How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Taxi Driver.
Quote #1
TRAVIS: Twelve hours of work and I still can't sleep. Damn. Days go on and on. They don't end.
In his insomniac state, Travis days meld into one another. He's trapped in a "Groundhog Day" situation, except instead of being trapped in delightful Punxatawney PA he's in a hellish New York City with limited opportunities for personal growth.
Quote #2
TRAVIS: Each night when I return the cab to the garage, I have to clean the cum off the back seat. Some nights, I clean off the blood.
This is pretty gross. Travis apparently picks up prostitutes and johns who score in the back of his cab. The blood probably isn't from people actually getting stabbed in his back seat—though it could be—but probably from people who are already bleeding when they get it. This situation would probably depress and dissatisfy a lot of people.
Quote #3
TRAVIS: Yeah, well. Naw, I don't know. I just wanna go out. I really, you know, I really wanna, I got some bad ideas in my head, I just...
WIZARD: Look, look at it this way, you know uh, a man, a man takes a job, you know, and that job, I mean like that, and that it becomes what he is. You know like uh, you do a thing and that's what you are. Like I've been a, I've been a cabbie for seventeen years, ten years at night and I still don't own my own cab. You know why? 'Cause I don't want to. I must be what I, what I want. You know, to be on the night shift drivin' somebody else's cab. Understand? You, you, you become, you get a job, you you become the job. One guy lives in Brooklyn, one guy lives in Sutton Place, you get a lawyer, another guy's a doctor, another guy dies, another guy gets well, and you know, people are born. I envy you your youth. Go out and get laid. Get drunk, you know, do anything. 'Cause you got no choice anyway. I mean we're all f***ed, more or less you know.
TRAVIS: Yeah, I don't know. That's about the dumbest thing I ever heard.
WIZARD: I'm not Bertrand Russell. Well what do ya want. I'm a cabbie you know. What do I know? I mean, I don't even know what the f*** you're talkin' about.
Travis is turning to Wizard for advice because he's so dissatisfied—and isolated—that he feels he might turn violent. Wizard doesn't fully understand, thinks he might be contemplating suicide, and gives this rambling speech… which is no help at all, despite Wizard's best intentions. Wizard thinks Travis is in despair, and needs help accepting his lot in life—he doesn't fathom Travis' capacity for real violence.
Quote #4
TRAVIS: I tried several times to call her, but after the first call, she wouldn't come to the phone any longer. I also sent flowers but with no luck. The smell of the flowers only made me sicker. The headaches got worse. I think I got stomach cancer. I shouldn't complain though. You're only as healthy, you're only as healthy as you feel. You're only as... healthy... as... you... feel.
Betsy's rejection pushes Travis over the edge. He probably doesn't have stomach cancer (maybe an ulcer). It's likely a psychosomatic ailment—his mind is making him feel physically terrible.
Quote #5
TRAVIS: June 29th. I gotta get in shape now. Too much sittin' is ruinin' my body. Too much abuse has gone on for too long. From now on, it will be fifty push-ups each morning, fifty pull-ups. There'll be no more pills, there'll be no more bad food, no more destroyers of my body. From now on, it will be total organization. Every muscle must be tight.
Travis takes arms against his feelings of malaise with an intense physical fitness regimen. Normally, this would be a good thing, but the fact that he's planning on making himself into a killing machine tends to dampen one's enthusiasm for the project.
Quote #6
TRAVIS: Goddamn it! Don't you want to get out of here? Can't you understand why I came here?
IRIS: I think I understand. I tried to get into your cab one night, and now you want to take me away. Is that it?
TRAVIS: Don't you want to go?
IRIS: I can leave anytime I want.
Iris claims she has free will, but she's unwilling to face how Sport mentally and emotionally controls her. (We see that happening in the scene where Sport sweet-talks her and pretends to be in love with her.)
Quote #7
PALANTINE: Walt Whitman, that great American poet, spoke for all of us when he said: "I am the man. I suffered. I was there." Today, I say to you, We Are The People, we suffered, we were there. We the People suffered in Vietnam. We the People suffered, we still suffer from unemployment, inflation, crime and corruption.
Palantine sees himself as representing a people who are dissatisfied with the system—he recognizes that many of them have genuinely suffered. Travis, by contrast, and despite being a Vietnam Veteran (one of the experiences of shared suffering Palantine mentions), can't empathize with suffering humanity, even though he's a part of it.