does he bother you?

Betsy: No.

Tom: You really mean yes and you're being sarcastic.

Betsy: Oh, you're quick. You're really quick.

Tom: Well, I try to be real quick. I'll tell you what, I'll play the male in this relationship and I'll go out and...

Betsy: Good luck.

Tom: And tell him to move. And I don't need good luck. Thank you.

Betsy: Oh, yes, you do. You just think you don't.

Travis Bickle: Okay. Can I have a Chuckles there? And do you have any Jujus? They last longer. I'd like to get some jujus.

Concession Girl: What you see is what we got.

Tom: We *have* to emphasize the mandatory welfare program. That's the issue that should be pushed.

Betsy: First, push the man, then the issue. Senator Palantine is a dynamic man. An intelligent, interesting, fresh, fascinating...

Tom: You forgot sexy.

Betsy: Man. I did not forget sexy.

Tom: Listen to what you're saying. You sound like you're selling mouthwash.

Betsy: We are selling mouthwash.

Tom: Are we authorized to do that?

Doughboy: You handle some pretty rough customers, huh?

Travis Bickle: Yeah, I have.

Doughboy: You carry a piece?

Travis Bickle: No.

Doughboy: You need one?

Travis Bickle: No.

Doughboy: If you ever need one, I know a fellow that can get you a real nice deal. Lots of shit around.

Wizard: I never use mine. I'm conservative, you know. But it's a good thing to have just as a threat.

Street drummer: Now going back to 40 years of Chick Webb!

Passenger: Yo, cab! Okay, pull over to the curb over there. Right over to the curb. Right over there. No, no, no, don't, don't move. No, the fucking meter! What are you doing? What are you doing with the meter? Did I tell you to put - did I tell you - did I tell you to do that with the meter? Put the meter back, let the numbers go on. I don't care what I have to pay. I'm not getting out. Put the meter back on. Put it down. Put it - that's right. Put it - put it down! That's right. Why are you writing? Don't write! Put the thing down. Just sit. I didn't tell you to write. I didn't tell you to do anything. I just said, "Pull over to the curb." We'll pull over to the curb and we'll just sit here. We're gonna sit.

Travis Bickle: I never seen a commune before, but I don't know, you know? I saw - some pictures once in a magazine, it didn't look very clean.

Travis Bickle: I'm hip.

Sport: Buddy, you don't look hip.

Wizard: This guy Eddie, the owner-operator, comes up and says, "l wanna swap tires." I said, "Hey, these are new tires. Why don't you throw in something else, like your wife?" His wife was Miss New Jersey of 1957.