Psycho Madness Quotes

How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Psycho.

Quote #1

NORMAN: [suddenly angry] People always call a madhouse "some place," don't they? "Put her in some place!"

MARION: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound so uncaring.

NORMAN: What do you know about caring? Have you ever seen the inside of one of those places? The laughing, and the tears, and those cruel eyes studying you? My mother there?

Norman shows compassion for the mentally ill here. But this is also the first moment when he exhibits mental illness himself; he gets too angry too fast, and seems like a threat for the first time. His insistence and weird intensity rather undercuts what he's saying. Psycho, as it turns out, is not actually very sympathetic to the plight of the mentally ill. It mostly sees them as dangerous, frightening, and bizarre.

Quote #2

NORMAN: It's not like my mother is a maniac or a raving thing. She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you?

MARION: Yes. Sometimes just one time can be enough.

Marion sees her decision to steal the money was madness; a temporary insanity. But was it? Marion's motives seem quite rational, even if misguided. The parallel between Marion and Norman is a bit forced. The film seems to think that any deviation from normality and strict morality leads to the same bloody shower stall.

Quote #3

MARION: You know... if anyone ever talked to me the way I heard... the way she spoke to you...

NORMAN: Sometimes... when she talks to me like that... I feel I'd like to go up there... and curse her... and-and-and leave her forever! Or at least defy her! But I know I can't. She's ill.

Norman hates his mother and loves his mother and pities her. But there is no mother. So the person he hates and loves and pities is himself. He's saying he wants to leave himself forever—but he can't, because he's ill.