Prick Up Your Ears (1987)

Alfred Molina: Kenneth Halliwell

Photos 

Quotes 

• [Halliwell puts his hand on Orton's leg. Orton brushes it off] 

  Joe Orton : No. Have a wank.

  Kenneth Halliwell : Have a wank? Have a wank? I can't just have a wank. I need three days' notice to have a wank. You can just stand there and do it. Me, it's like organizing D-Day. Forces have to be assembled, magazines bought, the past dredged for some suitably unsavoury episode, the dog-eared thought of which can still produce a faint flicker of desire! Have a wank, it'd be easier to raise the Titanic.

• Kenneth Halliwell : I can't remember when you last touched my cock. Well, I can actually. It was about two years ago. Only I can't remember the actual date. Pity. I could have put it in my diary. "The last time Joe touched my cock. Grouse shooting begins"

• Kenneth Halliwell : Can you spell?

  Joe Orton : Yes, but not accurately.

• Kenneth Halliwell : I just want to go to the awards! I could! Look, "Joe Orton and guest." I'd behave. I wouldn't say a word, I promise.

  Joe Orton : No.

  Kenneth Halliwell : Why?

  Joe Orton : Because it's for me. I wrote it.

  Kenneth Halliwell : I gave you the title.

  Joe Orton : Okay, so when they have awards for titles, you can go to that.

• Kenneth Halliwell : Writing, John, is one tenth inspiration, nine tenths...

  Joe Orton : Masturbation!

• Kenneth Halliwell : The whole point about irrational behavior is that it IS irrational!

• Kenneth Halliwell : At least you can say you've sat in the same chair as T.S. Eliot.

  Joe Orton : Yes, I'm never going to wipe my bum again.

• [Paul McCartney is going to visit and Joe and Kenneth are tidying frantically] 

  Kenneth Halliwell : This is what it must be like when one meets the Queen!

  Joe Orton : Except when one meets the Queen one *generally* hasn't threatened to shove one's typewriter up her arse.

• Kenneth Halliwell : I don't understand my life. I was an only child. I lost both my parents. By the time I was 20 I was going bald. I'm a homosexual. In the way of circumstances and background I had everything an artist could possibly want. It was practically a blueprint. I was programmed to be a novelist or a playwright. But I'm not and you are! Joe, you do everything better than me! You even sleep better than me!

• Kenneth Halliwell : Do you want the sardines with the rice pudding or separate?

  Joe Orton : With.

• Kenneth Halliwell : [preparing to dictate an offensive letter]  Seat yourself at our trusty Remington, John, and we shall piss on this person from a great height.

• Kenneth Halliwell : Cheap clothes suit you. It's because you're from the gutter.

• Joe Orton : Some of these people are, well, having sexual intercourse.

  Kenneth Halliwell : Fucking, you mean? Well, what do you expect? Many of them are from Australia.

• Joe Orton : Have you been reading my diary?

  Kenneth Halliwell : No.

  Joe Orton : Why not? I would.

• Kenneth Halliwell : [picking up Joe's Evening Standard Drama Award statue after having killed him with a hammer]  I should have used this. More theatrical. But you would have spotted that straight away.

• Joe Orton : [Ken and Joe are cruising a strange man]  He's built like a brick shithouse!

  Kenneth Halliwell : He's probably a policeman.

  Joe Orton : I know, isn't it wonderful?

• Kenneth Halliwell : I loved him. I must have loved him. I chose him to kill me.