Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver Quotes

A mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge for violent action, attempting to save a preadolescent prostitute in the process.

Travis Bickle: [Travis is trying his guns on the mirror] Huh? Huh?
[Draws]
Travis Bickle: Faster than you, fucking son of a... Saw you coming you fucking... shitheel.
[Reholsters]
Travis Bickle: I'm standing here; you make the move. You make the move. It's your move...
[Draws]
Travis Bickle: Don't try it you fuck.
[Reholsters]
Travis Bickle: You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? OK.
[Draws]
Travis Bickle: Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man.
Travis Bickle: Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up.
Travis Bickle: All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets. I go all over. I take people to the Bronx, Brooklyn, I take 'em to Harlem. I don't care. Don't make no difference to me. It does to some. Some won't even take spooks. Don't make no difference to me.
Travis Bickle: Thank God for the rain to wash the trash off the sidewalk.
Travis Bickle: I realize now how much she's just like the others, cold and distant, and many people are like that, women for sure, they're like a union.
Travis Bickle: You're only as healthy as you feel.
Travis Bickle: The days go on and on... they don't end. All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don't believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention, I believe that one should become a person like other people.
Travis Bickle: I first saw her at Palantine Campaign headquarters at 63rd and Broadway. She was wearing a white dress. She appeared like an angel. Out of this filthy mess, she is alone. They... cannot... touch... her.
Travis Bickle: I got some bad ideas in my head.
Travis Bickle: I'll tell you why. I think you're a lonely person. I drive by this place a lot and I see you here. I see a lot of people around you. And I see all these phones and all this stuff on your desk. It means nothing. Then when I came inside and I met you, I saw in your eyes and I saw the way you carried yourself that you're not a happy person. And I think you need something. And if you want to call it a friend, you can call it a friend.
Betsy: Are you gonna be my friend?
Travis Bickle: Yeah.
Iris: God, you're square.
Travis Bickle: Hey, I'm not square, you're the one that's square. You're full of shit, man. What are you talking about? You walk out with those fuckin' creeps and low-lifes and degenerates out on the streets and you sell your little pussy for peanuts? For some low-life pimp who stands in the hall? And I'm square? You're the one that's square, man. I don't go screwing fuck with a bunch of killers and junkies like you do. You call that bein' hip? What world are you from?
Travis Bickle: June twenty-ninth. I gotta get in shape. Too much sitting has ruined my body. Too much abuse has gone on for too long. From now on there will be 50 pushups each morning, 50 pullups. There will be no more pills, no more bad food, no more destroyers of my body. From now on will be total organization. Every muscle must be tight.
Travis Bickle: I think someone should just take this city and just... just flush it down the fuckin' toilet.
Personnel Officer: Wanna work uptown at nights? South Bronx? Harlem?
Travis Bickle: I'll work anytime, anywhere.
Personnel Officer: Will you work on Jewish holidays?
Travis Bickle: Anytime, anywhere.
Travis Bickle: Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man... June 8th. My life has taken another turn again. The days can go on with regularity over and over, one day indistinguishable from the next. A long continuous chain. Then suddenly, there is a change.
[last lines]
Betsy: Travis, I'm... how much was it?
[Travis clears meter]
Travis Bickle: So long.
Travis Bickle: [Walks up to Sport] Hey Sport. How ya doin'?
Sport: Okay, okay my man, how... Where do I know you from, man?
Travis Bickle: I don't know. How's everything in the pimp business, huh?
Sport: Do I know you?
Travis Bickle: No. Do I know you?
Sport: Get outta here. Come on, get lost, huh.
Travis Bickle: Do I know you? How's Iris? You know Iris.
Sport: No, I don't know nobody name Iris. Iris? Come on, get outta here, man.
Travis Bickle: You don't know anybody by the name of Iris?
Sport: I don't know nobody name Iris!
Travis Bickle: No?
Sport: Hey, go back to your fuckin' tribe before you get hurt, huh man. Do me a favor, I don't want no trouble, huh. Okay?
Travis Bickle: You got a gun?
Sport: Get the fuck outta here, man.
[Flicks his cigarette at him]
Sport: Get outta here
[Kicks him]
Sport: .
Travis Bickle: Suck on this.
[Travis shoots him with a revolver in the stomach and walks away]
Wizard: Look at it this way. A man takes a job, you know? And that job - I mean, like that - That becomes what he is. You know, like - You do a thing and that's what you are. Like I've been a cabbie for thirteen years. Ten years at night. I still don't own my own cab. You know why? Because I don't want to. That must be what I want. To be on the night shift drivin' somebody else's cab. You understand? I mean, you become - You get a job, you become the job. One guy lives in Brooklyn. One guy lives in Sutton Place. You got a lawyer. Another guy's a doctor. Another guy dies. Another guy gets well. People are born, y'know? I envy you, your youth. Go on, get laid, get drunk. Do anything. You got no choice, anyway. I mean, we're all fucked. More or less, ya know.
Travis Bickle: I don't know. That's about the dumbest thing I ever heard.
Wizard: It's not Bertrand Russell. But what do you want? I'm a cabbie. What do I know? I don't even know what the fuck you're talking about.
Travis Bickle: Maybe I don't know either.
Travis Bickle: Now I see this clearly. My whole life is pointed in one direction. There never has been a choice for me.
Travis Bickle: Shit... I'm waiting for the sun to shine.
Travis Bickle: I would say he has quite a few problems. His energy seems to go in the wrong places. When I walked in and I saw you two sitting there, I could just tell by the way you were both relating that there was no connection whatsoever. And I felt when I walked in that there was something between us. There was an impulse that we were both following. So that gave me the right to come in and talk to you. Otherwise I never would have felt that I had the right to talk to you or say anything to you. I never would have had the courage to talk to you. And with him I felt there was nothing and I could sense it. When I walked in, I knew I was right. Did you feel that way?
Betsy: I wouldn't be here if I didn't.
Betsy: You know what you remind me of?
Travis Bickle: What?
Betsy: That song by Kris Kristofferson.
Travis Bickle: Who's that?
Betsy: A songwriter. 'He's a prophet... he's a prophet and a pusher, partly truth, partly fiction. A walking contradiction.'
Travis Bickle: [uneasily] You sayin' that about me?
Betsy: Who else would I be talkin' about?
Travis Bickle: I'm no pusher. I never have pushed.
Betsy: No, no. Just the part about the contradictions. You are that.
Travis Bickle: Each night when I return the cab to the garage, I have to clean the cum off the back seat. Some nights, I clean off the blood.
Wizard: You get a job. You become the job.
Travis Bickle: Hello Betsy. Hi, it's Travis. How ya doin'? Listen, uh, I'm, I'm sorry about the, the other night. I didn't know that was the way you felt about it. Well, I-I didn't know that was the way you felt. I-I-I would have taken ya somewhere else. Uh, are you feeling better or oh you maybe had a virus or somethin', a 24-hour virus you know. It happens. Yeah, umm, you uh, you're workin' hard. Yeah. Uh, would you like to have, uh, some dinner, uh with me in the next, you know, few days or somethin'? Well, how about just a cup of coffee? I'll come by the, uh, headquarters or somethin', we could, uh... Oh, OK, OK. Did you get my flowers in the...? You didn't get them. I sent some flowers, uh... Yeah, well, OK, OK. Can I call you again? Uh, tomorrow or the next day? OK. No, I'm gonna... OK. Yeah, sure, OK. So long.
Travis Bickle: I should get one of those signs that says "One of these days I'm gonna get organezized".
Betsy: You mean organized?
Travis Bickle: Organezized. Organezized. It's a joke. O-R-G-A-N-E-Z-I-Z-E-D...
Betsy: Oh, you mean organezized. Like those little signs they have in offices that says, "Thimk"?
Travis Bickle: The idea had been growing in my brain for some time: TRUE force. All the king's men cannot put it back together again.
Travis Bickle: Twelve hours of work and I still can't sleep. Damn. Days go on and on. They don't end.
Passenger: Have you ever seen what a .44 Magnum will do to a woman's pussy? Now that you should see. What a .44 Magnum will do to a woman's pussy that you should see?
Betsy: Taking me to a place like this is about as exciting as saying to me "Let's fuck."
Personnel Officer: How's your driving record? Clean?
Travis Bickle: It's clean, real clean. Like my conscience.
Sport: I once had a horse, on Coney Island. She got hit by a car.
Sport: Well, take it or leave it. If you want to save yourself some money, don't fuck her. Cause you'll be back here every night for some more. Man, she's twelve and a half years old. You never had no pussy like that. You can do anything you want with her. You can cum on her, fuck her in the mouth, fuck her in the ass, cum on her face, man. She get your cock so hard she'll make it explode. But no rough stuff, all right?
Wizard: In the middle of the bridge she changes her pantyhose.
Personnel Officer: So what is it? Why do you want to be a taxi driver? Do you need a second job? Are you moonlighting?
Travis Bickle: I... I just want to work long hours. What's moonlighting?
Sport: You're a funny guy - but looks aren't everything.
[first lines]
[a telephone rings loudly]
Personnel Officer: [to the dispatcher] Harry, answer that.
[to Travis]
Personnel Officer: So whaddya want to hack for, Bickle?
Travis Bickle: I can't sleep nights.
Personnel Officer: There's porno theaters for that.
Travis Bickle: Yeah, I know. I tried that.
Personnel Officer: So what do you do now?
Travis Bickle: Well, I ride around nights mostly... subways, buses... I figure, you know, if I'm gonna do that I might as well get paid for it.
Passenger: [to Travis] You see that window with the light? The one closet to the edge of the building? you know who lives there? Of course you don't know who lives there, but I'm saying "Do you know who lives there?" A Nigger lives there, and that isn't my apartment. My wife is in there and... I'm gonna kill her.
[laughs]
Passenger: I'm gonna kill her with a .44 Magnum.
Wizard: Hey Travis, this here's Doughboy. We call him that 'cause he'll do anything for a buck.
Doughboy: Hi Travis. Got change of a nickel?
Travis Bickle: You got a .44 magnum?
Andy, Gun Salesman: It's an expensive weapon.
Travis Bickle: That's all right. I got money.
Andy, Gun Salesman: It's a real monster. It'll stop a car at a hundred yards. Put a round right through the engine block.
Street drummer: Now back to Gene Krupa's syncopated style
Iris: I don't like what I'm doing, Sport.
Sport: Ah, baby, I don't want you to like what you're doing. If you like what you're doing, then you won't be my woman.
Doughboy: Sometimes, I like to hold a midget.
Senator Charles Palantine: I think I know what you mean, Travis.
Iris: I think that... that Cancers make the best lovers.
Travis Bickle: How's everything in the pimp business?
Travis Bickle: Let me tell you something. You're in a hell, and you're gonna die in a hell, just like the rest of 'em!
Concession Girl: Can I help you?
Travis Bickle: Hi, what's your name. My name's Travis.
Concession Girl: That's nice. What can I do for you?
Travis Bickle: Well, I'd like to know your name.
Concession Girl: [sighs] Give me a break.
Travis Bickle: You're a young girl, you should be at home. You should be dressed up, going out with boys, going to school, you know, that kind of stuff.
Charlie T: My man is loaded.
Sport: See ya later, copper!
Travis Bickle: I'm no cop, man.
Sport: Well, if you are, then it's entrapment already.
Senator Charles Palantine: We meet at a crossroads in history. No longer will the wrong roads be taken.

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