Death of a Salesman (1985 TV Movie)

Kate Reid: Linda Loman

Quotes 

• 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.

• [last lines] 

  Linda Loman : Help me, Willy, I can't cry. It seems to me that you're just on another trip and I keep expecting you. Why did you do it? I search and search - and I search, and I - can't understand it, Willy. I made the last payment on the house today. Today, dear. And there'll be nobody home. We're free and clear. We're free. We're free. We're free.

• Harold 'Happy' Loman : I'm gettin' married, Mom. I wanted to tell you.

  Linda Loman : Go to sleep, dear.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : I just wanted to tell you.

  Willy Loman : Keep up the good work.

• Willy Loman : But they do laugh at me. Oh, I know that.

  Linda Loman : Darling.

  Willy Loman : I gotta overcome it. I know I gotta overcome it.

  Linda Loman : Darling.

  Willy Loman : I'm not dressing to advantage, maybe.

  Linda Loman : Willy, darling, you're the handsomest man in the world.

• Willy Loman : That was a beautiful thing. I'm taking a walk.

  Linda Loman : But, in your slippers, Willy?

  Willy Loman : Now, there was a man worth talking to.

  Linda Loman : But, in your slippers?

  Willy Loman : I was right! I was right!

• Linda Loman : He works for a company thirty-six years this March, he opens up unheard-of territories to their trademark, and now in his old age they take his salary away!

• 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?

• Linda Loman : Oh, I forgot! You're supposed to meet them for dinner tonight.

  Willy Loman : Me?

  Linda Loman : At Frank's Chop House on Forty-eighth near Sixth Avenue.

  Willy Loman : Is that so! How about you?

  Linda Loman : No, just the three of you. They're gonna blow you to a big meal!

  Willy Loman : Don't say! Who thought of that?

  Linda Loman : Biff came to me this morning. Well, he said, "Tell Dad, we're going to blow him to a big meal." Be there six o'clock. You and your two boys are going to have dinner.

  Willy Loman : Ah, gee whiz! That's really somethin'.

• Linda Loman : Why didn't anybody come?

  Charley : It was a very nice funeral.

  Linda Loman : But where are all the people he knew?

• 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.

• [first lines] 

  Linda Loman : Willy?

  Willy Loman : It's alright. I came back.

  Linda Loman : Why, what happened? Did something happen Willy?

  Willy Loman : Nah.

  Linda Loman : You didn't smash the car did you?

  Willy Loman : I said nothing happened! Didn't you hear me?

  Linda Loman : Didn't you feel well?

  Willy Loman : [sighs]  I'm tired to the death. I-a, I couldn't make it. I just couldn't make it Linda.

• Linda Loman : It was so thrilling seeing them shaving together - one behind the other - in the bathroom and going out together. Did you notice? The whole house smells of shaving lotion.

• Linda Loman : I bought a new kind of American-type cheese. And - it's whipped.

  Willy Loman : Why do you get American when I want Swiss?

  Linda Loman : I thought you'd like a change.

  Willy Loman : I don't want a change! I want Swiss cheese! Why am I always being contradicted?

  Linda Loman : Well, I wanted it to be a surprise.

• Linda Loman : Now, you be careful on the stairs. The cheese is on the middle shelf.

• Willy Loman : You know, the trouble is, Linda, people don't seem to take to me.

  Linda Loman : Oh, don't be so foolish!

  Willy Loman : I know it when I walk in. They seem to laugh at me.

  Linda Loman : Why? Why would they laugh at you? Don't talk that way, Willy.

  Willy Loman : I don't know the reason for it; but, they just pass me by. I'm not noticed.

  Linda Loman : Well, you're making seventy to a hundred dollars a week.

  Willy Loman : But I gotta be at it ten, twelve hours a day. Other men - I don't know why - they do it easier. I don't know *why* I can't stop myself. I talk too much. Oh, a man oughta come in with a few words.

• Willy Loman : Boys left nice and early, heh?

  Linda Loman : They were out of here by eight o'clock.

  Willy Loman : Good work!

  Linda Loman : It was so thrilling to see them leaving together. I cannot get over the shaving lotion in this house!

• Linda Loman : Did you pack fresh underwear?

• Linda Loman : Did you have to go to women tonight? You and your rotten lousy whores!

• Willy Loman : Isn't that-isn't that remarkable? Biff - he - he likes me!

  Linda Loman : He loves you, Willy!

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Always did, Pop.

• Linda Loman : He was so humiliated! He nearly limped when he came in!