James Stewart credited as playing...
Elwood P. Dowd
- Elwood P. Dowd: Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be" - she always called me Elwood - "In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.
- Elwood P. Dowd: Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.
- Elwood P. Dowd: Harvey and I sit in the bars... have a drink or two... play the juke box. And soon the faces of all the other people they turn toward mine and they smile. And they're saying, "We don't know your name, mister, but you're a very nice fella." Harvey and I warm ourselves in all these golden moments. We've entered as strangers - soon we have friends. And they come over... and they sit with us... and they drink with us... and they talk to us. They tell about the big terrible things they've done and the big wonderful things they'll do. Their hopes, and their regrets, and their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar. And then I introduce them to Harvey... and he's bigger and grander than anything they offer me. And when they leave, they leave impressed. The same people seldom come back; but that's envy, my dear. There's a little bit of envy in the best of us.
- Elwood P. Dowd: I'd just put Ed Hickey into a taxi. Ed had been mixing his rye with his gin, and I just felt that he needed conveying. Well, anyway, I was walking down along the street and I heard this voice saying, "Good evening, Mr. Dowd." Well, I turned around and here was this big six-foot rabbit leaning up against a lamp-post. Well, I thought nothing of that because when you've lived in a town as long as I've lived in this one, you get used to the fact that everybody knows your name. And naturally I went over to chat with him. And he said to me... he said, "Ed Hickey was a little spiffed this evening, or could I be mistaken?" Well, of course, he was not mistaken. I think the world and all of Ed, but he was spiffed. Well, we talked like that for awhile and then I said to him, I said, "You have the advantage on me. You know my name and I don't know yours." And, and right back at me he said, "What name do you like?" Well, I didn't even have to think twice about that. Harvey's always been my favorite name. So I said to him, I said, "Harvey." And, uh, this is the interesting thing about the whole thing: He said, "What a coincidence. My name happens to be Harvey."
- Wilson: Who's Harvey?
- Miss Kelly: A white rabbit, six feet tall.
- Wilson: Six feet?
- Elwood P. Dowd: Six feet three and a half inches. Now let's stick to the facts.
- Dr. Sanderson: I think that your sister's condition stems from trauma.
- Elwood P. Dowd: From what?
- Dr. Sanderson: Uh, trauma. Spelled t-r-a-u-m-a. It means shock. There's nothing unusual about it. There's the "birth trauma" - the shock of being born...
- Elwood P. Dowd: That's the one we never get over.
- Elwood P. Dowd: Years ago, my mother used to say to me, she'd say "In this world, Elwood, you can be oh so so smart, or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.
- Elwood P. Dowd: You see, science has overcome time and space. Well, Harvey has overcome not only time and space, but any objections.
- Dr. Chumley: Fly specks, fly specks! I've been spending my life among fly specks while miracles have been leaning on lampposts at 18th and Fairfax!
- Dr. Chumley: This sister of yours is at the bottom of a conspiracy against you. She's trying to persuade me to lock you up. Today, she had commitment papers drawn up. She has your power of attorney and the key to your safety box, and she brought you here!
- Elwood P. Dowd: My sister did all that in one afternoon. That Veta certainly is a whirlwind, isn't she?
- Elwood P. Dowd: Oh, you can't miss him Mrs. Chumley. He's a Pooka.
- Mrs. Hazel Chumley: A Pooka? Is that something new?
- Elwood P. Dowd: No. No, as I understand it that's something very old.
- Dr. Sanderson: Think carefully, Dowd. Didn't you know somebody, sometime, someplace by the name of Harvey? Didn't you ever know anybody by that name?
- Elwood P. Dowd: No, no, not one, Doctor. Maybe that's why I always had such hopes for it.
- Elwood P. Dowd: Ahhh, Miss Kelly. Miss Kelly, do you know, when you wear my flower you make it beautiful.
- Elwood P. Dowd: Wouldn't that get a little monotonous, just Akron, cold beer and 'poor, poor thing' for two weeks?
- [Elwood bumps into an old friend he hasn't seen for some time]
- Elwood P. Dowd: You've been away.
- Mr. Miggles: For 90 days. Been doin' a job for the state. Makin' license plates.
- Elwood P. Dowd: Oh, is that so? Interesting work?
- Mr. Miggles: I can take it or leave it alone.
- Elwood P. Dowd: Oh, I see.
- Mr. Miggles: I did a job for 'em last year too. Helpin' 'em build a road.
- Elwood P. Dowd: [talking about Harvey] Did I tell you he could stop clocks?
- Dr. Chumley: To what purpose.
- Elwood P. Dowd: Well, you've heard the expression; 'his face would stop a clock'.
- Dr. Chumley: Mm-hmm.
- Elwood P. Dowd: Well, Harvey can look at your clock... and stop it. And you can go anywhere you like, with anyone you like, and stay as long as you like, and when you get back... not one minute will have ticked by.