Nightmare Alley (2021)

Clem Hoatley: Would a steady job be of interest to you, young buck?.. Folks here, they don't make no never mind who you are, or what you done.

Pete: Cheap. Ba-bum. But... you gotta know how to read the mark. How they move and talk, dress. People are desperate to tell you who they are. Desperate to be seen. Ain't that the truth?

Stanton Carlisle: Yeah, but how do you know if you got 'em hooked?
Pete: Well, you pause. That's right. You take a moment. "Would you excuse me, please? I need a glass of water." Yeah, or you faint. Weakened by the effort.

Stanton Carlisle: How'd you know about my father, though?
Pete: That's a stock reading. It's a "Black Rainbow." One size fits all. Thrifty but generous, private but friendly, and... and you, you hated him but loved him. Now, everybody's had some trouble. Somebody they've hated. Shadow from their past. And usually for a boy, it's the old man.

Stanton Carlisle: What do you say?
Molly Cahill: You wanna execute me?
Stanton Carlisle: Just for a second. Then you come back to life.

Clem Hoatley: You heard? That little Kraut, the one that looks like Chaplin, he just invaded Poland! The balls on him.

Stanton Carlisle: How do you ever get a guy to geek?
Clem Hoatley: Oh, I ain't gonna crap you up. It ain't easy. You gotta pick up a broken drunk. A real talkie, a two bottle-a-day fool, see?
Stanton Carlisle: Pick him up from where?
Clem Hoatley: Nightmare alleys, train tracks, flophouses, you name it.

Pete: You know, if, um... If you're good at reading people, it's mostly because you learned as a child, trying to stay one step ahead of whatever tormented you. Now, if they really did a number on you, then that crack, it's a hollow. And there'll never be enough. There's no filling that in.

Pete: It's why I stopped doing the act. I got shuteye. When a man believes his own lies, starts believing that he has the power, he's got shuteye. Because now he believes it's all true. And people get hurt. Good, God-fearing people. And then you lie. You lie. And when the lies end, there it is. The face of God, staring at you straight. No matter where you turn. No man can outrun God, Stan.

Stanton Carlisle: I can read a mark quick. Find out what they want.
Dr. Lilith Ritter: And I'm a mark, am I? What do I want?
Stanton Carlisle: To be found out. Same as everybody else.
Dr. Lilith Ritter: Is that it?
Stanton Carlisle: Think out things that most people want, hit 'em where they live... health, wealth, love. Find out what they're afraid of and sell it back to them.
Dr. Lilith Ritter: As long as you don't oversell it.

Lilith Ritter: The thing you need to know is, if you displease the right people, the world closes in on you very, very fast...

Stanton Carlisle: What happened to you?
Dr. Lilith Ritter: Life. Life happened to me.

Ezra Grindle: Listen, I have more money than I will ever need. But I have no hope.
Stanton Carlisle: And you think you could buy that?
Ezra Grindle: Well... not to be crude... but I know I can.

Dr. Lilith Ritter: You don't fool people, Stan. They fool themselves.

Anderson: It ain't much, but it's a job, right? Of course, it's only temporary. Just until we get a real geek. You know what a geek is? So what do you say? You think you could handle it?
Stanton Carlisle: Mister, uh... I was born for it.

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