Bill Stockton quotes from The Twilight Zone (1959)

Bill Stockton

Grace...now, if it is a bomb, there's no assurance it'll land near us. And if it doesn't--

But if it does, Bill, New York is only forty miles away. And New York's going to get it. We know that. So we'll get it too. All of it. The poison, the radiation, the whole mess. We'll get it.

Bill Stockton

We'll be in a shelter, Grace, and with any luck at all, we'll survive. We've got food and water enough to last us for two weeks. Maybe even longer if we use it wisely.

Then what, Bill? Then what? We crawl out of here like gofers to tip-toe through all that rubble up above? The rubble and the ruin and the bodies of our friends? Bill, why is it so necessary to survive? What's the good of it? [begins to sob] Wouldn't it...just be...better and easier...just quicker if we...just...

[calls from the other room] Got the tools, Pa. Anything else you need from out here?

Bill Stockton

Grace...that's why we have to survive. That's the reason. He may only inherit rubble now, but he's twelve years old. He's only twelve years old, Grace.

We could throw a nice big block party, just like old times! Anything to get back to normal! Right, Bill?

Bill Stockton

Normal? ...I don't know what normal is. I thought I did once; I don't anymore.

Oh, we'll pay for all the damages, Bill.

Bill Stockton

Damages? I wonder...if any of us has any idea what those "damages" really are. Maybe one of them was finding out what we're really like when we're "normal." The kind of people we are, just underneath the skin--and I mean all of us--a lot of naked, wild animals who put such a price on staying alive that they'll claw their own neighbors to death just for the privilege! We were spared a bomb tonight, but I wonder...if we weren't destroyed even without it.

We could have a block party tomorrow night or something. A big celebration!

Hey, there's an idea! A block party! Anything to get back to normal, huh?

Bill Stockton

Normal? I don't know. I don't know what normal is. I thought I did once. I don't anymore.

I told you we'd pay for the damages, Bill.

Bill Stockton

Damages? I wonder. I wonder if any of us has any idea what those "damages" really are. Maybe one of them is finding out what we're really like when we're "normal." The kind of people we are, just underneath the skin. I mean all of us. A lot of primal, savage animals...who put such a price on staying alive that they'll claw their own friends to ribbons, trample their own neighbors into the ground just for that privilege! We were spared a bomb tonight, but I wonder...I wonder if we weren't destroyed even without it.

What is it?

Bill

The opening.

To what?

Bill

I think... to another dimension.

What happened?

Bill

I pulled you out. Half of you was still here.

You mean to say you had a hold of me all this time?

Bill

That's right.

Oh, Bill. You know I didn't even feel you? Say, listen, why didn't you want me to reach in there?

Bill

And how come I kept telling you to hurry?

Yeah.

Bill

[bangs on the wall four times] That's why. It was closing up all the time you were in there. Another few seconds and half of you would've been here and the other half...

Rod Serling

The other half where? The fourth dimension? The fifth? Perhaps. They never found the answer. Despite a battery of research physicists equipped with every device known to man, electronic and otherwise, no result was ever achieved, except perhaps a little more respect for and uncertainty about the mechanisms of the Twilight Zone.