How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Sunset Boulevard.
Quote #1
JOE: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
NORMA: I am big. It's the pictures that got small.
JOE: I knew there was something wrong with them.
In a way, this represents Norma's entire stance toward everything. Nothing can diminish her stature—it's everything else that's small or not worthy of notice.
Quote #2
NORMA: They're dead. They're finished. There was a time when this business had the eyes of the whole wide world. But that wasn't good enough. Oh, no! They wanted the ears of the world, too. So they opened their big mouths, and out came talk, talk, talk...
Norma is trying to make "talkies" sound like a terrible defilement of movies—when, in plain reality, the movies commonly regarded as the greatest of all time, from Citizen Kane to The Godfather, are all talkies. She's a victim of Golden Age thinking, in a way—if only because it provides ammunition for her prideful celebrity.
Quote #3
JOE: Sometimes it's interesting to see just how bad bad writing can be. This promised to go the limit… I could sense her eyes on me from behind those dark glasses, defying me not to like what I read, or maybe begging me in her own proud way to like it. It meant so much to her.
Norma cares more about being liked and appreciated, at this point, than making sure that the thing she's written is actually worthy of admiration and appreciation. Her immense pride has blotted out her sense of perspective.
Quote #4
NORMA: Go away.
JOE: What kind of a silly thing was that to do?
NORMA: To fall in love with you—that was the idiotic thing.
JOE: It sure would have made attractive headlines: Great Star Kills Herself for Unknown Writer.
NORMA: Great stars have great pride.
Norma manages to give a dramatic twist to something that's really pretty sordid. Joe sees her suicide attempt as insane and also small, ridiculous. But Norma tries to instill it with a grandeur worthy of her pride.
Quote #5
MAX: It is not Mr. DeMille in person. It is someone by the name of Gordon Cole. He says it's very important.
NORMA: Certainly it's important. It's important enough for Mr. DeMille to call me personally. The idea of having an assistant call me!
Irony alert. DeMille doesn't have any interest in making Norma's movie, and the assistant called for an utterly unrelated reason—to rent Norma's car for use in a movie. It would be extremely enraging and depressing for Norma to learn that her car would be of more use to the studios than she herself would be.
Quote #6
NORMA: Thank you, Jonesy. And teach your friend some manners. Tell him without me he wouldn't have any job, because without me there wouldn't be any Paramount Studio.
Norma's statement is outrageous and egotistical—but there actually might be a good element of truth to it, since she was the studio's biggest female star. Recognizing this fact makes her current, deluded state all the more tragic.