# The World According to Garp (film)

The World According to Garp is a 1982 film about a struggling young writer who finds his life and work dominated by his unfaithful wife and his radical feminist mother, whose best-selling manifesto turns her into a cultural icon.
    Directed by George Roy Hill. Written by Steve Tesich, based on the novel by John Irving.

## T. S. Garp

* [after being told he shouldn't go to his Mom's feminist memorial] I will grieve alone for the rest of my life, but right now I want to be around people who loved her.
* We'll take the house. Honey, the chances of another plane hitting this house are astronomical. It's been pre-disastered. We're going to be safe here.
* [to his infant son in baby carriage] Don't be a baby, Duncan! Say da-da! [Duncan blows raspberry at Garp]
* Men die young in my family, Helen!

## Jenny Fields

* You know, everybody dies. My parents died. Your father died. Everybody dies. I'm going to die too. So will you. The thing is, to have a life before we die. It can be a real adventure having a life.

## Roberta Muldoon

* [telling Garp he cannot go to his mother's feminist memorial] They're not going to allow any men. A man killed her! They're very upset!

## Dialogue

    Jenny Fields: Are you gonna go to sleep or you gonna stay up and think your weird thoughts?
    Young Garp: I'll stay up and think weird thoughts for a while.
    Walt: Daddy what's gradual school?
    T. S. Garp: What?
    Walt: Gradual school. Mommy say's she teaches at gradual school.
    T. S. Garp: Oh Gradual school is where you go to school and you gradually find out you don't want to go to school anymore.
    Jenny Fields: [noticing scantily clad prostitutes] Is that the latest fashion?
    T. S. Garp: No, Mom, that's the oldest profession.
    Roberta: I mean, I had mine removed surgically under general anesthesia. But to have it bitten off in a Buick...
    Jenny Fields: It's lust!
    Jenny Fields: [while telling Dean Bodger and her son about his father, who was a brain damaged WW2 veteran with spontaneous erections she was the nurse of] Where was I?
    T. S. Garp: He kept having erections.
    Jenny Fields: Thank you. He was dying. I wanted a child. It was a good way to have one without the bother of a husband around... who had legal rights to my body. So, one night at work... when the wounded and maimed were all asleep, I went to him. He was asleep. But his erection was there, as always. I removed my undergarments and climbed on top of him. He woke up then. He said the only word other than his name that I ever heard him utter. He said, "good." It didn't take very long, and that once was all that was needed.
    Dean Bodger: You raped him! You raped a dying man!
    Randy: Hey you! Dildo. Is this the nut house where you're keeping my Laurel?
    Roberta: Laurel's here but we're not exactly keeping her.
    Randy: Bullshit, ya big dyke.
    Roberta: I'm not a dyke. Is Laurel expecting you?
    Randy: I'll kill you douchebag.
    Roberta: That's all you men understand is violence.
    Randy: Now look. I know what sort of freaks hang around here. It's a big lesbian scene.
    [Garp walks onto the porch]
    Randy: Ooooh, oooh, what are you the man of the house or the court eunuch. Laurel, you in there you bitch?!
    Jenny Fields: Hello.
    Randy: Oh, I know who you are. My Laurel's not your type sweetie.
    Jenny Fields: Perhaps she's not your type either.
    Randy: Listen, goddammit. If you don't get Laurel's ass out here I'm gonna...
    [Randy is knocked down by Roberta]
    Laurel: Randy!
    Jenny Fields: Are you alright?
    Laurel: Baby, you found me.
    Randy: Oh, I don't think I can drive the fuckin' car.
    Laurel: That's alright. I can drive you just never let me. [to Jenny] I guess Randy needs me.
    Randy: Easy!
    [In pain as Laurel helps him to the car]
    Laurel: Sorry baby, I'm sorry.
    Randy: Crazy dyke blind-sided me.
    T. S. Garp: Remember, Helen.
    Helen Holm: What, my love?
    T. S. Garp: Everything.
    Helen Holm: Yes, my love.

## Cast

* Robin Williams - T.S. Garp
** James "J.B." McCall - young Garp
* Mary Beth Hurt - Helen Holm
* Glenn Close - Jenny Fields
* John Lithgow - Roberta Muldoon
* Hume Cronyn - Mr. Fields
* Jessica Tandy - Mrs. Fields
* Swoosie Kurtz - The Hooker
* Peter Michael Goetz - John Wolf
* Mark Soper - Michael Milton
* Warren Berlinger - Stew Percy
* Brandon Maggart - Ernie Holm
* Amanda Plummer - Ellen James
* Jenny Wright - Cushie

## External links

* The World According to Garp quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* The World According to Garp at Rotten Tomatoes
* The World According to Garp at Mojo