Anne Bancroft Quotes


Annie Sullivan (Bancroft) at the water pump with Helen Keller (Patty Duke)

All movie quotes are from The Internet Movie Database's entries for each movie.


Quotes on Anne Bancroft
"...I happened to mention: 'Of course, the ideal Magdalene would be Anne Bancroft.' I remembered her as superb, from Anne of the Miracles [The Miracle Worker] to The Graduate, but I realized I was asking the impossible. She is an actress who works seldom -- by choice. She doesn't like to be away from her home with husband, Mel Brooks, and her children. She demands prohibitive fees mainly to discourage requests and remain at peace.

"Three days later they called me from London: Anne Bancroft has accepted!

"...Miss Bancroft told me that she had always been fascinated by the figure of Mary Magdalene. She once described her thoughts about her acceptance of the part:

'I chanced to receive an offer from a director I respected that I couldn't refuse -- a project that gives me every guarantee, surrounded by companions I admire totally. There's little money, but never mind. I can earn more in other projects less exciting than this one, which at least will give me satisfaction in playing the role.'"

-excerpts from "Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus: A Spiritual Diary" (Harper & Row, 1984) by Franco Zeffirelli (originally published in Italian under the title "Il Mio Gesu"), which detailed Zeffirelli's filming of the miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977) from conception to completion.


Quotes from Bancroft herself

"I was at a point where I was ready to say I am what I am because of what I am and if you like me I'm grateful, and if you don't, what am I going to do about it?"

"Life is here only to be lived so that we can, through life, earn the right to death, which to me is paradise. Whatever it is that will bring me the reward of paradise, I'll do the best I can."

"The best way to get most husbands to do something is to suggest that perhaps they're too old to do it."

"When Mel told his Jewish mother he was marrying an Italian girl, she said: 'Bring her over. I'll be in the kitchen - with my head in the oven'."


Quotes from Anne's Movies

The Miracle Worker (Arthur Penn, 1962)
Role: Annie Sullivan

Annie Sullivan: All's fair in love and war.
Captain Arthur Keller (Victor Jory): This is not war.
Annie Sullivan: Well, it's not love!

Annie Sullivan, on Helen Keller: Pity for this tyrant? Is there anything she wants she doesn't get? I'll tell you what I pity... that the sun won't rise and set for her all her life, and every day you're telling her it will. What you and your pity do will destroy her, Captain Keller.

Annie Sullivan: It's less trouble to feel sorry for her than it is to teach her anything better.

Annie Sullivan: [after a breakthrough with Helen] Now all I have to teach you is one word - everything.


The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)
Role: Mrs. Robinson

Mrs. Robinson: Benjamin.
Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman): Yes?
Mrs. Robinson: Isn't there something you want to tell me?
Benjamin: Tell you?
Mrs. Robinson: Yes.
Benjamin: Well, I want you to know how much I appreciate this. Really.
Mrs. Robinson: The number.
Benjamin: What?
Mrs. Robinson: The room number, Benjamin. I think you ought to tell me that.
Benjamin: Oh, you're absolutely right. It's 568.
Mrs. Robinson: Thank you.
Benjamin: You're welcome. Well... I'll see you later, Mrs. Robinson.

Benjamin: Oh my god.
Mrs. Robinson: Pardon?
Benjamin: Oh no, Mrs. Robinson. Oh no.
Mrs. Robinson: What's wrong?
Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, you didn't... I mean, you didn't expect...
Mrs. Robinson: What?
Benjamin: I mean, you didn't really think I'd do something like *that*.
Mrs. Robinson: Like what?
Benjamin: What do you think?
Mrs. Robinson: Well, I don't know.
Benjamin: For god's sake, Mrs. Robinson. Here we are. You got me into your house. You give me a drink. You... put on music. Now you start opening up your personal life to me and tell me your husband won't be home for hours.
Mrs. Robinson: So?
Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me.
Mrs. Robinson: [laughs]
Benjamin: Aren't you?

Mrs. Robinson: Benjamin, I am *not* trying to seduce you.
Benjamin: I know that, but *please*, Mrs. Robinson, this is difficult...
Mrs. Robinson: Would you like me to seduce you?
Benjamin: What?
Mrs. Robinson: Is that what you're trying to tell me?
Benjamin: I'm going home now. I apologize for what I said. I hope you can forget it, but I'm going home right now.

Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, I can't do this.
Mrs. Robinson: You what?
Benjamin: This is all terribly wrong.
Mrs. Robinson: Do you find me undesirable?
Benjamin: Oh no, Mrs. Robinson. I think, I think you're the most attractive of all my parents' friends. I mean that.


To Be or Not To Be (Alan Johnson, 1983)
Role: Anna Bronski

Anna Bronski: All these flowers on a Lieutenant's pay, you shouldn't have.
Lieutenant Andre Sobinski (Tim Matheson): That's OK. My father is a florist.

Lieutenant Andre Sobinski: I loved that picture of you on the farm. You behind the plow. By the way, where was that?
Anna Bronski: In the "Chronicle".
Lieutenant Andre Sobinski: No, I mean where's the farm?
Anna Bronski: Oh, the farm. The farm. Well, that's out of town somewhere... You know, that's where they keep them.

Anna Bronski: Oh, but that's enough talk about me. Let's talk about you. How'd you like me in the first act?

Colonel Erhardt (Charles Durning): Mrs. Bronski, Mrs. Bronski, Mrs. Bronski.
Anna Bronski: We're all here.

Sasha (James Haake): Are you all right?
Anna Bronski: I'm fine.
Sasha: Then why are you on the floor?
Anna Bronski: The Floor? I'm on the floor? I'm on the FLOOR. Well get me up.

Sasha: Enter, Andre Sobinski.
Anna Bronski: Exit, Sasha Kinski.

Anna Bronski: [to her pet dog] Mootkie, we are living in a rat hole.

Nazi officer: You are sitting in Col. Erhardt's chair.
Anna Bronksi: Oh, how silly of me. Ten minutes ago it was my chair.

Anna Bronski: They say its going to be a really cold winter.
Capt. Schultz, of Erhardt's Staff (Christopher Lloyd): I don't know anyzing about zat!

Anna Bronski: Oh look, a piano! With KEYS! And it WORKS!

Anna Bronski: He's world-famous in Poland!

Anna Bronski: [as the Nazis are searching for Sasha] First you invade Poland, then you invade Warsaw, then you invade my dressing room... you people are compulsive invaders!

Anna Bronski: [Anna has just turned down Erhardt's invitation for supper] I never sup after I've dined.


"Here's to You, Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel
We'd like to know
A little bit about you
For our files.
We'd like to help you learn
To help yourself.
Look around you. All you see
Are sympathetic eyes.
Stroll around the grounds
Until you feel at home.

And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson,
Jesus loves you more than you will know
Wo wo wo
God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson,
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
Hey hey hey, hey hey hey

Hide it in a hiding place
Where no one ever goes.
Put it in you pantry with your cupcakes.
It's a little secret,
Just the Robinsons' affair.
Most of all, you've got to hide it from the kids.

Coo coo ca-choo, Mrs. Robinson,
Jesus loves you more than you will know
Wo wo wo

God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson,
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
Hey hey hey, hey hey hey

Sitting on a sofa
On a Sunday afternoon,
Going to the candidates' debate,
Laugh about it,
Shout about it,
When you've got to choose,
Every way you look at it you lose.

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you
Ooo ooo ooo.

What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
"Joltin' Joe has left and gone away"
Hey hey hey, hey hey hey


Memoriam: Anne Bancroft
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