Interiors (1978)

Maureen Stapleton: Pearl

Photos 

Quotes 

• Pearl : You only live once, and once is enough if you play your cards right.

• Pearl : You'll live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to.

• Pearl : First time I went to Europe with my first husband, many years ago, all we saw was churches, one cathedral after another. Don't misunderstand. They were beautiful. But so you see two or three, then enough already.

• Pearl : Give me a good sirloin anytime. Charcoaled. They talk about club steaks and porterhouse. Sirloin, charcoaled and blood-rare.

• Arthur : Pearl collects African art.

  Pearl : Oh! Oh, I love black ebony. Mmm. I own some statues. Actually, they're from Trinidad. Oh, I love those real primitive statues with the big hips and the big breasts. I even have some voodoo masks. I believe in that stuff.

• Renata : Do you have any children, Pearl?

  Pearl : Oh, yes. I have two sons. Lewis and John. Lewis is in real estate. John runs an art gallery.

  Renata : Oh?

  Pearl : In the lobby in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. It's not exactly a gallery. It's more - a concession.

  Joey : Paintings of clowns on black velvet?

  Pearl : That's right. Junk. Oh, I tell you, it's pure junk. But people like it. They get a kick out of it. He does very nicely.

• Pearl : You know what I say: You only live once, but once is enough if you play it right.

• Renata : It's hard to argue that in the face of death, life loses real meaning.

  Pearl : It is?

  Renata : Well, I can't argue it succinctly, but if you read Socrates or Buddha or Schopenhauer or even Ecclesiastes, they're very convincing.

  Pearl : Well, they should know. I don't read that much.

• Pearl : How many ruins can you see? But that hot sand, that blue water, that's for me.

• Pearl : He was in the jewelry business, my first husband, may he rest in peace. Adam, my second, was an orthodontist.

  Renata : How many have you had?

  Pearl : Two. Adam had a massive coronary. Rudy was an alcoholic.

• Flyn : Are you and Dad gonna be staying here or are you gonna take a place in town?

  Pearl : Well, its a little quiet out here. But, Arthur loves it. Of course, it means redoing so much of the house.

  Joey : In what way?

  Pearl : Oh, I don't know. It's just the two of us and it's - kinda pale.

• Pearl : I prefer a warmer climate. I even lived in Australia for a year with my sister Faye, when Adam died, but I went nuts! It's dead there.

  Mike : I was in Sydney, Australia, once.

  Pearl : Was I lying? Did you like it?

  Mike : Well it was just a vacation you know. I was only there a coupla days.

  Pearl : Lucky. It's like a morgue. Nothing to do at night; no pizzazz. I couldn't take that.