Nurse Ratched: You know Billy, what worries me is how your mother is going to take this.

Billy: Um, um, well, y-y-y-you d-d-d-don’t have to t-t-t-tell her, Miss Ratched.

Nurse Ratched: I don’t have to tell her? Your mother and I are old friends. You know that.

Billy: P-p-p-please d-d-don’t tell my m-m-m-mother.

— One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), screenplay by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman, novel by Ken Kesey

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Bullying.

Trivia: Louise Fletcher was so upset with the fact that the other actors could laugh and be happy while she had to be so cold and heartless that near the end of production she removed her dress and stood in only her panties to prove to the actors she was not “a cold-hearted monster”.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Nurse Ratched may not look like a bully, but she absolutely fits into that mode of behavior, witness the way she treats Billy.