Sunset Blvd. Quotes
First assistant director: I understand she [Norma Desmond]
First assistant director: was a terror to work with.
Cecil B. DeMille: Only toward the end. You know, a dozen press agents working overtime can do terrible things to the human spirit.
First assistant director: was a terror to work with.
Cecil B. DeMille: Only toward the end. You know, a dozen press agents working overtime can do terrible things to the human spirit.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Joe Gillis: May I say that you smell really special?
Betty Schaefer: It must be my new shampoo.
Joe Gillis: That's no shampoo. It's more like freshly-laundered linen handkerchiefs, like a brand new automobile.
Betty Schaefer: It must be my new shampoo.
Joe Gillis: That's no shampoo. It's more like freshly-laundered linen handkerchiefs, like a brand new automobile.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Norma Desmond: [Norma thinks Joe is a funeral director] I'd like the coffin to be white, and I want it specially lined with satin. White... or pink. Maybe red! Bright flaming red! Let's make it gay!
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Norma Desmond: Don't be silly. [hands Joe a present]
Norma Desmond: Here, I was going to give it to you at midnight.
Joe Gillis: Norma, I can't take it, you've bought me enough.
Norma Desmond: Shut up, I'm rich! I'm richer than all this new Hollywood trash! I've got a million dollars.
Joe Gillis: Keep it.
Norma Desmond: Own three blocks downtown, I've got oil in Bakersfield, pumping, *pumping*, pumping! What's it for but to buy us anything we want!
Joe Gillis: Cut out that "us" business!
Norma Desmond: What's the matter with you?
Joe Gillis: What right do you have to take me for granted?
Norma Desmond: What right? Do you want me to tell you?
Joe Gillis: Has it ever occurred to you that I may have a life of my own? That there may be some girl I'm crazy about?
Norma Desmond: Who? Some car hop, or dress extra?
Joe Gillis: What I'm trying to say is that I'm all wrong for you. You want a Valentino, somebody with polo ponies, a big shot!
Norma Desmond: What you're trying to say is that you don't want me to love you. Say it. Say it! [slaps him hard across the face]
Norma Desmond: Here, I was going to give it to you at midnight.
Joe Gillis: Norma, I can't take it, you've bought me enough.
Norma Desmond: Shut up, I'm rich! I'm richer than all this new Hollywood trash! I've got a million dollars.
Joe Gillis: Keep it.
Norma Desmond: Own three blocks downtown, I've got oil in Bakersfield, pumping, *pumping*, pumping! What's it for but to buy us anything we want!
Joe Gillis: Cut out that "us" business!
Norma Desmond: What's the matter with you?
Joe Gillis: What right do you have to take me for granted?
Norma Desmond: What right? Do you want me to tell you?
Joe Gillis: Has it ever occurred to you that I may have a life of my own? That there may be some girl I'm crazy about?
Norma Desmond: Who? Some car hop, or dress extra?
Joe Gillis: What I'm trying to say is that I'm all wrong for you. You want a Valentino, somebody with polo ponies, a big shot!
Norma Desmond: What you're trying to say is that you don't want me to love you. Say it. Say it! [slaps him hard across the face]
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Policeman: [calling on the phone] Coroner's office. Who's on this line?
Hedda Hopper: [in Norma's room, on the phone] I am. Now, get off. This is more important.
Hedda Hopper: [in Norma's room, on the phone] I am. Now, get off. This is more important.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Joe Gillis : [ narrating ] The poor dope - he always wanted a pool. Well, in the end, he got himself a pool.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Joe Gillis : You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma Desmond : I *am* big. It's the *pictures* that got small.
Norma Desmond : I *am* big. It's the *pictures* that got small.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Norma Desmond : They took the idols and smashed them, the Fairbankses, the Gilberts, the Valentinos! And who've we got now? Some nobodies!
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Joe Gillis : I didn't know you were planning a comeback.
Norma Desmond : I hate that word. It's a return, a return to the millions of people who have never forgiven me for deserting the screen.
Norma Desmond : I hate that word. It's a return, a return to the millions of people who have never forgiven me for deserting the screen.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Max Von Mayerling : She was the greatest of them all. You wouldn't know, you're too young. In one week she received 17,000 fan letters. Men bribed her hairdresser to get a lock of her hair. There was a maharajah who came all the way from India to beg one of her silk stockings. Later he strangled himself with it!
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Joe Gillis : [ sarcastically ] They'll love it in Pomona.
Norma Desmond : They'll love it everyplace.
Norma Desmond : They'll love it everyplace.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Joe Gillis : Audiences don't know somebody sits down and writes a picture; they think the actors make it up as they go along.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Norma Desmond : Don't be silly. [ hands Joe a present ]
Norma Desmond : Here, I was going to give it to you at midnight.
Joe Gillis : Norma, I can't take it, you've bought me enough.
Norma Desmond : Shut up, I'm rich! I'm richer than all this new Hollywood trash! I've got a million dollars.
Joe Gillis : Keep it.
Norma Desmond : Own three blocks downtown, I've got oil in Bakersfield, pumping, *pumping*, pumping! What's it for but to buy us anything we want!
Joe Gillis : Cut out that "us" business!
Norma Desmond : What's the matter with you?
Joe Gillis : What right do you have to take me for granted?
Norma Desmond : What right? Do you want me to tell you?
Joe Gillis : Has it ever occurred to you that I may have a life of my own? That there may be some girl I'm crazy about?
Norma Desmond : Who? Some car hop, or dress extra?
Joe Gillis : What I'm trying to say is that I'm all wrong for you. You want a Valentino, somebody with polo ponies, a big shot!
Norma Desmond : What you're trying to say is that you don't want me to love you. Say it. Say it! [ slaps him hard across the face ]
Norma Desmond : Here, I was going to give it to you at midnight.
Joe Gillis : Norma, I can't take it, you've bought me enough.
Norma Desmond : Shut up, I'm rich! I'm richer than all this new Hollywood trash! I've got a million dollars.
Joe Gillis : Keep it.
Norma Desmond : Own three blocks downtown, I've got oil in Bakersfield, pumping, *pumping*, pumping! What's it for but to buy us anything we want!
Joe Gillis : Cut out that "us" business!
Norma Desmond : What's the matter with you?
Joe Gillis : What right do you have to take me for granted?
Norma Desmond : What right? Do you want me to tell you?
Joe Gillis : Has it ever occurred to you that I may have a life of my own? That there may be some girl I'm crazy about?
Norma Desmond : Who? Some car hop, or dress extra?
Joe Gillis : What I'm trying to say is that I'm all wrong for you. You want a Valentino, somebody with polo ponies, a big shot!
Norma Desmond : What you're trying to say is that you don't want me to love you. Say it. Say it! [ slaps him hard across the face ]
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
[ Norma threatens suicide again ]
Joe Gillis : Oh, wake up, Norma, you'd be killing yourself to an empty house. The audience left twenty years ago.
Joe Gillis : Oh, wake up, Norma, you'd be killing yourself to an empty house. The audience left twenty years ago.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Joe Gillis : [ narrating ] 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.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
[ last lines ]
Norma Desmond : [ to newsreel camera ] 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! 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.
Norma Desmond : [ to newsreel camera ] 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! 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.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Joe Gillis : There's nothing tragic about being fifty. Not unless you're trying to be twenty-five.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Joe Gillis : May I say that you smell really special?
Betty Schaefer : It must be my new shampoo.
Joe Gillis : That's no shampoo. It's more like freshly-laundered linen handkerchiefs, like a brand new automobile.
Betty Schaefer : It must be my new shampoo.
Joe Gillis : That's no shampoo. It's more like freshly-laundered linen handkerchiefs, like a brand new automobile.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Norma Desmond : My astrologist has read my horoscope, he's read DeMille's horoscope.
Joe Gillis : Has he read the script?
Joe Gillis : Has he read the script?
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Norma Desmond : 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!
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
[ the salesman thinks Joe is a gigolo ]
Salesman : [ whispering in Joe's ear ] As long as the lady is paying for it, why not take the Vicuna?
Salesman : [ whispering in Joe's ear ] As long as the lady is paying for it, why not take the Vicuna?
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
[ after hearing that Norma Desmond has come to see DeMille ]
First assistant director : 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?
First assistant director : 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?
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Joe Gillis : [ voice-over ] The whole place seemed to have been stricken with a kind of creeping paralysis - out of beat with the rest of the world, crumbling apart in slow motion.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Joe Gillis : [ voice-over ] You don't yell at a sleepwalker - he may fall and break his neck. That's it: she was still sleepwalking along the giddy heights of a lost career.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Betty Schaefer : Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Gillis, but I just didn't think it was any good. I found it flat and trite.
Joe Gillis : Exactly what kind of material do you recommend? James Joyce? Dostoyevsky?
Betty Schaefer : I just think that pictures should say a little something.
Joe Gillis : Oh, one of the message kids. Just a story won't do. You'd have turned down Gone With the Wind.
Sheldrake : No, that was me. I said, "Who wants to see a Civil War picture?"
Joe Gillis : Exactly what kind of material do you recommend? James Joyce? Dostoyevsky?
Betty Schaefer : I just think that pictures should say a little something.
Joe Gillis : Oh, one of the message kids. Just a story won't do. You'd have turned down Gone With the Wind.
Sheldrake : No, that was me. I said, "Who wants to see a Civil War picture?"
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Joe Gillis : [ narrating ] How could she breathe in that house full of Norma Desmonds? Around every corner, Norma Desmonds... more Norma Desmonds... and still more Norma Desmonds.
Movie: Sunset Blvd.
Norma Desmond : [ Norma thinks Joe is a funeral director ] I'd like the coffin to be white, and I want it specially lined with satin. White... or pink. Maybe red! Bright flaming red! Let's make it gay!
Movie: Sunset Blvd.