Woody Guthrie Quotes in I'm Not There. (2007)

Hobo Joe: [Woody shows Hobo Joe and Hobo Moe his guitar case which says 'THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS'] You wouldn't be stashing no weapons in there, son?

Woody Guthrie: No sir, not in any literalized way.

Woody Guthrie: [the jump cut into this scene occurs after Hobo Joe or Hobo Moe has, apparently, asked the 11-year-old African American boy who call himself Woody Guthrie where he's from] Well, Missouri, originally. A little town called Riddle.

Hobo Joe: [the rest of this dialogue is an almost exact paraphrase of dialogue from the 1957 film, A Face in the Crowd] Uh, is there really a town called Riddle?

Woody Guthrie: Well, tell you the flat truth, it's just a sort of a whatchamacallit, a...

Hobo Joe: ...A composite.

Woody Guthrie: Compost heap's more like it.

Woody Guthrie: This land is your land/This land is my land/From California to the New York Island/From the Redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters/This land was made for you and me

[first lines]

Hank - Man in Gas Station: ['California Water Tastes Like Cherry Wine' plays in the background'] What's the matter?

Carl - Man in Gas Station: Hey, Wood.

Woody Guthrie: Yeah.

Old Man Jenkins - Gas Station Owner: Cherry wine.

Old Man Jenkins - Gas Station Owner: [Jenkins turns off the record player] Goddamit, Woody. I got half a notion to pull up stakes and hit the road for California.

Carl - Man in Gas Station: I been thinking about down the Gulf of Mexico... or the Rio Grande valley. Just somewheres I can grow some fruit, peaches. Them Indian blood peaches with that red meat.

Old Man Jenkins - Gas Station Owner: Shit fire, Carl! Why down there? In California you just plop a seed into the ground, you find a sprout the very next day.

Hank - Man in Gas Station: Well, it seems I sure gotta do something. I just don't know what's going to happen to everybody around here.

Woody Guthrie: You folks... sure are depressing.

Collister - Gas Station Customer: You boys got any news?

Old Man Jenkins - Gas Station Owner: Ain't nothin' interesting to tell about, except people are moving out of these parts.

Collister - Gas Station Customer: My name's Collister, and I've been running all over this here state to them fortune tellers; ain't one of them told me a damn thing. Someone tell me something worth listening to, and I'll pay 'em a dollar, good American money.

Woody Guthrie: It's been pretty dusty around here.

Collister - Gas Station Customer: That ain't worth nothing,

Carl - Man in Gas Station: Hell, Woody, that ain't worth nothing, for sure.

Woody Guthrie: Well... I ain't much for fortune-telling. You're a inside man, got a big job with the oil refinery.

Collister - Gas Station Customer: How'd you know that?

Woody Guthrie: Well... ain't nobody else got money to waste on fortune tellers, sody pop.

[Jenkins chuckles]

Collister - Gas Station Customer: Keep going,

Woody Guthrie: Well, them two creases in between your eyebrows... tell me... you're a man who probably takes his work serious, always looking for a way to do things better.

Collister - Gas Station Customer: You got 50 cents.

[Hank whistles]

Collister - Gas Station Customer: Keep talking,

Woody Guthrie: Oh, you probably got some kinda idea, an invention of some kind, big company wants to buy you out.

Collister - Gas Station Customer: You got a paper dollar if you can tell me when to do it.

Woody Guthrie: [Woody chuckles] Hell, I ain't no mind reader.

Collister - Gas Station Customer: [Woody starts playing his guitar] Hmm. You're the only one I ever met that didn't claim to know everything in the whole world. What's your name?

Woody Guthrie: Woody. Woody Guthrie.

Collister - Gas Station Customer: Well Guthrie, I'll spread the word. Worth every penny.

[Collister puts the money inside Woody's guitar]

Woody Guthrie: Thank you kindly.

Collister - Gas Station Customer: [to Jenkins] There you are, Pop, and there's a nickel for the Coke, dollar for the gas.

Woody Guthrie: [painting a sign] And the Mama Bear says: "Well, ain't nobody gonna eat none of my porridge and get away with it." So she takes a pair of sheep shears and she cuts every hair off the top of that little kid's head.

[Gwen says something and laughs]

Woody Guthrie: Yeah, ain't that something? Then, uh... old Goldilocks, well, she just... goes on back into the forest, and, uh... she goes to sleep for about twenty years, and when she wakes up, all her hair is growed back.

[Gwen laughs]

Woody Guthrie: [to Mary] Well, looks pretty good, don't it?

Mary - Woody's Wife: [from inside the house] It looks darn good. But... there ain't nobody around here gonna pay you to talk to them.

Woody Guthrie: Oh, now... that fella down at the gas station said I was the best fortune teller he had ever seen.

Mary - Woody's Wife: That weren't nothing but happenstance, and you know it. You could be making regular money with your sign painting, Woody, if you tried.

Woody Guthrie: Just ain't no sense on harpin' on it, Mary. It ain't no good.

Mary - Woody's Wife: You could do it, Woody. You could do 'em so special, somebody'd be sure and want 'em.

Woody Guthrie: [Woody picks up his guitar] Come on in.

Woody Guthrie: [Woody starts playing his guitar and singing] Talk it over, Lay your head upon my shoulder, She's my curly-headed baby, come from sunny Tennessee.

Woody Guthrie: Oh, but I ain't really a doctor.

Other Woman - Water-Swallowing Scene: Well, she ain't sick, exactly. Her oldest girl died of the dust pneumonia almost a week ago .She ain't drunk a drop of water since; she just can't swallow.

Woody Guthrie: I don't see how there's anything I can...

Other Woman - Water-Swallowing Scene: Now look, some fortunetellers have got the gift: healing, laying on the hands, discerning of spirits,

Woody Guthrie: I ain't really a fortuneteller.

Other Woman - Water-Swallowing Scene: Poor little thing, we just can't let her waste away. Go on, go on.

Woody Guthrie: [Woody enters the house] Ma'am? Do you have faith that you'll be cured?

Woody Guthrie: [Woody sits next to the sick woman] Well, look... Your daughter, don't you believe she's up in heaven?

Woody Guthrie: [the sick woman nods silently] Well, uh... that means you believe in God. And if there is a God, then it was Him gave you your mind. Well, everybody knows, mind's the boss of the whole body. Just tell all the nerves and muscles what to do, your arms and hands and back, throat.

Woody Guthrie: [Woody holds up the sick woman's chin] You don't want to die, do you? Leave your husband and your kids all alone? Your husband wants you to talk to him, don't he? And your kids to boot.

Woody Guthrie: [chuckles] Ain't no two ways about that. Can I have some water here? Away all that monkey business, just send a message straight down to your throat... mouth... and tell them to just swig down this here water, thank you. Just try it, just do it, and afterwards you... tell me how dandy it was.

Woody Guthrie: [the sick woman drinks a glass of water, and some of it runs off her chin afterwards] Now, you swallow it, now swallow it.

Woody Guthrie: [Woody chuckles and the woman starts to giggle and smile] Hey, it was easy. You did it, you can do it some more. Now, next couple of days, I want you two ladies just to pour water down this here lady's throat. Why, you can have a water drinking contest every now and then. You just talk to her now about... everything, talk to her. You'll be okay.

Woody Guthrie: [the ladies offer him money as he heads out the door, but he declines] All right. See, you don't... you don't owe me nothing.

Other Woman - Water-Swallowing Scene: Bless you, Mr. Guthrie.

Woody Guthrie: [walks to the front porch, sighs in relief] Did it... I think.

Woody Guthrie: Good afternoon, Donna Jo.

Donna Jo - Woody's California-Bound Neighbor: Oh, good afternoon, Woody.

Donna Jo - Woody's California-Bound Neighbor: Woody, do you and Mary have any use for a bedroom set? It's real nice, it's called the Waterfall Design or something. I just hate to leave it... sit there.

Woody Guthrie: Howdy, Jesse. Uh... sure... sure I guess we can, uh... do something with it.

Donna Jo - Woody's California-Bound Neighbor: Good, there's an old chair in there, too. We just ain't got room for everything.

Woody Guthrie: Where you folks going?

Donna Jo - Woody's California-Bound Neighbor: California.

[Donna Jo gets in the old pickup with Jesse]

Donna Jo - Woody's California-Bound Neighbor: I don't know, it just seems like everything run out around here... when Jesse got laid off. Oh, you all are welcome to anything that you find in there that you wanna use.

Woody Guthrie: Okay, thank you kindly, Donna Jo. You folks take care!

[Jesse's jalopy drives out of town]

Charlie Guthrie - Woody's Father: Might get us some jobs in that new department store down in Amarillo.

Woody Guthrie: Hell, Pa, I ain't gonna be no shoe salesman.

Charlie Guthrie - Woody's Father: Well, there might be something else.

Woody Guthrie: Well, it's too damned far out there anyhow.

Mary - Woody's Wife: You tell her that when she's begging for milk in the morning.

[One of the girls giggles]

Mary - Woody's Wife: You tell her it's too far to travel.

Woody Guthrie: Mary, it's 62 miles.

Mary - Woody's Wife: Maybe you could sing one of your songs to her or tell her fortune instead.

Woody Guthrie: Mary, just don't start in on me, okay?

Charlie Guthrie - Woody's Father: Now, it don't do no good to be carrying on. Times and the weather are bad enough, it just don't do no good.

Mary - Woody's Wife: I don't mean to be starting in. I don't mean to always be at you, Woody, but it just don't seem fair. Even your brother's been out looking for something, and he's just a boy.

Conners - Pampa Store Owner: [the kids are looking at the store display window while Woody is painting a sign on the five-and-dime store's front wall; the owner comes out to look at the work] What in the hell are you doing, anyway? I told you I wanted white on black.

Woody Guthrie: Yeah, I thought you'd like red better; shows up from a mile away.

Conners - Pampa Store Owner: I ask for white on black, and - and you give me this red bitch thing?

[the children laugh]

Conners - Pampa Store Owner: Was you planning on getting paid for this?

Woody Guthrie: Well, I was planning on it.

Conners - Pampa Store Owner: Well, just plan away, Guthrie. What am I supposed to do with this red bitch, anyways?

Woody Guthrie: [Woody puts on his hat] Well... Why don't you... fold it five ways... and stick it where the sun don't shine.

Conners - Pampa Store Owner: I'll tell you what else I don't need: I don't need none of your damn lip, neither! That's what I don't need, Guthrie!

[Woody walks away]

Conners - Pampa Store Owner: Ain't you kids got nothing better to do than lollygag around here?

Woody Guthrie: [strumming the guitar in a bar, singing] She's my curly-headed baby, Used to sit on daddy's knee, / She's my curly-headed baby, comes from sunny Tennessee. / I'm-a gonna tell you 'bout these women, I'm-a gonna tell you what they do, / Lay their head upon your shoulders, Flirt around...

Mary - Woody's Wife: [Woody pauses singing] Did you really write that song about me?

Woody Guthrie: Oh sure, sure it's about you; damn right.

Woody Guthrie: [Woody starts singing again] Curly-headed lady...

Mary - Woody's Wife: Remember what you asked me?

Woody Guthrie: [Woody pauses singing] It hasn't been outta my mind for a second.

Mary - Woody's Wife: [sweetly] I don't care.

Woody Guthrie: Care about what?

Mary - Woody's Wife: If we do.

Woody Guthrie: Do what?

Mary - Woody's Wife: You know; come on.

Woody Guthrie: Guess this town ain't entirely dead yet.

[Woody gets up and leaves the bar]