Shirley Crain Harris quotes from The Haunting of Hill House

Shirley Crain

[on speaker phone] Steve, do you know what I'm doing right now? I'm elbow deep in our sister's chest cavity pulling out a bag of her internal organs. That's what happens when a body's autopsied, and I have to take it out. You have to get two grown men to a goddamn airport. Get it done! [hangs up]

Shirley Crain

Nell is in the red room.

Shirley Crain

I told you. I told you she was in trouble. I told you to find her. I told you!

Theodora Crain

[about Nell] What's wrong with her?

Shirley Crain

I don't know.

Theodora Crain

You never really will. One foot in crazy and the other on a banana peel. Her whole life.

Shirley Crain

The fuck, Steve?

Steven Crain

[worried] You didn't like it.

Shirley Crain

No, I didn't like it.

What's going on?

Shirley Crain

My brother raped the family, is what's going on.

Steven Crain

Hang on...

Shirley Crain

Look, I get that things haven't gone well for your writing, and when you said you wanted to do a book about the house, I understand that, but this...

Steven Crain

I sent you guys the manuscript in case you had any objections. I didn't have to do that.

Shirley Crain

Of course, we object. I object, Steve.

Let's calm down a bit.

Shirley Crain

You be calm, Leigh. It's not your name in here. It's not your family.

OK, it is my family...

Shirley Crain

You weren't here. [turns back to Steven] Nell, Luke, Theo, they were kids, the things they told you in confidence.

Steven Crain

It's clear they were kids...

Shirley Crain

You make Mom sound fucking crazy. And the Dudleys and Dad? This is the worst of the bullshit. Worse than the tabloids.

Steven Crain

Dad had every opportunity to set that straight. What am I supposed to write? He said it was haunted. Those are his words.

Shirley Crain

He was a wreck and he just lost his wife.

Steven Crain

And he hasn't said SHIT since. Does he talk to you, Shirl? Does he talk to you about what happened that night? Because all I've got are those tabloid quotes. He refuses to tell us anything else.

Shirley Crain

He believed it, Steve. When he said those things, he believed them. In the moment, at least, and you never did.

Steven Crain

Neither did you.

Shirley Crain

And now you're digging up that stuff for a buck? So you can stop living off credit for a change?

Steven Crain

[frustrated] A buck?

[to Shirley] Look, I can tell that you're upset, but Steve...

Steven Crain

A buck? Do you know how much money they're offering on the advance? We can buy a house, we can move to L.A. We can... I need to start a life for my own family.

Shirley Crain

We're our family, Steve. What you're doing to Mom...

Steven Crain

Mom was mentally ill. It's a fact. I'll be damned if the apple didn't fall too far from... [he stops himself and Shirley is shaken by his words] I'm sorry.

Shirley Crain

Wow.

Steven Crain

I'm sorry. That was...

Shirley Crain

Wow.

Steven Crain

Nobody's buying the novel, Shirl.

Shirley Crain

You gave me the book. Now you know what I think. You publish this, you know what it costs.

Young Shirley Crain

Where's Mom?

Young Steven Crain

I thought I saw her upstairs.

That's not Mom.

I know Grandma's dead. But she still comes to my room at night and she still sits on my bed, even though Mommy and Daddy said she wouldn't. And I told her not to, but she was there again last night. And last night was bad. She looked different. Her fingers were purple, she didn't have teeth, and she did not have hair. I don't want to see her again, especially like that. So, I'm not going to look at her tomorrow, and I don't want to see her in the open castle.

Shirley Crain

The open casket.

Shirley Crain

What do I say?

Theodora Crain

You answer the question that's asked. Don't elaborate, don't offer information that's not requested. Just tell them that their feelings are correct, and they're safe. And it's okay to be curious. And sad. Tell them you're sad, too.

Shirley Crain

And if they ask why?

Theodora Crain

Tell them you don't know. No one knows and that's okay. Better they ask you than me.

Theodora Crain

In movies they always say that they, uh, look like they're sleeping. She doesn't look like she's sleeping. She looks dead. I mean, you, um She looks great. You did a really good job as usual.

Shirley Crain

Thanks. But she "doesn't look like she's sleeping."

Theodora Crain

I don't know why people say that.

Shirley Crain

Most of what people say at a funeral is a wish. "They're in a better place." "They're at peace." "They're smiling down." People just wishing out loud.

Theodora Crain

How bad was it? I mean, when she got here? How did she look?

Shirley Crain

Are you really asking?

Theodora Crain

No. You're right...

Theodora Crain

I just need you to know, that it wasn't Kevin's fault and he didn't do anything...

Shirley Crain

Don't you fucking dare defend my husband!

Theodora Crain

All of us, all of us are just always helping you keep up this idea in your head that you're perfect Shirley, and we're just a bunch of fuck-ups fucking up! Perfect Shirley's! Perfect fucking...

Shirley Crain

[Gives Theodora a hard shove in anger] Get out!

Theodora Crain

No! You do not just get to shut me out of your life...

Theodora Crain

Did you just punch me in the boob?

Shirley Crain

Yeah... Yeah! If you kiss my husband, that's what you get! You get punched in the fucking boob! And get evicted from my fucking house!

Luke Crain

She saved me!

Nell Crain

I feel a little clearer just now. We have.

Theodora Crain

Nell?

Nell Crain

All of us have. Wouldn't have changed anything. I need you to know that.

Steven Crain

Nell.

Nell Crain

The rest is confetti.

Steven Crain

Hey.

Nell Crain

So many times and we didn't know it. All of us.

Shirley Crain

Nelly?

Nell Crain

No, not a heart.

Steven Crain

Nell?

Nell Crain

A stomach. We have. All of us have.

Steven Crain

I don't think she can hear us.

Nell Crain

So many times and we didn't know it.

Steven Crain

All right, we need to get Luke out of here, we need to get him to a hospital - I don't get it.

Theodora Crain

All this time we tried to get into this room and now we can't get the fuck out.

Shirley Crain

I feel like I've been here before.

Nell Crain

We have. All of us have. So many times and we didn't know it. All of us. I feel a bit clearer now. Everything's been out of order. Time, I mean. I thought for so long that time was like a line, that... that our moments were laid out like dominoes, and that they... fell, one into another and on it went, just days tipping, one into the next, into the next, in a long line between the beginning... and the end. But I was wrong. It's not like that at all. Our moments fall around us like rain. Or... snow. Or confetti. You were right. We have been in this room. So many times and we didn't know. All of us. Mom says... that a house is like a body... and that every house... has eyes. And bones. And skin. And a face. This room is like the heart of the house. No, not a heart, a stomach. It was your dance studio, Theo. It was my toy room. It was a reading room for mom. A game room for Steve. A family room for Shirley. A treehouse. But it was always the Red Room. It put on different faces so that'd we'd be still and quiet. While it digested. I'm like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster. And the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.

Nell Crain

You have to live.

Luke Crain

I don't- I don't know how to do this without you.

Nell Crain

I learned a secret. There's no without. I am not gone. I'm scattered into so many pieces, sprinkled on your life like new snow. There's so much I want to say to you all.

Theodora Crain

I'm so sorry our last words were in anger.

Nell Crain

They weren't our last.

Shirley Crain

I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I didn't... answer the phone.

Nell Crain

But you did. So many times.

Steven Crain

I'm sorry if I didn't listen, and I'm sorry...

Nell Crain

It wouldn't have changed anything. I need you to know that. Forgiveness is warm. Like a tear on a cheek. Think of that and of me when you stand in the rain. I loved you completely. And you loved me the same. That's all. The rest is confetti.