Iron Jawed Angels

Alice Paul:
I'm having dinner with Helen Keller.

Ben Weissman:
Don't stare, she hates that.

Movie patron:
Would you please be quiet?

Alice Paul:
My sister is blind; I have to read her the subtitles.

Dr. White:
In oranges and women courage is often mistaken for insanity.

Lucy Burns:
To pay the fine would be admitting guilt. We haven't broken a law. Not one dollar!

Mabel Vernon:
We are called the Iron Jawed Angels. Is that supposed to be an insult? Oh, and Carrie Catt told the Times that we were no better than anarchists and draft dodgers.

Alice Paul:
It's warm in here. Can you open a window?

Matron Herndon:
Get to work.

Alice Paul:
Can't you see she looks faint. All I ask is that you open a window.

Lucy Burns:
Patron, my needle broke. Can I have another?

Alice Paul:
That's better isn't it?

Matron Herndon:
Put her in solitary.

Carrie Chapman Catt:
This will get out to the foreign press. You can tell the President that he can look like a damn fool or he can deal me in.

Alice Paul:
I found someone who designs parade floats.

Lucy Burns:
Whoa, I thought we were going to keep this small.

Alice Paul:
Why?

Lucy Burns:
Because you've never organized a parade before. Neither have I. It's not like giving a dinner party.

Alice Paul:
Have you ever given a dinner party?

Lucy Burns:
No.

Alice Paul:
Then what are you worried about?

Alice Paul:
We're legitimate citizens. We're tax without representation. We're not allowed to serve on juries so we're not tried by our peers. It's unconscionable, not to mention unconstitutional. We don't make the laws but we have to obey them like children.

Alice Paul:
I'm not a man.

Inez Mulholland:
Ever wish you were?

Alice Paul:
Once, when I saw my brother peeing his name in the snow.

Lucy Burns:
We're political prisoners. We wear our own clothes.

Matron Herndon:
You'll wear what they all wear.

Lucy Burns:
I want to see the wardon.

Matron Herndon:
You want see him naked?

Senator Leighton:
I don't know a judge in this district that will give you custody right now.

Emily Leighton:
You won't take my children.

Senator Leighton:
And how are you going to stop me? Can you afford an attorney?

Emily Leighton:
An attorney? To prove what? That I'm their mother? What will your judge say? That this is your house and your children? What am I to you Tom in your house? Chattel? This is how you punish me? I am their mother! They are not your children to take!

Alice Paul:
When you're alone, you can make any choice you want. But when someone loves you, you lose that right. I won't give anything away 'til we have it all. I can't.

Emily Leighton:
They are the only reason I am here.

Alice Paul:
I was put in a straight jacket and taken to the psychopathic ward. I could not see my family or friends, council was denied me. I saw no other prisoners and heard nothing of them. I could see no papers. Today I was force fed for the third time, I refuse to open my mouth. My left nostril, throat, and muscles of my neck are very sore. I vomit continuously during the process.

Lucy Burns:
Don't you ever want to get married?

Alice Paul:
I'm busy that day.

Alice Paul: Alice Paul: [on the phone] Helen Keller's in town. Arrange for me to meet her. [pause] Alice Paul: No I don't know what hotel. [pause] Alice Paul: Well she's deaf and blind. If she found it, I'm sure you can.

Alice Paul:
"A vote is a fire escape".

Alice Paul:
"You ask me to explain myself. I'm just wondering, what needs to be explained? It should be very clear. Look into your own heart—I swear to you, mine is no different. You want a place in a trades and professions where you can earn your bread; so do I. You want the means of self-expression, some way to satisfy your own personal ambitions; so do I. You want a voice in the government under which you live; so do I. What is there to explain?"

Alice Paul:
" 'I believe the might of America is the love of its people for the Freedom of Mankind' Woodrow Wilson, March 6, 1915.

Alice Paul:
'We have forgotten the history of the country when we have forgotten to agitate when it is necessary' Woodrow Wilson, September 8, 1916.

Alice Paul:
"Liberty is a retractable thing to which no bounds ought to be set' Woodrow Wilson, A Message to Congress.

Lucy Burns:
"We're citizens or we're chattel. You don't really need a degree from Harvard to figure that out".

Woodrow Wilson:
"This war could not be fought by America if it had not been for the services of women. We have made partners of the women in the war. Shall we make them partners of only suffering and sacrifice and toil, and not a partnership of privilege and right? I know the magic it will work in their thoughts and their spirits if you give this thing to them that is mere justice. We shall need their moral sense to preserve what is right and what is fine and worthy in our system of life. Be assured that the voices of the radicals who agitate and disrupt have no influence here today. The task of woman lies at the very heart of the war and I know how much stronger that heart will beat if you do this just thing and show our women that you trust them, as much as you in fact depend on them. We shall deserve to be distrusted if we do not enfranchise them with the fullest possible enfranchisement as it is now certain the other free and great nations will enfranchise theirs. Have I said that the passage of this amendment is a vitally necessary war measure? And do you need further proof?"