Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958 film) Quotes

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958 film) is a television program that first aired in 1970 . Cat on a Hot Tin Roof stopped airing in 1970.

It features Lawrence Weingarten as producer, Charles Wolcott in charge of musical score, and William Daniels (cinematographer) as head of cinematography.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958 film) is distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The cast includes: Burl Ives as Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt, Paul Newman as Brick Pollitt, Paul Newman as Dixie Pollitt, Jack Carson as Gooper Pollitt, Madeleine Sherwood as Mae Pollitt, Larry Gates as Dr. Baugh, and Paul Newman as Brick.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958 film) Quotes

Burl Ives as Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt

• (Burl Ives) "I've got the guts to die. What I want to know is, have you got the guts to live?"

• (Burl Ives) "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?"

• (Burl Ives) "Let's go home."
• (Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt) "Don't you want to ride with the children, honey?"
• (Burl Ives) "No."
• (Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt) "He's his sassy old self again, all right."
• (Burl Ives) "Be quiet, woman."

• (Burl Ives) "So you bought me a birthday present, huh?"
• (Paul Newman) "No sir, Maggie bought it."
• (Burl Ives) "She's got good taste, that girl."
• (Paul Newman) "In some things, yes, but not in men."

• (Burl Ives) "Why did you and Brick suddenly decide to drive up from New Orleans?"
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "For your birthday, what else?"
• (Burl Ives) "I had a birthday last year and the year before that. Didn't see you then."
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "Well, you know how Brick is sometimes."
• (Burl Ives) "Maybe he thought he'd be coming to my funeral, instead of my birthday."
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "But Brick loves you. He does."
• (Burl Ives) "But does he love you?"
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "What do you want, proof?"
• (Burl Ives) "If I was married to you three years, you'd have the living proof. You'd have three kids already and a fourth in the oven."

• (Burl Ives) "This was what my father left me, this lousy old suitcase. And on the inside was nothing, nothing but his uniform from the Spanish-American war. That was his legacy to me. Nothing at all. And I built this place from nothing."
• (Paul Newman) "That was all he left you?"
• (Burl Ives) "He was a hobo, the best-known tramp on the boxcar circuit. He'd worked once in awhile as a field hand, and I'd tag along. Sat on my bare bottom in the dirt, waiting for him. Outside of hunger, the first thing I remember is shame. I was ashamed of that miserable old tramp. I was riding boxcars with him when I was nine, something you never had to do. You'll never have to bury me the way I buried him. I buried him in a meadow alongside a railroad track. He was running to catch a freight and his heart give out. You know something? That old tramp died laughing."
• (Paul Newman) "Laughing at what?"
• (Burl Ives) "Himself, I guess. Old hobo tramp, not a nickel to his name, no future, no past."
• (Paul Newman) "Maybe he was laughing because he was happy. Happy at having you with him. He took you everywhere. He kept you with him."
• (Burl Ives) "I don't want to talk about that."
• (Burl Ives) "Yeah, I loved him. I reckon I never loved anything as much as that lousy old tramp."
• (Paul Newman) "And you say he left you nothing but a suitcase with a uniform in it?"
• (Burl Ives) "And some memories."
• (Paul Newman) "And love."

• (Burl Ives) "I'm gonna pick me a choice woman and I'm gonna smother her in minks and choke her with diamonds. Boy, I'm gonna be happy."

• (Burl Ives) "There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity."

• (Burl Ives) "Grown-ups don't hang up on their friends. And they don't hang up on their wives and they don't hang up on life. That's the truth and that's what you can't face."
• (Paul Newman) "Can you face the truth?"
• (Burl Ives) "Try me."
• (Paul Newman) "Sure, somebody else's truth."
• (Burl Ives) "So you're running again?"
• (Paul Newman) "Yeah, I am. Running from lies like birthday congratulations and many happy returns when there won't be any."
• (Burl Ives) "What did you say?"
• (Paul Newman) "Forget it."
• (Burl Ives) "Won't be any happy returns?"
• (Paul Newman) "Please just let me go home. Leave the place to Goober and Mae."
• (Burl Ives) "Leave the place? Who said I was gonna leave the place? I'll outlive you. I'll bury you."

• (Burl Ives) "Wouldja look at all this stuff? Bought most of it when I took your mother to Europe on that Cook's Tour. Never had such a lousy time in my life. I tell you that Europe ain't nothin' but a wore-out auction, just a great big fire sale, the whole rotten thing. Boy, Big Mama just wild in it, and she just bought and bought and bought. Sure is lucky I'm a rich man, yes, sirree, sure is lucky. Got any idea how much I'm worth, son? Ask Gooper. He knows. He knows to the penny 'less I missed my guess. Close on ten million dollars in cash and blue chip stocks besides twenty-eight thousand of the richest acres this side of the Valley Nile."
• (Paul Newman) "Well, that is pretty rich to be."
• (Burl Ives) "But, there's one thing you can't buy at any European fire sale,"
• (Burl Ives) "or any other market on Earth. That's your life. You can't buy back your life when it's finished."
• (Paul Newman) "No, sir, no-one can."
• (Burl Ives) "Feelin' sorry for me, or for you?"
• (Paul Newman) "For you, Papa."
• (Burl Ives) "That's good, 'cause you're gonna miss me, boy."

• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "Did the storm cause any damage, Big Daddy?"
• (Burl Ives) "Which storm you talking about, the one on the outside or the hullabaloo I heard going on in here? Heard some mighty loud talking. What's the powwow about?"
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "Nothing, Big Daddy, nothing at all."
• (Burl Ives) "What's in them important-looking documents you got there, Gooper?"
• (Jack Carson) "Nothing, sir, nothing much of anything at all."

Jack Carson as Gooper Pollitt

• (Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt) "What's all this about?"
• (Jack Carson) "Doc, Big Mama wants the whole truth about the report we got from the clinic today."
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "The truth, the truth. Everybody keeps hollering about the truth. Well, the truth is as dirty as lies."
• (Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt) "Is there something I don't know, Doc?"
• (Larry Gates) "Well, Ida --"
• (Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt) "I want to know. Somebody must be lying. I want to know about my husand."
• (Larry Gates) "He had the most thorough examination ever given at the Oppenheim clinic."
• (Jack Carson) "It's one of the best in the country."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "It's the best in the country, bar none."
• (Jack Carson) "They were ninety-nine percent sure before they even started."
• (Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt) "Sure of what?"
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "Not now."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "The test was positive."
• (Jack Carson) "Mae, shut up."
• (Larry Gates) "It's helpless, Ida. He knows it, too."

• (Jack Carson) "The point is I won't see this place run into the ground by a drunken ex-football hero."
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "You shut up about my husband."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "You shut up."

• (Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt) "I'm talking in Big Daddy's languge now. I'm his wife, not his widow. I'm still his wif."
• (Jack Carson) "What we've got here --"
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "What Gooper's saying is just a plan, a basis."
• (Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt) "I'll tell you what your plan is. Margaret, what is it Big Daddy always says when he's disgusted?"
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "He says bull when he's disgusted."
• (Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt) "Yes, that's right. I say bull too, like Big Daddy."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "Well, coarse language don't seem called for to me."
• (Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt) "Bull."

• (Jack Carson) "You said I never loved Big Daddy. How would you know? How would he know? Did he ever let anybody love him? It was always Brick, always. From the day he was born, he was always partial to Brick. Why? Big Daddy wanted me to become a lawyer. I became a lawyer. He said to get married, I got married. He said to have kids, I had kids. He said to live in Memphis, I lived in Memphis. Whatever he said to do, I did."

• (Jack Carson) "Why don't you go up there and drink with Brick if the conquerin' hero hasn't passed out already? He may have to pass up the Sugar Bowl this year or was it the Rose Bowl he made his famous run in?"
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "It was the punch bowl, Honey, the cut-glass punch bowl."

• (Jack Carson) "I don't give a damn whether Big Daddy likes me, or don't likes me. Or did or never did. Or will or will never."

Paul Newman as Brick Pollitt

• (Paul Newman) "Why is Uncle Brick on the floor?"
• (Paul Newman) "Because I tried to kill your Aunt Maggie. But I failed. And I fell."

• (Paul Newman) "I'm ashamed, Big Daddy. That's why I'm a drunk. When I'm drunk, I can stand myself."
• (Burl Ives) "But it's always there in the mornin', ain't it? The truth and it's here right now."
• (Burl Ives) "You're just feeling sorry for yourself; that's all it is. Self-pity."
• (Burl Ives) "You didn't kill Skipper. He killed himself. You and Skipper and millions like you are living in a kids' world. Playing games, touchdowns, no worries, no responsibilities. Life ain't no damn football game. Life ain't just a buncha high spots."
• (Burl Ives) "You're a thirty-year-old kid. Soon you'll be a fifty-year-old kid. Pretendin' you're hearin' cheers when there ain't any. Dreamin' and drinkin' your life away. Heroes in the real world live twenty-four hours a day, not just two hours in a game. Mendacity. You won't --"
• (Burl Ives) "You won't live with mendacity? Well, you're an expert at it. The truth is pain and sweat and payin' bills and makin' love to a woman that you don't love any more. Truth is dreams that don't come true, and nobody prints your name in the paper 'til you die."

• (Paul Newman) "Why'd you let Mama buy all this stuff?"
• (Burl Ives) "The human animal is a beast that must die. If he's got money, he buys and buys and buys everything he can, in the crazy hope one of those things will be life-everlasting, which it can never be. I've suddenly noticed you don't call me Big Daddy anymore. If you needed a big daddy, why didn't you come to me? If you needed someone to lean on, why Skipper? Why not me? I'm your father. Why didn't you come to your kinfolk, the people that love you?"
• (Paul Newman) "You don't know what love means. To you, it's just another four-letter word."
• (Burl Ives) "You've got a mighty short memory. What was there you ever wanted that I didn't buy?"
• (Paul Newman) "You can't buy love."
• (Burl Ives) "Who do you think I bought it for? It's yours. The place, the money, everything's yours."
• (Paul Newman) "I don't want things."

• (Paul Newman) "Big Daddy, Big Daddy. Now, what makes him so big? His big heart, his big belly, or his big money?"

• (Paul Newman) "People like doing what they used to do, after they've stopped being able to do it."

• (Paul Newman) "But, how in hell on earth can you imagine you're gonna have a child with a man who cannot stand you."

• (Paul Newman) "Careful Maggie, your claws are showing."

• (Paul Newman) "It'll kill the pain, that's all."
• (Burl Ives) "It'll kill the senses too. You -- you got pain; at least you know you're alive."
• (Burl Ives) "It's easin' somewhat now. When you got pain, it's better to judge yourself of a lot of things. I'm not gonna stupify myself with that stuff. I wanna think clear. I want to see everything, and I want to feel everything. Then I won't mind goin'. I've got the guts to die. What I want to know; do you have the guts to live?"
• (Paul Newman) "I don't know."
• (Burl Ives) "We can start by helping each other up this stairs."

• (Paul Newman) "What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?"
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "Just staying on it I guess, long as she can."

• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "We've still got one thing on our side. No, two things. Are my seams straight? Big Daddy dotes on you, Brick. He can't stand Brother Man and Brother Man's wife. That fertility monster, she's downright odious to him, I can tell. That's the second thing we've got on our side. He likes me. The way he looks me up and down and over, he's still got an eye for girls."
• (Paul Newman) "That kind of talk is disgusting."
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "Did anybody ever tell you you're a back-aching Puritan, Brick? I think it's a fine thing that a man on the doorstep of death can still look at a woman like me with what I call deserved appreciation."

• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "Thank you for keeping still, for backing me up in my lie."
• (Paul Newman) "Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door."

• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "You know what I feel like? I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof."
• (Paul Newman) "Then jump off the roof, Maggie. Jump off it. Cats jump off roofs and land uninjured. Do it. Jump."
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "Jump where? Into what?"

• (Paul Newman) "A family crisis brings out the best and the worst in every member of the family."
• (Jack Carson) "That's the truth."
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "Amen."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "You want to talk about the truth? You're not pregnant."
• (Jack Carson) "Keep still, Mae."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "She's making it up."
• (Jack Carson) "I said shut up."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "Don't you try to kid us, Maggie."
• (Paul Newman) "Mae, she's not kidding you."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "How can she be pregnant by you when you won't even --"
• (Jack Carson) "Mae, will you be quiet."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "We occupy the next room and the walls between aren't soundproof. We hear the nightly pleadings and the nightly refusals."
• (Paul Newman) "Not everybody makes as much noise about love as you do."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "Brick, I never thought you would stoop to her level."
• (Paul Newman) "You heard what Big Daddy said. That girl's got life in her body."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "That's a lie."

• (Paul Newman) "Don't make a fool of yourself, Maggie."
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "I don't mind making a fool of myself over you."
• (Paul Newman) "Well, I mind. I feel embarrassed for you."
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "Feel embarrassed? Well, I can't live on this way."
• (Paul Newman) "You agreed to accept that condition."
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "I know I did. But I can't. I can't."

• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "You've got to."
• (Paul Newman) "I don't have to do anything I don't want to. Now, you keep forgetting the conditions on which I agreed to stay on living with you."
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "I'm not living with you. We occupy the same cage, that's all."

Larry Gates as Dr. Baugh

• (Larry Gates) "Sometimes I wish I had a pill to make people disappear."

Madeleine Sherwood as Mae Pollitt

• (Madeleine Sherwood) "Gooper is your first born. Why he always had to carry a bigger load of the resposibilities than Brick? Brick never carried a thing in his life but a football or a high ball."

• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "This is a deliberate campaign to ruin Brick."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "He don't need no help."
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "And for the most sordid reasons on earth. Greed. Avarice and greed."
• (Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt) "Margaret, darling, don't cry."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "Well, that takes the cake. Who are the tears for? Brick? Big Daddy? Or are they for yourself? Are you crying cause you're childless? You know why she's got no kids? Ask her big, beautiful husband."
• (Jack Carson) "Mae."

• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "Look, Mama, he's wearing Brick's birthday present. I haven't given you my present yet, but I will now. I have an announcement to make."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "What kind of an announcement?"
• (Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt) "An announcement of life beginning. A child is coming, sired by Brick out of Maggie the cat. I have Brick's child in my body, and that is my present to you."
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "Did you ever in all your born days hear such a bold-faced lie?"
• (Jack Carson) "Shut up."
• (Ida 'Big Momma' Pollitt) "Thank you. Thank you very much."
• (Burl Ives) "Yes indeed, this girl has life in her body. And that's no lie. Gooper, I want to talk to my lawyer in the morning. Brick?"
• (Paul Newman) "Yes, Big Daddy?"
• (Burl Ives) "I'm going to go out and look this place over before I give it up. The place and the people on it."

• (Madeleine Sherwood) "Gooper?"
• (Madeleine Sherwood) "What have all the chil'ens been shot for?"
• (Jack Carson) "Everything 'cept shootin' chickens, I guess."

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