50 Quotes From Breakfast At Tiffany’s, In Order Of Awesomeness

‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ is my third favorite movie, coming in at number three on a fairly odd and eclectic list (‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ ‘Star Trek II,’ ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’…) The other day, a girl told me that she hadn’t seen ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ and I responded with the same sort of stunned speechless surprise that I usually reserve for someone casually mentioning how Obama was born in Kenya and is a communist n’ stuff. Anyway. Also, I lost my virginity to this movie, which has nothing much to do with anything. But, such a good movie! And did you know that Audrey Hepburn is a prostitute in this movie? I guess that’s so obvious, but the movie is so 1961-ish and low-key about everything that it took me at least four viewings to figure that out. Anyway. Audrey Hepburn; hooker with a heart of gold, what more do you really need from a film? And it ends with someone finding a cat. How could you go wrong there? So, here is a list of quotes from the movie–

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVFi-yeTe5g&w=584&h=390]

  1. “It should take you exactly four seconds to cross from here to that door. I’ll give you two.”
  2. “But I am mad about José. I honestly think I’d give up smoking if he asked me.”
  3. Quel night.”
  4. “I’ll tell you one thing, Fred, darling… I’d marry you for your money in a minute. Would you marry me for my money? “…In a minute.” (Awkward pause.) “I guess it’s pretty lucky neither of us is rich, huh?” (Second, and far longer awkward pause.) “…Yeah.”
  5.  “You know those days when you get the mean reds?”
  6. “The mean reds, you mean like the blues?”
  7. “No. The blues are because you’re getting fat and maybe it’s been raining too long; you’re just sad, that’s all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you’re afraid and you don’t know what you’re afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling? …Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany’s. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it. Nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that’d make me feel like Tiffany’s, then — then I’d buy some furniture and give the cat a name!”
  8. “I love you.” “…So what?” “…So what? So plenty!”
  9. “I’ll never get used to anything. Anybody that does, they might as well be dead.”
  10. “Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot.”
  11. “It’s better to look at the sky than live there. Such an empty place; so vague. Just a country where the thunder goes and things disappear.”
  12. “How do I look?” “…Very good. I must say, I’m amazed.”
  13. “What do you do, anyway?” “…I’m a writer, I guess.”
  14. “…You know what’s gonna happen to you? I am gonna march you over to the zoo and feed you to the yak.”
  15. “It’s useful being top banana in the shock department.”
  16. “I’m like cat here, a no-name slob. We belong to nobody, and nobody belongs to us. We don’t even belong to each other.”
  17. “Promise me one thing: don’t take me home until I’m drunk — very drunk indeed.”
  18. (Puts single book into an otherwise entirely empty bookcase.) “…There now. Doesn’t that look nice?”
  19. “Portuguese, a very complicated language, darling. Four thousand irregular verbs.”
  20. “…Do you think she’s talented, deeply and importantly talented?”
  21. “…No. Amusingly and superficially talented, yes. But deeply and importantly, no.”
  22. (Very drunk.) “You disAPPROVE of me, and I do not accept drinks from gentlemen who DISapprove of me.”
  23. “…We don’t belong to each other. We just took up one day by the river.”
  24. “I don’t want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together. I’m not sure where that is but I know what it is like. It’s like Tiffany’s.”
  25. “You can always tell what kind of a person a man thinks you are by the earrings he gives you. I must say — the mind reels.”
  26. “Let me make one thing clear. I am not now — nor have I ever been — named ‘Fred.'”
  27. “Didn’t I tell you that this was a wonderful place?”
  28. “She’s a phony. But she’s a real phony. You know why? Because she honestly believes all this phony junk that she believes.”
  29. “Thursday? Oh no, it can’t be!  It’s too gruesome.”
  30. “…I mean, I owe her something — not that I owe her anything if you really want to get right down to it, but… She’s a crazy. She’s a phony. But she’s a real phony. Know what I mean, kid?”
  31. (Overly emotional pause.)
  32. “Yeah — I know what you mean.”
  33. You musn’t give your heart to a wild thing. The more you do, the stronger they get, until they’re strong enough to run into the woods or fly into a tree. And then to a higher tree…”
  34. “Hand me my purse, will you, darling? A girl can’t read that sort of thing… with… without her lipstick.”
  35. “All right — so he’s not a regular rat, or even a super rat. He’s just a scared little mouse. But — oh, golly, gee, damn!”
  36. (Drunk.) “As Miss Golightly was saying before she was so rudely interrupted…”
  37. “And I always heard people in New York never get to know their neighbors.”
  38. “Simply do not ask me what this is all about.” (Waves hand wildly.) “Parce que je ne sais pas, mes chers.
  39. “Do they still really have prizes in Cracker Jack boxes?” “…Oh; yes.” “That’s nice to know… It gives one a feeling of solidarity, almost of continuity with the past, that sort of thing.”
  40. “If we’re going to be friends let’s get one thing straight right now. I hate snoops!”
  41. “There are certain shades of limelight that can wreck a girl’s complexion.”
  42. “He’s all right — I suppose. If you like dark, handsome, rich-looking men with passionate natures and too many teeth.”
  43. “I am a very stylish girl.”
  44. “I’m the sensitive, bookish type.”
  45. “I suppose you think I’m very brazen or très fou or something.”
  46. “I don’t think you’re any fou-er than anyone else.”
  47. “No matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.”
  48. “…Where’s the cat?”
  49. “Oh, cat.”
  50. (Moon River’ theme plays.) Thought Catalog Logo Mark

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