Born Yesterday (1950)

Judy Holliday: Billie Dawn

Photos 

Quotes 

• Billie : Would you do me a favor, Harry?

  Harry Brock : What?

  Billie : Drop dead!

• Billie : Because when ya steal from the government, you're stealing from yourself, ya dumb ox.

• Billie : This country and its institutions belong to the people who inhibit it.

  Paul : inHABit.

  Billie : InHABit it.

• Billie : You could have saved yourself the trouble. I don't read papers.

  Paul : Never?

  Billie : Yeah, once in a while the back part... the funnies.

  Paul : Oh, I think you should. The, the front part... the not-so-funnies.

• Paul : Nobody's born smart, Billie. Do you know what the stupidest thing on Earth is? An infant!

  Billie : Whadaya got against babies all of a sudden?

• Harry Brock : Shut up! You ain't gonna be tellin' nobody nothin' pretty soon!

  Billie : DOUBLE NEGATIVE! Right?

  Paul : Right.

• Harry Brock : What's a peninsula?

  Billie : Shhhh.

  Harry Brock : Don't gimme that "shush." You think you're so smart, huh - what's a peninsula?

  Paul : It's a...

  Harry Brock : Not you, her.

  Billie : It's that new medicine...

• Paul : Harry's a menace.

  Billie : He's not so bad. I seen worse.

  Paul : Has he ever thought of anyone but himself?

  Billie : Who does?

  Paul : Millions of people, Billie. The whole history of the world is a story of a struggle between the selfish and the unselfish.

  Billie : I can hear you.

  Paul : All that's bad around us is bred by selfishness. Sometimes selfishness can even get to be a - a cause, an organized force, even a government. And then it's called fascism. Can you understand that?

  Billie : Sort of.

  Paul : Well, think about it.

  Billie : You're crazy about me, aren't ya?

  Paul : Yes.

  Billie : That's why you're so mad at Harry.

  Paul : Listen, I hate his life, what he does, what he stands for - not him. He just doesn't know any better.

  Billie : I go for you too.

• Billie : All that stuff I've been studying, what Paul's been tellin' me, it just mixed me up. But when you hit me before, it was like everything knocked itself together in my head and made sense. All of the sudden I realized what it means: how some people are always givin', and some takin'. And it's not fair. So, I'm not gonna let ya anymore - or anybody else.

• Harry Brock : Alright, let's get down to it... what'll ya take, Paul?

  Paul : I'll take a drink, please, if I may.

  Harry Brock : Don't get fancy with me! I ain't met a guy yet didn't have his price.

  Paul : I have.

  Harry Brock : I'm talkin' about big numbers!

  Billie : You an' your big numbers, you don' watch out, you'll be wearing one across yer chest!

• Billie : One night I brought home a hundred dollars and gave it to him. You know what he did?... Well, it sure didn't do the plumbing no good.

• Harry Brock : Why, you double-crossin' little...

  Billie : I don't see it like that! If there's a fire and I call the engine, so who am I double-crossin'? The fire?

• Paul : I don't suppose you got a chance to read my piece.

  Billie : What are you talkin'? Of course I read it. Twice!

  Paul : What'd you think?

  Billie : I think it's the best thing I ever read. I didn't understand one word.

• Billie : You don't own me. Nobody can own anybody. There's a law that says.

  Harry Brock : What do I care what the law says. If I was scared of the law, I wouldn't be where I am!

• Billie : How about the story of your life?

  Paul : Oh no. Much too long... and mostly untrue.

• Billie : He's right. I'm stupid and I like it.

• Billie : Drips.

  Harry Brock : What?

  Billie : I said they're drips.

  Harry Brock : Who are you to say?

  Billie : I'm myself, that's who.

  Harry Brock : Well, nobody asked you. Shut up.

  Billie : Pardon me for livin'.

• Billie : Let me ask you. Are you one of these talkers - or would you be interested in a little action?

  Paul : [He looks confused]  What?

  Billie : I got a yen for you right off.

  Paul : Well, do you get many?

  Billie : Now and then.

  Paul : What do you do about them?

  Billie : [giggles]  Stick around, you'll find out.

  Paul : Alright, I will.

  Billie : And if you want a tip, I'll tell you. Sweet talk me. I like it. Like the "lovely girl" line.

  [Paul looks nervous, stands up and looks around] 

  Billie : Don't worry about him. He don't see a thing. He's too dizzy from bein' a big man.

  Paul : Well, this is going to be a little different from what I thought.

  Billie : Do you mind?

  Paul : No.

  Billie : It's only fair. We'll educate each other.

  Paul : Yeah.

• Harry Brock : You're doin' all right, ain't ya? Somethin' you want you ain't got, maybe?

  Billie : Yeah.

  Harry Brock : What?

  Billie : I want to be like the happy peasant.

  Harry Brock : All right, I'll buy it for you. Now, will you quit crabbin'!

• Billie : That cheap perfume you put on yourself.

  Harry Brock : Cheap? I don't own nothin' cheap, except you!

• Billie : Maybe it's right what you say: I'm still dumb. But I know one thing I never knew before. There's a better kind of life than the one I got.

• Paul : Your friend, Mr. Brock has an idea. He'd like us to spend a little time together. You and me, that is.

  Billie : You don't say.

  Paul : Yes.

  Billie : Well, what are you, some kind of gigolo?

  Paul : Not exactly.

• Billie : I'm happy. I got everything I want. Two mink coats. Everything. If there's somethin' I want, I ask.

• Billie : It's interesting how many interesting things a person could learn - if they read.

• Billie : So, as long as I know how to get what I want, that's all I wanna know.

  Paul : As long as you know what you want.

  Billie : Sure. What?

  Paul : As long as you *know* what you want.

  Billie : Are you tryin' to mix me up?

  Paul : Well, no.

• Paul : "Democratic." You know what that means, don't you?

  Billie : Not Republican.

• Paul : What didn't you understand?

  Billie : Well, like the name of it: "The Yellowing Democratic Manifesto."

  Paul : Simple!

  Billie : To who? Whom? Who? Well, anyway, not to me.

• Billie : I like to like what's better to like.

• Jim Devery : How are you, Billie?

  Billie : Superb. A new word.

• Harry Brock : I picked you up out of the gutter! I can throw you back! You never had a decent meal until you met me!

  Billie : Yeah, but, I haven't had one with you! You eat terrible! You got no manners! Taking your shoes off all the time, and that's another thing, picking your teeth. You're just not couth!

  Harry Brock : I'm as couth as you are!

• Harry Brock : Get off that high horse, you dumb little putt!

  Billie : You - menace!

• Billie : You don't love me. You just love my brain.

• Harry Brock : How can you not wanna marry me?

  Billie : Well, for one thing, you're too dumb. I just got a different kind of life in mind, Harry, entirely. I'm sorry, but you just wouldn't fit in.

• Billie : I don't know if it's good to find out so much so quick.

• Jim Devery : All you have to do is be nice - and no rough language.

  Billie : I won't open my mush.

• Billie : If he don't act friendly - I don't act friendly.

• Billie : He doesn't want to see me since I'm still livin' in an way unethical. I looked it up. He always used to say, "Never do nothin' you wouldn't want printed on the front page of 'The New York Times'."

• Billie : Gosh. I haven't thought about him I bet, but once, even, in five years. Oh, that's nothin' against him. I haven't thought of anything.

• Billie : I never thought I'd go through a thing like this for anybody.

  Paul : Like what?

  Billie : Like gettin' all mixed up in my head, like wondering and worrying and thinking, stuff like that.

• Billie : There's a certain time between a fella and a girl when it either comes off or not. If it doesn't then, then it never does.

• Paul : Look, who said this: "The proper study of mankind is man."

  Billie : I don't know.

  Paul : You should.

  Billie : Why?

  Paul : I told you.

  Billie : I forgot.

  Paul : Pope.

  Billie : The Pope?

  Paul : Not *the* Pope. Alexander Pope.

  Billie : "The proper study...

  Paul : "... of mankind is man."

  Billie : "... of mankind is man." Cause, that means women too.

  Paul : Yes.

  Billie : Yes, I know.

• Paul : The idea of learning is to be bigger, not smaller.

  Billie : Do you think I'm gettin' bigger?

  Paul : Yes!

  Billie : Glad to hear it.

• Billie : What's this business we're in down here? Could you tell me?

  Harry Brock : What do you mean, "we"?

  Billie : Oh, I figure I'm a sort of a partner in a way.

  Harry Brock : A silent partner.

  Billie : So?

  Harry Brock : So, shut up!

• Jim Devery : He won't like it.

  Billie : Why not?

  Jim Devery : Well, he just won't, that's all. He doesn't like people butting in.

  Billie : I'm not people!

• Jim Devery : Listen to me. Be smart.

  Billie : How can I be smart if nobody ever tells me anything?

• Harry Brock : Who are you to say no if I tell ya?

  Billie : Don't knock yourself out. You got a lot of surprises comin'.

• Harry Brock : Listen, Billie, I don't understand what's happenin' around here.

  Billie : I do.

• Paul : How 'bout some ice cream?

  Billie : Anything but tutti frutti.