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Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep in Ironweed (1987)

Meryl Streep: Helen

Ironweed

Meryl Streep credited as playing...

Helen

Photos17

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Quotes6

  • Helen: [talking to herself in the mirror] What if I did drink too much wine? Whose business is that anyway? Who knows how much I *didn't* drink, huh?
  • Helen: Everything ails me.
  • Francis Phelan: Oh, come on. At least you got to sing a song.
  • Helen: Yeah, I did. I sang while Sandra was dying over there.
  • Francis Phelan: Oh, come one. She was gonna die anyway. Her time was up.
  • Helen: Oh, well, I don't believe that. I believe you die when you can't stand it any more. Take as much as you can, then you... You die when you can.
  • Francis Phelan: [following her into an alley] You are you kidding. You got nowheres to go. You wanna get knocked over the head?
  • Helen: It wouldn't be the worst that ever happened to me. Are you gonna hit me now?
  • Francis Phelan: [shaking her by the head] I'm not gonna hit ya. Shh. I love you, soul mate. Don't go walkin' away from me. You'll be lost in the world.
  • Helen: [kneeing in the church] Forgive me, for I have sinned. If you must call them sins, you know, I call them decisions. I'm not a drunk, and I'm not a whore, and I never let a man use me for money. You know, I went Dutch lots of times, and I... well, I would let them buy the drinks. But that's because it's a man's place to buy the drinks. But I never, ever betrayed anybody. And that's what counts with me. Of course, I know living with Francis was sinful in the eyes of some people, and I took a certain amount of liberty with the Commandments of the Church. But nobody's gonna compel me ever - I couldn't declare to anybody, not even you, St. Joseph - that loving Francis was sinful. Because it was probably... *the* greatest thing in my life.
  • Helen: God, Frank, since you're bad enough on wine, but on whiskey? Oh, you're a devil.
  • Helen: [singing] He don't tell me, How I ought to be, He likes me just as I am, And when I feel blue, He's the one I go to, 'Cause his heart is as big as a ham, He's me pal, He's me pal...

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