"[as he walks out of Sonny's funeral] Sonny and my father always said that when I get older I would understand. Well, I finally did. I learned something from these two men. I learned to give love and get love unconditionally. You just have to accept people for what they are, and I learned the greatest gift of all. The saddest thing in life is wasted talent, and the choices that you make will shape your life forever. But you can ask anybody from my neighborhood, and they'll just tell you this is just another Bronx tale."

"I was getting two educations: One from the street and one from school. That way I'd be twice as smart as everybody."

"It was great to be Catholic and go to confession. You could start over every week."

"[last words before he died] Come here!"

"Mickey Mantle? Is that what you're upset about? Mickey Mantle makes $100,000 a year. How much does your father make? You don't know? Well, see, if your father can't pay the rent, go ask Mickey Mantle and see what he tells you. Mickey Mantle don't care about you, so why should you care about him? Nobody cares."

"[about Sonny] People don't love him, they fear him. There's a difference."

"Sometimes in the heat of passion, the little head tells the big head what to do, and the big head should think twice about what you are doing."

"Burl Ives - Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt"

"Paul Newman - Brick Pollitt"

"Elizabeth Taylor - Maggie The Cat"

"Larry Gates - Dr. Baugh"

"Madeleine Sherwood - Mae Flynn Pollitt"

"Judith Anderson - Ida 'Big Mama' Pollitt"

"Vaughn Taylor - Deacon Davis"

"Jack Carson - Gooper Pollitt"

"What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?... There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity... You can smell it. It smells like death."

"But there's one thing you can't buy in a Europe firesale or in any other market on earth. And that's your life. You can't buy back your life when it's finished... The human animal is a beast that eventually has to die. And if he's got money, he buys and he buys and he buys. The reason why he buys everything he can is because his crazy hope is one of the things he buys will be life everlasting — which it never can be."

"Mendacity. What do you know about mendacity? I could write a book on it...Mendacity. Look at all the lies that I got to put up with. Pretenses. Hypocrisy. Pretendin' like I care for Big Mama, I haven't been able to stand that woman in forty years. Church! It bores me. But I go. And all those swindlin' lodges and social clubs and money-grabbin' auxiliaries. It's-it's got me on the number one sucker list. Boy, I've lived with mendacity. Now why can't you live with it? You've got to live with it. There's nothin' to live with but mendacity. Is there?"

"Every sultry moment of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize Play is now on the screen!"

"This is Maggie the Cat..."

"Truth! Truth! Everybody keeps hollerin' about the truth. Well, the truth is as dirty as lies."

"Perhaps our marriage doesn't mean anything to you?…Perhaps you have no sentiment left for me."

"Mary Forbes — Mrs. Vance"

"Robert Warwick — Mr. Vance"

"Robert Allen — Frank Randall"

"Joyce Compton — Dixie Belle Lee"

"Esther Dale — Mrs. Leeson"

"Molly Lamont — Barbara Vance"

"Cecil Cunningham — Aunt Patsy"

"Alexander D'Arcy — Armand Duvalle"

"Ralph Bellamy — Daniel 'Dan' Leeson"

"Cary Grant — Jerry Warriner"

"Irene Dunne — Lucy Warriner/Lola Warriner"

"Barbara: [to Jerry, after Lucy answers his phone] Have you made up your mind who the woman is?"

"Judge: The custody of the dog will depend upon his own desire."

"Judge: If the divorce is not further contested, it will become final 90 days from this date. The plaintiff and the defendant will then be at liberty to make other marriages if such be their desire."

"Attorney: [on the phone] Now, now Lucy, don't do anything in haste that you might regret later. Marriage is a beautiful thing. [to his wife] Please be quiet, will you?…Please shut your mouth!…Will you shut your big mouth! I'll eat when I get good and ready and if you don't like it, you know what you can do, so shut up!"

"Armand Duvalle: [about Jerry] He's free of all mean suspicion. Yes, he has more the Continental mind."

"Sa-ayy wait a minute! Don't anybody leave this room! I've lost my purse. [the purse is found between the cushions] Oh, well, am I relieved."

"I was working my head off at the Virginia Club but the minute he started doing better, you know what I mean, why he made me give up my job and, uhm, take a trip to London and Paris and uh, I think that was pretty swell, don't you?…it was a little act, kind of uh, well, it's a little hard to explain."

"What in the world was Dad ever doing with a football?…Of course I remember. Pop loved Princeton. He was there nearly twenty years. If ever a man loved a place, he did - he just adored it. And he certainly kept it looking beautiful. You've seen the grounds, of course?"

"[to Mrs. Vance, about Jerry] We call him Jerry the Nipper. He likes to sneak 'em when nobody's looking. So cute about it too. I've seen him go along a whole evening and apparently not have a thing to drink and all of a sudden fall flat on his puss."

"[to Mrs. Leeson] Well, I guess a man's best friend is his mother. I certainly learned about women from you."

"[to Lucy] You make me the happiest man in the world! I'm so happy I could eat three steaks."

"Just to prove that you're not mad, will ya give me a little kiss?…If you knew how crazy I am about ya, you wouldn't hesitate. I can't sleep nights…I must be in love, 'cause I started writin' poetry to ya. To you my little prairie flower, I'm thinkin' of you every hour. Though now you're just a friend to me, I wonder what the end will be. Oh, you would make my life divine, If you would change your name to mine."

"[to Barbara] I've seen your pictures in the paper and I've wondered what you look like."