Kate Thompson Quotes in The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)

Narrator: Only 600 miles to the south, there's a vast city. And here you find civilized man. Civilized man refused to adapt himself to his environment; instead, he adapted his environment to suit him. So he built cities, roads, vehicles, machinery, and he put up power lines to run his labour-saving devices. But somehow he didn't know where to stop. The more he improved his surroundings to make life easier, the more complicated he made it. So now his children are sentenced to 10-15 years of school, just to learn how to survive in this complex and hazardous habitat they were born into. And civilized man, who refused to adapt to his surroundings, now finds he has to adapt and re-adapt every hour of the day to his self-created environment. For instance, if it's Monday and 7:30 comes up, you have to dis-adapt from your domestic surroundings and re-adapt yourself to an entirely different environment. 8:00 means everybody has to look busy. 10:30 means you can stop looking busy for 15 minutes. And then you have to look busy again. And so your day is chopped into pieces, and in each segment of time you adapt to a new set circumstances. No wonder some people go off the rails a bit...

[Kate looks for a place to have her lunch]

Kate Thompson: [to a woman] Is this seat taken?

[the woman moves over and Kate takes a seat]

Woman in the lunchroom: Does the noise in my head bother you?

Kate Thompson: No...

[Later, Kate finds Pete]

Kate Thompson: Still got that story about the teacher shortage in Botswana?

Pete: Yeah, you gonna use it?

Kate Thompson: No. Maybe they can use me.

Narrator: But in the Kalahari, it's always Tuesday, or Thursday if you like, or Sunday. No clocks or calendars tell you to do this or that.

[Xi meets Kate Thompson, who is dressing]

Narrator: That morning, Xi saw the ugliest person he'd ever come across. She was as pale as something that had crawled out of a rotting log. Her hair was quite gruesome; long and stringy and white, as if she was very old. She was very big - you'd have to dig the whole day to find enough food to feed her.

[Kate sees Xi and hurriedly covers herself]

Kate Thompson: Go away!

[Xi watches as Kate finishes dressing and packs her bags]

Narrator: Although it was a hot day, she was covering her body with skins that looked as if they were made from cobwebs. She was doing strange and magical things, and it struck him that she must be one of the gods. He wondered what she was doing down here on earth. But he was glad he met her, because now he'd give the evil thing back to her and go home to his family. So he said tactfully that he didn't need the thing, and that she could have it back. But she was very rude, and she walked away.

Steyn: Morning, Miss Thompson.

Kate Thompson: Morning.

Steyn: How are you?

Kate Thompson: Fine, thanks. How are you?

Steyn: Fine, thanks, and how are you?

[Mpudi groans]

Kate Thompson: I'm fine, thank you.

Steyn: Kate... I know you think I'm an idiot but I'm not really like that. It's only when I'm around wom... around you. I'm sorry. Normally, I'm quite normal. But whenever I'm in the presence of a lady my fingers turn into thumbs, my brain switches off...

Kate Thompson: [Steyn drops the cup he's picked up, tries to catch it, and knocks it into Kate's face] Watch it!

[Steyn crawls under a table to pick up the cup he's dropped, only to knock over several items on the table, including a bag of flour onto his face]

Steyn: It's flour.

Kate Thompson: I noticed.

Steyn: [Tries to stand up but knocks the entire table over. He picks up the table and tries to pick up all the items and put them back on the table while he speaks, but is unsuccessful... ] It's actually... actually, it's really only an interesting psychological phenomenon. Perhaps it's some Freudian syndrome. When I brought you your shoes, I came to apologize for the stupid things I did when I met you at Mabula. To explain that I'm not as stupid as that. But then, of course, I blew it, and I... so I don't blame you if you think... but it's really only an interesting psychological. When you get to know me better, you'll see that I'm not always stumbling. It's really just an interesting psychological phenomenon.

Kate Thompson: Yes, you are a very interesting psychological phenomenon. And I think you're very sweet.

[Kate kisses Steyn]