Taxi Driver quotes

View Quote Travis: Hey, you're a Secret Service man aren't ya? Huh?
Agent: Just waiting for the Senator.
Travis: You're waiting for the Senator? Oh! That's a very good answer. Shit! I'm waitin' for the sun to shine. Yeah. No, the reason I, I asked if you were a Secret Service man, I won't say anything, because I ...I saw some suspicious looking people over there. [Travis points away]' Yeah, they were over there, right over there. They were just here, uh. They were very, very, uh...
Agent: ...suspicious...
Travis: Yeah. Is it hard to get to be in the Secret Service?
Agent: Why?
Travis: Well, I was just curious, because I think I'd be good at it. Very observant. I was in the Marine Corps you know, I'm good with crowds. I'm noticin' the little pin there. [Looking at the agent's lapel] That's like a signal isn't it?
Agent: Sort of.
Travis: A signal. A secret signal for the Secret Service. Hey, what kind of guns do you guys carry? .38s, .45s, .357 Magnums, somethin' bigger maybe?
Agent: Look, uh, if you're really interested, if you give me your name and address, we'll send you all the information on how to apply. How's that?
Travis: You will?
Agent: Sure. [The agent takes out a notepad]
Travis: OK. Why not? My name is Henry Krinkle. K-R-I-N-K-L-E. 154 Hopper Avenue.
Agent: Hopper?
Travis: Yeah. You know like a rabbit, hip, hop. Ha, ha. Fair Lawn, New Jersey.
Agent: Is there a zip code to that Henry?
Travis: Yeah, 610452. OK?
Agent: That's, uh, six digits.
Travis: Oh, well 61045.
Agent: OK.
Travis: I was thinking of my telephone number.
Agent: Well, I've got it all. Henry, we'll get all the stuff right out to you.
Travis: Thanks a lot. Hey, great. Thanks a lot. Hell, Jesus. Be careful today.
Agent: Right. Will do.
Travis: You have to be careful in and around a place like this. Bye.

View Quote Travis: How's everything in the pimp business? Huh?
Sport: Don't I know you?
Travis: No, do I know you?
Sport: Get out of here. Come on, get lost.
Travis: Do I know you? How's Iris? You know Iris.
Sport: No, I don't know nobody named Iris. Iris. Come on. Get out of here man.
Travis: You don't know anybody by the name of Iris?
Sport: I don't know nobody named Iris.
Travis: No?
Sport: Hey - go back to your ****in' tribe before you get hurt, huh man. Do me a favor, I don't want no trouble huh? OK?
Travis: You got a gun?
Sport: [He throws his lit cigarette at Travis' chest, causing sparks to fly, and then kicks him] Get the **** out of here man! Get out of here.
Travis: Suck on this. [shoots him in the belly]

View Quote Travis: I can't sleep nights.
Personnel Officer: There's porno theatres for that.
Travis: I know. I tried that.
Personnel Officer: So whaddaya do now?
Travis: I ride around nights mostly. Subways, buses. Figure you know, I'm gonna do that, I might as well get paid for it.
Personnel Officer: Wanna work uptown nights - South Bronx, Harlem?
Travis: I'll work any time, anywhere.
Personnel Officer: Will ya work Jewish holidays?
Travis: Any time, anywhere.
Personnel Officer: All right. Let me see your chauffeur's license. How's your driving record?
Travis: It's clean, it's real clean like my conscience...

View Quote Travis: I know what you mean. I've got the same problems. I gotta get organized. Oh little things, like my apartment, my possessions. I should get one of those signs that says 'One of these days I'm gonna get organizized.'
Betsy: You mean 'organized'?
Travis: Organiziezed. Organiziezed - it's a joke. O-R-G-A-N-E-Z-I-E-Z-D.
Betsy: Oh, you mean 'Organizized'. Like those little signs they have in offices that say "Thimk".

View Quote Travis: I'll tell you why. I think you're a lonely person. I drive by this place a lot and I see you here. I see a lot of people around you. And I see all these phones and all this stuff on your desk. It means nothing. Then when I came inside and I met you, I saw in your eyes and I saw the way you carried yourself that you're not a happy person. And I think you need something. And if you want to call it a friend, you can call it a friend.
Betsy: Are you gonna be my friend?
Travis: Yeah. What do ya say? It's a little hard standing here and asking...Five minutes, that's all, just outside. Right around here. I'm there to protect ya. [He quickly flexes both arms, causing her to laugh] Come on, just take a little break.
Betsy: I have a break at four o'clock and if you're here...
Travis: Four o'clock today?
Betsy: Yes.
Travis: I'll be here.
Betsy: I'm sure you will.
Travis: All right, four p.m.
Betsy: Right.
Travis: Outside in front?
Betsy: Yeah.
Travis: OK. Oh my name is Travis. [He extends his hand to her] Betsy?
Betsy: Travis.
Travis: Appreciate this, Betsy.

View Quote Travis: I'm one of your biggest supporters, you know. I tell everybody that comes in this taxi that they have to vote for you.
Palantine: Why thank you - [Pleased, he glances to check Travis' picture, identification and license posted in the rear seat] - Travis.
Travis: I'm sure you're gonna win sir. Everybody I know is gonna vote for ya. You know in fact, I was gonna put one of your stickers in my taxi but you know, the company said it was against their policy. But they don't know anything, you know. They're a bunch of jerks.
Palantine: Let me tell you something. I have learned more about America from riding in taxi cabs than in all the limos in the country...Can I ask you something, Travis?
Travis: Sure.
Palantine: What is the one thing about this country that bugs you the most?
Travis: Well, I don't know. I don't follow political issues that closely, sir. I don't know.
Palantine: Oh but there must be something.
Travis: Well. [He thinks] Whatever it is, you should clean up this city here, because this city here is like an open sewer you know. It's full of filth and s****. And sometimes I can hardly take it. Whatever-whoever becomes the President should just [Travis honks the horn] really clean it up. You know what I mean? Sometimes I go out and I smell it, I get headaches it's so bad, you know...They just never go away you know...It's like...I think that the President should just clean up this whole mess here. You should just flush it right down the ****in' toilet.
Palantine: Well, uh, I think I know what you mean Travis. But it's not gonna be easy. We're gonna have to make some radical changes.
Travis: Damn straight.
Palantine: Nice talkin' to you, Travis. [They shake hands]
Travis: Nice talking to you sir. You're a good man. I know you're gonna win.

View Quote Travis: Well, I know you and I ain't talked too much, you know, but I figured you've been around a lot so you could...
Wizard: Shoot. That's why they call me the Wizard.
Travis: I got, it's just that I got a, I got a...
Wizard: Things uh, things got ya down?
Travis: Yeah.
Wizard: Yeah, it happens to the best of us.
Travis: Yeah, I got me a real down, real...I just wanna go out and, and you know like really, really, really do somethin'.
Wizard: The taxi life you mean?
Travis: Yeah, well. Naw, I don't know. I just wanna go out. I really, you know, I really wanna, I got some bad ideas in my head, I just...
Wizard: Look, look at it this way, you know uh, a man, a man takes a job, you know, and that job, I mean like that, and that it becomes what he is. You know like uh, you do a thing and that's what you are. Like I've been a, I've been a cabbie for seventeen years, ten years at night and I still don't own my own cab. You know why? 'Cause I don't want to. I must be what I, what I want. You know, to be on the night shift drivin' somebody else's cab. Understand? You, you, you become, you get a job, you you become the job. One guy lives in Brooklyn, one guy lives in Sutton Place, you get a lawyer, another guy's a doctor, another guy dies, another guy gets well, and you know, people are born. I envy you your youth. Go out and get laid. Get drunk, you know, do anything. 'Cause you got no choice anyway. I mean we're all ****ed, more or less you know.
Travis: Yeah, I don't know. That's about the dumbest thing I ever heard.
Wizard: I'm not Bertrand Russell. Well what do ya want. I'm a cabbie you know. What do I know? I mean, I don't even know what the **** you're talkin' about.
Travis: Yeah I don't know. Maybe I don't know either.
Wizard: Don't worry so much. Relax Killer, you're gonna be all right. I know I seen a lot of people and uh, I know.
Travis: That's the dumbest thing I ever heard.

View Quote Travis: Where are you going?
Betsy: Have to leave now.
Travis: Why?
Betsy: I don't know why I came in here. I don't like these movies.
Travis: Well, I mean, I, you know, I didn't know that you, you would feel that way about this movie. I don't know much about movies, but if I...
Betsy: Are these the only kind of movies you go to?
Travis: Well, yeah, I mean I come - this is not so bad.
Betsy: Taking me to a place like this is about as exciting to me as saying: 'Let's ****.'
Travis: Uh. There are other places I can take you. There are plenty of other movies I can take you to. I don't know much about them but I could take you to other places...

View Quote Travis: Why won't you talk to me? Why don't you answer my calls when I call? You think I don't know you're here.
Tom: Let's not have any trouble.
Travis: You think I don't know. You think I don't know.
Tom: Would you please leave?
Travis: Get your hands off. [to Betsy] You're in a hell, and you're gonna die in hell like the rest of 'em. You're like the rest of 'em.

View Quote Wizard: Then I picked up these two ****s, you know. They're goin' downtown. They're wearing these rhinestone t-shirts. And they start arguin'. They start yellin'. The other says: 'You bitch.'...I say: 'Look, I don't care what you do in the privacy of your own home behind closed doors - this is an American free country, we got a pursuit of happiness thing, you're consenting, you're adult. BUT, you know, uh, you know, in my ****ing cab, don't go bustin' heads, you know what I mean? God love you, do what you want.'
Dough Boy: Tell 'em to go to California, 'cause out in California when two ****s split up, one's got to pay the other one alimony.
Wizard: Not bad. Ah, they're way ahead out there, you know in California. So I had to tell 'em to get out of the ****in' cab.

View Quote [in a note] Dear Iris: This money should be used for your trip. By the time you read this, I will be dead. Travis.

View Quote [in an anniversary card to his parents] Dear Father and Mother: July is the month I remember which brings not only your wedding anniversary but also Father's Day and Mother's birthday. I'm sorry I can't remember the exact dates, but I hope this card will take care of them all. I'm sorry again I cannot send you my address like I promised to last year. But the sensitive nature of my work for the government demands utmost secrecy. I know you will understand. I am healthy and well and making lots of money. I have been going with a girl for several months and I know you would be proud if you could see her. Her name is Betsy but I can tell you no more than that...I hope this card finds you all well as it does me. I hope no one has died. Don't worry about me. One day, they'll be a knock on the door and it'll be me. Love Travis.

View Quote All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don't believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention. I believe that someone should become a person like other people.

View Quote Each night when I return the cab to the garage, I have to clean the **** off the back seat. Some nights, I clean off the blood.

View Quote I called Betsy again at her office and she said maybe we'd go to a movie together after she gets off work tomorrow. That's my day off. At first she hesitated but I called her again and then she agreed. Betsy, Betsy. Oh no, Betsy what? I forgot to ask her last name again. Damn. I got to remember stuff like that.