Me, Natalie (1969)

Patty Duke: Natalie Miller

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Quotes 

• Natalie Miller : I remember thinking it was the greatest mirror in the world when I got it. Isn't it terrible how one day you can think something is the greatest and the next day you hate it? Not that it happened that fast with me, but by the time I was 17, I had to admit, that mirror and me were on the outs. Still, even the things you hate you sometimes can't help loving because of what they've been through with you.

• Natalie Miller : I guess the first time anybody came right out and said it was when I was six years old.

• Tony : Why do you wear that dog collar on your ankle?

  Natalie Miller : 'Cause I like it. 'Cause it's me

  Tony : Who's you?

  Natalie Miller : Natalie Miller, who's you?

  Tony : David Harris. That the only reason?

  Natalie Miller : No. I wear it to tell people that I know who I am.

  Tony : Why, because you're afraid they might tell you first?

  Natalie Miller : Look, if I have to strip down to the bare truth, I want the nude rate, fifteen dollars an hour.

  Tony : We'll stick to ten, just stop knocking yourself. We don't have to go around announcing to people that we're less than they are just because we don't have the courage to be more.

• Natalie Miller : Dear David, I spend all day writing love letters to you in my mind. Then when I sit down in front of the paper the only thing I can remember is, "I love you." But then that's a lot, isn't it? When you come back they'll all be waiting for you to read. Dear David, another day that seems to never end. I came down the dumbwaiter to spend the night in your bed after I couldn't sleep in my own thinking about you. Dear David, I subleased my apartment and we have just become co-inhabitants, as the saying goes. Just this minute decided that the word "co-inhabited" is a very sexy word. I guess I never thought of it before because I never co-inhabited with anyone before. I guess after we're married I'll think that "marriage" is a sexy word too. In fact, I know it is when I think of it with you. Dear David, I found a picture of you and your boys and every time I looked at it I began to feel more crummy, as though what I was doing to Diane was wrong. I felt like I was telling that boy with the thick glasses at the dance to get lost again. I felt like I was knocking out Kenny schroder's teeth again. Isn't it funny that I, Natalie Miller, should feel sorry for a beautiful woman? Dear David, I love you. And I guess I always will love you because you were the one who taught me I could be loved. I intended to be here, I really did. I thought about it all night, how much I wanted you. But I didn't know why it bothered me about anything else. I thought what a jerk I was to be thinking about anything else. Because what else was there? I mean, what else was there in the future if there wasn't you? But the funny thing was that because there was you, I wasn't afraid of that. I mean, even when I thought of Betty and how miserable she was gonna be, and Shirley, what she said about holding on when you find it, no matter what, because that was the only way to be happy. It didn't make any difference! Because that was Betty's miserable and that was Shirley's happy. I only know I have to say goodbye. And if I'm miserable today, tomorrow maybe I'll be happy. And maybe I won't but if I'm miserable it'll be my miserable. And if I'm happy it'll be my happy and I can't do it any other way. Because this is me. Me, Natalie. And I really never knew it before!

• Natalie Miller : [Natalie struggles to get the moosehead out of the dumbwaiter]  Come on, moose!