A Star Is Born (1954)

James Mason: Norman Maine

Photos 

9 more photos

Quotes 

• Norman Maine : Hey!

  Vicki Lester : What?

  Norman Maine : I just want to take another look at you.

• Norman Maine : Do you ever go fishing?

  [Esther looks confused] 

  Norman Maine : Well, do you like prizefi--have you ever watched a great fighter?

  Esther Blodgett : I-I uh--

  Norman Maine : I'm trying to tell you how you sing.

  Esther Blodgett : Do you mean like a prizefighter or a fish?

  Norman Maine : Look...em--

  [leads her into a kitchen] 

  Norman Maine : There are certain pleasures that you get--

  [realizes that the sound of clanging dishes is intolerable and they depart for the outside] 

  Norman Maine : There are certain pleasures you get, little-little jabs of pleasure when a swordfish take a hook, or-or when you see a great fighter get in right for the kill, see?

  [Esther still looks confused] 

  Norman Maine : You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?

  Esther Blodgett : No, not yet. Why don't you try bullfights?

• Vicki Lester : [Norman has finished looking through her scrapbook]  You know as much about me as I do myself. But... you see how long it's taken me to get this far. Now, all I need is just a little luck.

  Norman Maine : What kind of luck?

  Vicki Lester : Oh, the kind of luck that every girl singer with a band dreams of - one night a big talent scout from a big record company might come in and he'll let me make a record.

  Norman Maine : Yes, and then?

  Vicki Lester : Well, the record will become number one on the Hit Parade, it'll be played on the jukeboxes all over the country... and I'll be made

  [laughs self-deprecatingly at the implausibility] 

  Vicki Lester : End of dream.

  Norman Maine : There's only one thing wrong with that.

  Vicki Lester : I know - it won't happen!

  Norman Maine : No, it might happen pretty easily - but the dream isn't big enough.

• Judge George J. Barnes : Were you Norman Maine the actor?

  Norman Maine : Yes.

• Vicki Lester : [Norman has returned to find her in a nightclub. She walks over to him with a small laugh]  Hello, Mr. Maine. You turn up in the strangest places.

  Norman Maine : Don't I now?

  Vicki Lester : [stops laughing, suddenly shocked]  And you're cold sober.

  Norman Maine : Well, you'd better make the most of it!

• Norman Maine : Of course you're scared! We all are! What makes you think you wouldn't be?