All About Eve Quotes
An ingenue insinuates herself in to the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends.
Margo Channing: Funny business, a woman's career - the things you drop on your way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman. That's one career all females have in common, whether we like it or not: being a woman. Sooner or later, we've got to work at it, no matter how many other careers we've had or wanted. And in the last analysis, nothing's any good unless you can look up just before dinner or turn around in bed, and there he is. Without that, you're not a woman. You're something with a French provincial office or a book full of clippings, but you're not a woman. Slow curtain, the end.
Addison DeWitt: What do you take me for?
Eve Harrington: I don't know that I'd take you for anything.
Addison DeWitt: Is it possible, even conceivable, that you've confused me with that gang of backward children you play tricks on, that you have the same contempt for me as you have for them?
Eve Harrington: I'm sure you mean something by that, Addison, but I don't know what?
Addison DeWitt: Look closely, Eve. It's time you did. I am Addison DeWitt. I am nobody's fool, least of all yours.
Eve Harrington: I never intended you to be.
Addison DeWitt: Yes you did, and you still do.
Eve Harrington: I still don't know what you're getting at, but right now I want to take my nap. It's important...
Addison DeWitt: It's important right now that we talk, killer to killer.
Eve Harrington: Champion to champion.
Addison DeWitt: Not with me, you're no champion. You're stepping way up in class.
Eve Harrington: Addison, will you please say what you have to say, plainly and distinctly, and then get out, so I can take my nap?
Addison DeWitt: Very well - plainly and distinctly - though I consider it unnecessary because you know as well as I do what I'm going to say: Lloyd may leave Karen, but he will not leave Karen for you.
Eve Harrington: What do you mean by that?
Addison DeWitt: More plainly and more distinctly: I have not come to New Haven to see the play, discuss your dreams, or pull the ivy from the walls of Yale. I have come here to tell you that you will not marry Lloyd, or anyone else for that matter, because I will not permit it.
Eve Harrington: What have you got to do with it?
Addison DeWitt: Everything, because after tonight, you will belong to me.
Eve Harrington: Belong? To you? I can't believe my ears!
Addison DeWitt: What a dull cliché.
Eve Harrington: Belong to you - why, that sounds medieval, something out of an old melodrama!
Addison DeWitt: So does the history of the world for the past twenty years. I don't enjoy putting it as bluntly as this. Frankly, I'd hoped that somehow you would have known, that you would have taken it for granted that you and I...
Eve Harrington: Taken it for granted that you and I...
[laughs]
Addison DeWitt: [slaps her] Now, remember, as long as you live, never to laugh at me - at anything or anyone else, but never at me.
Eve Harrington: [walks to the door and opens it] Get out!
Addison DeWitt: You're too short for that gesture. Besides, it went out with Mrs. Fiske.
Eve Harrington: I don't know that I'd take you for anything.
Addison DeWitt: Is it possible, even conceivable, that you've confused me with that gang of backward children you play tricks on, that you have the same contempt for me as you have for them?
Eve Harrington: I'm sure you mean something by that, Addison, but I don't know what?
Addison DeWitt: Look closely, Eve. It's time you did. I am Addison DeWitt. I am nobody's fool, least of all yours.
Eve Harrington: I never intended you to be.
Addison DeWitt: Yes you did, and you still do.
Eve Harrington: I still don't know what you're getting at, but right now I want to take my nap. It's important...
Addison DeWitt: It's important right now that we talk, killer to killer.
Eve Harrington: Champion to champion.
Addison DeWitt: Not with me, you're no champion. You're stepping way up in class.
Eve Harrington: Addison, will you please say what you have to say, plainly and distinctly, and then get out, so I can take my nap?
Addison DeWitt: Very well - plainly and distinctly - though I consider it unnecessary because you know as well as I do what I'm going to say: Lloyd may leave Karen, but he will not leave Karen for you.
Eve Harrington: What do you mean by that?
Addison DeWitt: More plainly and more distinctly: I have not come to New Haven to see the play, discuss your dreams, or pull the ivy from the walls of Yale. I have come here to tell you that you will not marry Lloyd, or anyone else for that matter, because I will not permit it.
Eve Harrington: What have you got to do with it?
Addison DeWitt: Everything, because after tonight, you will belong to me.
Eve Harrington: Belong? To you? I can't believe my ears!
Addison DeWitt: What a dull cliché.
Eve Harrington: Belong to you - why, that sounds medieval, something out of an old melodrama!
Addison DeWitt: So does the history of the world for the past twenty years. I don't enjoy putting it as bluntly as this. Frankly, I'd hoped that somehow you would have known, that you would have taken it for granted that you and I...
Eve Harrington: Taken it for granted that you and I...
[laughs]
Addison DeWitt: [slaps her] Now, remember, as long as you live, never to laugh at me - at anything or anyone else, but never at me.
Eve Harrington: [walks to the door and opens it] Get out!
Addison DeWitt: You're too short for that gesture. Besides, it went out with Mrs. Fiske.
Margo Channing: So many people know me. I wish I did. I wish someone would tell me about me.
Karen Richards: You're Margo, just Margo.
Margo Channing: And what is that, besides something spelled out in light bulbs, I mean - besides something called a temperament, which consists mostly of swooping about on a broomstick and screaming at the top of my voice? Infants behave the way I do, you know. They carry on and misbehave - they'd get drunk if they knew how - when they can't have what they want, when they feel unwanted or insecure or unloved.
Karen Richards: You're Margo, just Margo.
Margo Channing: And what is that, besides something spelled out in light bulbs, I mean - besides something called a temperament, which consists mostly of swooping about on a broomstick and screaming at the top of my voice? Infants behave the way I do, you know. They carry on and misbehave - they'd get drunk if they knew how - when they can't have what they want, when they feel unwanted or insecure or unloved.
Addison DeWitt: That I should want you at all suddenly strikes me as the height of improbability. But that in itself is probably the reason: You're an improbable person, Eve, and so am I. We have that in common. Also our contempt for humanity and inability to love and be loved, insatiable ambition, and talent. We deserve each other.
Lloyd Richards: I shall never understand the weird process by which a body with a voice suddenly fancies itself as a mind. Just when exactly does an actress decide they're HER words she's speaking and HER thoughts she's expressing?
Margo Channing: Usually at the point where she has to rewrite and rethink them, to keep the audience from leaving the theatre!
Margo Channing: Usually at the point where she has to rewrite and rethink them, to keep the audience from leaving the theatre!
Addison DeWitt: And what's your name?
Phoebe: Phoebe.
Addison DeWitt: Phoebe?
Phoebe: I call myself Phoebe.
Addison DeWitt: And why not? Tell me, Phoebe, do you want someday to have an award like that of your own?
Phoebe: More than anything else in the world.
Addison DeWitt: Then you must ask Miss Harrington how to get one. Miss Harrington knows all about it.
Phoebe: Phoebe.
Addison DeWitt: Phoebe?
Phoebe: I call myself Phoebe.
Addison DeWitt: And why not? Tell me, Phoebe, do you want someday to have an award like that of your own?
Phoebe: More than anything else in the world.
Addison DeWitt: Then you must ask Miss Harrington how to get one. Miss Harrington knows all about it.
Bill Sampson: This is my cue to take you in my arms and reassure you. But I'm not going to - I'm too mad.
Margo Channing: Guilty!
Bill Sampson: Mad! Darling, there are certain characteristics for which you are famous, on stage and off. I love you for some of them, in spite of others. I haven't let those become too important. They're part of your equipment for getting along in what is laughingly called our environment. You have to keep your teeth sharp - all right - but I will not have you sharpen them on me, or on Eve!
Margo Channing: What about her teeth? What about her fangs?
Bill Sampson: She hasn't cut them yet, and you know it! So when you start judging an idealistic, dreamy-eyed kid by the barroom Benzedrine standards of this megalomaniac society, I won't have it! Eve Harrington has never, by word, look, thought, or suggestion indicated anything to me but her adoration for you and her happiness at our being in love. And to intimate anything else doesn't spell jealousy to me - it spells a paranoiac insecurity that you should be ashamed of!
Margo Channing: Cut! Print it! What happens in the next reel? Do I get dragged off screaming to the snake pits?
Margo Channing: Guilty!
Bill Sampson: Mad! Darling, there are certain characteristics for which you are famous, on stage and off. I love you for some of them, in spite of others. I haven't let those become too important. They're part of your equipment for getting along in what is laughingly called our environment. You have to keep your teeth sharp - all right - but I will not have you sharpen them on me, or on Eve!
Margo Channing: What about her teeth? What about her fangs?
Bill Sampson: She hasn't cut them yet, and you know it! So when you start judging an idealistic, dreamy-eyed kid by the barroom Benzedrine standards of this megalomaniac society, I won't have it! Eve Harrington has never, by word, look, thought, or suggestion indicated anything to me but her adoration for you and her happiness at our being in love. And to intimate anything else doesn't spell jealousy to me - it spells a paranoiac insecurity that you should be ashamed of!
Margo Channing: Cut! Print it! What happens in the next reel? Do I get dragged off screaming to the snake pits?
Addison DeWitt: [voiceover] Margo Channing is a star of the theater. She made her first stage appearance at the age of four in Midsummer Night's Dream. She played a fairy and entered, quite unexpectedly, stark naked. She has been a star ever since. Margo is a great star, a true star. She never was or will be anything less or anything else.
[a butler passes by]
Miss Claudia Caswell: Oh, waiter!
Addison DeWitt: That is not a waiter, my dear, that is a butler.
Miss Claudia Caswell: Well, I can't yell "Oh butler!" can I? Maybe somebody's name is Butler.
Addison DeWitt: You have a point. An idiotic one, but a point.
Miss Claudia Caswell: I don't want to make trouble. All I want is a drink.
Max Fabian: Leave it to me. I'll get you one.
Miss Claudia Caswell: Thank you, Mr. Fabian.
Addison DeWitt: Well done! I can see your career rise in the east like the sun.
Miss Claudia Caswell: Oh, waiter!
Addison DeWitt: That is not a waiter, my dear, that is a butler.
Miss Claudia Caswell: Well, I can't yell "Oh butler!" can I? Maybe somebody's name is Butler.
Addison DeWitt: You have a point. An idiotic one, but a point.
Miss Claudia Caswell: I don't want to make trouble. All I want is a drink.
Max Fabian: Leave it to me. I'll get you one.
Miss Claudia Caswell: Thank you, Mr. Fabian.
Addison DeWitt: Well done! I can see your career rise in the east like the sun.
Margo Channing: I distinctly remember, Addison, crossing you off of my guest list. What are you doing here?
Addison DeWitt: Dear Margo, you were an unforgettable Peter Pan. You must play it again soon. You remember Miss Caswell.
Margo Channing: I do not. How do you do?
Claudia Caswell: We've never met. Maybe that's why?
Addison DeWitt: Miss Casswell is an actress, a graduate of the Copacabana School of the Dramatic Arts.
[Eve enters]
Addison DeWitt: Ah Eve.
Eve Harrington: Good evening Mr. DeWitt.
Margo Channing: I'd no idea you two knew each other.
Addison DeWitt: This must be at long last our formal introduction. Until now we've only met in passing.
Claudia Caswell: That's how you met me... in passing.
Margo Channing: Eve, this is an old friend of Mr. DeWitt's mother. Miss Caswell, Miss Harrington.
Eve Harrington: Miss Caswell.
Claudia Caswell: How do you do?
Margo Channing: Addison, I've been waiting for you to meet Eve for the longest time.
Addison DeWitt: It could only have been your natural timidity that kept you from mentioning it.
Margo Channing: You've heard of her great interest in the theater.
Addison DeWitt: We have that in common.
Margo Channing: Then you two must have a long talk.
Eve Harrington: I'm afraid Mr. DeWitt would find me boring.
Claudia Caswell: You won't bore him long, you won't get a chance to talk.
Addison DeWitt: Claudia, come here
[takes her aside]
Addison DeWitt: . You see that man, that's Max Fabian, the producer. Now go do yourself some good.
Claudia Caswell: Why do they always look like unhappy rabbits?
Addison DeWitt: Because that's what they are
[taking her coat]
Addison DeWitt: , now go and make him happy.
[Goes back to Margo and drapes the coat over her arm]
Addison DeWitt: Now don't worry about your little charge, she'll be in safe hands.
[Walks off with Eve]
Margo Channing: [Watches them go, then lifts her martini] Ah-men.
Addison DeWitt: Dear Margo, you were an unforgettable Peter Pan. You must play it again soon. You remember Miss Caswell.
Margo Channing: I do not. How do you do?
Claudia Caswell: We've never met. Maybe that's why?
Addison DeWitt: Miss Casswell is an actress, a graduate of the Copacabana School of the Dramatic Arts.
[Eve enters]
Addison DeWitt: Ah Eve.
Eve Harrington: Good evening Mr. DeWitt.
Margo Channing: I'd no idea you two knew each other.
Addison DeWitt: This must be at long last our formal introduction. Until now we've only met in passing.
Claudia Caswell: That's how you met me... in passing.
Margo Channing: Eve, this is an old friend of Mr. DeWitt's mother. Miss Caswell, Miss Harrington.
Eve Harrington: Miss Caswell.
Claudia Caswell: How do you do?
Margo Channing: Addison, I've been waiting for you to meet Eve for the longest time.
Addison DeWitt: It could only have been your natural timidity that kept you from mentioning it.
Margo Channing: You've heard of her great interest in the theater.
Addison DeWitt: We have that in common.
Margo Channing: Then you two must have a long talk.
Eve Harrington: I'm afraid Mr. DeWitt would find me boring.
Claudia Caswell: You won't bore him long, you won't get a chance to talk.
Addison DeWitt: Claudia, come here
[takes her aside]
Addison DeWitt: . You see that man, that's Max Fabian, the producer. Now go do yourself some good.
Claudia Caswell: Why do they always look like unhappy rabbits?
Addison DeWitt: Because that's what they are
[taking her coat]
Addison DeWitt: , now go and make him happy.
[Goes back to Margo and drapes the coat over her arm]
Addison DeWitt: Now don't worry about your little charge, she'll be in safe hands.
[Walks off with Eve]
Margo Channing: [Watches them go, then lifts her martini] Ah-men.
Addison DeWitt: [Voice over intro] Those of you who do not read, attend the theater, listen to unsponsored radio programs, or know anything of the world in which you live, it is perhaps necessary to introduce myself. My name is Addison DeWitt. My native habitat is the theater. In it, I toil not, neither do I spin. I am a critic and commentator. I am essential to the theater.
Addison DeWitt: [voiceover] The minor awards, as you can see, have already been presented. Minor awards are for such as the writer and director, since their function is merely to construct a tower so that the world can applaud a light which flashes on top of it. And no brighter light has ever dazzled the eye than Eve Harrington.
Margo Channing: She thinks only of me, doesn't she?
Birdie: Well, let's say she thinks only about you, anyway.
Margo Channing: How do you mean that?
Birdie: I'll tell you how: like... like she's studying you, like you was a play or a book or a set of blueprints - how you walk, talk, eat, think, sleep...
Margo Channing: I'm sure that's very flattering, Birdie. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it.
Birdie: Well, let's say she thinks only about you, anyway.
Margo Channing: How do you mean that?
Birdie: I'll tell you how: like... like she's studying you, like you was a play or a book or a set of blueprints - how you walk, talk, eat, think, sleep...
Margo Channing: I'm sure that's very flattering, Birdie. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it.
Bill Sampson: The Theatuh, the Theatuh - what book of rules says the Theater exists only within some ugly buildings crowded into one square mile of New York City? Or London, Paris or Vienna? Listen, junior. And learn. Want to know what the Theater is? A flea circus. Also opera. Also rodeos, carnivals, ballets, Indian tribal dances, Punch and Judy, a one-man band - all Theater. Wherever there's magic and make-believe and an audience - there's Theater. Donald Duck, Ibsen, and The Lone Ranger, Sarah Bernhardt, Poodles Hanneford, Lunt and Fontanne, Betty Grable, Rex and Wild, and Eleanora Duse. You don't understand them all, you don't like them all, why should you? The Theater's for everybody - you included, but not exclusively - so don't approve or disapprove. It may not be your Theater, but it's Theater of somebody, somewhere.
Margo Channing: Margo Channing is ageless - spoken like a press agent.
Lloyd Richards: I know what I'm talking about. After all, they're my plays.
Margo Channing: Spoken like an author. Lloyd, I'm not twenty-ish, I'm not thirty-ish. Three months ago I was forty years old. Forty. Four O. That slipped out. I hadn't quite made up my mind to admit it. Now I suddenly feel as if I've taken all my clothes off.
Lloyd Richards: I know what I'm talking about. After all, they're my plays.
Margo Channing: Spoken like an author. Lloyd, I'm not twenty-ish, I'm not thirty-ish. Three months ago I was forty years old. Forty. Four O. That slipped out. I hadn't quite made up my mind to admit it. Now I suddenly feel as if I've taken all my clothes off.
Bill Sampson: Looks like I'm going to have a very fancy party...
Margo Channing: I thought you were going to be late.
Bill Sampson: When I'm guest of honor?
Margo Channing: I had no idea you were even here.
Bill Sampson: I ran into Eve on my way upstairs; she told me you were dressing.
Margo Channing: That never stopped you before.
Bill Sampson: Well, we started talking, she wanted to know all about Hollywood, she seemed so interested...
Margo Channing: She's a girl of so many interests.
Bill Sampson: It's a pretty rare quality these days.
Margo Channing: She's a girl of so many rare qualities.
Bill Sampson: So she seems.
Margo Channing: So you've pointed out, so often. So many qualities, so often. Her loyalty, efficiency, devotion, warmth, affection - and so young. So young and so fair...
Margo Channing: I thought you were going to be late.
Bill Sampson: When I'm guest of honor?
Margo Channing: I had no idea you were even here.
Bill Sampson: I ran into Eve on my way upstairs; she told me you were dressing.
Margo Channing: That never stopped you before.
Bill Sampson: Well, we started talking, she wanted to know all about Hollywood, she seemed so interested...
Margo Channing: She's a girl of so many interests.
Bill Sampson: It's a pretty rare quality these days.
Margo Channing: She's a girl of so many rare qualities.
Bill Sampson: So she seems.
Margo Channing: So you've pointed out, so often. So many qualities, so often. Her loyalty, efficiency, devotion, warmth, affection - and so young. So young and so fair...
Margo Channing: Why so remote Addison? I should think you'd be at your protégé's side lending her moral support.
Addison DeWitt: Miss Caswell at the moment is where I can lend no support, moral or otherwise.
Margo Channing: In the lady's, shall we say, lounge?
Addison DeWitt: ...being violently ill to her tummy.
Addison DeWitt: Miss Caswell at the moment is where I can lend no support, moral or otherwise.
Margo Channing: In the lady's, shall we say, lounge?
Addison DeWitt: ...being violently ill to her tummy.
Bill Sampson: [to Eve] "Don't let it worry you", said the camera man, "Even De Mille couldn't see anything looking through the wrong end!" So that was the first and last...
Margo Channing: [entering] Don't let me kill the point. Or isn't it a story for grownups?
Bill Sampson: You've heard it - about the time I looked into the wrong end of the camera finder.
Margo Channing: Remind me to tell you about the time I looked into the heart of an artichoke.
Eve Harrington: I'd like to hear it.
Margo Channing: Some snowy night, in front of the fire.
Margo Channing: [entering] Don't let me kill the point. Or isn't it a story for grownups?
Bill Sampson: You've heard it - about the time I looked into the wrong end of the camera finder.
Margo Channing: Remind me to tell you about the time I looked into the heart of an artichoke.
Eve Harrington: I'd like to hear it.
Margo Channing: Some snowy night, in front of the fire.
[Margo is getting drunk at the party]
Bill Sampson: Many of your guests have been wondering when they may be permitted to view the body. Where has it been laid out?
Margo Channing: It hasn't been laid out, we haven't finished with the embalming. As a matter of fact, you're looking at it - the remains of Margo Channing, sitting up. It is my last wish to be buried sitting up.
Bill Sampson: Many of your guests have been wondering when they may be permitted to view the body. Where has it been laid out?
Margo Channing: It hasn't been laid out, we haven't finished with the embalming. As a matter of fact, you're looking at it - the remains of Margo Channing, sitting up. It is my last wish to be buried sitting up.
Addison DeWitt: Well, Max has gone to a great deal of trouble. This is going to be an elaborate party, and it's for you.
Eve Harrington: No it isn't.
[raises the award statuette]
Eve Harrington: It's for this.
Addison DeWitt: It's the same thing, isn't it?
Eve Harrington: Exactly. Here, take it to the party instead of me
[hands it to him]
Eve Harrington: .
Eve Harrington: No it isn't.
[raises the award statuette]
Eve Harrington: It's for this.
Addison DeWitt: It's the same thing, isn't it?
Eve Harrington: Exactly. Here, take it to the party instead of me
[hands it to him]
Eve Harrington: .
