An Inspector Calls - Key Quotes

Question 1

“The money’s not the important thing. it’s what happened to the girl and what we all did to her that matters. And I still feel the same about it, and that’s why I don’t feel like sitting down and having a nice cosy talk”

Answer 1

Eric

Question 2

“You’re beginning to pretend now that nothing’s really happened at all”

Answer 2

Eric

Question 3

“She treated me - as if I were a kid. Though I was nearly as old as she was”

Answer 3

Eric

Question 4

“I wasn’t in love with her or anything - but I liked her - she was pretty and a good sport”

Answer 4

Eric

Question 5

“My God - I’m not likely to forget”

Answer 5

Eric

Question 6

“(bitterly) You haven’t made it any easier for me, have you, mother”

Answer 6

Eric

Question 7

“He could have kept her on instead of throwing her out. I call it tough luck”

Answer 7

Eric

Question 8

“I left ‘em talking about clothes again… women are potty about ‘em”

Answer 8

Eric

Question 9

“Everything’s all right now, Sheila. What about this ring?”

Answer 9

Gerald

Question 10

“I didn’t feel for her as she felt about me”

Answer 10

Gerald

Question 11

“It’s a favourite haunt of women of the town”

Answer 11

Gerald

Question 12

“You’ve said your piece, and you’re obviously going to hate this so why on earth don’t you just leave us to it?”

Answer 12

Gerald

Question 13

“Getting a little heavy-handed, aren’t you, Inspector?”

Answer 13

Gerald

Question 14

“You seem like a nice well-behaved family”

Answer 14

Gerald

Question 15

“Hear, hear! And I think my father would agree to that”

Answer 15

Gerald

Question 16

“Now look at the pair of them - the famous younger generation who know it all. And they can’t even take a joke”

Answer 16

Mr Birling

Question 17

“(jovially) But the whole thing’s different now”

Answer 17

Mr Birling

Question 18

“(triumphantly) There you are! Proof positive. the whole story’s just a lot of moonshine”

Answer 18

Mr Birling

Question 19

“There’s every excuse for what your mother and I did”

Answer 19

Mr Birling

Question 20

“(angrily) Yes, and you don’t realise yet all you’ve done. Most of this is bound to come out. There’ll be a public scandal”

Answer 20

Mr Birling

Question 21

“I’ve got to cover this up as soon as I can”

Answer 21

Mr Birling

Question 22

“I don’t like the tone nor the way you’re handling this inquiry”

Answer 22

Mr Birling

Question 23

“If you don’t come down sharply on some of these people, they’d soon be asking for the earth”

Answer 23

Mr Birling

Question 24

“If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward”

Answer 24

Mr Birling

Question 25

"The way some of these cranks talk and write now, you'd think everybody has to look after everybody, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense"

Answer 25

Mr Birling

Question 26

"She'd had a lot to say - far too much - so she had to go"

Answer 26

Mr Birling

Question 27

"So long as we behave ourselves"

Answer 27

Mr Birling

Question 28

"As a hard-headed business man, who has to tae risks and knows what he's about"

Answer 28

Mr Birling

Question 29

"lower costs and higher prices"

Answer 29

Mr Birling

Question 30

"They're over-tired. In the morning they'll be as amused as we are"

Answer 30

Mrs Birling

Question 31

"From the way you children talk, you might be wanting to help him instead of us. Now just be quiet so that your father can decide what to do"

Answer 31

Mrs Birling

Question 32

"He should be made an example of. If the girl's death is due to anybody, then it's due to him"

Answer 32

Mrs Birling

Question 33

"Simply absurd for a girl in her position"

Answer 33

Mrs Birling

Question 34

"Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility"

Answer 34

Mrs Birling

Question 35

"Unlike the other three, I did nothing I'm ashamed of or that would bear investigation"

Answer 35

Mrs Birling

Question 36

"Girls of that class"

Answer 36

Mrs Birling

Question 37

"What an expression Sheila! Really the things you girls pick up these days!"

Answer 37

Mrs Birling

Question 38

"Arthur, you're not supposed to say such things"

Answer 38

Mrs Birling

Question 39

"You began to learn something. Now you've stopped. You're ready to go on in the same old way"

Answer 39

Sheila

Question 40

"I want to get out of this. It frightens me the way you talk"

Answer 40

Sheila

Question 41

"I suppose we're all nice people now"

Answer 41

Sheila

Question 42

"It's you two being childish by trying not to face the facts"

Answer 42

Sheila

Question 43

"I behaved badly too. I know I did, I'm ashamed of it. But now you're beginning all over again to pretend that nothing much has happened"

Answer 43

Sheila

Question 44

"I rather respect you more than I've ever done before... You and I aren't the same people who sat down for dinner here"

Answer 44

Sheila

Question 45

"You mustn't try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl. If you do, the the Inspector will just break it down. And it'll be all the worse when he does"

Answer 45

Sheila

Question 46

"I'm not a child, don't forget. I've a right to know"

Answer 46

Sheila

Question 47

"I know I'm to blame and I'm desperately sorry"

Answer 47

Sheila

Question 48

"why - you fool - he knows. Of course he knows"

Answer 48

Sheila

Question 49

"I'll never, never do it again to anybody"

Answer 49

Sheila

Question 50

"But these girls aren't cheap labour - they're people"

Answer 50

Sheila

Question 51

"I'm sorry, Daddy"

Answer 51

Sheila

Question 52

"We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other... if men will not learn that lesson then they will be taught it in fire and bloody and anguish"

Answer 52

Inspector

Question 53

"One Eva Smith has gone but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us"

Answer 53

Inspector

Question 54

"Each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it. But then I don't think you ever will"

Answer 54

Inspector

Question 55

"Her position now is that she lies with a burnt-out inside on a slab"

Answer 55

Inspector

Question 56

"I think you did something terribly wrong - and that you're going to spend the rest of your lives regretting it"

Answer 56

Inspector

Question 57

"Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges"

Answer 57

Inspector

Question 58

"Your daughter isn't living on the moon. She's here in Brumley too"

Answer 58

Inspector

Question 59

"You see, we have to share something. If there's nothing else, we'll have to share our guilt"

Answer 59

Inspector

Question 60

"Yes, but you can't. It's too late. She's dead"

Answer 60

Inspector

Question 61

"Often if it was left to me, L wouldn't know where to draw the line"

Answer 61

Inspector

Question 62

"A nice little promising life there, I thought, and a nasty mess somebody's made of it"

Answer 62

Inspector

Question 63

"It's better to ask for the earth than to take it"

Answer 63

Inspector

Question 64

"I hate those fat old tarts round the town - the ones I see your respectable friends with"

Answer 64

Eric

Question 65

"You're not the kind of father a chap can go to when he's in trouble"

Answer 65

Eric

Question 66

"It doesn't matter to me. The one I knew is dead"

Answer 66

Eric

Question 67

"And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?"

Answer 67

Inspector

Question 68

"After all y'know, we're responsible citizens and not criminals"

Answer 68

Mr Birling

Question 69

"very pleased with life and rather excited"

Answer 69

Stage Directions

Question 70

"The Germans don't want war"

Answer 70

Mr Birling

Question 71

"You're behaving like a hysterical child tonight"

Answer 71

Mrs Birling

Question 72

"As if a girl of that sort would refuse money"

Answer 72

Mrs Birling

Question 73

"No he's young man. And some young men have far too much to drink"

Answer 73

Inspector

Question 74

"We often do on the young ones. They're more impressionable"

Answer 74

Inspector

Question 75

"At least I'm trying to tell the truth. I expect you've done things you're ashamed of"

Answer 75

Sheila

Question 76

"I hate those hard-eyed, dough-faced women"

Answer 76

Gerald

Question 77

"a man has to make his own way - has to look after himself - and his family too"

Answer 77

Mr Birling