Catcher Block Quotes in Down with Love (2003)

Barbara Novak: I'm not gonna storm out of here, Catch. And I'm not gonna admit that you got Barbara Novak to fall in love... because I'm not Barbara Novak. There is no Barbara Novak.

Catcher Block: Huh?

Barbara Novak: And I didn't fall in love with Zip Martin. I fell in love with Catcher Block. And that was a year ago, when for three and a half weeks, I worked as your secretary. I don't expect you to remember me. I wasn't a blond then. But you did ask me out. And it broke my heart to say no, but I loved you too much. I couldn't bear to become just another notch in your bedpost. With your dating habits, I knew that even if I was lucky enough to get a regular spot on your rotating schedule... I would never have your undivided attention long enough for you to fall in love with me. I knew I had to do something to set myself apart. I knew I had to quit my job as your secretary... and write an international best-seller controversial enough... to get the attention of a New York publisher as well as "KNOW" magazine... but insignificant enough that as long as I went unseen, "KNOW" magazine's star journalist would refuse to do a cover story about it. I knew that every time we were supposed to meet, you would get distracted by one of your many girlfriends and stand me up... and this would give me a reason to fight with you over the phone... and declare that I wouldn't meet with you for a hundred years. And then all I would have to do was be patient and wait... the two or three weeks it would take for everyone in the world to buy a copy of my best-seller - and then I would begin to get the publicity I would need for you... to, one, see what I look like, and, two, see me denounce you in public as the worst kind of man. I knew that this would make you wanna get even by writing one of your exposés. And in order to do that, you would have to go undercover, assume a false identity and pretend to be the kind of man who would make the kind of girl I was pretending to be fall in love. And I knew that since I was pretending to be a girl who would have sex on the first date you would have pretend to be a man who wouldn't have sex for several dates. And in doing so, we would go out on lots of dates to all the best places and all the hit shows until finally, one night, you would take me back to your place - that you were pretending was someone else's - in order to get the evidence you needed to write your exposé... by seducing me until I said, "I love you." But saying "I love you" was also my plan. I just wanted to tell you the truth so that when you heard me say, "I love you" you would know that I knew who you were, and you would know who I was. Then you, the great Catcher Block, would know that you'd been beaten at your own game... by me, Nancy Brown, your former secretary. And I would have, once and for all, set myself apart from all the other girls you've known, all those other girls that you never really cared about, by making myself someone like the one person you really love and admire above all others: you. Then, when you realized that you had finally met your match... I would have at last gained the respect that would make you wanna marry me first and seduce me later.

[after looking at Catch's face]

Barbara Novak: I just wanted you to hear all this from me before you heard it from your private eye.

Peter MacMannus: Catch, you are the best friend a guy with twenty diagnosed neuroses ever had.

Catcher Block: Oh, we've been friends a long time... I knew you when you only had twelve.

Catcher Block: I don't care about sex anymore. I just want to get married.

Peter MacMannus: Well me too. But fat chance now.

Catcher Block: [as Zip Martin] Can you keep a secret?

Barbara Novak: Yes.

Catcher Block: [as Zip Martin] Me too.

Vickie Hiller: Barbara?

Peter MacMannus: Vickie!

Catcher Block: Nancy!

Peter MacMannus: Who are you calling Nancy?

Barbara Novak: [looking through a telescope] I've never seen anything so beautiful.

Catcher Block: [looking at Barbara] Neither have I.

Barbara Novak: But you're not even looking through the telescope.

Catcher Block: I know.

Barbara Novak: Another ruse, Catcher? You know I have no interest in seeing you.

Catcher Block: But you know you have to, and you know I know you have to. I'm sure you know how things are at KNOW ever since your new NOW.

Barbara Novak: I have no way of knowing how things are now at KNOW. I knew how things were at KNOW before NOW.

Catcher Block: Then you should know now at KNOW things are a lot like they are at NOW, we have to interview every applicant for every job, and so do you or you'd be going against NOW's definition of discrimination and you wouldn't want the readers of NOW or KNOW to know that, now would you?

Barbara Novak: Have a seat, Mr. Block.

[Catcher is talking about his socks to Peter; his secretary eavesdrops on the intercom mid-conversation]

Peter MacMannus: What would you say is the average length, for most men?

Catcher Block: How would I know? You think I spend all my time in the locker room at the club making a comparative study?

Peter MacMannus: Let me see yours again, then. We could measure. I'll get a ruler.

Catcher Block: Better make it a yardstick!

Peter MacMannus: Let's be accurate. Make sure you've got it fully extended. Have it up the whole way.

Catcher Block: It stays up all the way, all day long, man! That's the miracle I was telling you about: better living through chemistry. You got... 16 inches.

Peter MacMannus: 16 inches! How long does a man's hose have to be?

Catcher Block: That's 32 inches of confidence in every step. Don't forget - I've got two of 'em!

[the secretary faints]

[last lines]

Catcher Block: I love you, Barbara.

Barbara Novak: I know.

Catcher Block: It doesn't take a Nazi rocket scientist to figure *that* out.

Barbara Novak: Vegas?

Catcher Block: We can get married there right away. I'm not letting you get away again

Barbara Novak: Oh, Catch.

Catcher Block: I love you, Barbara.

Barbara Novak: I know.

Beatnik Girl: Ask me why I mourn.

Catcher Block: Why do you mourn, baby?

Beatnik Girl: I mourn because you are shrouded in the suit and tie that Madison Avenue will bury you in alive.

Catcher Block: Well, if it will cheer you up, you can help me out of it.

Catcher Block: I'm so sorry, Miss Novak, the darndest thing. I got waylaid by the sweetest Swedish Lapphund who kept me up half the night, and I'm afraid I'm still in bed.

Barbara Novak: My, you do get way laid.

Catcher Block: But this "Down with love"-chick is too busy? Doing what? Eating chocolate?

[about Barbara Novak]

Catcher Block: You said she was a spinster.

Peter MacMannus: I've never used the word "spinster" in my life. Okay, once, when I told my mother it was technically incorrect to call her son a spinster.

Catcher Block: Earth still is my favourite planet.

[last lines in post-credit sequence]

Catcher Block: Here, this'll put hairs on your chest. Not that I would want that.

Barbara Novak: Mmm-hmm.

Barbara Novak, Catcher Block: [singing] Here's to love.

Barbara Novak: I'd like to get to know you better.

Catcher Block: How much better?

Barbara Novak: All the way better.

Catcher Block: Well, I can't know you all the way better till I know you much, much better

Barbara Novak: Do you feel you know me well enough for me to buy you a drink?

Catcher Block: I sure could go for a Tang.

Barbara Novak: Have a candy bar for your trouble, and thanks again for thinking of us.

Catcher Block: But I'm always thinking of you, Miss Novak. I can't stop thinking of you, and I'd like you to reconsider considering me.

Barbara Novak: Even at a pay cut of 96.6%?

Catcher Block: It's only money. Besides, I've been on top so long I thought it might be nice to try a new position

Barbara Novak: And you think you could be comfortable in a position under a woman?

Catcher Block: I look forward to it. Starting at the bottom, working my way up slowly to the top.

Catcher Block: I never once said a word about Nancy Brown, and the only prize I wanted to win, was you. Crazy, isn't it? After all our tricking each other and our game playing, I'm the one with the love letter and you're the one with the scoop. Still, I'll keep my eyes on the billboards.

Peter MacMannus: You're fired.

Catcher Block: No I'm not.

Peter MacMannus: Oh, Yes you are.

Catcher Block: You see Lola shakes her maracas and Rosa bounces her bongo's while Nina is all hands. 120 words a minute.

Peter MacMannus: The story? It's written? Whoa, Catch! But is it safe to print? NASA is gonna blow its stack.

Catcher Block: Well, they forgave Germany. They can forgive us.

Catcher Block: [as Zip] Well then, let's get to bed... I'll call you a taxi.

[picks up the phone]

Barbara Novak: [confused] Taxi?

Catcher Block: ...Oh. When I said "bed," you thought I meant... *bed*.

Peter MacMannus: Then I see this! "Item! KNOW's Magazine Star - Journalist, Catcher Block - Ladies' Man, Man's Man, Man About Town - was seen leaving the Copa last night with a doggie bag and three girls from the floor show!"

Catcher Block: [laughs] I took the Bossa Nova Triplets to Cocoa Beach. NASA was throwing a luau.

Peter MacMannus: Well, I hope you're happy. Because unless you found Nazis at your luau, you're fired!

Catcher Block: [stares at him with a smug smile on his face]

Peter MacMannus: There *were* Nazis hiding at your luau! I knew it!

Catcher Block: I'm taking her to my place which she still thinks is your place by saying the guy she thinks I am who acts like you has a meeting there with you and the guy who she still doesn't know I really am