Morgan Freeman credited as playing...
Hoke Colburn
- Daisy Werthan: Hoke?
- Hoke Colburn: Yes'm.
- Daisy Werthan: You're my best friend.
- Hoke Colburn: No, go on Miss Daisy.
- Daisy Werthan: No, really, you are...
- [Takes Hoke's hand]
- Daisy Werthan: You are.
- Hoke Colburn: Yes'm.
- [Hoke and Miss Daisy are talking about how he can't read]
- Daisy Werthan: You know your letters don't you?
- Hoke Colburn: Oh yeah, yeah I know my ABC's pretty good, just can't read.
- Daisy Werthan: Stop saying that you're making me mad! If you know your letters you can read. You just don't know you can read.
- Hoke Colburn: Maam?
- Daisy Werthan: I taught some of the stupidest children God ever put on the face of this earth and all of them could read well enough to find a name on a tombstone.
- Idella: I'm goin', Miss Daisy.
- Daisy Werthan: [from upstairs] Alright Idella, see you tomorrow.
- Hoke Colburn: I'm goin' too, Miss Daisy.
- Daisy Werthan: Good!
- Boolie Werthan: Hoke, I want you to understand something. Now, you'd be working for me. She
- [referring to Daisy]
- Boolie Werthan: can say anything she likes, but she can't fire you. You understand?
- Hoke Colburn: Yes, sir. Yes, sir, I sure do. And, don't you worry about a thing, Mr. Werthan! I'm gonna hold on no matter how she run me. You see, I used to rassle hogs down yonder in Macon, and, let me tell you, ain't no hog got away from me yet!
- Daisy Werthan: Did you get the air-conditioning checked? I told you to get the air-conditioning checked.
- Hoke Colburn: Yes'm... I had the air-conditioning checked. I don't know what for. You ain't never allow me to turn it on.
- Daisy Werthan: Hush up.
- Hoke Colburn: [Hoke walks in, Boolie and Daisy are there to confront him about a missing can of salmon] Mornin', Miss Daisy. I think it's gettin' ready to clear up out there! Oh, 'scuse me, Mr. Werthan!
- Boolie Werthan: Hoke, I think we're gonna have to have a little talk.
- Hoke Colburn: All right, sir. Just let me get outta my coat.
- [pauses, then turns to Daisy]
- Hoke Colburn: Oh, Miss Daisy, yesterday, while you was out visitin', I went and ate a can of your salmon. Now, I know you said eat the left-over pork chops, but they was kinda stiff. So, I stopped at the Piggly Wiggly and got you another can. You want me just to go on and put it in the cupboard?
- Daisy Werthan: [embarrassed] Yes, that'll be fine... thank you, Hoke. Well, I guess I'd better get dressed now!
- Hoke Colburn: [on a pay phone calling Boolie after taking Daisy to the Piggly Wiggly] Hello, Mr. Werthan? Yeah, it's me. Guess where I'm at? I jus' finished drivin' yo mama to da store.
- [laughs]
- Hoke Colburn: Oh, yeah, she flap around some, but she's all right, she in da store. Oh, Lord, she jus' looked out da window an' seen me on da phone... prob'ly gonna throw a fit right there at da checkout!
- [pause]
- Hoke Colburn: You sho' right about that! Only took me six days. Same time it took the Lord to make the world! All right, 'bye now!
- Hoke Colburn: [Hoke is driving Daisy to Mobile] Did I evre tell you about the first time I ever been outside the state of Georgia?
- Daisy Werthan: No, when was that?
- Hoke Colburn: Oh, a few minutes ago.
- [Hoke is trailing Daisy in the car as she walks to the supermarket]
- Daisy Werthan: What are you doing?
- Hoke Colburn: I'm tryin' to drive you to the store!
- Daisy Werthan: [as Hoke drives Miss Daisy to a dinner at which Martin Luther King is to speak] Boolie said the silliest thing to me just the other day.
- Hoke Colburn: What'd he say?
- Daisy Werthan: We were talking about Martin Luther King. I assume you know him.
- Hoke Colburn: No'm, I don't know him.
- Daisy Werthan: But, you've heard him preach.
- Hoke Colburn: Yes'm... same way you have, on the TV.
- Daisy Werthan: I think he's wonderful.
- Hoke Colburn: [Hoke ponders what Daisy said] What you gettin' at, Miss Daisy?
- Daisy Werthan: Well, Boolie says you wanted to go with me to this dinner. Did you tell him that?
- Hoke Colburn: No'm, I didn't.
- Daisy Werthan: [as Hoke looks at her seriously in the rear view mirror] I didn't think so. What would be the point? You can hear him any time you like. I think it's wonderful how things are changing.
- Hoke Colburn: [Hoke stops the car] Now, Miss Daisy, the tickets for this here dinner came in the mail a month ago. Bein' that you wanted me to go wit' you, how come you wait till we in the car and on the way there before you ask me?
- Hoke Colburn: Hey, there, Oscar, Junior... how you boys doin' this morning?
- Oscar: How the old lady treatin' you, Hoke?
- Hoke Colburn: Lord, I tell you one thing... she sho' do know how to throw a fit!
- [Hoke, Oscar, and Junior break out in laughter]
- Daisy Werthan: What's so funny?
- Hoke Colburn: Nothin', Miss Daisy. We jus' carryin' on.
- Boolie Werthan: What I need is for somebody to drive my mother around
- Hoke Colburn: Well, if you don' mind my askin', sir, how come she's not hirin' for herself?
- Boolie Werthan: See, it's kind of a delicate situation.
- Hoke Colburn: Oh, yessir, yessir... done gone around the bend a little bit. Well, now, that'll happen as they get old...
- Boolie Werthan: Oh, no, she's all there. Too-much-there is the problem!
- [Hoke laughs]
- [Hoke and Boolie are at the nursing home visiting Daisy. Daisy appears unwilling to speak much]
- Boolie Werthan: Hoke, I thought of you the other day on the expressway. I saw an Avondale Milk truck. Monster of a thing, must have had about sixteen wheels.
- Hoke Colburn: You don't say!
- Boolie Werthan: I was wondering how you'd like drivin' that thing around!
- Daisy Werthan: [to Boolie] Hoke came to see me, not you!
- Hoke Colburn: Look like one o' her good days!
- Daisy Werthan: Boolie, go charm the nurses!
- Boolie Werthan: [smiling] She wants you all to herself.
- [Hoke and Boolie are walking thru Daisy's vacated home discussing how Hoke and Daisy have been since Daisy had to be put in the nursing home]
- Boolie Werthan: I suppose you don't get out to see her very much.
- Hoke Colburn: No, sir... it's hard not drivin'. Every now and then I takes a taxi cab, but don't too many taxis go out yonder.
- Boolie Werthan: I'm sure she appreciates it.
- Hoke Colburn: Yes, sir.
- [pauses]
- Hoke Colburn: Some days, she better than others... but then, who ain't?
- [Hoke and Boolie both laugh]
- Daisy Werthan: [Talking about Idella's passing] Idella was lucky.
- Hoke Colburn: Yes'm. I expect she was.
- Hoke Colburn: Oscar said you needin' somebody to drive for yo' family... now, what I'm 'on be doin'? Takin' your children to school, drivin' your wife to the beauty parlor?
- Boolie Werthan: I don't have any children. Don't have the time...
- Hoke Colburn: Aw, that's a shame! Course, you still a young man, so I wouldn't worry 'bout it too much!
- Boolie Werthan: Thank you, I won't!
- Daisy Werthan: [Hoke and Daisy are driving to Boolie and Florene's for a Christmas party. Daisy, a Jew, is annoyed at the extraneous Christmas light displays] Everybody's wishing the Georgia Power Company a Merry Christmas.
- Hoke Colburn: I bet Miss Florene got 'em all beat with the new house.
- Daisy Werthan: If I had a nose like Florene's, I wouldn't go around wishing anybody a Merry Christmas!
- Hoke Colburn: [laughs] Yes'm... but, I tell ya, I do enjoy a Christmas at their house.
- Daisy Werthan: Of course, you're the only Christian in the place!
- Hoke Colburn: Well, they got that new cook.
- Daisy Werthan: [sighs] Florene never could keep help. Of course, it's none of my affair. Too much running around, if you ask me.
- [Hoke agrees]
- Daisy Werthan: The Garden Club this, the Junior League that... as if any of them would give her the time of day! But, she'd die before she'd fix a glass of iced tea for the Temple Sisterhood! I just hope she doesn't get it into her head to *sing* this year!
- Hoke Colburn: [coming up on Boolie's house, looking at the gaudy light display] Oh, Lord, look what Miss Florene done done!
- Daisy Werthan: If her grandfather, Old Man Freitag, could see this... what is it you always say?... he'd jump up out of his grave and snatch her bald-headed!
- Hoke Colburn: [bursts out laughing as he lets Daisy out] HA! Jump up outta his grave and snatch her bald-headed! Miss Daisy, you oughta go on away from here!
- Hoke Colburn: [Hoke and Idella are walking to Daisy's house and notice Boolie's car in the driveway] Now what do you suppose he's doin' here this early in the mornin'?
- Idella: Dunno... can't be good, I promise you that!
- Daisy Werthan: [Looking at map] Here. Here. You took the wrong turn at Opelika.
- Hoke Colburn: Well, now, you took it with me, Miss Daisy, and you got the map.
- Hoke Colburn: [seeing Boolie in his office after his trip with Daisy to Mobile] It's Mr. Sinclair Harris, sir.
- Boolie Werthan: My cousin Sinclair?
- Hoke Colburn: It's his wife... the one that talk funny?
- Boolie Werthan: Jeanette. She's from Canton, Ohio
- Hoke Colburn: Well, she's tryin' to hire me!
- Boolie Werthan: What?
- Hoke Colburn: Yessir, she said, 'how they treatin' you down there, Hoke?' You know how she sound, like her nose stuffed up. So I said, 'fine, Mrs. Harris, just fine, thank you.' She said, 'Well, you lookin' for a change, you know who to call.'
- Boolie Werthan: I'll be damned!
- [slams desk, gets up and paces around office]
- Hoke Colburn: I thought you oughta know about it.
- Boolie Werthan: I'll be goddamned!
- Hoke Colburn: Ain't she a mess? Said, 'name your own salary'.
- Boolie Werthan: I see. And... did you?
- Hoke Colburn: Did I what, sir?
- Boolie Werthan: Name your own salary!
- Hoke Colburn: Oh now, go away. What you think I am? No, I ain't studying about workin' for no trashy somethin' like her!
- Boolie Werthan: But she got you thinking, didn't she?
- Hoke Colburn: Well, sir, you might say that.
- Boolie Werthan: Name your salary.
- Hoke Colburn: That's exactly what she said.
- Boolie Werthan: Well... how does $65 a week sound?
- Boolie Werthan: Sounds pretty good, sir! Course, $75 sounds better.
- Boolie Werthan: It sure does! Beginning this week.
- Hoke Colburn: Well, that's mighty nice of you! I sure appreciate this. Thank you!
- [gets up to leave, then turns to Boolie]
- Hoke Colburn: Mr. Werthan, you ever have folks fighting over you?
- Boolie Werthan: No.
- Boolie Werthan: It sure feels good!