Anjelica Huston credited as playing...
Etheline Tenenbaum
- [in a hospital ward]
- Chas: Why did you try to kill yourself?
- Ethel: Don't press him right now.
- Richie: I wrote a suicide note.
- Chas: You did?
- Richie: Yeah. Right after I regained consciousness.
- Chas: Can we read it?
- Richie: No.
- Chas: Can you paraphrase it for us?
- Richie: I don't think so.
- Chas: Is it dark?
- Richie: Of course it's dark, it's a suicide note.
- Royal: Got a minute?
- Ethel: [startled] What are you doing here?
- Royal: Uh, I need a favour. I want to spend some time with you and the children.
- Ethel: Are you crazy?
- [she carries on walking]
- Royal: Well, wait a minute, dammit!
- Ethel: Stop following me!
- Royal: Well, I want my family back.
- Ethel: Well, you can't have it! I'm sorry for you, but it's too late.
- Royal: Well, listen... Baby, I'm dying.
- [she stops]
- Royal: Yeah, I-I'm sick as a dog. I'll be dead in six weeks. I'm dying.
- Ethel: What are you talking about? What's happening? Oh, I'm sorry... I didn't know...
- [starts crying]
- Ethel: Well, what'd they say? What is the prognosis?
- Royal: [trying to comfort her] Take it easy, Ethel. Now, hold on, baby, hold on. Hold on, OK?
- [she starts wailing]
- Ethel: Where is the doctor?
- Royal: Well, look, just wait a second now. Wait a second. OK, uh, listen, I'm not dying... but I need some time. A month or so. OK? I want us to-to...
- [she slaps him hard]
- Ethel: WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? Are you crazy?
- [she walks off]
- Royal: Ethel, baby... I am dying.
- [she comes back to him]
- Ethel: Are you or aren't you?
- Royal: What? Dying? Yeah.
- Ethel: Raleigh says you've been spending 6 hours a day locked in here, watching television and soaking in the tub.
- Margot: [lying in the bath] I doubt that.
- Ethel: Well, I don't think that's very healthy, do you? Nor do I think it's very intelligent to keep an electrical gadget on the edge of the bathtub.
- Margot: I tie it to the radiator.
- Ethel: Royal, this is Henry Sherman.
- Royal: [shaking hands with him] Hey, lay it on me, man.
- Henry Sherman: How do you do?
- Royal: Not too well, I'm dying.
- Richie: I think he's very lonely. Lonelier than he lets on. Maybe lonelier than he even realizes.
- Ethel: Have you spoken to him about this?
- Richie: Briefly. And he agreed that...
- Chas: I'm sorry, maybe I'm a little confused here. What are you suggesting?
- Richie: That he come here and stay in my room.
- Chas: Are you out of your mind?
- Richie: No. I'm not. Anyway I think he'd be much more comfortable here than at...
- Chas: Who gives a shit?
- Richie: I do.
- Chas: You poor sucker. You poor, washed up papa's boy.
- [Chas Tenenbaum and his sons enter his mother's house with several bags]
- Etheline Tenenbaum: Chas? What's going on?
- Chas: We got locked out of our apartment.
- Etheline Tenenbaum: Well, did you call a locksmith?
- Chas: Uh huh.
- Etheline Tenenbaum: Well, I don't understand. Did you pack your bags before you got locked out?
- Chas: Please don't get in the middle of this, Mr. Sherman. This is a family matter.
- Margot: Don't talk to him like that.
- Henry Sherman: Call me Henry.
- Chas: I prefer Mr. Sherman.
- Ethel: Call him Henry.
- Chas: Why? I don't know him that well.
- Ethel: You've known him for 10 years.
- Chas: As your accountant, Mr. Sherman, yes.
- Henry Sherman: I just wanted to apologize for the other day, when I proposed to you.
- Ethel: Why? I thought it was very sweet.
- Ethel: [about Royal's fake terminal illness charade] Were you part of this, Pagoda?
- Henry Sherman: Of course he was.
- Royal: No... well, yeah, he was, but, I mean, he wasn't *that* involved.