Heart Beat (1980)

Sissy Spacek: Carolyn Cassady

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Quotes 

• Ira : Like dripping out of the Sun, Momus, Momus, Son of night, Momus, Invisible Coalitions, Deranged Industrialists, Ghostly Nations, Insolent Asylums, Momus, Momus, Cocksucker in Momus, Malignant bombs, Malignant bombs, Glass jism!

  Neal Cassady : Very good, Ira.

  Ira : I'm not finished. What did you think?

  Carolyn Cassady : Well, I guess I'm kind of old fashion; but, I sort of go for "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".

  Ira : Eliot!

  Carolyn Cassady : Yeah.

  Ira : Oh! You mean the bank clerk! The world's big authority on the end of civilization. You wanna know about civilization? You ask any bum on the bowery after he's had 12 shots of Sterno. The puke encrusted scabs on his face are a more eloquent poem than Eliot ever wrote. Eliot?

  Carolyn Cassady : So, eh, how long are you here for, Ira?

• Carolyn Cassady : Must you be so loud?

  Ira : I'm sorry if I'm a threat to you.

  Carolyn Cassady : You're not a threat to me.

  Ira : I'm a threat to everybody. I know that. Maybe I could learn some table manners. I don't know. Being polite seems like such a arrogant gesture to me. I see a lot of stupid pain in this world and it makes me angry. So, I shout. What else am I going to do with my yap? Run for office?

• Jack Kerouac : Just because it didn't work out for you, doesn't mean it's not gonna work out for me.

  Neal Cassady : What are you gonna do? You're gonna punch into a job, nine to five? Come home, rake leaves, take care of the kids, right?

  Jack Kerouac : Sure. That's that's the right idea.

  Neal Cassady : Bull shit! She doesn't believe that for a minute.

  Jack Kerouac : Yes she does.

  Carolyn Cassady : No I don't!

  Jack Kerouac : Ah, it doesn't make any difference. I'm gonna do it anyway.

  Carolyn Cassady : I don't want you to do it.

  Jack Kerouac : Well, Neal does.

  Carolyn Cassady : Is that who you're doin' it for?

  Jack Kerouac : I'm doin' it for you both. I'm doin' it for all three of us.

• Carolyn Cassady : God, I guess I just expected too much.

  Neal Cassady : Yeah, I know. We both expected too much. Do you think you can make her happy, Jack?

  Jack Kerouac : I don't know.

  Carolyn Cassady : Why not? He doesn't expect a thing anymore.

• Neal Cassady : You sure do look cute when you're happy.

  Carolyn Cassady : You charm the pants off of me, when you are.

• Neal Cassady : I've been holdin' down the fort for 10 years.

  Jack Kerouac : And I'll hold it down when I get back. You don't believe I'm comin' back. Do you believe I'm comin' back?

  Carolyn Cassady : Jack, it's alright if you're not comin' back.

• Carolyn Cassady : He didn't hear a word I said, did he? Neal?

  Neal Cassady : I didn't hear what you said.

• Jack Kerouac : What the hell did we do wrong?

  Carolyn Cassady : Oh, I don't think we did anything wrong. We just did it first.

• Jack Kerouac : Now, Neal's hangin' out with the zippy bippies, huh?

  Carolyn Cassady : Yeah. He's got a string of girls as long as your arm. He says we were born before our time.

  Jack Kerouac : Before our time?

  Carolyn Cassady : Yeah.

  Jack Kerouac : Well, the cat would say anything to get laid.

• Carolyn Cassady : Neal thought that life was destroyed by compromises. That was his weakness. Jack thought it was made by them, and that was his. I decided that compromises are like dental appointments... You're damned if you make 'em... And you're damned if you don't.

• Carolyn Cassady (as narrator) : From friends, we expect loyalty; from writers, only sequels. Neal went to prison; Jack was sentenced to posterity. Something had ended. They used to call it innocence.