Linus Larrabee Quotes in Sabrina (1954)

Sabrina Fairchild: Maybe you should go to Paris, Linus.

Linus Larrabee: To Paris?

Sabrina Fairchild: It helped me a lot. Have you ever been there?

Linus Larrabee: [thinks] Oh, yes. Yes. Once. I was there for thirty-five minutes.

Sabrina Fairchild: Thirty-five MINUTES?

Linus Larrabee: Changing planes. I was on my way to Iraq on an oil deal.

Sabrina Fairchild: Oh, but Paris isn't for changing planes, it's... it's for changing your outlook, for... for throwing open the windows and letting in... letting in la vie en rose.

Linus Larrabee: [sadly] Paris is for lovers. Maybe that's why I stayed only thirty-five minutes.

Linus Larrabee: Why're you looking at me that way?

Sabrina Fairchild: All night long I've had the most terrible impulse to do something.

Linus Larrabee: Oh, never resist an impulse, Sabrina, especially if it's terrible.

Sabrina Fairchild: I'm gonna do it.

[reaching out and turning down the brim of Linus' Homburg]

Sabrina Fairchild: There!

Linus Larrabee: What's that for?

Sabrina Fairchild: We can't have you walking up and down the Champs Elysees looking like a tourist undertaker! Another thing, never a briefcase in Paris and never an umbrella. There's a law.

Linus Larrabee: How am I ever going to get along in Paris without someone like you? Who'll be there to help me with my French, to turn down the brim of my hat?

Sabrina Fairchild: Suppose you meet someone on the boat the very first day out? A perfect stranger.

Linus Larrabee: I have a better suppose, Sabrina. Suppose I were ten years younger. Suppose you weren't in love with David. Suppose I asked you to... I suppose I'm just talking nonsense.

Sabrina Fairchild: I suppose so.

Linus Larrabee: Suppose you sing that song again. Slowly.

David Larrabee: What's so constructive about marrying Elizabeth Tyson?

Linus Larrabee: [offering a sheet of plastic] Taste it.

David Larrabee: [licks it] It's sweet.

Linus Larrabee: That's right. It's made of sugar cane.

David Larrabee: Sugar cane. Wait a minute. This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that the Tysons own the largest holdings of sugar cane in Puerto Rico, would it?

Linus Larrabee: Second largest. The largest have no daughter.

David Larrabee: It's all beginning to make sense. Mr. Tyson owns the sugarcane, you own the formula for the plastics, and I'm supposed to be offered up as a human sacrifice on the altar of the industrial progress. Is that it?

Linus Larrabee: You make it sound so vulgar, David, as if the son of the hot dog dynasty were being offered in marriage to the daughter of the mustard king. Surely... surely you don't object to Elizabeth Tyson just because her father happens to have twenty million dollars? That's very narrow-minded of you, David.

David Larrabee: Just one thing you overlooked. I haven't proposed, and she hasn't accepted.

Linus Larrabee: Oh, don't worry. I proposed and Mr. Tyson accepted.

David Larrabee: Did you kiss him?

Linus Larrabee: [slow dancing with Sabrina] How do you say in French my sister has a yellow pencil?

Sabrina Fairchild: Ma soeur a un crayon jaune.

Linus Larrabee: How do you say my brother has a lovely girl?

Sabrina Fairchild: Mon frère a une gentille petite amie.

Linus Larrabee: And how do you say I wish I were my brother?

Thomas Fairchild: I like to think of life as a limousine. Though we are all riding together, we must remember our places. There's a front seat and a back seat and a window in between.

Linus Larrabee: Fairchild, I never realized it before, but you're a terrible snob.

Thomas Fairchild: Yes, sir.

Linus Larrabee: If you love her, take her. This is the 20th century.

Oliver Larrabee: The 20th century? I could pick a century out of a hat, blindfolded, and get a better one.

Linus Larrabee: [into a dictaphone] Interoffice memo, Linus Larrabee to David Larrabee. Dear David, this is to remind you that you are a junior partner of Larrabee Industries. Our building is located at 30 Broad Street, New York City. Your office is on the 22nd floor. Our normal week is Monday through Friday. Our working day is 9:00 to 5:00. Should you find this inconvenient, you are free to retire under the Larrabee pension plan. Having been with us one year, this will entitle you to sixty-five cents a month for the rest of your life.

David Larrabee: What makes you so sure Sabrina still wants me?

Linus Larrabee: Of course she wants you. She's wanted you all her life.

David Larrabee: Until you came along in that silly homburg.

Linus Larrabee: Well, suppose you straighten that silly straw hat and on your way. You'll miss the boat.

David Larrabee: Don't worry. I won't miss the boat. I'm going.

[starts walking towards the door]

David Larrabee: Funniest thing. Linus Larrabee, the man who doesn't burn, doesn't scorch, doesn't melt... suddenly throws a twenty million dollar deal out the window.

[stops at the door]

David Larrabee: Are you sure *you* don't want to go with her?

Linus Larrabee: Why should I want to go with her?

David Larrabee: Because you're in love with her.

Oliver Larrabee: I can never remember that garage girl's name.

Linus Larrabee: Sabrina.

Oliver Larrabee: Sabrina! What right has a chauffeur got to call his daughter Sabrina?

Linus Larrabee: What would you suggest... Ethel?

David Larrabee: I've been trying to write a poem to her but I... I can't seem to finish it. What rhymes with "glass"?

Linus Larrabee: Glass... Glass... Uh...

[snaps fingers]

Linus Larrabee: "Alas"!

David Larrabee: Morning, Linus. Where're you off to?

Linus Larrabee: The office. Where do you think?

David Larrabee: The office? On Sunday?

Linus Larrabee: Today is Wednesday.

David Larrabee: Wednesday?

Linus Larrabee: [after Sabrina puts a romantic record on the phonograph] Sabrina.

Sabrina Fairchild: Yes?

Linus Larrabee: Do you mind if we turn this off?

Sabrina Fairchild: Why?

Linus Larrabee: [pained] Because.

Sabrina Fairchild: Don't you like it?

Linus Larrabee: I used to like it.

Sabrina Fairchild: [taking the record off] Certain songs bring back certain memories to me, too. Did you love her?

Linus Larrabee: I'd rather not talk about it.

Sabrina Fairchild: I'm sorry.

Linus Larrabee: That's all right.

Sabrina Fairchild: It's so strange to think of you being touched by a woman. I always thought you walked alone.

Linus Larrabee: No man walks alone from choice.

Sabrina Fairchild: As a child I used to watch you, from the window over the garage. Coming and going, always wearing your black homburg and carrying a briefcase and umbrella. I thought you could never belong to anyone. Never care for anyone.

Linus Larrabee: Oh, yes, the cold businessman behind his marble desk, way up in his executive suite. No emotions, just ice water in his veins and ticker tape coming from his heart. And yet... one day that same cold businessman, high up in a skyscraper, opens a window, steps out on a ledge... stands there for three hours wondering... if he should jump.

Sabrina Fairchild: Because of her?

Linus Larrabee: I always make it a point to have controls.

Mr. Tyson: Yes, it's your good luck the kids are so fond of each other.

Linus Larrabee: I always make it a point to be lucky, too.

Linus Larrabee: A new product has been found, something of use to the world, so a new industry moves into an undeveloped area. Factories go up, machines are brought in, a harbor is dug, and you're in business. It's purely coincidental of course that people who never saw a dime before suddenly have a dollar, and barefooted kids wear shoes and have their teeth fixed and their faces washed. What's wrong with the kind of an urge that gives people libraries, hospitals, baseball diamonds and, uh, movies on a Saturday night? Miss McCardle, will you send in the secretaries?

Miss McCardle: Yes, Mr. Larrabee.

David Larrabee: Now you make me feel like a heel. If I don't marry Elizabeth, some kid is going to be running around Puerto Rico barefoot with cavities in his teeth.

Linus Larrabee: She doesn't want money; she wants love.

Oliver Larrabee: I thought they discontinued that model.

Linus Larrabee: Look at me. Joe College with a touch of arthritis.

Linus Larrabee: I wish I were dead with my back broken.

Oliver Larrabee: Seems to me there ought to be a less extravagant way of getting a chauffeur's daughter out of one's hair.

Linus Larrabee: How would you do it? You can't even get a little olive out of a jar!

Linus Larrabee: [Linus has decided to cancel the wedding] When's your mother's birthday?

Miss McCardle: Why?

Thomas Fairchild: May I ask, sir, what exactly are your intentions?

Linus Larrabee: My intentions? Unethical, reprehensible but very practical.

Thomas Fairchild: I beg your pardon?

Linus Larrabee: No self-respecting prime minister would offer kronen.

Sabrina Fairchild: No self-respecting waitress would take dollars.

Linus Larrabee: So, that really is a beautiful name. How did you get it?

Sabrina: My father's reading. It's in a poem.

Linus Larrabee: Oh?

Sabrina: "Sabrina fair, listen where thou art sitting under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, in twisted braids of lilies knitting the loose train of thy amber-dropping hair."

Sabrina: [laughs to herself] It's an incredible airplane - it's beautiful. I've never seen anything like it.

Linus Larrabee: Ah, yes.

[returns to reading his work papers]

Sabrina: Don't you ever look out the window?

Linus Larrabee: When do I have time?

Sabrina: What happened to all that time we saved taking the helicopter?

Linus Larrabee: [lightheartedly] I'm storing it up.

Sabrina: [seriously] No, you're not.

Linus Larrabee: [pause] So, your little poem - what does it mean?

Sabrina: It's the story of a water sprite who saved a virgin from a fate worse than death.

Linus Larrabee: And Sabrina's the virgin.

Sabrina: [quietly] Sabrina's the savior.

David Larrabee: [as Linus & Maude board their chauffeured limo for the ride to work] You guys work Sundays now, huh?

Linus Larrabee: It's Wednesday, David.

Linus Larrabee: David, where's Sabrina? You didn't go with her?

David Larrabee: Well obviously not, Linus, I mean, here I am, right? She's probably having her beverage service right about now.

Mrs. Ingrid Tyson: Who's Sabrina?

Patrick Tyson: The chauffeur's daughter!

Linus Larrabee: Don't call her that!

[David looks at him in amusement]

Elizabeth Tyson, MD: She was after David for a while, then apparently she switched to Linus. She seems to have decided that HE was the one with the power.

Linus Larrabee: [outraged, pointing to David] Is THAT what he told you?

Elizabeth Tyson, MD: He told me everything, Linus.

Linus Larrabee: [to David] And you didn't see her before she left? You didn't talk to her?

David Larrabee: Oh, sure, I said goodbye, and I think I wished her luck. Maybe not. I told her I felt kind of funny accepting my brother's hand-me-downs

[Maude covers her mouth to keep from smiling]

David Larrabee: , and I said don't take it personally, and you've always been generous to your women in the past, and I was sure she'd be more than compensated for... whatever!

[Linus punches him]

David Larrabee: See! I told you! He loves her!

Mrs. Ingrid Tyson: Who?

Patrick Tyson: Sabrina!

David Larrabee: [touching his mouth] Is he packed?

Mack: Yes.

Linus Larrabee: Is who packed?

Mack: You are. Just one bag.

Linus Larrabee: [flustered] Wait a minute, you - you packed my clothes? You went to my apartment?

Maude Larrabee: I took her!

Mack: We were up to our elbows in your underwear drawer; it was like touching the Shroud of Turin.

David Larrabee: Here, sign this. It's your authorization for the completion of the merger. AND this - it gives me the raise I deserve for the new position I'm assuming. There's a car waiting for you downstairs, a helicopter at East 60th... the plane ticket's been changed to the Concorde. It leaves in exactly 39 minutes. If you make it, you just might beat her there.

[Linus turns away in thought]

Elizabeth Tyson, MD: Go, Linus! Don't think!

Linus Larrabee: [hesitantly] She... she must absolutely hate me!

Maude Larrabee: She'll get over it. We all do... Linus, you know I love you. No mother could be prouder. But I think it's time that you ran away from home.

David Larrabee: But sign these first.

[Linus signs the forms and clasps David's shoulder]

Linus Larrabee: If you'll excuse me... it appears I have a previous engagement.

[leaves]

Sabrina: You probably don't believe in marriage.

Linus Larrabee: Yes, I do. That's why I never got married. David, however, believes in the tooth fairy.

Sabrina: That's why I like him.

Linus Larrabee: Well, I like him too. As a matter of fact, I love him. I just don't know what to do with him.

Linus Larrabee: And I want tickets to whatever Broadway show nobody can get tickets to.

[Mack looks inquisitively at him]

Linus Larrabee: I know, I seldom go to the theatre.

Mack: Seldom?

Linus Larrabee: So, I'm not a theatre buff.

Mack: Buff? The most difficult tickets to get will be for a Broadway musical.

Linus Larrabee: [distractedly] Okay.

Mack: That means that the performers will periodically dance about and burst into song.

Linus Larrabee: I've been following in footsteps all my life. Save me, Sabrina fair, you're the only one who can.

David Larrabee: You're talking about my life.

Linus Larrabee: I pay for your life, David. My life makes your life possible.

David Larrabee: I resent that.

Linus Larrabee: So do I.

Linus Larrabee: So, what do they say about me?

Sabrina: Oh, you know...

Linus Larrabee: No.

Sabrina: That you're the world's only living heart donor.

Linus Larrabee: Oh, that.

Sabrina: And how does this one go? He thinks that morals are paintings on walls and scruples are money in Russia.

Linus Larrabee: How droll.

Sabrina: And then there's my favorite...

Linus Larrabee: No, that's okay.

Linus Larrabee: Frank, listen, David can't stand pain so I want you to give him a combination of morphine and - I don't...

Frank, David's doctor (via telephone): [inaudible]

Linus Larrabee: Okay, not morphine, but something strong, and mixed with a sleeping tablet like Halcion.

Frank, David's doctor (via telephone): [inaudible]

Linus Larrabee: They haven't proved that, Frank.

Frank, David's doctor (via telephone): [inaudible]

Linus Larrabee: Uh, we have no idea. Maude thinks they were left on the chair by some guest.

Frank, David's doctor (via telephone): [inaudible]

Linus Larrabee: He's not gonna sue his own mother.

Frank, David's doctor (via telephone): [inaudible]

Linus Larrabee: [indignant] Well, he's not me!

Maude Larrabee: I feel terrible.

Linus Larrabee: Take a pill.

Maude Larrabee: Watch it. I'm still your mother.

Linus Larrabee: And you taught me everything I know.

Maude Larrabee: I didn't teach you this.

Sabrina: I thought it was all a lie.

Linus Larrabee: It was. It was a lie... but then it was a dream.

Linus Larrabee: Listen, I work in the real world with real responsibilities.

Sabrina: I know you work in the real world and you're very good at it. But that's work. Where do you live, Linus?

Linus Larrabee: Well I just don't feel like buying any more networks this year. There's never anything good on.

Linus Larrabee: David, sit down.

David Larrabee: I can't talk right now, I have to be somewhere.

Linus Larrabee: Just sit down!

David Larrabee: [David sits and there is the sound of glass crunching] Owwwaaahhh!

Maude Larrabee: What?

David Larrabee: I sat on the glasses!

Linus Larrabee: Mother, go get Dr. Callaway. He's at the bar.

Maude Larrabee: Who put glasses on the chair?

David Larrabee: Can we talk about this later? I'm bleeding!

Maude Larrabee: Darling, don't worry, just elevate... something.

Sabrina: I never thought of you as a dancer.

Linus Larrabee: I'm crazy about it. They call me Bojangles at the office.

Sabrina: Didn't you once say everything is business?

Linus Larrabee: No, but it sounds like me.

Linus Larrabee: Here? Lousy. So far, I'm more affected than she is. I damn near cried twice.

Linus Larrabee: What's the problem, Patrick?

Patrick Tyson: No problem from our point of view. I feel like... what's that word when a lot of guys are after you?

Linus Larrabee: Whore?

Patrick Tyson: Hmm... I was thinking more... debutante.

[Fairchild stares balefully at Linus in the rear-view window after Linus has decided to go to France to reunite with Sabrina]

Linus Larrabee: Go ahead, say it.

Fairchild: [haltingly] You don't... deserve her.

Linus Larrabee: I don't. I know that. But I need her - and I don't need anything.

Fairchild: [tries to manuever through traffic, but fails] Time to run for it.

Linus Larrabee: I just want to make her happy.

Fairchild: 13 Rue des Beaux Arts.

Linus Larrabee: I think you know I love you. And you promised if there was anything you could ever do...

Airline attendant: First time on the concorde, Mr. Larrabee?

Linus Larrabee: Yes.

Airline attendant: But not your first time in Paris?

Linus Larrabee: It is my first everything.

David Larrabee: She's a real woman, not a, you know.

Linus Larrabee: Transvestite?

David Larrabee: She's not a bimbo.

Linus Larrabee: [David is indisposed so Linus meets up with Sabrina instead and romances her] Oh, I almost forgot.

[he kisses her]

Linus Larrabee: The rest of the message from David.

Linus Larrabee: [Sabrina slaps him] Thanks, I needed that.

Sabrina: What am I doing? I never should have... I'm...

Linus Larrabee: No, it's...

Sabrina: No, I mean - you have my handprint on your face.

Linus Larrabee: I think it would be better if you pick up your messages in person. You'll see David tomorrow.

[he leaves]

David Larrabee: [bursting into Linus's office] I need to talk to you.

Linus Larrabee: I'm in a meeting.

David Larrabee: When was the last time I came here?

Linus Larrabee: You're right.

Sabrina: [after David has invited her to his mother's party, despite not recognising her] Do you really want me to come?

David Larrabee: Very much, if you'll tell me who you are.

Linus Larrabee: Hello, Sabrina.

Sabrina: Hello, Linus.

David Larrabee: Sabrina?

Linus Larrabee: Have a good time in Paris?

Sabrina: Yes, thank you.

David Larrabee: Sabrina?

Linus Larrabee: You look all grown up.

David Larrabee: Sabrina?

Linus Larrabee: Why does he keep saying that?

David Larrabee: So this is all just a coincidence?

Linus Larrabee: It's an opportunity. What am I supposed to do? Disqualify myself from a billion dollar merger because I might have family connections?

[pulls a gun with silencer attached out of his desk and shoots a flat panel TV]

David Larrabee: [frightened] What are you doing? It was just a question.

Linus Larrabee: [walking over to the TV] Look at this thing. Not a scratch on it.

David Larrabee: Is this some new way of changing the subject?

Linus Larrabee: [on the phone] Mack, I'm going to stay here for the next few days. Cancel whatever I've got and reschedule. Have the plane stand by at 9:00am tomorrow, and fix up the cottage.

[pause]

Linus Larrabee: I don't know, flowers, candles, singers. Call David's secretary, that's all she ever does.

[pause]

Linus Larrabee: Well wake her, I'm up, you're up.

[pause]

Linus Larrabee: You weren't? Well, call her anyway.

[hangs up]

[Sabrina enters Linus's office hesitantly]

Linus Larrabee: I was beginning to worry.

Sabrina: Why?

Linus Larrabee: That's a favorite question of yours. Didn't you want to come?

Sabrina: Uh, uh... I asked you first.

Linus Larrabee: I asked you second.

Sabrina: Uh... I've been, uh, I've been wandering around Manhattan all afternoon. Uh, it's, it's something to do with maybe... n-n-never seeing you again, but that's, uh, ridiculous because we don't, uh, we don't have to, uh, well, except by accident, and uh, how can that be a problem? Uh... uh...

[voice shaking]

Sabrina: Uh... if two people...

[giving up]

Sabrina: I asked you first.

Linus Larrabee: Well, then what you said, whatever it is, makes what I was gonna say obsolete, I think.

Sabrina: [disappointed] Obsolete?

Linus Larrabee: Irrelevent.