11 Witty and Heartbreaking In a Lonely Place Quotes
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You’ll love these In a Lonely Place Quotes. They’re a combination of smart, witty, and sad, similar to the movie itself.
“I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me.”
In a Lonely Place is a classic film noir, filled with the usual elements: a gorgeous femme fatale Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), a dark main character, Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) combined with plenty of smoke and glamour along with an unsolved murder, the classic noir-style detective.
In order to fully appreciate the quotes, you have to understand the storyline and the main character, Dixon Steele. Dixon is a charming and witty screenwriter, with a tendency to be blinded by his emotions.
When inspired to write, he’ll write all night and barely look up from his work. On the opposite end of the spectrum, when his anger flairs up, he’ll lash out blindly and violently. He’s not afraid to get into violent fights over minor confrontations.
And also, when he falls in love—he’s all in.
This post is all about In a Lonely Place Quotes
In a lonely Place Quotes #1
Dixon Steeles’s witty comebacks and his tendency towards violence is seen in the first scene of the movie, during the opening scene.
His character starts out with witty one-liners and they don’t stop the entire movie
Right after the opening credits, we see Humphrey Bogart driving his convertible and pulling up to a stop sign. Another car which also happens to be a convertible is next to him.
A blonde woman in the other car recognizes him and calls over to him.
“Dick Steele! How are you? Don’t you remember me?”
”I’m sorry, can’t say that I do.”
”Well, you wrote that last picture I did for Columbia.”
”Well I make it a point never to see pictures I write.””
At this point the man next to blonde woman chimes into the conversation earning himself a nice response from Dixon Steele.
“You! Stop bothering my wife.”
”Oh you shouldn’t have done it honey...no matter how much money that pigs got.”
The other man yells at him to pull over to the curb. To which Dixon Steele replies. “What’s wrong with right here?” And starts to get out of his car. If the other man didn’t change his mind and quickly drive off, a fight would’ve ensued.
In a Lonely Place Quotes: #2
Next Dixon Steel almost gets into another fight in the next scene while at a restaurant.
He has a few friends who are loyal to the core to him even if they are even scared of him. He’s also fiercely protective of those he cares about. He has a friend who is an old actor that now mostly a drunkard. When someone insults him, Dixon Steele will go in with fists blazing and others have to pull him off.
One of his friends is drunk has-been actor who spends more time at the bar then making new movies.
His friend’s son-in-law comes into the bar and makes an insulting comment to Dixon’s acting buddy. Of course Dixon takes it more personally than even his friend and lunges at the man and his friends have to hold him off.
The manager of the hotel comes over to Dixon Steele’s table, and politely asks him to take it outside next time.
“I suppose he had it coming to him, but next time would you please do it in the parking lot?”
In a Lonely Place Quotes #3 - Dixon Steele at the Police Station
Dixon Steele had a meeting with his agent at the restaurant. His agent has him read a book to see if he wants to write the screenplay for it.
A girl that works at the restaurant had just finished reading it, so Dixon Steele invites her to come to his house and tell him the story so that he doesn’t have to read the entire book himself.
Later that night the girl is found brutally murdered, casting suspicion on Dixon Steele.
He gets called into the Police station for questioning. The Police Chief is suspicious, and rightly so, as Dixon Steele replies to his questions with a mix of sarcasm and wit, hardly showing any emotion despite what happened to the girl.
Dixon Steele had given the girl money for a cab and didn’t drive her home himself, a fact that makes the Policeman more suspicious.
“Why didn’t you call for a cab? Isn’t that what a gentleman usually does under the circumstances?”
”Oh I didn’t say I was a gentleman, I said I was tired.”
In a Lonely Place Quotes #4 - Dixon Steele at the Police Station
The Police Chief gets more irritated as the questioning goes on, as he doesn’t understand Dixon Steele’s reaction.
“You’re told that the girl you were with last night was found in Benedict Canyon...Murdered. Dumped from a moving car...What’s your reaction? Shock? Horror? Sympathy? No. Just petulance at being questioned. A couple of feeble jokes. Puzzling, Mr. Steele. ”
Instead of deciding to show sympathy, Dixon Steele replies with a typical one-liner.
“Well, I grant you the jokes could’ve been better but I don’t see why the rest should worry you...that is, unless you plan to arrest me for lack of emotion.”
In a Lonely Place Quotes #5 - Dixon Steele and Laurel Gray at the Police Station
Dixon Steele remembers that his next door neighbor Laurel Gray had seem him in his apartment after the girl left, so she is also brought in to the station as a witness.
Dixon had made his attention to her obvious, and they banter during the interrogation. Laurel also has witty comebacks to the questions put to her by both the Police chief and Dixon.
The Policeman tries to understand how much she could see by asking if she could see Mr. Steele’s door from her bedroom.
“Can you see Mr. Steele’s door from your bedroom?”
Dixon Steele interjects that she was standing on her balcony in her negligee. A statement to which she also has a quick answer.
“She was standing on her balcony. In a negligee.”
”It was a warm night. My apartment was stuffy.”
In a Lonely Place Quotes #6 - Dixon Steele and Laurel Gray at the Police station
The banter continues as the Policeman tries to get more details.
Typical of Laurel’s character she doesn’t beat around the bush, she tells everything like it is.
“You’re sure he didn’t leave with the girl.”
”Positive.”
”What was he doing?”
”I believe he was looking at me.”
In a Lonely Place Quotes #7 - Laurel Gray
Laurel Gray doesn’t stop there. When questioned as to if she has ever met Mr. Steele before, she says no, she hadn’t, but she knew who he was because the landlady had pointed him out when she first moved in as the landlady was very proud to have a celebrity tenant.
She’s also direct that she noticed Dixon Steele on her own, because he looks interesting and she likes his face.
“I noticed him because he looks interesting. I like his face.”
In a Lonely Place Quotes #8 - Dixon Steele and Laurel Gray
Laurel Gray comes over to Dixon Steele’s apartment later that day.
As she’s leaving he comments on how she has “one up” on him since she can see into his apartment but he can’t see into hers.
She assures him she won’t use it to spy on him, to which he replies that he would if he could see into her apartment.
“You know, Miss Gray, You’re one up on me. You can see into my apartment. I can’t see into yours.”
“I promise you, I won’t take advantage of it.”
“Oh, I would, if it were the other way around.”
In a Lonely Place Quotes #9 - Dixon Steele and Laurel Gray
During the same conversation he also brings up her comment she had made in the Police station about liking his and then tries to kiss her.
She calmly replies that she likes his face but doesn’t want to kiss it.
“You know you were out of your mind. How could anyone like a face like this?”
“I said I liked it. I didn’t say I wanted to kiss it.”
Their romance starts quickly after this day, and for a couple weeks they seem to be made for each other.
But, despite Laurel’s testimony, the Police continue to be suspicious of Dixon due to his strange behavior and his history of getting into brawls.
In a Lonely Place Quotes #10 - Dixon Steele
One night, at a beach party with their friends, he finds out that the Police have continued to question Laurel about him.
He leaves the beach in a rage, forcing Laurel to run after his car. Driving in a blind rage, he runs into another car. When the other driver insults him, he gets out and starts punching him, almost ready to hit the other man with a rock until Laurel stops him.
He then feels bad, and has Laurel drive. While she’s driving he quotes to her a piece that he’s writing for the screenplay to see how she likes it.
“I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me.”
In a Lonely Place Quotes #11 - Laurel Gray
Due to his frequent displays of violence, Laurel had grown scared of Dixon, and even began to suspect if he had indeed killed the girl.
It reaches a point where she has booked a flight to leave. When Dixon finds out she is trying to leave him, he flies into a rage and almost strangles her.
Right after, the Policeman calls to let her know that they had found the real killer (the girl’s boyfriend) and to apologize for what they put her through.
She basically replies that it’s too late…the trust in her and Dixon’s relationship has been broken and she’s scared of him.
“Yesterday, this would’ve meant so much to us. Now it doesn’t matter...it doesn’t matter at all.”
I was born when you kissed me…
In the heartbreaking closing scene, Dixon has heard her tell the Policeman that it’s too late and so he leaves her apartment.
Laurel cries as she recites part of the quote he told her in the car.
“I lived a few weeks while you loved me...Goodbye Dick.”
This post was all about In a Lonely Place quotes
If you haven’t seen the In a Lonely Place movie, we highly recommend it.
What were you favorite quotes in the movie? What did you think of the ending?
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