Brooklyn Quotes

  • Eilis: I wish that I could stop feeling that I want to be an Irish girl in Ireland.

    Father Flood: Homesickness is like most sicknesses. It will pass.

  • Tony: Home is home.

  • Mrs. Keogh: [Preparing for a weekend at the beach] Diana's right, though, Eilis. You need to think carefully about your costume. It's the most Tony will ever have seen of you. You don't want to put him off.

  • Diana: It's not politics to talk about eye operations.

    Mrs. Keogh: It is if the eyes belong to a politician.

  • Mrs. Keogh: Have they told you what day for the nylons sale, Ellis? Never had a Bartocci's girl in here. Might get some inside information.

    Eilis: I haven't been told anything.

    Diana: I bet you wouldn't let on if you had.

    Patty: She's that sort. More aligned to her bosses than to her friends.

    Diana: Like a red spy.

    Sheila: Oh, dear God.

    Mrs. Keogh: I'll thank you to keep His name out of a conversation about nylons. He might be everywhere, but He's not in Bartocci's on sale day.

  • Georgina: Try and remember that sometimes it's nice to meet people who don't know your auntie.

  • Diner Waiter: I hope that when I go through the pearly gates, the first sound I hear is you asking me for the bill in that lovely Irish brogue.

  • Patty: There. That's better. Now you don't look like you've just come in from milking the cows.

    Eilis: Is that what I looked like?

    Patty: Just a bit. Nice clean cows. Let's go.

  • Eilis: You're the prettiest girl in County Wexford. You should be able to choose any man you want. And we're hoping that George Sheridan from the rugby club looks your way.

  • Tony: OK, so while you're being amenable. Can we go see a movie this week? When you're not at night classes?

    Eilis: I'll sign up for two movies.

    Tony: Really?

    Eilis: Yes. Even if the first date is a disaster, I'll give it another chance.

  • Eilis: You remember that after I had dinner at your house, you told me that you loved me?

    [Tony nods, sombre and nervous]

    Eilis: Well, I didn't really know what to say. But I know what to say now. I have thought about you and I like you, and I like seeing you, and maybe I feel the same way. So the next time you tell me you love me, if there is a next time, I'll, I'll say I love you too.

    Tony: Are you serious?

    Eilis: Yes.

    Tony: Holy shit! Excuse my language, but I thought we were going to have a different kind of talk. You mean it?

    Eilis: I mean it.

  • Mrs. Keogh: I'll tell you this much: I am going to ask Father Flood to preach a sermon on the dangers of giddiness. I now see that giddiness is the eighth deadly sin. A giddy girl is every bit as evil as a slothful man, and the noise she makes is a lot worse. Now, enough.

  • Frankie Fiorello: So, first of all, I should say that we don't like Irish people.

    [General cries of outrage around the table]

    Frankie Fiorello: We don't! That is a well known fact! A big gang of Irish beat Maurizio up and he had to have stitches. And because the cops round here are Irish, nobody did anything about it.

    Maurizio: There are probably two sides to it. I might have said something I shouldn't, I can't remember now. Anyway, they probably weren't all Irish.

    Frankie Fiorello: They just had red hair and big legs.

  • [last lines]

    Eilis: [instructing new immigrant] You have to think like an American. You'll feel so homesick that you'll want to die, and there's nothing you can do about it apart from endure it. But you will, and it won't kill you. And one day the sun will come out - you might not even notice straight away, it'll be that faint. And then you'll catch yourself thinking about something or someone who has no connection with the past. Someone who's only yours. And you'll realize... that this is where your life is.

  • Eilis: I'd forgotten what this town is like. What were you planning to do, Miss Kelly? Keep me away from Jim? Stop me from going back to America? Perhaps you didn't even know. Perhaps it was enough for you to know that you could ruin me. My name is Eilis Fiorello.

  • [first lines]

    Eilis: Miss Kelly, might I talk to you later?

    Miss Kelly: Not if what you're going to say will cause trouble for me in some way or another.

    Eilis: [sighs]

  • Georgina: [about their ship cabin] This is hell. Never again.

    Eilis: Never again to America?

    Georgina: The mistake was coming home.

  • Mrs. Keogh: Ellis, from the look of you, you have greasy skin, is that right? What do you do about that?

    Eilis: Just... Well, I wash it, Mrs. Keogh, with soap.

    Miss McAdam: There is nothing wrong with soap. Soap was good enough for our Lord. I expect.

    Mrs. Keogh: Well, which brand did he use, Miss McAdam? Does the Bible tell you that?

    Diana: Our Lord is a man anyway. He didn't care about greasy skin.

    Mrs. Keogh: Ladies, no more talk about our Lord's complexion at dinner, please.

  • Sheila: Would I get married again? No, I want to be waiting outside the bathroom of my boarding house forever. Of course I do. That's why I go to that wretched dance every week. I want to be waiting outside my own bathroom, while some bad tempered fellow with hair growing out of his ears reads the newspaper on the toilet and I wish I was back here, talking to you.

  • Mrs. Keogh: Patty, did you happen to look at that cold cream?

    Patty: No, Mrs. Keogh. I asked Miss Tyler in cosmetics and I showed her the advertisement.

    Mrs. Keogh: I don't want to have to travel all the way to Manhattan just for a jar of cold cream.

  • Miss McAdam: One of the things that ruins Christmas in America is the turkey. Oh, it tastes of sawdust.

    Mrs. Keogh: So that's one cheese sandwich for Miss McAdam and extra turkey for everyone else!

  • Tony: Do you like Italian food?

    Eilis: Don't know. I've never eaten it.

    Tony: It's the best food in the world.

    Eilis: Well, why would I not like it?

  • Miss Fortini: Ellis, you look like a different person. How did you do it? Maybe I can pass some advice onto the next poor girl who feels that way.

    Eilis: I met somebody. An Italian fella.

    Miss Fortini: Oh, I'm not passing that on. I'd rather have them homesick than heartbroken. Does he talk about baseball all the time? Or, his mother?

    Eilis: No.

    Miss Fortini: Then keep him. There isn't another Italian man like him in New York.

  • Maurizio: So, has Tony offered to take you to Ebbets Field when the season starts?

    Eilis: [to Tony] You like baseball?

    Maurizio: He never mentioned the Dodgers? Not even once? What's the matter with you?

  • Laurenzio: You'll have to go to Ebbets Field if you want to see him in the summer.

    Eilis: They're that important to you?

    Tony: Put it this way, if our kids end up supporting the Yankees or the Giants, it would break my heart.

  • Diana: Have you told Tony yet, Ellis?

    Eilis: Of course.

    Sheila: Is he taking you out to celebrate?

    Eilis: We're going to Coney Island at the weekend.

    Patty: Oh, boy.

    Eilis: What does that mean?

    Patty: Well, do you have a bathing costume?

    Eilis: No, I was going to...

    Diana: Do you have sunglasses?

    Eilis: No.

    Sheila: You need sunglasses. I read that if you don't have them on the beach this year, people will talk about you.

    Mrs. Keogh: And what will they say, exactly, Sheila?

    Dolores: That's the thing, Mrs Kehoe. You'd never know, because they'd never say it to your face.

  • Miss Fortini: [Fitting Ellis with a new swimming costume] You'll have to shave down there. I'll give you a razor that will do the trick. You're all right there for the moment. Most Italian men appreciate a fuller figure. But, watch yourself over the summer. The black's too dark for your pale skin. Let's see you in the green.

  • Nancy: And what about the skyscrapers?

    Eilis: Ah, but that's Manhattan. I live in Brooklyn and I work in Brooklyn and if I go out, I go out in Brooklyn. All the skyscrapers are across the river.

    Nancy: You don't make it sound very glamorous.

    Eilis: It's not, really.