Paul Varjak quotes from Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Paul Varjak

You know what's wrong with you, Miss Whoever-you-are? You're chicken, you've got no guts. You're afraid to stick out your chin and say, "Okay, life's a fact, people do fall in love, people do belong to each other, because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness." You call yourself a free spirit, a "wild thing," and you're terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.

Paul Varjak

And I always heard people in New York never get to know their neighbors.

Paul Varjak

You're a stylish girl, can't we end this stylishly?

Doc

I love you Lula Mae.

Holly

I know you do, and that's just the trouble. It's the mistake you always made, Doc, trying to love a wild thing. You were always lugging home wild things. Once it was a hawk with a broken wing... and another time it was a full-grown wildcat with a broken leg. Remember?

Doc

Lula Mae there's something...

Holly

You musn't give your heart to a wild thing. The more you do, the stronger they get, until they're strong enough to run into the woods or fly into a tree. And then to a higher tree and then to the sky.

Paul

They're not the kind of stories you can really tell.

Holly

Too dirty?

Paul

Yeah, I suppose they're dirty, too, but only incidentally. Mainly they're angry, sensitive, intensely felt, and that dirtiest of all dirty words - promising. Or so said The Times Book Review, October 1, 1956.

Holly

What do you do, anyway?

Paul

I'm a writer, I guess.

Holly

You guess? Don't you know?

Paul

OK, positive statement. Ringing affirmative. I'm a writer.

Paul

I love you.

Holly

So what.

Paul

So what? So plenty! I love you, you belong to me!

Holly

No. People don't belong to people.

Paul

Of course they do!

Holly

I'll never let ANYBODY put me in a cage.

Paul

I don't want to put you in a cage, I want to love you!

O.J.

Hey, Fred-baby!

Paul

No, no. It's Paul-baby.

Holly

You know those days when you get the mean reds?

Paul

The mean reds, you mean like the blues?

Holly

No. The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?

Paul

Sure.

Holly

Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then - then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!

Holly

Thursday! It can't be! It's too gruesome!

Paul

What's so gruesome about Thursday?

Holly

Nothing, except I can never remember when it's coming up.

Holly

Did I tell you how divinely and utterly happy I am?

Paul

Yes.

Holly

I'll tell you one thing, Fred, darling... I'd marry you for your money in a minute. Would you marry me for my money?

Paul

In a minute.

Holly

I guess it's pretty lucky neither of us is rich, huh?

Paul

Yeah.

Holly

He's all right! Aren't you, cat? Poor cat! Poor slob! Poor slob without a name! The way I see it I haven't got the right to give him one. We don't belong to each other. We just took up one day by the river. I don't want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together. I'm not sure where that is but I know what it is like. It's like Tiffany's.

Paul

Tiffany's? You mean the jewelry store.

Holly

That's right. I'm just CRAZY about Tiffany's!

Holly

How do I look?

Paul

Very good. I must say, I'm amazed.

Holly

Do you think she's talented? [Paul turns toward her] Deeply and importantly talented?

Paul

No. Amusingly and superficially talented, yes, but . . . deeply and importantly, no.
The stripper continues taking off her clothes until she has nothing left on except her bra, which she then removes. Holly raises her sunglasses.

Holly

Gracious! Do you think she's handsomely paid?

Paul

Hm? Oh! Indeed.

Holly

Well let me tell you something, mister. If I had her money, I'd be richer than she is!

Paul

How do you figure that?

Holly

Because I keep the candy store.

Paul

Hm?

Holly

Oh, Sally Tomato. That's my candy store. I'll always keep Sally. And that's why I'd be richer than she is! [She laughs.]

Paul

We'd better get a little more air.

Paul

Actually, it was purchased concurrent with . . . well, actually, it came inside of . . . well, a box of Cracker Jack.

Salesman

I see. Do they still really have prizes in Cracker Jack boxes?

Paul

Oh, yes.

Salesman

That's nice to know. It gives one a feeling of solidarity, almost of continuity, with the past, that sort of thing.