Barton Fink (1991)

John Turturro: Barton Fink

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Barton Fink : I gotta tell you, the life of the mind... There's no roadmap for that territory... And exploring it can be painful.

• Barton Fink : Have you read the Bible, Pete?

  Pete : Holy Bible?

  Barton Fink : Yeah.

  Pete : Yeah, I think so. Anyway, I've heard about it.

• Barton Fink : [at the USO club]  I'm a writer, you monsters! I create! I create for a living! I'm a creator! I am a creator!

  [points to his head] 

  Barton Fink : This is my uniform! This is how I serve the common man!

• Ben Geisler : Look, you confused? You need guidance? Talk to another writer.

  Barton Fink : Who?

  Ben Geisler : Jesus, throw a rock in here, you'll hit one. And do me a favor, Fink: throw it hard.

• [last lines] 

  Beauty : It's a beautiful day.

  Barton Fink : Huh?

  Beauty : I said it's a beautiful day.

  Barton Fink : Yes. It is.

  Beauty : What's in the box?

  Barton Fink : I don't know.

  Beauty : Isn't it yours?

  Barton Fink : I don't know. You're very beautiful. Are you in pictures?

  Beauty : Don't be silly.

• Charlie Meadows : And I could tell you some stories...

  Barton Fink : Sure you could and yet many writers do everything in their power to insulate themselves from the common man, from where they live, from where they trade, from where they fight and love and converse and... and... So naturally their work suffers and regresses into empty formalism and... well, I'm spouting off again, but to put it in your language, the theatre becomes as phony as a three-dollar bill.

  Charlie Meadows : Well, I guess that's a tragedy right there.

• Detective Deutsch : All right, forget the heads. Where's Mundt, Fink?

  Detective Mastrionotti : He teach you how to do it?

  Detective Deutsch : You two have some sick sex thing?

  Barton Fink : Sex? He's a man! We wrestled!

  Detective Mastrionotti : You're a sick fuck, Fink.

• Detective Deutsch : [questioning Fink about Mundt]  What else?

  Barton Fink : Trying to think. Nothing, really. He... he said he liked Jack Oakie pictures.

  Detective Mastrionotti : You know, ordinarily we say anything you might remember could be helpful. But I'll be frank with you, Fink. That is not helpful.

  Detective Deutsch : Notice how he's not writing it down?

• Barton Fink : I've always found that writing comes from a great inner pain.

• Barton Fink : Who cares about the fifth Earl of Bathsdrop and Lady Higgenbottom and... and... who killed Nigel Grinchgibbons?

  Charlie Meadows : I can feel my butt gettin' sore already!

• Audrey Taylor : Barton, empathy requires understanding.

  Barton Fink : What? What don't I understand?

• Garland Stanford : The common man will still be here when you get back. Who knows, there may even be one or two of them in Hollywood.

  Barton Fink : That's a rationalization, Garland.

  Garland Stanford : Barton, it was a joke.

• Detective Mastrionotti : You live in 621?

  Barton Fink : Yeah.

  Detective Deutsch : How long you been up there, Fink?

  Barton Fink : A week, eight, nine days.

  Detective Mastrionotti : Is this multiple choice?

• Ben Geisler : Mayhew, some help, the guy's a souse!

  Barton Fink : He's a great writer.

  Ben Geisler : A great souse!

  Barton Fink : You don't understand.

  Ben Geisler : Souse!

  Barton Fink : He's in pain, because he can't write...

  Ben Geisler : Souse! Souse! Can't write? He manages to write his name on the back of his paycheck every week!

• [after Mundt has killed two officers and supernaturally lit the hallways on fire, he returns back to Barton's room now as Charlie; as he enters, he puts the shotgun up on the door frame] 

  Charlie Meadows : Barton. Brother, is it hot. How you been, buddy?

  [Barton's too terrified to speak] 

  Charlie Meadows : Well, don't go looking at me like that. It's just me... Charlie.

  Barton Fink : I hear these days it's Mundt. Madman Mundt.

  Charlie Meadows : Jesus, people can be cruel. If it's not my build, it's my personality.

  [beat] 

  Charlie Meadows : They say I'm a madman, Bart, but I'm not mad at anyone. Honest, I'm not. Most guys I just feel sorry for. It tears me up inside to think about what they're going through, how trapped they are. I understand it. I feel for them. So I try and help them out.

  [dabs at his sweating face with a handkerchief] 

  Charlie Meadows : Jesus.

  Barton Fink : Yeah.

  Charlie Meadows : Yeah. I know what it feels like when things get all balled up at the head office. They put you though Hell, Barton. So I help people out. I just wish someone would do as much for me.

  [dabs again at his sweating face] 

  Charlie Meadows : Jesus, it's hot. Sometimes it gets so hot, I want to crawl right out of my skin.

  Barton Fink : But, Charlie, why me? Why --?

  Charlie Meadows : [as Mundt]  Because you DON'T LISTEN!

  [reverts back to Charlie persona] 

  Charlie Meadows : Jesus. I'm dripping again.

  [dabs at himself again] 

  Charlie Meadows : Come on, Barton. You think you know pain? You think I made your life Hell? Look around this dump. You're just a tourist with a typewriter. I *live* here. Don't you understand that? And you come into my home... and you complain... that I'm making too much noise.

  Barton Fink : I'm sorry.

  Charlie Meadows : Don't be. I'll be in the next door if you need me.

  [starts to leave] 

  Charlie Meadows : Oh... I dropped in on your folks in New York. And Uncle Maury. Good people. By the way, that package I gave you? I lied. It isn't mine.

• Detective Mastrionotti : Fink. That's a Jewish name, isn't it?

  Barton Fink : Yeah.

  Detective Mastrionotti : Yeah, I didn't think this dump was restricted.

• Barton Fink : W.P. Mayhew? The writer?

  W.P. Mayhew : Just Bill, please.

  Barton Fink : [voice cracking]  Bill! You're the finest novelist of our time.

• Chet : Are you a trans or a res?

  Barton Fink : Excuse me?

  Chet : Transient or resident?

  Barton Fink : Oh, I don't know. I'll be here indefinitely.

  Chet : Res. That'll be $25.50 a week payable in advance. Checkout time is twelve sharp, but you can forget about that on account of you're a res. Now if you need anything, anything at all, just pick up your personal in-room telephone and talk to me. My name is Chet. Although we do provide privacy for the residential guests, we are also a full-service hotel including complementary shoeshine. My name is Chet.

  [writes his name on a slip of paper in capital letters with an exclamation point and passes it to Barton] 

  Barton Fink : Thanks...

• Detective Mastrionotti : What do you do, Fink?

  Barton Fink : I write.

  Detective Deutsch : Oh, yeah? What kind of write?

  Barton Fink : Well, as a matter of fact I write for the pictures.

  Detective Mastrionotti : Big fuckin' deal.

  Detective Deutsch : You want my partner to kiss your ass?

  Detective Mastrionotti : Would that be good enough for you?

  Barton Fink : No, I-I didn't mean to sound...

  Detective Deutsch : What did you mean?

  Barton Fink : I-I've got respect for-for working guys, like you...

  Detective Mastrionotti : Jesus, ain't that a load off!

• Charlie Meadows : The doctor, what's he gonna tell me? Can't trade my head in for a new one.

  Barton Fink : Yeah, I guess you're stuck with the one you've got.

• Barton Fink : I'm sorry if I let you down.

  Jack Lipnick : You didn't let me down, Fink, or even Lou. We don't live or die by what you scribble. You let Ben Geisler down. He liked you, trusted you... and that's why he's gone, he's fired. That man had a heart as big as the all outdoors and you fucked him.

• Barton Fink : Shouldn't your first duty be to your gift?

• Barton Fink : That son of a bitch! Don't get me wrong, he's a fine writer.

• Barton Fink : I don't like to discuss works in progress. If I let the words tumble out prematurely, it changes it, and I may never get it back.

• Barton Fink : I wanna know how many of his books you've written!

• Detective Deutsch : [holding a photo]  You know this slob?

  Barton Fink : [long pause]  Yeah, he... he lives next door to me.

  Detective Mastrionotti : That's right, Fink, he lives next door to you.

• Barton Fink : My God, I had no idea you were in Hollywood.

  W.P. Mayhew : All of us undomesticated writers eventually make our way out here to the Great Salt Lake.

  [takes the cap off of an alcohol flask] 

  W.P. Mayhew : That's probably why I always have such a powerful thirst.

• Barton Fink : I'm having a little trouble getting started.

  Ben Geisler : Started? Christ Jesus you mean you don't have anything yet?

• Barton Fink : You're the only person in Los Angeles that I can talk to.

• Barton Fink : I guess this all sounds pretty fatuous to you?

  Charlie Meadows : No, it's damned interesting.

• Barton Fink : I've done a lot of work in New York, I have some renown there.

  Charlie Meadows : It's an exciting time then!