Death of a Salesman (1985 TV Movie)

Dustin Hoffman: William 'Willy' Loman

Photos 

Quotes 

• Biff Loman : [arguing with Willy]  Pop, I'm a dime a dozen and so are you...

  Willy Loman : [shouting]  I am not a dime a dozen! I'm Willy Loman and you are Biff Loman!

• Bernard : Sometimes, Willy, it's better for a man just to walk away.

  Willy Loman : Walk away?

  Bernard : That's right.

  Willy Loman : But if you can't walk away?

  Bernard : I guess that's when it's tough.

• Willy Loman : Walk in very serious. You are not applying for a boy's job. Money is to pass. Be quiet, fine, and serious. Everybody likes a kidder, but nobody lends him money.

• Willy Loman : Walk in with a big laugh. Don't look worried. Start off with a couple of your good stories to lighten things up. It's not what you say, it's how you say it - because personality always wins the day.

• Harold 'Happy' Loman : I'm gettin' married, Mom. I wanted to tell you.

  Linda Loman : Go to sleep, dear.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : I just wanted to tell you.

  Willy Loman : Keep up the good work.

• Willy Loman : [while playing cards Willy is talking about the ceiling he put up in the room with Charley]  A man who can't handle tools is not a man.

• Willy Loman : There's more people! That's what's ruining this country! The population is getting out of control! The competition is maddening!

• Willy Loman : But they do laugh at me. Oh, I know that.

  Linda Loman : Darling.

  Willy Loman : I gotta overcome it. I know I gotta overcome it.

  Linda Loman : Darling.

  Willy Loman : I'm not dressing to advantage, maybe.

  Linda Loman : Willy, darling, you're the handsomest man in the world.

• Willy Loman : I get so lonely - especially when business is bad and there's nobody to talk to. I get the feeling that I'll never sell anything anymore, that I won't make a living for you, or a business, a business for the boys.

• Willy Loman : That was a beautiful thing. I'm taking a walk.

  Linda Loman : But, in your slippers, Willy?

  Willy Loman : Now, there was a man worth talking to.

  Linda Loman : But, in your slippers?

  Willy Loman : I was right! I was right!

• Linda Loman : Oh, I forgot! You're supposed to meet them for dinner tonight.

  Willy Loman : Me?

  Linda Loman : At Frank's Chop House on Forty-eighth near Sixth Avenue.

  Willy Loman : Is that so! How about you?

  Linda Loman : No, just the three of you. They're gonna blow you to a big meal!

  Willy Loman : Don't say! Who thought of that?

  Linda Loman : Biff came to me this morning. Well, he said, "Tell Dad, we're going to blow him to a big meal." Be there six o'clock. You and your two boys are going to have dinner.

  Willy Loman : Ah, gee whiz! That's really somethin'.

• Willy Loman : My father lived many years in Alaska. He was an adventurous man! We've got quite a little streak of self-reliance in our family, Howard. I thought I'd go out with my older brother and try to locate him and maybe even settle in the North with the old man. And I was almost decided to go - when I met a salesman in the Parker House. His name was Dave Singleman. And he was eighty-four years old, and he'd drummed merchandise in thirty-one states. And old Dave, he'd go up to his room, y'understand, put on his green velvet slippers - I'll never forget - and pick up the phone and call the buyers, without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, he made his living. And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career that a man could want. Because what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up his phone and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people? You know, when - when he died, by the way he died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers in the smoker of the NewYork, New Haven and Hartford, going into Boston - when he died, hundreds of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral. Things were sad on a lotta trains - for months after that. You see, in those days there was personality in it, Howard. There was respect and comradeship and gratitude in it. Today, it's all cut and dried, and there's no chance for bringing friendship to bear or personality. You see what I mean? They don't know me anymore.

• Willy Loman : I'm talking about your father! There were promises made across this desk! You mustn't tell me you've got people to see. I put thirty-four years into this firm, Howard, and now I can't pay my insurance! You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit!

• Woman from Boston : Why don't you have another drink, honey. Stop being so damn self-centered?

  Willy Loman : I'm so lonely.

  Woman from Boston : You know you ruined me, Willy? From now on, whenever you come to the office, I'm gonna see you go right through to the buyers. No waiting at my desk anymore, Willy. You ruined me!

  Willy Loman : That's nice of you to say that.

  Woman from Boston : Oh, gee, you're self-centered. Why so sad? You're the saddest, self- centeredest soul I ever did see-saw.

• Woman from Boston : Where's my stockings? You promised me stockings, Willy!

  Willy Loman : I have no stockings here!

  Woman from Boston : You had two boxes of size nine sheers for me and I want them!

  Willy Loman : Here, here, here, here, here. Here, for God's sake, now, get outta here.

• Biff Loman : Dad...

  Willy Loman : My boy - she's nothing to me, Biff. I was lonely, I was terribly lonely.

  Biff Loman : Dad, you gave her Mama's stockings!

• [first lines] 

  Linda Loman : Willy?

  Willy Loman : It's alright. I came back.

  Linda Loman : Why, what happened? Did something happen Willy?

  Willy Loman : Nah.

  Linda Loman : You didn't smash the car did you?

  Willy Loman : I said nothing happened! Didn't you hear me?

  Linda Loman : Didn't you feel well?

  Willy Loman : [sighs]  I'm tired to the death. I-a, I couldn't make it. I just couldn't make it Linda.

• Linda Loman : I bought a new kind of American-type cheese. And - it's whipped.

  Willy Loman : Why do you get American when I want Swiss?

  Linda Loman : I thought you'd like a change.

  Willy Loman : I don't want a change! I want Swiss cheese! Why am I always being contradicted?

  Linda Loman : Well, I wanted it to be a surprise.

• Willy Loman : Don't be a pest, Bernard! What an anemic!

• Willy Loman : You know, the trouble is, Linda, people don't seem to take to me.

  Linda Loman : Oh, don't be so foolish!

  Willy Loman : I know it when I walk in. They seem to laugh at me.

  Linda Loman : Why? Why would they laugh at you? Don't talk that way, Willy.

  Willy Loman : I don't know the reason for it; but, they just pass me by. I'm not noticed.

  Linda Loman : Well, you're making seventy to a hundred dollars a week.

  Willy Loman : But I gotta be at it ten, twelve hours a day. Other men - I don't know why - they do it easier. I don't know *why* I can't stop myself. I talk too much. Oh, a man oughta come in with a few words.

• Willy Loman : On the road I want to grab you sometimes and just kiss the life outta you.

• Willy Loman : That is a one-million-dollar idea!

• Willy Loman : Lick the world! You guys together could absolutely lick the civilized world!

• Willy Loman : But remember, start big and you'll end big.

• Willy Loman : All of a sudden everything falls to pieces!

• Willy Loman : Boys left nice and early, heh?

  Linda Loman : They were out of here by eight o'clock.

  Willy Loman : Good work!

  Linda Loman : It was so thrilling to see them leaving together. I cannot get over the shaving lotion in this house!

• Willy Loman : It's not what you do, Ben, it's who you know and the smile on your face! It's contacts, Ben, contacts! The whole wealth of Alaska passes over the lunch table at the Commodore Hotel, and that's the wonder, the wonder of this country, that a man can end with diamonds here on the basis of being liked!

• Charley : The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you're a salesman and you don't know that.

  Willy Loman : Well, I've always tried to think otherwise, I guess. I always felt - that if a man was impressive, and well liked, that nothing...

  Charley : Why must everybody like you? Who liked J. P. Morgan? Was he impressive? In a Turkish bath he'd look like a butcher. But with his pockets on - he was very well liked.

• Charley : Take care of yourself. And pay your insurance.

  Willy Loman : It's funny, you know? After all the highways and the trains and the appointments and the years - you end up worth more dead than alive.

  Charley : Willy, nobody's worth nothin' dead. Did you hear what I said?

• Willy Loman : Isn't that-isn't that remarkable? Biff - he - he likes me!

  Linda Loman : He loves you, Willy!

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Always did, Pop.