Norma Rae (1979)

Sally Field: Norma Rae

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Quotes 

• Norma Rae Webster : Forget it! I'm stayin' right where I am. It's gonna take you and the police department and the fire department and the National Guard to get me outta here!

• Norma Rae Webster : How long I been comin' to this church, Reverend?

  Reverend Hubbard : Since you were a little girl.

  Norma Rae Webster : That's right. I accepted Christ when I was six years old, didn't I? Well, would you call me a good Christian?

  Reverend Hubbard : With a lapse or two, I'd say so.

  Norma Rae Webster : 'With a lapse or two.' Would you call yourself a good Christian?

  Reverend Hubbard : That's for the Lord to say.

  Norma Rae Webster : I want this church for a union meetin' next Saturday. Blacks and whites sittin' together.

  Reverend Hubbard : This is a house of God.

  Norma Rae Webster : I'm waitin' to see whether it is or it isn't.

  Reverend Hubbard : You're comin' mighty close to blasphemy.

  Norma Rae Webster : I've come here and said I sinned and I'm sorry, and I asked for God to forgive me. I wanna see what this church stands for. I wanna see if you'll stand up and say there oughta be justice, a union, and if you're smitten, rise and the Lord'll be on your side. And if you don't, then I say there ain't nothin' good for me in that church, and I'm gonna leave it flat.

  Reverend Hubbard : We're gonna miss your voice in the choir, Norma.

  Norma Rae Webster : You're gonna hear it raised up someplace else.

• [last lines] 

  Reuben Warshowsky : I don't say goodbye. I have been known to cry.

  Norma Rae Webster : Well, whadda you say?

  Reuben Warshowsky : [sighing]  Be happy. Be well.

  Norma Rae Webster : Same to you.

  Reuben Warshowsky : [stuttering]  Best wishes don't seem hardly enough, but I'd like to thank you. I do. I, I thank you for your companionship, your stamina, your horse sense, and a hundred and one laughs. I also enjoyed very much looking at your shining hair and your shining face.

  Norma Rae Webster : Reuben, I think you like me.

  Reuben Warshowsky : I do.

  Norma Rae Webster : I was gonna buy you a tie clip or some shaving lotion or something, but I didn't know what you'd like.

  Reuben Warshowsky : Norma, what I've had from you has been sumptuous.

  [they shake hands, and stare long and hard at each other before Reuben gets in his packed up car and drives away] 

• Norma Rae Wilson : You a Jew?

  Reuben Warshowsky : I beg your pardon?

  Norma Rae Wilson : Are you a Jew?

  Reuben Warshowsky : Born and bred.

  Norma Rae Wilson : [look of total surprise on Norma's face]  I never met a Jew before.

  Reuben Warshowsky : [laughs, puts out hand for Norma to shake]  How you doing?

  Norma Rae Wilson : I heard you all had horns.

  Reuben Warshowsky : Heh. Circumcised, yes. Horns, no.

  Norma Rae Wilson : Well, as far as I can see, you don't look any different from the rest of us.

  Reuben Warshowsky : Well, we are.

  Norma Rae Wilson : Yea? Well, what makes you different?

  Reuben Warshowsky : History.

  Norma Rae Wilson : Oh...

  Reuben Warshowsky : You got it now?

• Norma Rae Webster : Reuben, you need yourself a woman.

  Reuben Warshowsky : Funny you should mention it - tonight's the night.

  Norma Rae Webster : My, my, what would Dorothy say?

  Reuben Warshowsky : Wear a rubber.

• Norma Rae Webster : [as she walks out of Reuben's motel room]  K'vetch, k'vetch, k'vetch.

• Norma Rae Wilson : [Reuben walks with Norma after witnessing an argument between her and an ex-beau]  I guess it seems like every time you run into me, I'm hassling with some other guy.

  Reuben Warshowsky : That's what it seems like.

  Norma Rae Wilson : What you think of me, I wonder.

  Reuben Warshowsky : I think you're too smart for what's happenin' to ya.

• Sonny : Did you ever sleep with him?

  Norma Rae Webster : No. But he's in my head.

  Sonny : I'm gonna see you through gettin' tired... gettin' sick... gettin' old. I'm gonna see you through anything that comes up. And there's nobody else in my head. Just you.

• Norma Rae Wilson : Why did you tell him that, we don't even have a dog?

• Norma Rae Webster : Who's this? Dylan Thomas?

  Reuben Warshowsky : He was a poet. A genius and a drunk.

• Reuben Warshowsky : [hands Norma a bag of ice to put on her nose after being punched by her date]  Here, put this on. I thought everybody down South was Ashley Wilkes.

  Norma Rae Wilson : You lie down with dogs, you get fleas.

• Norma Rae Webster : I love you kids. That's the first thing. And Sonny loves you. You got the both of us. Second thing is... I'm a jailbird. Now, you're gonna be hearing that, and a lot of other things. But you're gonna hear it from me first. Millie, your daddy, his name was Buddy Wilson. And he died four months after you was born. Craig, I wasn't never married to your daddy. And he wasn't Buddy. And he's not Sonny. He's another man. And there have been others in my life. You're gonna be hearing about them too. I'm not perfect. I made mistakes. Millie, these are pictures of your daddy. Craig, I got pictures of your daddy. They belong to you. If you go in the mill, I want life to be better for you than it is for me. That's why I joined up with the union, and that's why I got fired for it. You understand me? Now, you kids, you know what I am. And you know that I believe in standing up for what I think is right. Go to the bathroom before you get back into bed. Take your pictures. Go on.

  Norma Rae Webster : [to her husband Sonny]  I'm gonna take a bath. There's lice in that jail.

• Norma Rae Wilson : Well, I'm gonna let this pot soak.

  Vernon Wichard : There's one soakin' from breakfast.

  Norma Rae Wilson : Then it's got company.

• Norma Rae Wilson : [handing back the ice pack for her bloodied nose caused from being punched by a date]  Thanks a lot for the ice.

  Reuben Warshowsky : Anytime.

  Norma Rae Wilson : Christ, I hope not.

• Ellis Harper : Hello, Norma.

  Norma Rae Wilson : [annoyed to see him]  Hi, Ellis.

  Ellis Harper : You're looking fine.

  Norma Rae Wilson : [sarcastically]  I'm always fine. I'm a horse.

  Ellis Harper : You changed your hair.

  Norma Rae Wilson : It grew.

• Gardner : Norma, you got the biggest mouth in this mill. "Give us a longer break... ." "Give us more smokin' time..." "Give us a Kotex pad machine..."

  Norma Rae Webster : Do it and I'll shut up!

  Gardner : Well, we'll do better than that. We figure the only way to close that mouth is to hand you a promotion. You're going up in the world, honey.

  Norma Rae Webster : Yeah? How far and for how much?

  Gardner : Well, we're gonna put you on spot-checking.

  Norma Rae Webster : It sure ain't gonna make me any friends.

  Gardner : It'll make you another dollar and a half an hour.