- Ida Corwin: [to Wally about his lustful looks in her direction] Leave something on me. I might catch cold.
- Veda Pierce: With this money I can get away from you. From you and your chickens and your pies and your kitchens and everything that smells of grease. I can get away from this shack with its cheap furniture. And this town and its dollar days, and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls.
- Veda Pierce: You think just because you made a little money you can get a new hairdo and some expensive clothes and turn yourself into a lady. But you can't, because you'll never be anything but a common frump whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing.
- Veda Pierce: [kissing the check from the Forresters to keep Veda's pregnancy quiet] Well, that's that!
- Mildred Pierce: I'm sorry this had to happen; sorry for the boy, he seemed very nice.
- Veda Pierce: Oh Ted's all right really. Did you see the look on his face when we told him he was going to be a father?
- [Veda laughs]
- Mildred Pierce: I wish you wouldn't joke about it.
- Veda Pierce: Mother, you're a scream, really you are. The next thing I know you'll be knitting little garments.
- Mildred Pierce: I don't see anything so ridiculous about that.
- Veda Pierce: If I were you, I'd save myself the trouble.
- Mildred Pierce: [pause] You're not going to have a baby?
- Veda Pierce: At this stage, it's a matter of opinion. And in my opinion, I'm going to have a baby. I can always be mistaken.
- Ida Corwin: [to Mildred] Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young.
- Monte Beragon: Oh, I wish I could get that interested in work.
- Ida Corwin: You were probably frightened by a callus at an early age!
- Mr. Jones: Why do you always interrupt?
- Ida Corwin: It's only because I want to be alone with you. Come 'ere and let me bite you, you darling man! Ruff!
- Veda Pierce: It's the dress. It's awfully cheap material. I can tell by the smell.
- Kay Pierce: What did you expect? Want it inlaid with gold?
- Veda Pierce: Well, it seems to me, if you're buying anything, it should be the best. This is definitely not the best.
- Kay Pierce: Oh, quit. You're breakin' my heart.
- Mildred Pierce: Cut it out, Wally. You make me feel like Little Red Riding Hood.
- Wally Fay: And I'm the Big Bad Wolf, huh? Now, Milly, you've got me all wrong. I'm a romantic guy, but I'm no wolf.
- Mildred Pierce: Then quit howling!
- Mildred Pierce: Wally, you should be kept on a leash! Now why can't you be friendly?
- Wally Fay: But I *am* being friendly!
- Mildred Pierce: No, I mean it. Friendship's much more lasting than love.
- Wally Fay: Yeah, but it isn't as entertaining.
- Mildred Pierce: You've been snooping around ever since I got this job, trying to find out what it is... and now you know. You know, don't you.
- Veda Pierce: [innocently] Know what? Know what mother?
- Mildred Pierce: You knew when you gave that uniform to Lottie that it was mine didn't you.
- Veda Pierce: [feigns surprise] Your uniform!
- Mildred Pierce: Yes, I'm waiting tables in a downtown restaurant.
- Veda Pierce: [contemptuously] My mother - a waitress.
- Policeman on Pier: If you take a swim, I'd have to take a swim. Is that fair? Because you feel like killing yourself, I gotta get pneumonia.
- Mildred Pierce: That Ted Forrester's nice-looking, isn't he? Veda likes him.
- Monte Beragon: Who wouldn't? He has a million dollars.
- Monte Beragon: Drink?
- Mildred Pierce: You drink too much.
- Monte Beragon: I know, I do too much of everything. I'm spoiled.
- Mildred Pierce: You've too many sisters... They all seem to be my size too.
- Monte Beragon: I know, I like them your size.
- Monte Beragon: [raises a glass to toast] To brotherly love.
- [last lines]
- Inspector Peterson: You know, Mrs. Beragon, there are times when I regret being a policeman.
- Veda Pierce: That's what I like about you, Ida. You're so delightfully provincial.
- Ida Corwin: [sarcastically] And I like you, too.
- Ida Corwin: [to Monte] Don't look now, Junior, but you're standing under a brick wall.
- Monte Beragon: I don't get it.
- Ida Corwin: You will... when it falls on you.
- Wally Fay: My client feels, and I am in complete accord with her, that she has been irrep - ih...
- Mrs. Forrester's Lawyer: 'Irreparably'?
- Wally Fay: ...unduly damaged. Therefore there is one more little formality that we should discuss first.
- Mrs. Forrester's Lawyer: What's that, Mr. Fay?
- Wally Fay: The financial settlement. You see, my client would like ten thousand dollars.
- Mrs. Forrester's Lawyer: I think I'm safe in observing that almost anyone would like ten thousand dollars, Mr. Fay. But ih -...
- Wally Fay: But ih - ?
- Mrs. Forrester's Lawyer: We see no necessity for a financial settlement of any kind.
- Wally Fay: You don't, huh?
- Mrs. Forrester's Lawyer: No.
- Wally Fay: [smirking] You will.
- Mildred Beragon: [to Inspector Peterson] I was always in the kitchen. I felt as though I'd been born in a kitchen and lived there all my life, except for the few hours it took to get married.
- Inspector Peterson: Mrs. Beragon, being a detective is like, well, like making an automobile. You take all the pieces and put them together one by one. First thing you know, you got an automobile or a murderer. And we got him.
- Ida Corwin: Laughing boy seems slightly burned at the edges. What's eating him?
- Mildred Pierce: A small green-eyed monster.
- Ida Corwin: Jealous? That doesn't sound like Wally. No profit in it - and there's a boy who loves a dollar.
- Mildred Pierce: Get out Veda. Get your things out of this house right now before I throw them into the street and you with them. Get out before I kill you.
- Wally Fay: You know, you keep on refusing me, and one of these days I'm going to start thinking you're stubborn.
- Wally Fay: You know, this is a pretty big night for you.
- Policeman #1: Yeah?
- Wally Fay: Yeah, lots of excitement. There's a stiff in there!
- Policeman #1: Is that so? Oh and I suppose you were running right down to the station to report it?
- [Wally forces a laugh]
- Policeman #1: [to partner] Yeah... Say, he say's there's a dead guy in the house.
- Policeman #2: You never saw a deader.
- Mildred Pierce: [to Monte about his negotiation regarding them getting married] Sold...
- Mildred Pierce: [holds up glass to toast] One Beragon.
- Monte Beragon: In the Beragon family, there is an old Spanish proverb: one man's poison is another man's meat.
- Monte Beragon: You know, Mildred, in the spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to what he's been thinking about all winter.
- Mildred Pierce: It's a good thing California winters are so short.
- Bert Pierce: This'll only take a minute. It's, it's funny. It's harder to say than I thought. It's about the divorce, Mildred. You can have it. When I walked out on you that time, I told you to see if you could get along without me. I didn't think you could. When you asked me for a divorce, I still didn't think you could make a go of it alone. Now I know better. You're doing alright, Mildred. You're doing fine.
- Mildred Pierce: I never thought it would end like this.
- Bert Pierce: Who knows how anything is going to end? I'm sorry.
- Mildred Pierce: Yes, I'm sorry too.
- Bert Pierce: Well, that's that. That's what I came to say and now that I've said it, I just want you to know that I wish you all the luck in the world.
- Mildred Pierce: Thank you, Burt. Thank you.
- Mrs. Forrester: Your daughter has somehow got the idea that... well, I understand it, of course... any girl wants to get married, but Ted had no such thing in mind. I want that made clear.
- Mildred Pierce: You mean they're engaged? Veda and your son?
- Mrs. Forrester: Yes, but I'm quite sure you will agree with me, Mrs. Pierce, that any discussion of marriage between them would be most undesirable.
- Mildred Pierce: Why should Veda want to marry your son if he doesn't want to marry her?
- Mrs. Forrester: I'm not a mind reader, Mrs. Pierce. But let me tell you one thing. If you or this girl or anybody employs any more tricks trying to blackmail my son...
- Mildred Pierce: Trying to what?
- Mrs. Forrester: Understand me, Mrs. Pierce. I shall prevent this marriage. I shall prevent it in any way that I can.
- Mildred Pierce: I don't think you need worry, Mrs. Forrester. Having you in my family is a pretty dismal prospect. Good afternoon.
- Ida Corwin: Oh, men. I never yet met one of them that didn't have the instincts of a heel. Sometimes I wish I could get along without them.
- Monte Beragon: [as Mildred caught Monte and Veda in a romantic embrace] We weren't expecting you Mildred, obviously.
- Veda Pierce: It's just as well you know. I'm glad you know.
- Mildred Beragon: How long has this been going on?
- Mildred Pierce: And just what do you do, Mr Beragon?
- Monte Beragon: I loaf, in a decorative and highly charming manner.
- Mildred Pierce: Is that all?
- Monte Beragon: With me, loafing is a science.
- Mildred Pierce: You look down on me because I work for a living, don't you? You always have. Alright, I work. I cook food and sell it and make a profit on it. Which I might point out you're not too proud to share with me
- Monte Beragon: Yes, I take money from you, Mildred. But not enough to make me like kitchens or cooks. They smell of grease.
- Mildred Pierce: I don't notice you shrinking from a $50 bill because it happens to smell of grease.
- Mildred Pierce: Look, Monte. I've worked long and hard trying to give Veda the things I never had. I've done without a lot of things, including happiness sometimes because I wanted her to have everything. Now I'm losing her. She's drifting away from me. She hardly speaks to me anymore except to ask for money or poke fun at me in French at me because I work for a living.
- Monte Beragon: All kids are thoughtless at her age.
- Mildred Pierce: Perhaps but I still don't like it. I blame it on the way she's been living. I blame it on you.
- Monte Beragon: I dont' think you understand Veda very well. She's not like you. You'll never make a waitress out of her.
- Monte Beragon: You take my breath away.
- Mildred Pierce: Do I? I like you Monty. You make me feel... oh, I don't know. Warm.
- Monte Beragon: Wanted? Beautiful?
- Mildred Pierce: Yes.
- Monte Beragon: When I'm close to you like this, there's a sound in the air like the beating of wings. You know what it is?
- Mildred Pierce: No, what?
- Monte Beragon: My heart... beating like a schoolboy's.
- Mildred Pierce: Is it? I thought it was mine.
- Mildred Pierce: Veda, I think I'm really seeing you for the first time in my life. And you're cheap and horrible.
- Kay Pierce: [talking about her derriere] You ought to do something about your sit-down.
- Veda Pierce: What's wrong with it?
- Kay Pierce: It sticks out.
- Inspector Peterson: I know. Everybody thinks detectives do nothing but ask questions... but detectives have souls, the same as anyone else.
- Veda Pierce: I don't like this house.
- Mildred Pierce: Neither do I. But that's no reason to marry a man I'm not in love with.
- Veda Pierce: Why not?
- Mildred Pierce: Veda, does a new house mean so much to you that you would trade me for it?
- Veda Pierce: I didn't mean it, Mother.
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