The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968)

Cicely Tyson: Portia

Photos 

Quotes 

• Doctor Copeland : [stunned to hear his son-in-law's leg has been amputated]  Must be somethin' I can do...

  Portia : I'll *tell* you what you're gonna do. They're sendin' Willie home as soon as he can travel. He's gonna need a lotta care so we gonna move him here with you.

  Doctor Copeland : Gosh, yes.

  Portia : I'll cook and do the cleanin' and such. But all the time you'll know I'm hatin' you!

  [he looks up at her] 

  Portia : I got a feelin' I'm a mighty good hater. And if I ain't, I can learn to be.

• Portia : [Spoken to Willie in the barber shop in an attempt to embarrass her father]  Father would do anything for you now... now when it's too late!

  Willie : Portia, that ain't no way to talk to the Doc. We got to live together now.

  Portia : [Sarcastically]  Oh, yes, just a big happy family!

  Doctor Copeland : [to Portia, humiliated and wanting to leave]  You drive Willie home.

  Portia : [Bitterly]  Well, what's the matter, Father? Am I embarrassing you in front of your friend? Oh, you don't have to feel he's so much better than you - after all, you're pretty white yourself!

• Doctor Copeland : I raised you to be somethin' better.

  Portia : Well I wasn't - better! I was different... All those years after Mama died, all that time I was growin' up, what was I? I don't know. I only know I *wasn't* white. And you wouldn't *let* me be black.