Mildred Pierce

Mildred Pierce Quotes

A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.

Ida: Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young.
Veda: With this money I can get away from you. From you and your chickens and your pies and your kitchens and everything that smells of grease. I can get away from this shack with its cheap furniture. And this town and its dollar days, and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls.
Veda: You think just because you made a little money you can get a new hairdo and some expensive clothes and turn yourself into a lady. But you can't, because you'll never be anything but a common frump whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing.
Ida: Oh, men. I never yet met one of them that didn't have the instincts of a heel. Sometimes I wish I could get along without them.
Wally: [to Ida] I hate all women. Thank goodness you're not one.
Veda: That's what I like about you, Ida. You're so delightfully provincial.
Ida: [Sarcastically] And I like you, too.
[to Monte]
Ida: Don't look now, Junior, but you're standing under a brick wall.
Monte: I don't get it.
Ida: You will - when it falls on you.
Ida: [to leering customer Wally] Leave something on me - I might catch cold.
Veda: [kissing check] Well, that's that!
Mildred: I'm sorry this had to happen; sorry for the boy, he seemed very nice.
Veda: Oh Ted's all right really. Did you see the look on his face when we told him he was going to be a father?
[laughs]
Mildred: I wish you wouldn't joke about it.
Veda: Mother, you're a scream, really you are. The next thing I know you'll be knitting little garments.
[laughs]
Mildred: I don't see anything so ridiculous about that.
Veda: If I were you, I'd save myself the trouble.
Mildred: [pause] You're not going to have a baby?
Veda: At this stage, it's a matter of opinion. And in my opinion, I'm going to have a baby. I can always be mistaken.
Inspector Peterson: You know, Mrs. Beragon, there are times when I regret being a policeman.
Lottie: [on the opening of Mildred's restaurant] This is just like my wedding night, so exciting!
Mildred: I was always in the kitchen. I felt as though I'd been born in a kitchen and lived there all my life, except for the few hours it took to get married.
Mildred: Sold...
[holds up glass to toast]
Mildred: One Beragon.
Wally: Not too much ice in that drink you're about to make for me.
Wally: My client feels, and I am in complete accord with her, that she has been irrep - ih...
Mrs. Forrester's lawyer: 'Irreparably'?
Wally: ...unduly damaged. Therefore there is one more little formality that we should discuss first.
Mrs. Forrester's lawyer: What's that, Mr. Fay?
Wally: The financial settlement. You see, my client would like ten thousand dollars.
Mrs. Forrester's lawyer: I think I'm safe in observing that almost anyone would like ten thousand dollars, Mr. Fay. But ih -...
Wally: But ih - ?
Mrs. Forrester's lawyer: We see no necessity for a financial settlement of any kind.
Wally: You don't, huh?
Mrs. Forrester's lawyer: No.
Wally: [Smirk] You will.
Monte: Oh, I wish I could get that interested in work.
Ida: You were probably frightened by a callus at an early age!
Mildred: That Ted Forrester's nice-looking, isn't he? Veda likes him.
Monte: Who wouldn't? He has a million dollars.
Mildred: Cut it out, Wally. You make me feel like Little Red Riding Hood.
Wally: And I'm the Big Bad Wolf, huh? Now, Milly, you've got me all wrong. I'm a romantic guy, but I'm no wolf.
Mildred: Then quit howling!
Mildred: You've been snooping around ever since I got this job, trying to find out what it is - and now you know - you know don't you.
Veda: [innocently] Know what? Know what mother?
Mildred: You knew when you gave that uniform to Lottie that it was mine didn't you.
Veda: [feigns surprise] Your uniform!
Mildred: Yes, I'm waiting tables in a downtown restaurant.
Veda: [contemptuous] My mother - a waitress.
Ida: I like Mexico; it's so... Mexican.
Mildred: Wally, you should be kept on a leash! Now why can't you be friendly?
Wally: But I *am* being friendly!
Mildred: No, I mean it. Friendship's much more lasting than love.
Wally: Yeah, but it isn't as entertaining.
Mr. Jones: Why do you always interrupt?
Ida: It's only because I want to be alone with you. Come 'ere and let me bite you, you darling man! Ruff!
Wally: There's something about the sound of my own voice that fascinates me.
Wally: You know, this is a pretty big night for you.
Policeman #1: Yeah?
Wally: Yeah, lots of excitement. There's a stiff in there!
Policeman #1: Is that so? Oh and I suppose you were running right down to the station to report it?
Wally: [forced laugh]
Policeman #1: Yeah...
[to partner]
Policeman #1: Say, he say's there's a dead guy in the house.
Policeman #2: You never saw a deader.
Wally: You know, you keep on refusing me, and one of these days I'm going to start thinking you're stubborn.
Ida: When men get around me, they get allergic to wedding rings.
Monte: Drink?
Mildred: You drink too much.
Monte: I know, I do too much of everything. I'm spoiled.
Mildred: You've too many sisters... They all seem to be my size too.
Monte: I know, I like them your size.
[raises glass]
Monte: To brotherly love.
Veda: It's the dress. It's awfully cheap material. I can tell by the smell.
Kay Pierce: What did you expect? Want it inlaid with gold?
Veda: Well, it seems to me, if you're buying anything, it should be the best. This is definitely not the best.
Kay Pierce: Oh, quit. You're breakin' my heart.
Mildred: I'm sorry I did that... I'd've rather cut off my hand!
Monte: We weren't expecting you Mildred, obviously.
Veda: It's just as well you know. I'm glad you know.
Mildred: How long has this been going on?
Kay Pierce: You ought to do something about your sit-down.
Veda: What's wrong with it?
Kay Pierce: It sticks out.
Mildred: You look down on me, because I work for a living. Don't you.
Wally: Oh boy! I'm so smart it's a disease!
Ida: What is this, a class reunion?
Ida: Laughing boy seems slightly burned at the edges. What's eating him?
Mildred: A small green-eyed monster.
Ida: Jealous? That doesn't sound like Wally. No profit in it - and there's a boy who loves a dollar.

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