Death of a Salesman (1985 TV Movie)

John Malkovich: Biff Loman

Photos 

Quotes 

• Biff Loman : I run out of that building and I see... the sky. I see all the things I love in this world. The work, the food, the time to sit and smoke. And I look at this pen and I ask myself, "What the hell am I grabbing this thing for? Why am I trying to become something I don't wanna become when all I want is out there waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am?"

• Biff Loman : [to his father]  Will you let me go, for God's sake? Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?

• Linda Loman : I am not saying he's a great man. Willy Loman never earned a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being - and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He must not be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention! Attention must be finally paid to such a person! You called him crazy...

  Biff Loman : Mom, I didn't know...

  Linda Loman : Wait of minute! A lot of people think he's lost his-balance. But you don't have to be very smart to know what his trouble is. The man is exhausted!

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Sure.

  Linda Loman : A small man can be just as exhausted as a great man.

• Biff Loman : [arguing with Willy]  Pop, I'm a dime a dozen and so are you...

  Willy Loman : [shouting]  I am not a dime a dozen! I'm Willy Loman and you are Biff Loman!

• Biff Loman : I've always made a point of not wasting my life. Whenever I come back here I know that all I've done is to waste my life.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : You're a poet, Biff. You know it? Yeah, you're an idealist.

  Biff Loman : No, I'm mixed up very bad.

• Biff Loman : I tell you Happy, I don't know what the future is. I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : What do you mean?

  Biff Loman : I spent six or seven years after High School trying to work myself up, being a shipping clerk, salesman, business of one kind or another. It's a measly manner of existence. To get on that subway, on hot mornings in the the summer, to devote your whole life to keeping stock or making phone calls? By selling and buying? To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation? When all you really desire is to be outdoors with your shirt off. And always, to have to get ahead of the next fella and still, that's how you build a future.

• Biff Loman : Are you content, Happy? You're a success, aren't you? Are you content?

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Hell, no.

  Biff Loman : Why not? You're makin' money, aren't you.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : All I can do now is wait for the Merchandise Manager to die.

• Linda Loman : For five weeks he's been on straight commission, like a beginner, an unknown!

  Biff Loman : Those ungrateful bastards!

  Linda Loman : Are they any worse than his sons? He drives seven hundred miles, and when he gets there no one knows him any more, no one welcomes him. And what goes through a man's mind, driving seven hundred miles home without having earned a cent? Why shouldn't he talk to himself? Why not? When he has to go to Charley every week and borrow fifty dollars from him and pretend to me it's his pay? Now, how long can that go on? How long? And you tell me he has no character? The man who never worked a day but for your benefit? When does he get the medal for that? Is this his reward?

• Biff Loman : Dad...

  Willy Loman : My boy - she's nothing to me, Biff. I was lonely, I was terribly lonely.

  Biff Loman : Dad, you gave her Mama's stockings!

• Biff Loman : There were a lot of nice days. When he'd come home from a trip; or on Sundays, making the stoop; finishing the cellar; when he built the extra bathroom; and put up the garage. You know, Charley, I think there was more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made.

  Charley : Yeah. He was a happy man with a batch of cement.

  Linda Loman : He was so wonderful with his hands.

  Biff Loman : He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Don't say that!

  Biff Loman : The man didn't know who he was.

  Charley : Nobody dast blame this man.

• Harold 'Happy' Loman : Bob Harrison, he said you were tops, and then you go and do some damn fool thing like whistling whole songs in the elevator like a comedian.

  Biff Loman : Well, so what? I like to whistle sometimes.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : You don't raise a guy to a responsible job who whistles in the elevator!

• Harold 'Happy' Loman : Miss Forsythe, this is my brother.

  Biff Loman : Is Dad here?

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : His name is Biff. You might've heard of him. He's a great football player.

  Miss Forsythe : Really? What team?

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Are you familiar with football?

  Miss Forsythe : No, I'm afraid I'm not.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Biff is quarterback with the New York Giants.

• Letta : I think it's sweet you bring your daddy along.

  Miss Forsythe : Oh, he isn't really your father!

  Biff Loman : Miss Forsythe, you've just seen a prince walk by. A fine, troubled prince. A hardworking, unappreciated prince. A pal, do you understand? A good companion. Always for his boys.

  Letta : That's so sweet.

• Biff Loman : Dad, it's not your fault; it's me, I'm a bum.