Tom Townsend Quotes in Metropolitan (1990)

Tom Townsend: You don't have to read a book to have an opinion.

Rick Von Sloneker: Get outta here and take this flat-chested, goody-goody, pain in the neck with you

[referring to Audrey]

Tom Townsend: She is NOT a goody-goody.

Charlie Black: Fourierism was tried in the late nineteenth century... and it failed. Wasn't Brookfarm Fourierist? It failed.

Tom Townsend: That's debatable.

Charlie Black: Whether Brookfarm failed?

Tom Townsend: That it ceased to exist, I'll grant you, but whether or not it failed cannot be definitively said.

Charlie Black: Well, for me, ceasing to exist is - is failure. I mean, that's pretty definitive.

Tom Townsend: Well, everyone ceases to exist. Doesn't mean everyone's a failure.

Audrey Rouget: What Jane Austen novels have you read?

Tom Townsend: None. I don't read novels. I prefer good literary criticism. That way you get both the novelists' ideas as well as the critics' thinking. With fiction I can never forget that none of it really happened, that it's all just made up by the author.

Tom Townsend: [to Serena Slocum] I haven't been giving you the silent treatment. I just haven't been talking to you.

Tom Townsend: [pulls out a gun after Rick punches him] Get back, Rick!

Rick Von Sloneker: Jesus, he's got a gun!

Charlie Black: I warn you! He's a Fourierist!

Charlie Black: Where do you get off, "you're suprised"? At what? You were Audrey's escort, yet you blithely left her stranded in the middle of the dance so you can try to work things out with Serena! And then you try to shirk the whole thing off on Fred.

Tom Townsend: I'm not trying to shirk it off on Fred. And I was not Audrey's escort. We were all there as a group. In any case, I'm very sorry there was a mixup.

Charlie Black: There was no mixup.

Tom Townsend: I'm sorry I left. But it wasn't intentional.

Charlie Black: When you're an egoist, none of the harm you ever do is intentional!

Charlie Black: I can't believe you don't have a driver's license.

Tom Townsend: Of course I don't. I live in Manhattan.

Charlie Black: Hey, look at this.

Tom Townsend: What is it?

Charlie Black: Looks like some girl's panties.

Tom Townsend: Jesus, that bastard.

Tom Townsend: Pomfret. Where did you go?

Jane Clark: Farmington. Both of us did.

Tom Townsend: Did you know Serena Slocum there?

Jane Clark: The inevitable question.

Tom Townsend: What?

Jane Clark: All the guys ask that. Serena had an incredible number of boyfriends. At least 20. She could manage it because they were all at different schools and she wrote letters incredibly quickly - three in a single study hall. She became really famous. It's incredible how naive some guys are. How do you know Serena?

Audrey Rouget: [Interrupting] Actually, that might give someone the wrong impression. She wrote a lot of guys, but I'm sure she liked some a lot more than others.

Jane Clark: Oh, you think so? I never noticed that. How do you know Serena?

Tom Townsend: I was one of her boyfriends.

Jane Clark: [Taken aback] Oh! You must be "Pomfret." Your letters were really good.

Audrey Rouget: Yes.

Tom Townsend: I've never been this drunk before. The problem is, with Fred no longer drinking, I can't pace myself.

Tom Townsend: He seems less pessimistic than you.

Charlie Black: I know: it doesn't ring true.

Serena Slocum: I didn't save your letters but I didn't throw them away.

Tom Townsend: I don't understand, is that a riddle?

Tom Townsend: I couldn't believe you're actually going to play bridge, such a cliché of bourgeois life.

Nick Smith: That's exactly why I play. I don't enjoy it one bit.

[last lines]

Tom Townsend: Did anything happen?

Audrey Rouget: Of course not.

Tom Townsend: You mean you were never interested in Von Sloneker at all?

[pause as Audrey looks ambivalently towards him]

Tom Townsend: They why did you come out here?

Audrey Rouget: To get a suntan... and the whole thing with the Rat Pack was getting claustrophobic. And Cynthia insisted I come. She's terribly impressed with Rick.

Tom Townsend: It's not something Jane Austin would have done.

Audrey Rouget: No. I suppose Europe is over there.

[points across the ocean]

Tom Townsend: No. That would be Brazil. Europe is more that way. You're really going back next week?

Audrey Rouget: I think so.

Tom Townsend: What can you study in France that you can't study here?

Audrey Rouget: French. Actually, I was thinking of coming back when this semester ends.

Tom Townsend: I was thinking of going over. Not necessarily to Grenoble, but to France and Italy... though my resources are limited.

Audrey Rouget: There are some awfully cheap airfares these days during the winter season. It seems a shame not to take advantage of them.

Tom Townsend: That's how I feel.

Audrey Rouget: Do you really think I'm flat-chested?

Tom Townsend: I haven't really thought about it. Well, I shouldn't say that. The thing is, you look great... and that's what's important. You don't want to overdo it.