Death of a Salesman Quotes Only

"Well, dear, life is a casting off. It's always that way."

Linda

"Well, there's nine-sixty for the washing machine. And for the vacuum cleaner there's three and a half due on the fifteenth. Then the roof, you got twenty-one dollars remaining."

Linda

(About a watch fob) You pawned it, dear. Twelve, thirteen years ago. For Biff's radio correspondence course.

Linda

(To Biff) How would I write to you? For over three months you had no address.

Linda

"No, with a ranch I could do the work I like and still be something. I just wonder though. I wonder if Oliver still thinks I stole that carton of basketballs."

Biff

"Sometimes I want to just rip my clothes off in the middle of the store and outbox that goddam merchandise manager. I mean I can outbox, outrun, and outlift anybody in that store, and I have to take orders from those common, petty sons-of- bitches till I can't stand it any more."

Biff

"Sure, maybe we could buy a ranch. Raise cattle, use our muscles. Men built like we are should be working out in the open."

Biff

"Well, I spent six or seven years after high school trying to work myself up. Shipping clerk, salesman, business of one kind or another. And it's a measly manner of exis- tence. To get on that subway on the hot mornings in summer. To devote your whole life to keeping stock, or making phone calls, or selling or buying. To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation, when all you really desire is to be outdoors, with your shirt off. And always to have to get ahead of the next fella. And still—that's how you build a future."

Biff

"Well, I think he was going to. I think that's why I quit. I was never sure whether he knew or not. I know he thought the world of me, though. I was the only one he'd let lock up the place."

Biff

(To Linda) Stop making excuses for him! He always, always wiped the floor with you. Never had an ounce of respect for you.

Biff

He's got no character—Charley wouldn't do this. Not in his own house—spewing out that vomit from his mind.

Biff

Don't know what it is. My New England man comes back and he's bleedin', they murdered him up there.

Charley

Glad to hear it, Willy. Come in later, we'll shoot a little casino. I'll take some of your Portland money.

Charley

He won't starve. None a them starve. Forget about him.

Charley

I heard some noise. I thought something hap- pened. Can't we do something about the walls? You sneeze in here, and in my house hats blow off.

Charley

Listen, if they steal any more from that building the watchman'll put the cops on them!

Charley

Willy, the jails are full of fearless characters.

Charley

You take it too hard. To hell with it. When a deposit bottle is broken you don't get your nickel back.

Charley

(To Biff) When you write you're coming, he's all smiles, and talks about the future, and—he's just wonderful. And then the closer you seem to come, the more shaky he gets, and then, by the time you get here, he's arguing, and he seems angry at you. I think it's just that maybe he can't bring himself to—to open up to you. Why are you so hateful to each other? Why is that?

Linda

Biff, a man is not a bird, to come and go with the springtime.

Linda

Biff, dear, if you don't have any feeling for him, then you can't have any feeling for me.

Linda

But you're doing wonderful, dear. You're making seventy to a hundred dollars a week.

Linda

He's too rough with the girls, Willy. All the mothers are afraid of him!

Linda

No. You can't just come to see me, because I love him. [With a threat, but only a threat, of tears] He's the dearest man in the world to me, and I won't have anyone making him feel unwanted and low and blue. You've got to make up your mind now, darling, there's no leeway any more. Either he's your father and you pay him that respect, or else you're not to come here. I know he's not easy to get along with—nobody knows that better than me—but . . .

Linda

You're such a boy! You think you can go away for a year and . . . You've got to get it into your head now that one day you'll knock on this door and there'll be strange people here—

Linda

"There's more people! That's what's ruining this country! Population is getting out of control. The compe- tition is maddening! Smell the stink from that apartment house! And another one on the other side . . . "

Willy

"They don't need me in New York. I'm the New England man. I'm vital in New England."

Willy

"When the hell did I lose my temper? I simply asked him if he was making any money. Is that a criticism?"

Willy

"Why don't you go down to the place tomorrow and tell Howard you've simply got to work in New York? You're too accommodating, dear." This quote was delivered by Linda to

Willy

'Cause I get so lonely—especially when business is bad and there's nobody to talk to. I get the feeling that I'll never sell anything again, that I won't make a living for you, or a business, a business for the boys.

Willy

(About Ben) Didn't Linda tell you? Couple of weeks ago we got a letter from his wife in Africa. He died.

Willy

(About Ben) There was the only man I ever met who knew the answers.

Willy

(About Charley) Now all you need is a golf club and you can go upstairs and go to sleep. [To ben] Great athlete! Between him and his son Bernard they can't hammer a nail!

Willy

(To Ben) I remember I was sitting under the wagon in— was it Nebraska?

Willy

(To Charley) A man who can't handle tools is not a man. You're disgusting.

Willy

(To Charley) If you don't know how to play the game I'm not gonna throw my money away on you!

Willy

(To Charley) No, you're ignorant. You gotta know about vitamins and things like that.

Willy

(To Happy) You'll retire me for life on seventy goddam dollars a week? And your women and your car and your apartment, and you'll retire me for life! Christ's sake, I couldn't get past Yonkers today! Where are you guys, where are you? The woods are burning! I can't drive a car!

Willy

(To Linda) Gotta break your neck to see a star in this yard.

Willy

About Ben) Naa, he had seven sons. There's just one opportunity I had with that man . .

Willy

Business is bad, it's murderous. But not for me, of course.

Willy

But I gotta be at it ten, twelve hours a day. Other men—I don't know—they do it easier. I don't know why —I can't stop myself—I talk too much. A man oughta come in with a few words. One thing about Charley. He's a man of few words, and they respect him.

Willy

Can't you stay a few days? You're just what I need, Ben, because I—I have a fine position here, but I—well, Dad left when I was such a baby and I never had a chance to talk to him and I still feel—kind of tem- porary about myself.

Willy

Did you see the ceiling I put up in the living- room?

Willy

I didn't tell you, but Christmas time I happened to be calling on F. H. Stewarts, and a salesman I know, as I was going in to see the buyer I heard him say something about—walrus. And I—I cracked him right across the face. I won't take that. I simply will not take that. But they do laugh at me. I know that.

Willy

I don't know the reason for it, but they just pass me by. I'm not noticed.

Willy

I gave them hell, understand. But I got a couple of fearless characters there

Willy

I got an awful scare. Nearly hit a kid in Yonkers. God! Why didn't I go to Alaska with my brother Ben that time! Ben! That man was a genius, that man was success incarnate! What a mistake! He begged me to go.

Willy

I gotta overcome it. I know I gotta overcome it. I'm not dressing to advantage, maybe.

Willy

Loaded with it. Loaded! What is he stealing? He's giving it back, isn't he? Why is he stealing? What did I tell him? I never in my life told him anything but decent things.

Willy

No, Ben! Please tell about Dad. I want my boys to hear. I want them to know the kind of stock they spring from. All I remember is a man with a big beard, and I was in Mamma's lap, sitting around a fire, and some kind of high music.

Willy

Oh, sure, there's snakes and rabbits and—that's why I moved out here. Why, Biff can fell any one of these trees in no time! Boys! Go right over to where they're build- ing the apartment house and get some sand. We're gonna rebuild the entire front stoop right now! Watch this, Ben!

Willy

There's nothing the matter with him! You want him to be a worm like Bernard? He's got spirit, personality . . .

Willy

Well, I figure, what the hell, life is short, a couple of jokes. [To himself ] I joke too much! [The smile goes.]

Willy

What's the mystery? The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he's rich! The world is an oyster, but you don't crack it open on a mattress!

Willy

Whatever happened to that diamond watch fob? Remember? When Ben came from Africa that time? Didn't he give me a watch fob with a diamond in it?

Willy

You guys! There was a man started with the clothes on his back and ended up with diamond mines?

Willy

You shoulda seen the lumber they brought home last week. At least a dozen six-by-tens worth all kinds a money.

Willy

You'll give him the answers!

Willy

(To Wily) It was South Dakota, and I gave you a bunch of wildflowers.

Ben

At that age I had a very faulty view of geography, William. I discovered after a few days that I was heading due south, so instead of Alaska, I ended up in Africa.

Ben

Father was a very great and a very wild-hearted man. We would start in Boston, and he'd toss the whole family into the wagon, and then he'd drive the team right across the country; through Ohio, and Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and all the Western states. And we'd stop in the towns and sell the flutes that he'd made on the way. Great inventor, Father. With one gadget he made more in a week than a man like you could make in a lifetime.

Ben

I have an appointment in Ketchikan Tuesday week.

Ben

Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You'll never get out of the jungle that way.

Ben

Why boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. [He laughs.] And by God I was rich.

Ben

"Just because he printed University of Virginia on his sneakers doesn't mean they've got to graduate him"

Bernard

(About Biff) He's driving the car without a license!

Bernard

I do, but I can't on a Regents! That's a state exam! They're liable to arrest me!

Bernard

If he doesn't buckle down he'll flunk math!

Bernard

The watchman's chasing Biff !

Bernard

"Everything I say there's a twist of mockery on his face. I can't get near him." In this quote, _________ is talking about Willy

Biff

"Hap, I've had twenty or thirty different kinds of job since I left home before the war, and it always turns out the same... This farm I work on, it's spring there now, see? ... And whenever spring comes to where I am, I suddenly get the feeling, my God, I'm not gettin' anywhere! What the hell am I doing, playing around with horses, twenty-eight dollars a week! I'm thirty-four years old, I oughta be makin' my future. That's when I come running home. And now, I get here, and I don't know what to do with myself. I've always made a point of not wasting my life, and everytime I come back here I know that all I've done is to waste my life.

Biff

"He was crestfallen, Willy. You know how he ad- mires you. I think if he finds himself, then you'll both be happier and not fight any more." In this quote, Linda is talking about

Biff

"How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand? In the beginning, when he was young, I thought, well, a young man, it's good for him to tramp around, take a lot of different jobs. But it's more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week!" In this quote, Willy is talking about

Biff

"I'm takin' one play for Pop. You watch me, Pop, and when I take off my helmet, that means I'm breakin' out. Then you watch me crash through that line!"

Biff

"No, I'm mixed up very bad. Maybe I oughta get married. Maybe I oughta get stuck into something. Maybe that's my trouble. I'm like a boy. I'm not married, I'm not in business, I just—I'm like a boy. Are you content, Hap? You're a success, aren't you? Are you content?"

Biff

"I don't know what gets into me, maybe I just have an overdeveloped sense of competition or something, but I went and ruined her, and furthermore I can't get rid of her. And he's the third executive I've done that to. Isn't that a crummy characteristic? And to top it all, I go to their wed- dings!"

Happy

"I get that any time I want, Biff. Whenever I feel disgusted. The only trouble is, it gets like bowling or some- thing. I just keep knockin' them over and it doesn't mean anything. You still run around a lot?"

Happy

"I would! Somebody with character, with resistance! Like Mom, y'know? You're gonna call me a bas- tard when I tell you this. That girl Charlotte I was with tonight is engaged to be married in five weeks"

Happy

"Like I'm not supposed to take bribes. Manufacturers offer me a hundred-dollar bill now and then to throw an order their way. You know how honest I am, but it's like this girl, see. I hate myself for it. Because I don't want the girl, and, still, I take it and—I love it!"

Happy

"Sometimes I sit in my apartment all alone. And I think of the rent I'm paying. And it's crazy. But then, it's what I always wanted. My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women. And still, goddammit, I'm lonely."

Happy

"Yeah, but when he walks into the store the waves part in front of him. That's fifty-two thousand dollars a year coming through the revolving door, and I got more in my pinky finger than he's got in his head."

Happy

"Yeah, that was my first time—I think. Boy, there was a pig! [They laugh, almost crudely.] You taught me everything I know about women. Don't forget that." This quote was delivered by __________ to Biff

Happy

(To Biff) Just don't call him crazy!

Happy

I lost weight, Pop, you notice?

Happy

Pop, I told you I'm gonna retire you for life.

Happy

Sure. Because you're so sweet. And such a kidder.

The Woman

You do make me laugh. It's good for me. [She squeezes his arm, kisses him.] And I think you're a wonderful man.

The Woman

I did. I've been sitting at that desk watching all the salesmen go by, day in, day out. But you've got such a sense of humor, and we do have such a good time together, don't we?

The Woman

My sisters'll be scandalized. When'll you be back?

The Woman

"And when I bring you fellas up, there'll be open sesame for all of us, 'cause one thing, boys: I have friends. I can park my car in any street in New England, and the cops protect it like their own. This summer, heh?"

Willy

"Biff Loman is lost. In the greatest country in the world a young man with such—personal attractiveness, gets lost. And such a hard worker. There's one thing about Biff—he's not lazy."

Willy

"Don't say? Tell you a secret, boys. Don't breathe it to a soul. Someday I'll have my own business, and I'll never have to leave home any more."

Willy

"I got as far as a little above Yonkers. I stopped for a cup of coffee. Maybe it was the coffee... I suddenly couldn't drive any more. The car kept going off on to the shoulder, y'know?"

Willy

"I was driving along, you understand? And I was fine. I was even observing the scenery. You can imagine, me looking at scenery, on the road every week of my life. But it's so beautiful up there, Linda, the trees are so thick, and the sun is warm."

Willy

"If old man Wagner was alive I'd a been in charge of New York now! That man was a prince, he was a mas- terful man. But that boy of his, that Howard, he don't ap- preciate. When I went north the first time, the Wagner Company didn't know where New England was!"

Willy

"Just wanna be careful with those girls, Biff, that's all. Don't make any promises. No promises of any kind. Because a girl, y'know, they always believe what you tell 'em, and you're very young, Biff, you're too young to be talking seriously to girls."

Willy

"Oh, I'll knock 'em dead next week. I'll go to Hartford. I'm very well liked in Hartford. You know, the trouble is, Linda, people don't seem to take to me."

Willy

"That's why I thank Almighty God you're both built like Adonises. Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer"

Willy

"The street is lined with cars. There's not a breath of fresh air in the neighborhood. The grass don't grow any more, you can't raise a carrot in the back yard. They should've had a law against apartment houses. Remember those two beautiful elm trees out there? When I and Biff hung the swing between them?"

Willy