Paul Varjak Quotes in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

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Paul Varjak Quotes:

  • Paul Varjak: You know what's wrong with you, Miss Whoever-you-are? You're chicken, you've got no guts. You're afraid to stick out your chin and say, "Okay, life's a fact, people do fall in love, people do belong to each other, because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness." You call yourself a free spirit, a "wild thing," and you're terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.

    [takes out the ring and throws it in Holly's lap]

    Paul Varjak: Here. I've been carrying this thing around for months. I don't want it anymore.

  • Paul Varjak: I love you.

    Holly Golightly: So what.

    Paul Varjak: So what? So plenty! I love you, you belong to me!

    Holly Golightly: [tearfully] No. People don't belong to people.

    Paul Varjak: Of course they do!

    Holly Golightly: I'll never let ANYBODY put me in a cage.

    Paul Varjak: I don't want to put you in a cage, I want to love you!

  • Holly Golightly: You know those days when you get the mean reds?

    Paul Varjak: The mean reds, you mean like the blues?

    Holly Golightly: No. The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?

    Paul Varjak: Sure.

    Holly Golightly: Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then - then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!

  • Holly Golightly: I'll tell you one thing, Fred, darling... I'd marry you for your money in a minute. Would you marry me for my money?

    Paul Varjak: In a minute.

    Holly Golightly: I guess it's pretty lucky neither of us is rich, huh?

    Paul Varjak: Yeah.

  • Paul Varjak: Holly, I'm in love with you.

    Holly Golightly: So what?

    Paul Varjak: So what? So plenty! I love you. You belong to me.

    Holly Golightly: No. People don't belong to people.

    Paul Varjak: Of course they do.

    Holly Golightly: I'm not going to let anyone put me in a cage.

    Paul Varjak: I don't want to put you in a cage. I want to love you.

    Holly Golightly: It's the same thing.

    Paul Varjak: No it's not. Holly...

    Holly Golightly: I'm not Holly. I'm not Lula Mae, either. I don't know who I am! I'm like cat here, a couple of no-name slobs. We belong to nobody and nobody belongs to us. We don't even belong to each other.

  • Paul Varjak: [reaches into his pocket at the Tiffany's counter] We could have something engraved, couldn't we?

    Tiffany's salesman: Yes, I suppose so, yes indeed... the only problem is you would more or less have to buy something first if only in order to have some object upon which to place the engraving... You see the difficulty...

    Paul Varjak: Well, uh

    [holds up ring from Cracker Jack box]

    Paul Varjak: , we could have this engraved, couldn't we? I think it would be very smart.

    Tiffany's salesman: [taking ring and examining it] This, I take it, was not purchased at Tiffany's?

    Paul Varjak: No, actually it was purchased concurrent with, uh, well, actually, came inside of... well, a box of Cracker Jack.

    Tiffany's salesman: I see...

    [continuing to look at ring]

    Tiffany's salesman: Do they still really have prizes in Cracker Jack boxes?

    Paul Varjak: Oh yes.

    Tiffany's salesman: That's nice to know... It gives one a feeling of solidarity, almost of continuity with the past, that sort of thing.

  • Paul Varjak: You know what's wrong with you, Miss Whoever-You-Are? You're chicken, you've got no guts. You're afraid to stick out your chin and say, "Okay, life's a fact, people do fall in love, people do belong to each other, because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness." You call yourself a free spirit, a wild thing, and you're terrified somebody's going to stick you in a cage. Well, baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somaliland. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.

  • Holly Golightly: What do you do, anyway?

    Paul Varjak: I'm a writer, I guess.

    Holly Golightly: You guess? Don't you know?

    Paul Varjak: OK, positive statement. Ringing affirmative. I'm a writer.

  • Paul Varjak: [second scene in the library] You're crazy.

    Holly Golightly: What? Do you think you own me?

    Paul Varjak: That's exactly what I think.

    Holly Golightly: I know. It's what everybody always thinks but everybody happens to be wrong.

    Paul Varjak: But I am not everybody, or am I? Is that what you really think? That I'm no different from all your others rats and super-rats? Wait a minute. That's it. If that's what you really think, there's something I want to give you.

    Holly Golightly: What's that?

    Paul Varjak: Fifty dollars for the powder room.

  • Holly Golightly: Did I tell you how divinely and utterly happy I am?

    Paul Varjak: Yes.

  • Paul Varjak: [about Holly and Jose] So you're getting married, then?

    Holly Golightly: Well, he hasn't really asked me, not in so many words.

    Paul Varjak: Four you mean?

    Holly Golightly: Huh?

    Paul Varjak: Well that's how many it takes: will you marry me?

  • Holly Golightly: He's all right! Aren't you, cat? Poor cat! Poor slob! Poor slob without a name! The way I see it I haven't got the right to give him one. We don't belong to each other. We just took up one day by the river. I don't want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together. I'm not sure where that is but I know what it is like. It's like Tiffany's.

    Paul Varjak: Tiffany's? You mean the jewelry store.

    Holly Golightly: That's right. I'm just CRAZY about Tiffany's!

  • [Holly whistles loudly to hail a cab]

    Paul Varjak: I never could do that.

    Holly Golightly: 's easy.

  • Holly Golightly: How do I look?

    Paul Varjak: Very good. I must say, I'm amazed.

  • Paul Varjak: [giving his name at the police station] Paul Varjak. Varjak, V A R J A K. I'm a writer, W R I T E R.

  • Holly Golightly: But just look at the goodies she brought with her.

    Paul Varjak: He's all right, I suppose, if you like dark, handsome, rich-looking men with passionate natures and too many teeth.

  • Paul Varjak: [Holly, while having a nightmare, begins crying] Why are you crying?

    Holly Golightly: [wakes up] If we're going to be friends let's get one thing straight right now. I hate snoops!

  • Paul Varjak: I don't think I've ever drunk champagne before breakfast before. With breakfast on several occasions, but never before, before.

  • Holly Golightly: Do you think she's talented, deeply and importantly talented?

    Paul Varjak: No. Amusingly and superficially talented, yes. But deeply and importantly, no.

  • Holly Golightly: Thursday! It can't be! It's too gruesome!

    Paul Varjak: What's so gruesome about Thursday?

    Holly Golightly: Nothing, except I can never remember when it's coming up.

  • Paul Varjak: Holly, you're drunk.

    Holly Golightly: True.

  • O.J. Berman: Hey, Fred-baby!

    Paul Varjak: No, no. It's Paul-baby.

  • Paul Varjak: Sing Sing?

    Holly Golightly: [she gargles] . Yes. I always thought it was a ridiculous name for a prison. Sing Sing, I mean. Sounds more like it should be an opera house or something.

  • Paul Varjak: They're not the kind of stories you can really tell.

    Holly Golightly: Too dirty?

    Paul Varjak: Yeah, I suppose they're dirty, too, but only incidentally. Mainly they're angry, sensitive, intensely felt, and that dirtiest of all dirty words - promising. Or so said The Times Book Review, October 1, 1956.

  • Paul Varjak: So what? So plenty!

  • Paul Varjak: And I always heard people in New York never get to know their neighbors.

  • Holly Golightly: 's alright. It's only me.

    Paul Varjak: Uh... Now wait a minute, Miss... uh...

    Holly Golightly: Golightly. Holly Golightly. I live downstairs. We met this morning, remember?

    Paul Varjak: Yeah.

  • Paul Varjak: What are you doing?

    2-E: I'm writing a check. You must have seen me write checks before.

Browse more character quotes from Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

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