Taxi Driver (1976) quotes

Director
Martin Scorsese.

Cast
Robert De Niro.
Jodie Foster.
Cybill Shepherd.

A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge for violent action, while attempting to save a preadolescent prostitute in the process.

Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There’s no escape. I’m God’s lonely man.
Travis Bickle

Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up.
– Travis Bickle

[Travis is trying his guns on the mirror] Huh? Huh?
– Travis Bickle
[Draws]
Faster than you, fucking son of a… Saw you coming you fucking… shitheel.
– Travis Bickle
[Reholsters]
I’m standing here; you make the move. You make the move. It’s your move…
– Travis Bickle
[Draws]
Don’t try it you fuck.
– Travis Bickle
[Reholsters]
You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talking… you talking to me? Well I’m the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to? Oh yeah? OK.
– Travis Bickle
[Draws]

You’re only as healthy as you feel.
– Travis Bickle

I realize now how much she’s just like the others, cold and distant, and many people are like that, women for sure, they’re like a union.
– Travis Bickle

All the animals come out at night – whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets. I go all over. I take people to the Bronx, Brooklyn, I take ’em to Harlem. I don’t care. Don’t make no difference to me. It does to some. Some won’t even take spooks. Don’t make no difference to me.
– Travis Bickle

I first saw her at Palantine Campaign headquarters at 63rd and Broadway. She was wearing a white dress. She appeared like an angel. Out of this filthy mess, she is alone. They… cannot… touch… her.
– Travis Bickle

I’ll tell you why. I think you’re a lonely person. I drive by this place a lot and I see you here. I see a lot of people around you. And I see all these phones and all this stuff on your desk. It means nothing. Then when I came inside and I met you, I saw in your eyes and I saw the way you carried yourself that you’re not a happy person. And I think you need something. And if you want to call it a friend, you can call it a friend.
– Travis Bickle
Are you gonna be my friend?
– Betsy
Yeah.
– Travis Bickle

Thank God for the rain to wash the trash off the sidewalk.
– Travis Bickle

I got some bad ideas in my head.
– Travis Bickle

June twenty-ninth. I gotta get in shape. Too much sitting has ruined my body. Too much abuse has gone on for too long. From now on there will be 50 pushups each morning, 50 pullups. There will be no more pills, no more bad food, no more destroyers of my body. From now on will be total organization. Every muscle must be tight.
– Travis Bickle

Now I see this clearly. My whole life is pointed in one direction. There never has been a choice for me.
– Travis Bickle

Wanna work uptown at nights? South Bronx? Harlem?
– Personnel Officer
I’ll work anytime, anywhere.
– Travis Bickle
Will you work on Jewish holidays?
– Personnel Officer
Anytime, anywhere.
– Travis Bickle

Each night when I return the cab to the garage, I have to clean the cum off the back seat. Some nights, I clean off the blood.
– Travis Bickle

I think someone should just take this city and just… just flush it down the fuckin’ toilet.
– Travis Bickle

[last lines]
Travis, I’m… how much was it?
– Betsy
[Travis clears meter]
So long.
– Travis Bickle

You get a job. You become the job.
– Wizard

The days go on and on… they don’t end. All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don’t believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention, I believe that one should become a person like other people.
– Travis Bickle

God, you’re square.
– Iris
Hey, I’m not square, you’re the one that’s square. You’re full of shit, man. What are you talking about? You walk out with those fuckin’ creeps and low-lifes and degenerates out on the streets and you sell your little pussy for peanuts? For some low-life pimp who stands in the hall? And I’m square? You’re the one that’s square, man. I don’t go screwing fuck with a bunch of killers and junkies like you do. You call that bein’ hip? What world are you from?
– Travis Bickle

The idea had been growing in my brain for some time: TRUE force. All the king’s men cannot put it back together again.
– Travis Bickle

Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There’s no escape. I’m God’s lonely man… June 8th. My life has taken another turn again. The days can go on with regularity over and over, one day indistinguishable from the next. A long continuous chain. Then suddenly, there is a change.
– Travis Bickle

I would say he has quite a few problems. His energy seems to go in the wrong places. When I walked in and I saw you two sitting there, I could just tell by the way you were both relating that there was no connection whatsoever. And I felt when I walked in that there was something between us. There was an impulse that we were both following. So that gave me the right to come in and talk to you. Otherwise I never would have felt that I had the right to talk to you or say anything to you. I never would have had the courage to talk to you. And with him I felt there was nothing and I could sense it. When I walked in, I knew I was right. Did you feel that way?
– Travis Bickle
I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.
– Betsy

How’s your driving record? Clean?
– Personnel Officer
It’s clean, real clean. Like my conscience.
– Travis Bickle

Taking me to a place like this is about as exciting as saying to me “Let’s fuck.”
– Betsy

Shit… I’m waiting for the sun to shine.
– Travis Bickle

You’re a funny guy – but looks aren’t everything.
– Sport