Quotes: A Streetcar Named Desire

Scene 1: 'The sky...

...that shows around the dim white building is a peculiarly tender blue... which invests the scene with a kind of lyricism and gracefully attenuates the atmosphere of decay.' - Stage direction.

Scene 1: 'Tell Steve...

...to get him a poor boy's sandwich 'cause nothing's left here.' - Eunice.

Scene 1: 'Her delicate...

...beauty must avoid a strong light. There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggests a moth.' - Stage direction.

Scene 1: 'They told...

...me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at - Elysian Fields!' - Blanche.

Scene 1: 'A cat...

...screeches. She catches her breath with a startled gesture.' - Stage direction.

Scene 1: 'She pours...

...a half tumbler of whisky and tosses it down. She carefully replaces the bottle and washes out the tumbler at the sink.' - Stage direction (about Blanche).

Scene 1: 'Stella, oh,...

...Stella, Stella! Stella for star!' - Blanche.

Scene 1: 'Turn that...

...over-light off! Turn that off! I won't be looked at in this merciless glare!' - Blanche.

Scene 1: 'I know you...

...must have some liquor on the place! Where could it be, I wonder?' - Blanche (to Stella).

Scene 1: 'You never did...

...give me a chance to say much, Blanche. So I just got in the habit of being quiet around you.' - Stella.

Scene 1: 'No, one's...

...my limit.' - Blanche.

Scene 1: 'About your...

...hair - you ought to have it cut in a feather bob with your dainty features. Stella, you have a maid, don't you?' - Blanche.

Scene 1: 'I want to...

...be near you, got to be with somebody, I can't be alone!' - Blanche (to Stella).

Scene 1: 'I can hardly...

...stand it when he is away for a night... / When he's away for a week I nearly go wild! / And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby...' - Stella (to Blanche, on Stanley).

Scene 1: 'But you...

...are the one that abandoned Bell Reve, not I! I stayed and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it!' - Blanche (to Stella).

Scene 1: 'I, I, I...

...took the blows in my face and my body!' - Blanche.

Scene 1: 'Funerals...

...are quiet, but deaths - not always.' - Blanche.

Scene 1: 'Unless you...

...were there at the bed when they cried out, 'Hold me!' you'd never suspect there was the struggle for breath and bleeding.' - Blanche.

Scene 1: ''Officer -...

...is Mass out yet?' He looks her over and says, 'No, Lady, but y'r hat's on crooked!'' [They give a hoarse bellow of laughter.]' - Steve / Stage direction.

Scene 1: 'Since...

...earliest manhood the centre of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence, dependently, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens.' - Stage direction (on Stanley).

Scene 1: 'He sizes...

...women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them.' - Stage direction (on Stanley).

Scene 1: 'Liquor...

...goes fast in hot weather... Have a shot?' - Stanley (to Blanche).

Scene 1: 'Some people...

...rarely touch it, but it touches them often.' - Stanley (to Blanche, on alcohol).

Scene 1: 'Be...

...comfortable is my motto.' - Stanley.

Scene 1: 'The music...

...of the polka rises up, faint in the distance.' - Stage direction.

Scene 1: 'The boy -...

...the boy died. [She sinks back down.] I'm afraid I'm - going to be sick!' - Blanche.

Scene 2: 'When she....

...comes in be sure to say something nice about her appearance.' - Stella (to Stanley, on Blanche).

Scene 2: 'You see...

...I'd tried to gloss things over a little in my letters.' - Stella.

Scene 2: 'So that's...

...the deal, huh? Sister Blanche cannot be annoyed with business details right now!' - Stanley (to Stella).

Scene 2: 'It looks to...

...me like you have been swindled, baby, and when you're swindled under the Napoleonic code I'm swindled too. And I don't like to be swindled.' - Stanley.

Scene 2: 'What's this...

...here? A solid-gold dress, I believe! And this one! What is these here? Fox-pieces!' - Stanley.

Scene 2: 'Since...

...when do you give me orders?' - Stanley (to Stella).

Scene 2: 'If I didn't...

...know that you was my wife's sister I'd get ideas about you!' - Stanley (to Blanche).

Scene 2: 'Now that...

...you've touched them I'll burn them!' - Blanche (to Stanley).

Scene 2: 'I hurt...

...him the way that you would like to hurt me, but you can't!' - Blanche (to Stanley).

Scene 2: 'The blue...

...piano sounds louder' - Stage direction (after Blanche learns that Stella is pregnant).

Scene 2: 'Red...

...hots! Red hots!' - Vendor.

Scene 2: 'I ought...

...to go there on a rocket that never comes down.' - Blanche.

Scene 2: 'The blind...

are - leading the blind!' - Blanche.

Scene 3: 'She says...

...to go out, so I go, but I don't enjoy it. All the while I keep wondering how she is.' - Mitch.

Scene 3: 'And the...

...old nigg3r says, 'Log God, I hopes I never gits that hongry!'' - Steve.

Scene 3: 'Stanley...

...gives a loud whack of his hand on her thigh.' - Stage direction (Stanley on Stella).

Scene 3: 'That one...

...seems - superior to the others.' - Blanche (on Mitch).

Scene 3: 'Stanley's...

...the only one of his crowd that's likely to get anywhere.' - Stella.

Scene 3: 'You...

...hens cut out that conversation in there!' - Stanley.

Scene 3: 'I'm not...

...accustomed to having more than one drink. Two is the limit - and three!' - Blanche.

Scene 3: 'We are...

...French by extraction. Our first American ancestors were French Huguenots.' - Blanche.

Scene 3: 'I call...

...her little in spite of the fact she's somewhat older than I. Just slightly. Less than a year.' - Blanche.

Scene 3: 'I can't...

...stand a naked light-bulb, any more than I can a rude remark of a vulgar action.' - Blanche.

Scene 3: 'Mitch...

...is delighted and moves in awkward imitation like a dancing bear.' - Stage direction.

Scene 3: 'Drunk -...

...drunk - animal think you!' - Stella.

Scene 3: 'Poker...

...shouldn't be played in a house with women.' - Mitch.

Scene 3: 'There he...

...throws back his head like a baying hound and bellows his wife's name: 'Stella! Stella, sweetheart! Stella!' - Stage direction (on Stanley).

Scene 3: 'Then they...

...come together with low, animal moans.' - Stage direction (on Stella and Stanley).

Scene 3: 'Ho-ho!...

...There's nothing to be scared of. They're crazy about each other.' - Mitch.

Scene 3: 'Thank you...

...for being so kind! I need kindness now.' - Blanche (to Mitch).

Scene 4: 'He was...

...as good as a lamb when I came back and he's really very, very ashamed of himself.' - Stella (on Stanley).

Scene 4: 'Why, on...

...our wedding night - soon as we came in here - he snatched off one of my slippers and rushed about the place smashing the light-bulbs with it.' - Stella (on Stanley).

Scene 4: '[Slowly and...

...emphatically] I'm not in anything I want to get out of.' - Stella (to Blanche).

Scene 4: 'Oh, well,...

...it's his pleasure, like mine is movies and bridge. People have got to tolerate each other's habits, I guess.' - Stella.

Scene 4: 'But there are...

...things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark - that sort of make everything else seem - unimportant.' - Stella (to Blanche).

Scene 4: 'He acts like...

...an animal, has an animal's habit! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one! There's even something - sub-human - something not quite to the stage of humanity yet!' - Blanche (on Stanley).

Scene 4: 'Maybe...

...he'll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you!' - Blanche (to Stella).

Scene 4: 'Don't -...

...don't hang back with the brutes!' - Blanche (to Stella).

Scene 4: 'He laughs...

...and clasps her head to him. Over her head he grins through the curtains at Blanche.' - Stage direction.

Scene 5: 'Naw...

...She's gettin' a drink.' - Stanley (on Eunice, to Stella).

Scene 5: 'Virgo...

...is the Virgin.' - Blanche.

Scene 5: 'People...

...don't see you - men don't - don't even admit your existence unless they are making love to you.' - Blanche.

Scene 5: 'I don't know...

...how much longer I can turn the trick. It isn't enough to be soft. You've got to be soft and attractive. And I - I'm fading now!' - Blanche.

Scene 5: '[bawling] Hey...

Steve! Hey, Eunice! Hey, Stella!' - Stanley.

Scene 5: 'Young...

man! Young, young, young young - man!' - Blanche.

Scene 5: 'I've got...

...to be good and keep my hands off children.' - Blanche.

Scene 5: 'Look who's...

coming! My Rosenkavalier!' - Blanche (to Mitch).

Scene 6: 'Just...

...give me a slap whenever I step out of bounds.' - Mitch (to Blanche).

Scene 6: 'It was...

...like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that's how it struct the world for me.' - Blanche.

Scene 6: 'All I knew...

...was I'd failed him in some mysterious way and wasn't able to give the help he needed but couldn't speak of!' - Blanche (on Allan Grey).

Scene 6: 'We...

...danced the 'Varsouviana'!' - Blanche.

Scene 6: 'The polka...

...stops abrupty.' - Stage direction.

Scene 6: ''I know!...

...I know! You disgust me...' And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again and never for one moment since has there been any light that's stronger than this - kitchen - candle.' - Blanche.

Scene 6: 'You need...

...somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be - you and me, Blanche?' - Mitch.

Scene 7: 'And you...

...run out an' get her cokes, I suppose? And serve 'em to Her Majesty in the tub?' - Stanley (to Stella, on Blanche).

Scene 7: 'It's a...

...Barnum and Bailey world, Just as phony as it can be - But it wouldn't be make-believe If you believed in me!' - Blanche.

Scene 7: 'She pulled...

...the wool over your eyes as much as Mitch's!' - Stanley (to Stella, on Blanche).

Scene 7: 'It's pure...

...invention! There's not a word of truth in it and if I were a man and this creature had dared to invent such things in my presence -' -Stella (to Stanley).

Scene 7: 'For the...

...last year or two she has been washed up like poison.' - Stanley (on Blanche).

Scene 7: 'Boy,...

...oh, boy, I'd like to have been in that office when Dame Blanche was called on the carpet! I'd like to have seen her trying to squirm out of that one!' - Stanley.

Scene 7: 'I think Blanche...

...didn't just love him but worshipped the ground her walked on! Adored him and thought him almost too fine to be human!' - Stella (on Allen Grey).

Scene 7: 'This...

Scene 7: [slowly] What'll -...

...she - do? What on earth will she - do!' - Stella (on Blanche).

Scene 7: 'The bathroom...

...door flies open and Blanche emerges with a gay peal of laughter, but as Stanley crosses past her, a frightened look appears in her face, almost a look of panic.' - Stage direction.

Scene 7: 'She stares...

...fearfully at Stella, who pretends to be busy at the table. The distant piano goes into a hectic breakdown.' - Stage direction.

Scene 8: 'Reaches...

...way over the table to spear his fork into the remaining chop which he eats with his fingers.' - Stage direction (on Stanley).

Scene 8: [He seizes...

...her arm] 'Don't ever talk that way to me! 'Pig - Polack - disgusting - vulgar - greasy!'' - Stanley (to Stella and Blanche).

Scene 8: 'What do you...

...two think you are? A pair of queens?' - Stanley (to Stella and Blanche).

Scene 8: 'Remember...

...what Huey Long said - 'Every Man is a King!' And I am the king around here, so don't forget it!' [He hurls a cup and saucer to the floor]. - Stanley.

Scene 8: 'God,...

...honey, it's gonna be sweet when we can make noise in the night the way that we used to and get the coloured lights going with nobody's sister behind the curtains to hear us!' - Stanley.

Scene 8: 'Their upstairs...

...neighbours are heard in bellowing laughter at something. Stanley chuckles.' - Stage direction.

Scene 8: 'Candles...

...burn out in little boys' and girls' eyes, or wind blows them out and after that happens, electric light-bulbs go on and you see too plainly...' - Blanche.

Scene 8: 'I am...

...not a Polack. People from Poland are Poles, not Polacks. But what I am is a one hundred per cent American.' - Stanley.

Scene 8: 'Ticket!...

...Back to Laurel! On the Greyhound! Tuesday!' - Stanley.