Psycho

Now to understand it the way I understood it, hearing it from the mother... That is from the mother half of Norman's mind, you have to go back ten years... to the time when Norman murdered his mother and her lover. He was already dangerously disturbed. Had been ever since his father died. His mother was a clinging, demanding woman, and for years the two of them lived as if there was no one else in the world. Then she met a man and it seemed to Norman that she 'threw him over' for this man. That pushed him over the thin line... and he killed them both. Matricide is probably the most unbearable crime of all — most unbearable to the son who commits it. So he had to erase the crime, at least in his own mind. He stole her corpse... and a weighted coffin was buried. He hid the body in the fruit cellar. Even treated it to keep it as well as it would keep. And that still wasn't enough. She was there, but she was a corpse. So he began to think and speak for her. At times, he could be both

Psycho (1998 film), CC BY-SA 4.0

[in police custody, as Norman is thinking] It's sad when a mother has to speak to condemn her own son. I can't allow then to think I would commit murder. They'll put him away now as I should have years ago. He was always bad, and in the end he intended to tell them I killed those girls and that man, as if I could do anything but just sit and stare like one of his stuffed birds. They know I can't move a finger, and I won't. I want to just sit there and be quiet just in case they suspect me. They're probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of person I am. I'm not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching... they'll see. They'll see and they'll know and they'll say "Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly..."

Psycho (1998 film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Sam Loomis: You never did eat your lunch, did you? Marion Crane: I better get back to the office. These extended lunch hours give my boss excess acid. Sam Loomis: Why don't you call your boss and tell him you're taking the rest of the afternoon off? It's Friday, anyway - and hot. Marion Crane: What do I do with my free afternoon? Walk you to the airport?

Psycho (1998 film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Marion Crane: Oh, we can see each other. We can even have dinner but respectably in my house with my mother's picture on the mantel and my sister helping me broil a big steak for three. Sam Loomis: And after the steak, do we send Sister to the movies? Turn Mama's picture to the wall?

Psycho (1998 film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Norman Bates' Mother: No! I tell you no! I won't have you bringing in some young girl in for supper! By candlelight, I suppose, in the cheap erotic fashion of young men with cheap erotic minds! Norman Bates: Mother, please...! Norman Bates' Mother: And then what? After supper? Music? Whispers? Norman Bates: Mother, she's a stranger. She's hungry, and it's raining out! Norman Bates' Mother: [mockingly] "Mother, she's just a stranger"! As if men don't desire strangers! As if.. ooh, I refuse to speak of disgusting things, because they disgust me! You understand, boy? Go on, go tell her she'll not be appeasing her ugly appetite with my food or my son! Or do I have to tell you because you don't have the guts? Norman Bates: [shouts] Mother, shut up! Shut up!

Psycho (1998 film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Marion Crane: Wouldn't it be better if you... if you... put her someplace? Norman Bates: Do you mean an institution? A madhouse? People always call a madhouse "someplace", don't they? "Put her in someplace." Marion Crane: I'm sorry. I didn't mean it to sound uncaring. I... Norman Bates: What do you know about caring? Have you ever seen the inside of one those places? The laughing and the tears, and the cruel eyes studying you. My mother in there? But she's harmless. She's as harmless as one of these stuffed birds. Marion Crane: I am sorry. I only felt... I... Norman Bates: You felt what? Marion Crane: It seems that she was... she's hurting you. I meant well. Norman Bates: People always mean well. They cluck their thick tongues and they shake their heads and they suggest, oh, so very delicately... [calms down] Of course, I've suggested it myself.

Psycho (1998 film), CC BY-SA 4.0