Daily Dialogue — July 12, 2019

“It’s sad, when a mother has to speak the words that condemn her own son. But I couldn’t allow them to believe that I would commit murder. They’ll put him away now, as I should have years ago. He was always bad, and in the end he intended to tell them I killed those girls and that man… as if I could do anything but just sit and stare, like one of his stuffed birds. They know I can’t move a finger, and I won’t. I’ll just sit here and be quiet, just in case they do… suspect me. They’re probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of a person I am. I’m not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching… they’ll see. They’ll see and they’ll know, and they’ll say, ‘Why, she wouldn’t even harm a fly…’”

— Psycho (1960), screenplay by Joseph Stefano, novel by Robert Bloch

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Last Lines. Today’s suggestion by @Flowersofsin.

Trivia: Director Sir Alfred Hitchcock bought the rights to the novel anonymously from Robert Bloch for only $9,000. He then bought up as many copies of the novel as he could, to keep the ending a secret.

Dialogue On Dialogue: The dialogue here is important for many reasons, one of which is it marks a capstone in Norman’s journey toward Unity, now fully at one with the mother aspect of his psyche.