Louise Standon Quotes in Mockingbird Don't Sing (2001)

Louise Standon: You promised me, remember? If she lived past the age of twelve, we'd get her some help.

Social Worker: Who is that with you?

Louise Standon: That's Katie, my daughter.

Social Worker: How old are you, Katie?

Louise Standon: She'll be fourteen in April.

Louise Standon: Wes never did trust doctors, and, uh... and in that regard, I've come around to his way of thinking.

Katie: Katie glad Mama see.

Louise Standon: What have you done to her to make her walk so peculiar?

Beverly Glazer: Katie, do you remember what you're supposed to do before you reach for something at the table? You're supposed to ask. Now, can you say, "May I please have the applesauce"?

Sandra Tannen: Come on, Katie, I know you can say that.

Louise Standon: Don't torture the child. If she doesn't want to say anything, she doesn't have to.

Sandra Tannen: Katie said something the other day. She said, and these are her exact words, "Father hit big stick." Do you have any idea what that might mean?

Louise Standon: Well, Wes, he didn't like noise. That's why he didn't want children... and Katie, well, sometimes...

Sandra Tannen: She'd make noise.

Louise Standon: And Wes, he kept a big stick in the corner of her room for when she acted up.

Sandra Tannen: So how often did he beat her?

Louise Standon: Not all that much. He had a few other ways of keeping her quiet.

Sandra Tannen: Like?

Louise Standon: He'd growl.

Sandra Tannen: What?

Louise Standon: He'd growl... like a dog.

[Louise quickly and quietly mimicks Wes' impression of a growling dog]

Sandra Tannen: And that kept her quiet?

Louise Standon: I imagine so. Otherwise, he wouldn't've kept on doing it.

Louise Standon: The way you hound at that child..."Don't say it like this, Katie, say it like that," and giving her all those tests. That's why she couldn't get along with the Mannings. You pushed her to a point where she didn't know what general was up anymore.

Sandra Tannen: Louise, that's not true. Katie loved the work that we did. I mean... there were days when... when I didn't want to work and she'd make me do it.

Louise Standon: Well, that's the way you trained her. She was never person to you. She was just... some little scientific project.

Sandra Tannen: [beginning to cry] No... No. I needed her in my life... fr... from the first moment that I laid eyes on her.

Louise Standon: Well, you won't be laying eyes on her anymore. If I find you anywhere near Katie, I'm gonna call my lawyer; and that goes for the Glazers and Dr. York and anyone else from Children's Hospital. She is my daughter. I'll decide what's done with her.

Sandra Tannen: [sobbing softly] She's gonna think that I abandoned her... y'know? Could I please say goodbye?

Louise Standon: No goodbyes, no, nothing. Just go back where you came from and stay there.