Death of a Salesman Key Quotations Flashcards
“Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be? …”
“…What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!”
- Biff
“Pop! …”
“…I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you”
- Biff (to Willy)
“I’m gonna show you and everybody else…”
“…that Willy Loman did not die in vain.”
- Happy
“He fought it out here…”
“…and this is where I’m gonna win it for him.”
- Happy
“But then, it’s what I always wanted…”
“…My own apartment, a car, plenty of women, and still, goddamnit, I’m lonely.”
- Happy
“I’m not bringing home any prizes anymore…”
“…and you’re going to stop waiting for me to bring them home!”
- Biff (to Willy)
“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.”
- Charley (to Willy)
“After all the highways…”
“…and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.”
- Willy (to Charley after losing his job & borrowing money)
“He’s liked…”
“…but he’s not well liked.”
- Biff (about Bernard)
“A small man can be…”
“…just as exhausted as a great man”
- Linda (about Willy)
“They don’t need me in New York…”
“…I’m the New England man. I’m vital in New England.”
- Willy
“I’ve always made a point of not wasting my life…”
“…and every time I come back here I know that all I’ve done is to waste my life.”
- Biff
“Attention, attention…”
“…must be finally paid to such a person.”
- Linda (about Willy)
“You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away…”
“…— a man is not a piece of fruit!”
- Willy (to Howard)
“He’s a man way out there in the blue…”
“…riding on a smile and a shoeshine . . . A salesman is got to dream, boy.”
- Charley
