Melanie Griffith: Tess McGill

Working Girl

Tess McGill

Tess McGill: [to Katherine] Look, you, maybe you've got everyone around here fooled with this saint act you have going, but do not ever speak to me again like we don't know what really happened, you got me?
Katherine Parker: Tess, this is business. Let's just bury the hatchet, okay?
Tess McGill: You know where you can bury your hatchet? Now get your bony ass outta my sight!

Tess McGill: Uhm... when I saw you in here on the phone with your feet up, I figured this was your office.
Alice Baxter: [slightly embarrassed] I'm sorry about that, Ms. McGill. It won't happen again... ever.
Tess McGill: It's O.K..
Alice Baxter: Maybe now would be a good time to go over what you expect of me.
Tess McGill: [clears her throat] I, uh, I expect you to call me Tess. I don't expect you to fetch me coffee unless you're getting some for yourself. And, um, the rest we'll just make up as we go along. O.K.?
Alice Baxter: [smiling] O.K.. I'll be right outside if you need anything.
[leaves Tess's office]

Tess McGill: You can bend the rules plenty once you get to the top, but not while you're trying to get there. And if you're someone like me, you can't get there without bending the rules.
Oren Trask: You've got a real fire in your belly, or was this just a one-time stunt that you pulled?
Tess McGill: I'm not quite sure what you mean, sir. I've got something in my belly, but I think it's nervous knots.

Jack Trainer: You're the first woman I've seen at one of these things that dresses like a woman, not like a woman thinks a man would dress if he was a woman.
Tess McGill: Thank you I guess.

[in the bar]
Tess McGill: I have a head for business and a body for sin. Is there anything wrong with that?
Jack Trainer: Uh, no. No.

[about Jack's chin scar]
Tess McGill: How did you get the scar?
Jack Trainer: Some guy pulled a knife in Detroit.
Tess McGill: Really?
Jack Trainer: No. No. I was nineteen and I thought it'd be cool to have a pierced ear. My girlfriend stuck the needle through and I heard this pop and fainted and hit my chin on the toilet.

Katherine Parker: Ugh! What a slob.
Tess McGill: You were so smooth with him.
Katherine Parker: Never burn bridges. Today's junior *prick*, tomorrow's senior partner.

Katherine Parker: I think he's going to "pop the question."
Tess McGill: You do?
Katherine Parker: I think so. We're in the same city now, I've indicated that I'm receptive to an offer, I've cleared the month of June. And I am, after all, me.
Tess McGill: Well, what if he doesn't... pop the question?
Katherine Parker: I really don't think that's a variable. Tess, you know you don't get anywhere in this world by waiting for what you want to come to you. You make it happen. Watch me, Tess. Learn from me

Tess McGill: [pretending to be her boss] I know what I'm doing.
Cyn: Yeah, screwing up your life.
Tess McGill: No, I'm trying to make it better! I'm not gonna spend the rest of my life working my ass off and getting nowhere just because I followed rules that I had nothing to do with setting up, OK?

Tess McGill: [on the phone] Cyn! Guess where I am...
[giggles]
Cyn: [stands up, screams to secretaries] She got out! Oh my god! I can't believe it, she's out - she made it out! She got out! She has her own office!

Alice Baxter: Uhm, Ms. McGill?
Tess McGill: Yes.
Alice Baxter: [pointing to private office] That's your desk... in there...
Tess McGill: I don't think so.
Alice Baxter: Oh, yes. I sit out here.
Tess McGill: Sorry, I thought the secretary would sit out here...
Alice Baxter: That's right, I'm the secretary. If it's O.K., I prefer "assistant".

Personnel Director: Tess, Tess, Tess, Tess. You don't get ahead in this world by calling your boss a pimp.
Tess McGill: Well, he is.

Cyn: [trailer] How 'bout you?
Tess McGill: I'm flat broke, I'm crazy about a man that I will probably never see again...
Cyn: Well, *besides* that!
[Tess laughs sadly]

Tess McGill: I read a lot of things. You never know where the big ideas could come from.