Bridget 'Brig' Hilton: You say it's animal?
Mrs. Anne Hilton: That's right.
Jane Deborah Hilton: And its home is in the Middle West.
Mrs. Anne Hilton: Umm-hmm.
Bridget 'Brig' Hilton: And it makes a noise like a lion, but it puffs like a locomotive.
Mrs. Anne Hilton: Umm-hmm. Better give up. You agreed if you hadn't guessed it by the time we got home.
Jane Deborah Hilton: Oh, I know. It's Soda.
Mrs. Anne Hilton: Oh, no. Brig guessed that long ago.
Bridget 'Brig' Hilton: All right. I give up.
Mrs. Anne Hilton: It's Colonel Smollett, silly.


--Claudette Colbert (as Mrs. Anne Hilton) in Since You Went Away

Lieutenant Tony Willett: Now I don't want to shock you, but it's no wonder those Italians can paint. There was a dame standing right in the middle of the street with a big tub of spaghetti, and she had - she had -
Mrs. Anne Hilton: Now never mind what she had. I have a little imagination.
Lieutenant Tony Willett: Yeah. Well, even as I looked at her, I thought, "She's good, but what are they all? What are all the women in the world compared with Anne?"
Mrs. Anne Hilton: Tony, will you never stop?
Lieutenant Tony Willett: No, I'll never stop, Anne. As long as I can dream about you.
Mrs. Anne Hilton: If you ever thought the dream had a chance of coming true, you'd -
Lieutenant Tony Willett: I'd what, Anne?
Mrs. Anne Hilton: Finish it yourself.
Lieutenant Tony Willett: You make it pretty tough for me. I'd feel I'd been wrong about you all my life. I'd have to go looking for a new ideal. I'm afraid it's a little late for that.
Mrs. Anne Hilton: What's more, you'd run for your life. But first you'd wring my neck, as I'd expect you to.
Lieutenant Tony Willett: That's right, and what would be the fun in that? I'd never be able to break my heart over you anymore.
Mrs. Anne Hilton: Oh, Tony. Never grow up. Never, never. Or I'd lose something very dear to me. Something very dear to all of us.
Lieutenant Tony Willett: All right, but I'm going to sound awful silly someday making verbal passes at you when we're both in wheelchairs.
Mrs. Anne Hilton: [laughing] You are looking forward to that.


--Claudette Colbert (as Mrs. Anne Hilton) in Since You Went Away

Peter Warne: Just keep your eye on that thumb.
[sticks out his thumb to hitch a ride, the car wizzes past]
Ellie Andrews: Still got my eye on the thumb.


--Claudette Colbert (as Ellie) in It Happened One Night

Ellie Andrews: Aren't you gonna congratulate me?
Peter Warne: What for?
Ellie Andrews: Well, I proved once and for all that the limb is mightier than the thumb.


--Claudette Colbert (as Ellie) in It Happened One Night

Ellie Andrews: I'll stop a car, and I won't use my thumb!
Peter Warne: What're you gonna do?
Ellie Andrews: It's a system all my own.


--Claudette Colbert (as Ellie) in It Happened One Night

Ellie Andrews: We'll get on a merry-go-round and never get off. Promise me we'll never get off.


--Claudette Colbert (as Ellie) in It Happened One Night

Ellie Andrews: What is it that we're supposed to be doing again?
Peter Warne: Hitchhiking.
Ellie Andrews: Well you've shown me an excellent example of the hiking part. When does the hitching come in?


--Claudette Colbert (as Ellie) in It Happened One Night

Gerry Jeffers: Anyway, men don't get smarter as they get older. They just lose their hair.


--Claudette Colbert (as Gerry Jeffers) in The Palm Beach Story

Gerry Jeffers: Don't you know that the greatest men in the world have told lies and let things be misunderstood if it was useful to them? Didn't you ever hear of a campaign promise?


--Claudette Colbert (as Gerry Jeffers) in The Palm Beach Story

Gerry Jeffers: Isn't it wonderful?
Tom Jeffers: Sensational. But you haven't quite answered my question yet.
Gerry Jeffers: What question, dear?
Tom Jeffers: Why this alleged old man gave you - how much is it?
Gerry Jeffers: Seven hundred dollars.
Tom Jeffers: Seven hundred dollars. Why?
Gerry Jeffers: No reason.
Tom Jeffers: Oh, is that so? He just - seven hundred dollars? Just like that?
Gerry Jeffers: Just like that.
Tom Jeffers: I mean, sex didn't even enter into it.
Tom Jeffers: Oh, but of course it did, darling. I don't think he'd have given it to me if I had hair like excelsior and little short legs like an alligator. Sex always has something to do with it, dear.
Tom Jeffers: I see.
Gerry Jeffers: From the time you're about so big and wondering why your girlfriends' fathers are getting so arch all of a sudden. Nothing wrong - just an overture to the opera that's coming.


--Claudette Colbert (as Gerry Jeffers) in The Palm Beach Story