Think you’ve got your head wrapped around Sunset Boulevard? Put your knowledge to
the test. Good luck — the Stickman is counting on you!
Q. What does Norma say when Joe realizes who she is and says that she "used to be big"?
"You're just a screenwriter! What do you know?"
"'Big' is a relative word, young man."
"I am big. It's the pictures that got small."
"Shut your pie-hole."
Q. What's the last line in the movie?
"We never even got to say goodbye."
"Oh, wait… Did I just murder Joe?"
"Great stars shine forever."
"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."
Q. What does Norma say when Joe tells her, "I didn't know you were planning a comeback"?
"Yes. And what's it to you?"
"It's not a comeback because I never stopped being big!"
"I hate that word. It is a return."
"Uh, can I hire you as a gigolo?"
Q. How does Cecil B. DeMille explain what happened to alter Norma's personality, making her excessively proud and self-absorbed?
"The heady potion of stardom warped her heart and brain."
"A dozen press agents working overtime can do terrible things to the human spirit."
"She's just frontin' because she's the kind of girl who fronts."
"Norma fell incurably in love with Norma."
Q. What does Joe say about Norma's madness at the end?
"It all finally became so brutally clear to her that she had no option but to crumble into babbling insanity."
"Life, which can be strangely merciful, had taken pity on Norma Desmond. The dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her."
"The human mind can only bear so many blows before it disintegrates entirely."
"Whoa—she really went nuts!"