David Slater Quotes in The Moon Is Blue (1953)

Patty O'Neill: I've cured more hangovers than you could shake a stick at.

David Slater: Never shake a stick at a hangover.

David Slater: Would you consider our friend to be a man of... principles?

Patty O'Neill: I certainly do. He is charming.

David Slater: Yes, but I am told that I am not entirely without charm, but I have no principles whatsoever.

David Slater: [about his ex-wife] She divorced me. Extreme cruelty - I hit her with a muffin dish.

Patty O'Neill: You didn't!

David Slater: *Stainless steel* muffin dish. Still warm from popovers. Right across the behind. Raised a welt that lasted for *weeks* according to her lawyer. I was never privileged to see it.

Patty O'Neill: Oh, c'mon. You don't want to stay up here alone.

David Slater: Haven't the faintest intention of being alone. You decide to leave, I should probably call up a dame I know and ask her to come over.

Patty O'Neill: Don't say "dame", it's vulgar. At least say "girl"

David Slater: This girl *is* quite vulgar. In the sense that she is earthy and uninhibited. By common definition she is essentially a dame rather than a girl. She's a lot of fun.

Patty O'Neill: Then why don't you ask *her* to marry you?

David Slater: Because she'll lose all respect for me if I made such an idiotic suggestion.

Donald Gresham: Believe it or not, I never touched her.

David Slater: You know, it just occurred to me, that might very well have been the wrong you done her, according to Cynthia's book. Now I can understand why she was so sore this morning. A very humiliating experience. I probably should beat you up, anyway.

Donald Gresham: Let me get this straight. I am to be horsewhipped for *not* seducing your daughter?

David Slater: It's quite a new twist, isn't it?

Patty O'Neill: You struck a woman?

David Slater: Why certainly. In fact I seldom strike anyone *but* a woman. Oh, I'm not the belligerent type. I'm also a coward.

Donald Gresham: Now don't be too modest. Occasionally you'll strike a small man.

David Slater: If he's defenseless, yes.

David Slater: Don't you find I have a certain weird charm?

Patty O'Neill: I took my shoes off because my feet hurt.

David Slater: Oh, you should never say your feet hurt.

Patty O'Neill: Why not? They do.

David Slater: "My foot, singular, hurts" is an intriguing statement. "My feet, plural, hurt" is a rather sordid admission.

David Slater: Don't you find I have a certain weird charm?

Patty O'Neill: Yes, that's your whole trouble. You have entirely too much charm.

Donald Gresham: And it certainly *is* weird.

Patty O'Neill: He has reasons for suspicion.

David Slater: Take my advice and let them lurk.

Patty O'Neill: What?

David Slater: Suspicion, my child, suspicion. The lurking doubt. Is she or isn't she? Does she or doesn't she? Will she or won't she? Suspicion, the most powerful aphrodisiac in the world.

David Slater: If more fathers had ripped more phones out of more walls, more daughters wouldn't get into trouble.

David Slater: Now there's a man who's hard to please. He gripes when you're trying to be pure and he gripes when you're trying to be wanton.

David Slater: The three things I live for are steak, liquor, and sex.

David Slater: I wonder why it tis that young men are always cautioned against bad girls? Anyone can handle a bad girl, it's the good girls men ought to be warned against.