Death of a Salesman (1985 TV Movie)

Charles Durning: Charley

Quotes 

• Charley : My salvation is that I never took any interest in anything.

• Charley : Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, and tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back - that's an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you're finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.

• Linda Loman : Why didn't anybody come?

  Charley : It was a very nice funeral.

  Linda Loman : But where are all the people he knew?

• Biff Loman : There were a lot of nice days. When he'd come home from a trip; or on Sundays, making the stoop; finishing the cellar; when he built the extra bathroom; and put up the garage. You know, Charley, I think there was more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made.

  Charley : Yeah. He was a happy man with a batch of cement.

  Linda Loman : He was so wonderful with his hands.

  Biff Loman : He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Don't say that!

  Biff Loman : The man didn't know who he was.

  Charley : Nobody dast blame this man.

• 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?

• Charley : No man only needs a little salary.

• Charley : So? They won't starve.

• Charley : When a dollar bottle is broken you don't get your nickel back.

• Howard Wagner : They're fine boys, a couple of fearless characters.

  Charley : The jails are full of fearless characters.