The Misfits (1961)

Montgomery Clift: Perce Howland

Photos 

Quotes 

• Perce : So what I want to know... what I want to know is: who do you depend on?

  Roslyn : I don't know. Maybe all there really is is just the next thing. The next thing that happens. Maybe you're not supposed to remember anybody's promises.

• Perce : How come you got such trust in your eyes?

  Roslyn : I do?

  Perce : Like you was just born.

• Gay : I hope your sober.

  Perce : Man I have won buckets of money in towns I couldn't even remember the names of!

• Guido : What kind of dancin' you do?

  Roslyn : Oh, interpretive dancing. You know, nightclubs and that sort of thing.

  Perce : I was in a nightclub once. I was in a nightclub in Kansas City called: The Naked Truth. And they wasn't kiddin'!

• Roslyn : That star is so far away, that by the time the light from it reaches us here on Earth, it might not even be up there anymore.

  Perce : Boy, you sure know a lot, don't you, pilot?

  Guido : Astronomy is in all the library books, Perce. Nothin' to it but readin'.

  Roslyn : Still, it's wonderful to know things.

  Guido : Knowing things don't matter much. You got somethin' a lot more important.

  Roslyn : What?

  Guido : You care. Whatever happens to anybody, it happens to you. You're really hooked into the whole thing, Roslyn. It's a blessing.

  Roslyn : People say I'm just nervous.

• Perce : Do you belong to Gay?

  Roslyn : I don't know where I belong.

• Perce : I don't like to see the way they grind up women around here. Although, I guess, a lot of them don't mind, do they?

  Roslyn : Some do.

  Perce : Don't you, don't you let them grind you up here.

• Perce : Hey go in there and get me a bottle of whiskey to keep me primed for the rodeo

• Gay : It's better than wages, ain't it? - - I said it's better than wages, ain't it?

  Perce : Sure, anything's better than wages.

• Perce : I was in a nightclub in Kansas City, called 'The Naked Truth,' and they weren't kiddin'.

• Roslyn : How do you feel?

  Perce : [after riding and being thrown by a rode bull]  How do I feel? Well, like I was kicked by a bull.

  Gay : Oh, I want no part of that bull except on a plate, medium rare.

• [Saying their goodbyes before Roslyn leaves with Gaylord] 

  Perce : Um, I'm pleased to have met you, Roslyn.

  Roslyn : Don't get hurt anymore, will you, Perce?

  [Perce smiles wistfully and slowly walks away]