Paris Blues (1961)

Diahann Carroll: Connie Lampson

Photos 

Quotes 

• Eddie Cook : Look. Here, nobody says, "Eddie Cook, negro musician." They say, "Eddie Cook, musician," period. And that's all I want to be.

  Connie Lampson : And that's what you are here.

  Eddie Cook : That's what I am here. Musician, period. And I don't have to prove anything else.

  Connie Lampson : Like what?

  Eddie Cook : Like: Because I'm negro I'm different. Because I'm negro I'm not different. I'm different. I'm not different. Who cares? Look, I don't have to prove either case. Can you understand that?

  Connie Lampson : There isn't a place on the face of the Earth that isn't hell for somebody. Some race, some color, some sex.

  Eddie Cook : For me, Paris is just fine.

• Connie Lampson : Things are much better than they were five years ago and they're gonna still be better next year. And not because negroes come to Paris. But because negroes stay home and with millions of white people they work to make things better for everybody everywhere in America!

• Connie Lampson : What's that?

  Eddie Cook : Notre Dame.

  Connie Lampson : You didn't even look.

  Eddie Cook : Well, I didn't think they'd moved it.

• Connie Lampson : Is your girl friend as pretty as you are?

  Ram Bowen : Yes. She's a white girl.

  Connie Lampson : She might be hard to find. All these white girls look alike.

• Connie Lampson : You in the band?

  Eddie Cook : Come on, I'll take you down.

• Connie Lampson : Don't you need to sleep?

  Eddie Cook : No, I - I like to walk. And I like the way you walk. And Paris is a city to walk in.

• Connie Lampson : So, you think it's all right for two girls to go out to a nightclub alone?

  Lillian Corning : Of course, this is Paris. Anything is all right.

• Connie Lampson : I know these jazz musicians. If we go tonight, he's gonna think we're eager.

  Lillian Corning : I suppose so. You know something?

  Connie Lampson : What?

  Lillian Corning : I am eager.

• Eddie Cook : Look at it. And not just what you see, but the way the place makes you feel. I'll never forget the first day I walked down Avenue Champs-Élysées. Just like that, I knew I was here to stay.

  Connie Lampson : How long have you been away from home?

  Eddie Cook : Five years.

  Connie Lampson : You've never wanted to go back?

  Eddie Cook : No! You stick around Paris for a while and stretch a bit. Sit down for lunch somewhere without getting clubbed for it and you'll wake up one day, look across the ocean and you'll say, "Who needs it?" Who needs it.

• Eddie Cook : You know, if I had a teacher like you when I went to school, boy, I would've learned something.

  Connie Lampson : I think you've learned enough.

  Eddie Cook : Not in school.

• Connie Lampson : We do need our roots, don't we? And where our roots are, our home is. Wouldn't you say?

  Eddie Cook : I would say that you're one of them socially conscious chicks, right?

  Connie Lampson : Home, to me, is home. And my family is my family. And whatever problems they've got, I've got them, too.

  Eddie Cook : Of all the beautiful girls who come to Paris every year, I get a swinger for the cause.

• Eddie Cook : You're interested in a cause. I'm not interested in a cause. I'm only interested in us.

  Connie Lampson : You're not interested in us. You're interested in you.

• Connie Lampson : [to expatriate Eddie Cook]  Things are much better than what they were five years ago and they'll even be better the next year, and not because negros come to Paris, but because negros came home and with millions of white people they worked and made things better to everybody everywhere in America.