How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Sunset Boulevard.
Quote #1
JOE: A neglected house gets an unhappy look. This one had it in spades. It was like that old woman in Great Expectations—that Miss Havisham in her rotting wedding dress and her torn veil, taking it out on the world because she'd been given the go-by.
Miss who? In Great Expectations, Miss Havisham is angry at the world because her fiancé stood her up at their wedding—she's still stuck being a Miss when she could have been a Mrs. Norma Desmond, on the other hand, is angry at the world for a slightly different reason—the movie business is no longer in love with her and her celebrity has faded.
Quote #2
JOE: She sure could say a lot of things with those pale eyes of hers. They'd been her trademark. They'd made her the Number One Vamp of another era. I remember a rather florid description in an old fan magazine which said: "Her eyes are like two moonlit waterholes, where strange animals come to drink."
Joe sees Norma as a kind of enchantress—even though she's deluded and crazy in a not very attractive way, some of the old magic of her star power remains. You can't deny: girl's got charisma.
Quote #3
JOE: Honestly, it's a little old hat. They don't want that any more.
NORMA: They don't? Then why do they still write me fan letters every day? Why do they beg me for my photographs? Because they want to see me, me, me! Norma Desmond.
Joe is trying to convince Norma to cut out an unnecessary scene in her screenplay, but Norma wants more screen time and resists for that reason. It's just one more instance of her neurotic self-obsession. (Also, Norma's servant Max is secretly writing most—if not all—of those fan letters.)
Quote #4
JOE: Sometimes as we watched, she'd clutch my arm or my hand, forgetting she was my employer, becoming just a fan, excited about that actress up there she saw on the screen… I guess I don't have to tell you who the star was. They were always her pictures—that's all she wanted to see.
Norma has an inexhaustible appetite for her own image. It's gone beyond narcissism and become a kind of madness. She doesn't really live in a world where anyone exists except for herself—they're all actors in a melodrama with her in the starring role.
Quote #5
JOE: After that, an army of beauty experts invaded the house on Sunset Boulevard. She went through a merciless series of treatments, massages, sweat cabinets, mud baths, ice compresses, electric devices. She lived on vegetable juices and went to bed at nine. She was determined to be ready. Ready for those cameras that would never turn.
Poor Norma has jumped the gun. In reality, she's not going to be making a movie with Cecil B. DeMille, and DeMille himself only said that he would see what he could do. Her attempt to completely renew her appearance is deluded, for sure. But it's also pitiable at the same time. Even though she believes that she's ageless and eternal, she has to go to insane lengths to make sure that she doesn't suffer the effects of time.
Quote #6
BETTY: Look at this street. All cardboard, all hollow, all phony. All done with mirrors. I like it better than any street in the world. Maybe because I used to play here when I was a kid.
Betty grew up in showbiz, so, in her eyes, the fake street isn't just a fake—it's a symbol of the imaginative power that supposedly drives Hollywood. It's got glamour and life hidden behind its fake façades. We can't decide if this is dark irony or real optimism. Which is maybe the point?
Quote #7
BETTY: I come from a picture family. Naturally they took it for granted I was to become a great star. So I had ten years of dramatic lessons, diction, dancing. Then the studio made a test. Well, they didn't like my nose – it slanted this way a little. I went to a doctor and had it fixed. They made more tests, and they were crazy about my nose – only they didn't like my acting.
Betty's story is a big bummer, given that her attempt to change her appearance didn't have the effect she intended. The big irony here is that her acting ultimately proved to be the problem. It's an example of how showbiz demands that people make changes to themselves if they want to become—or stay—relevant. But in a way, things have worked out well for Betty since she's decided to pursue a career as a screenwriter instead.