All My Sons: Quotes

Front 1

'That was a very happy family used to live in your house, Jim.'

Back 1

Joe Keller to Dr. Bayliss. (On the Deever family)

Front 2

'Well that's what a war does. I had two sons, now I got one. It changed all the tallies.'

Back 2

Joe Keller on War

Front 3

Keller: 'How could she see it? I was the first one up. She was still in bed.'
Chris: 'She was out here when it broke.'

Back 3

Joe and Chris Keller.

Front 4

'It's time she realised that nobody believes Larry is alive anymore.'

Back 4

Chris, speaking about his mother.

Front 5

'I ignore what I gotta ignore. The girl is Larry's girl.'

Back 5

Joe Keller on Ann Deever. Joe is trying to avoid the inevitable trouble of when Kate has to be told of Chris' intentions.

Front 6

'I don't know why it is, but every time I reach out for something I want, I have to pull back because other people will suffer. My whole bloody life, time after time after time.'

Back 6

Chris Deever.

Front 7

'You marry that girl, and you're pronouncing him dead.'

Back 7

Joe Keller.

Front 8

'I've been a good son too long, a good sucker. I'm through with it.'

Back 8

Chris Keller.

Front 9

'Because what the hell did I work for? That's only for you, Chris, the whole shootin' match is for you!

Back 9

Joe Keller on Chris' intention of leaving to marry Ann.

Front 10

'I used to think that when I got money again I would have a maid, and my wife would take it easy. Now I got money, and I got a maid, and my wife is workin' for the maid.'

Back 10

Joe Keller on Kate.

Front 11

'It's so funny; everything decides to happen at the same time. This month is his birthday, his tree blows down, Annie comes. Everything that happened seems to be coming back.'

Back 11

Kate Keller on recent events.

Front 12

'If I could touch him, I knew I could stop him, if I could only..'

Back 12

Kate's dream, she saw Larry falling.

Front 13

'We never took up our lives again. We're like at a railroad station waiting for a train that never comes in.'

Back 13

Chris, on Kate's inability to move on.

Front 14

'She's not his girl, Joe; she knows she's not.'

Back 14

Kate, on Annie and Chris.

Front 15

'I want you to act like he's coming back, both of you.'

Back 15

Kate, on Joe and Chris.

Front 16

'Because if he's not coming back, I'll kill myself!'

Back 16

Kate, to Joe Keller.

Front 17

Kate: 'You above all have got to believe, you..'
Joe: 'Why me above all?'

Back 17

Kate is hinting that Larry's death would have been Joe's fault.

Front 18

'I guess I never grew up. It almost seems that Mom and Pop are in there now. And you and my brother doing Algebra, and Larry trying to copy my homework'

'Gosh, those dear dead days beyond recall.'

Back 18

Ann, recalling happier times.

Front 19

'That's a funny thing to say; how could I help remembering him?'

Back 19

Ann Deever on Larry.

Front 20

'They don't say it on the radio, but I'm sure that in the dark at night, they're still waiting for their sons.'

Back 20

Kate Keller

Front 21

'You mean am I still waiting for him? Well. I'm not, Kate.'

Back 21

Ann Deever.

Front 22

'Because certain things have to be, and certain things can never be.'

Back 22

Kate Keller.

Front 23

'The last thing I remember on this block was one word, Murderers!'

Back 23

Ann Deever.

Front 24

'Every Saturday night, the whole gang is playing poker in this arbor. All the ones who yelled murderer takin' my money now.'

Back 24

Joe Keller.

Front 25

'The man was a fool, but don't make a murderer out of him.'

Back 25

Joe Keller

Front 26

'If I could have gone in that day I'd a told him: junk 'em, Steve, we can afford it. But alone he was afraid.'

Back 26

Joe Keller

Front 27

Chris: 'I kissed you..'
Ann: 'Like Larry's brother. Do it like you, Chris.'

Back 27

Ann and Chris.

Front 28

'They didn't die, they killed themselves for each other. I mean that exactly; a little more selfish and they'd have been here today'.

Back 28

Chris on his fellow soldiers.

Front 29

'And then I came home and it was incredible. I .. there was no meaning in it here; the whole thing to them was kind of a bus accident. I went to work with Dad, and that rat-race again. Nobody was changed at all.'

Back 29

Chris on the War.

Front 30

'Sometimes I think you're.. ashamed of the money,'

Back 30

Joe Keller

Front 31

'We're dumb Chris, Dad and I are stupid people. We don't know anything. You've got to protect us.'

Back 31

Kate Keller.

Front 32

'If they open the case again I won't live through it.'

Back 32

Kate Keller.

Front 33

'You think because you like everybody, they like you!'

Back 33

Kate Keller to Chris.

Front 34

'People like to do things for the Kellers. Been that way since I can remember.'

Back 34

Ann Deever.

Front 35

'It's very unusual to me, marrying the brother of your sweetheart.'

Back 35

Sue Bayliss to Ann.

Front 36

'When he tells you something, you know it's so.'

Back 36

Ann Deever speaking about Chris.

Front 37

Sue: 'And he got money. That's important, you know.'
Ann: 'It wouldn't matter to me.'

Back 37

Sue Bayliss and Ann Deever.

Front 38

'Chris makes people want to be better than it's possible to be.'

Back 38

Sue Bayliss.

Front 39

'I resent living next door to the Holy Family. It makes me look like a bum, you understand?'

Back 39

Sue Bayliss.

Front 40

'Do you think I could forgive him if he'd done that thing?'

Back 40

Chris Keller to Ann.

Front 41

'I got so many lieutenants, majors and colonels that I'm ashamed to ask somebody to sweep the floor.'

Back 41

Joe Keller.

Front 42

'My only accomplishment is my son.'

Back 42

Joe Keller.

Front 43

'Then kick him in the teeth! I don't want him in the plant, so that's that! You understand?'

Back 43

Chris Keller, speaking about Steven Deever.

Front 44

George: 'Why, afraid you'll forget him?'
Chris: 'Kind of a remark is that?'

Back 44

George Deever and Chris, on Larry.

Front 45

'He's a little man. That's what happens to suckers, you know.

Back 45

George Deever, speaking about Steven Deever.

Front 46

'You're not going to marry him.'

'Because his father destroyed your family.'

Back 46

George Deever.

Front 47

'He loved you so much...Annie...we did a terrible thing.'

Back 47

George Deever.

Front 48

'Dad was afraid. He wanted Joe there if he was going to do it. But Joe can't come down...he's sick. Sick! He suddenly gets the flu! But he promised to take responsibility.'

Back 48

George Deever.

Front 49

'Your dad took everything we have. I can't beat that. But she's one item he's not going to grab.'

Back 49

George Deever to Chris.

Front 50

'Everything they have is covered in blood.'

Back 50

George to Ann.

Front 51

'He won the war, Frank.'

Back 51

George Deever.

Front 52

'Why must you make believe you hate us?'

Back 52

Kate Keller to George.

Front 53

'I wear the pants and she beats me with the belt.'

Back 53

Joe Keller.

Front 54

'Twenty five years, the man never learned to take the blame.'

Back 54

Joe Keller on Steven Deever.'

Front 55

'He hasn't been laid up in fifteen years..'

Back 55

Kate Keller.

Front 56

'Your brother's alive, darling, because if he's dead, your father killed him.'

Back 56

Kate Keller to Chris.

Front 57

'God does not let a son be killed by his father.'

Back 57

Kate Keller.

Front 58

'Dad...dad, you killed twenty one men!'

Back 58

Chris Keller.

Front 59

'I'm in business, a man is in business; a hundred and twenty cracked, you're out of business.'

Back 59

Joe Keller.

Front 60

You lay forty years into a business and they knock you out in five minutes.'

Back 60

Joe Keller.

Front 61

'I was dying every day and you were killing my boys and you did it for me?'

Back 61

Chris Keller.

Front 62

You're not even an animal, no animal kills his own, what are you?'

Back 62

Chris Keller to Joe.

Front 63

'Don't be afraid Kate, I've always known.'

Back 63

Jim Bayliss.

Front 64

I always had a feeling that in the back of his head, Chris.. almost knew. I didn't think it would be such a shock.'

Back 64

Kate Keller.

Front 65

'You wanted money, so I made money. What must I be forgiven?'

Back 65

Joe to Kate.

Front 66

'I'm his father and he's my son, and if there's something bigger than that I'll put a bullet in my head!'

Back 66

Joe Keller.

Front 67

'He loved you Joe, you broke his heart.'

Back 67

Kate Keller.

Front 68

'I could jail him, if I were human any more. But I'm like everyone else now. I'm practical now.'

Back 68

Chris Keller.

Front 69

'I'm a dead man, I'm an old dead man, nothing's mine.'

Back 69

Joe Keller.

Front 70

'I know you're no worse than most men but I thought you were better.'

Back 70

Chris to Joe.

Front 71

'Sure, he was my son. But I think to him, they were all my sons. And I guess they were, I guess they were.'

Back 71

Joe Keller.

Front 72

'You can be better! Once and for all you can know that there's a universe of people outside and you're responsible to it.'

Back 72

Chris Keller.