To Catch a Thief quotes

View Quote Francie: The man I want doesn't have a price.
Robie: [chuckling] Well, that eliminates me...You're absolutely right. Give me a woman who knows her own mind.
Francie: No one would give you a woman like that. You have to capture her.
Robie: Any particular method?
Francie: Yes, but it's no good unless you discover it yourself.

View Quote Hughson: The pastries are light as air.
Robie: Germaine has very sensitive hands and an exceedingly light touch. She strangled a German general - without a sound.

View Quote Hughson: You are a man of obvious good taste in everything. How did you - I mean, why did you...?
Robie: Why did I take up stealing?...To live better, to own things I couldn't afford, to acquire this good taste which you now enjoy and which I should be very reluctant to give up.
Hughson: Oh, you mean you were frankly dishonest.
Robie: I tried to be.
Hughson: You know, I thought you'd have some defense, some tale of hardship - your mother ran off when you were young, your father beat you, or something.
Robie: Naah, no. I was a member of an American trapeze act in the circus that traveled in Europe. It folded and I was stranded, so I put my agility to a more rewarding purpose.
Hughson: You have no other defense.
Robie: No. For what it's worth, I only stole from people who wouldn't go hungry...
Hughson: I take it you were a sort of modern Robin Hood. I mean, you gave away most of the proceeds of your crimes.
Robie: Kept everything myself. Well, let's face it, I was an out-and-out thief, like you.
Hughson: Steady, old man.
Robie: No, no, wait a minute. Have you ever taken an ashtray from a hotel or a towel?
Hughson: Souvenirs, they expect that.
Robie: You're given an expense allowance to pay for all the meals you eat on the job. Right? But this meal is free. Now, are you going to deduct the price of a lunch from your expense account? Well, of course you're not. It would be stupid. Do you agree?
Hughson: Yes.
Robie: You're a thief. Only an amateur thief, of course, but it will help you to sympathize with us professionals.

View Quote Mrs. Stevens: [to Francie, about Robie] He's a swindler and a real man. Not one of those milksops you generally take up with. Why do you think we moved so many times, hmm? Your father was a swindler, dear, but a loveable one. If you ask me, this one's a bigger operator on every level.
Robie: Thank you, madam.
Francie: Mother, this is why I've had to spend half my life traveling around the world after you, to keep men like this away from you.
Mrs. Stevens: Well, after this, let me run my own interference. Looks like the blockers are having all the fun.
Francie: If she doesn't have any common sense, I do.
Mrs. Stevens: Oh, shut up! They were my baubles that were stolen. If I don't care, why should you? They're insured.

View Quote Mrs. Stevens: [to Robie] How come you haven't made a pass at my daughter? [to Frances] And don't say, 'Oh, Mother!' to me. Mr. Burns, I asked you a question.
Robie: Very pretty, quietly attractive.
Mrs. Stevens: Yeah, but too nice. Sorry I ever sent her to that finishing school. I think they finished her there.

View Quote Mrs. Stevens: You ought to be spanked with a hairbrush and sent back to school - public school, where they could pound some sense into you during recess.
Francie: He's a low worthless thief.
Mrs. Stevens: Just what did he steal from you?

View Quote Robie: I can't come. I'm going to the casino and watch a firework display.
Francie: You'd get a better view from my place.
Robie: Already got another date.
Francie: Everywhere you'll go, I'll have you paged as John Robie the Cat. 8 o'clock, and be on time.
Robie: I haven't got a decent watch.
Francie: Steal one.

View Quote Robie: My name is John Robie. I used to be a jewel thief several years ago.
Mrs. Stevens: Well, what a wonderful surprise!

View Quote Robie: What happens to you if I'm caught?
Hughson: I might be embarrassed, even censured officially.
Robie: They could put me away for good.
Hughson: You made a bad choice of professions.
Robie: Then, let's come to an understanding. I'm doing you a favor. I take all the risks. You get all the jewelry back.
Hughson: Mr. Smith. It strikes me that only an honest man would be so foolish.
Robie: Thank you.

View Quote [about Foussard's funeral] I'll get to see the real cat - who will certainly be there purring.

View Quote [about her jewelry] I didn't buy these things for my old age. I bought them to wear.

View Quote [about her late husband] He never realized how valuable the ground was he had his feet on...We had a ranch. It wasn't a very big one. No plumbing. A little thing out back. Poor Jeremiah, he'll never know how close he came to twenty million barrels of oil.

View Quote [after unmasking Danielle] I figured it was you the night your father died. He couldn't climb anything, and you always did his legwork for him even during the war when you were a kid.

View Quote [at a costume ball] Any man without a lady on his arm can only be a policeman.

View Quote [to Frances, about Robie] I wouldn't mind buying that for you.