A Star Is Born (1954)

Charles Bickford: Oliver Niles

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Quotes 

• Vicki Lester : He's in a sanitarium. He really wants to stop drinking, Oliver. He's trying very hard. I know he is. What is it? What is it that makes him want to destroy himself? You've known him longer than anyone else. Tell me what it is. Please. I don't care but just tell me.

  Oliver Niles : Don't you think I've tried through the years to know why, to help him? I don't know, Esther. I don't know what the answer is.

  Vicki Lester : Well, I've got to find the answer. You don't know what it's like to watch somebody you love just crumble away bit by bit and day by day in front of your eyes and stand there helpless. Love isn't enough. I thought it was. I thought I was the answer for Norman. But love isn't enough for him. And I'm afraid of what's beginning to happen within me... because... sometimes I hate him. I hate his promises to stop and then the watching and waiting to see it begin again. I hate to go home to him at night and listen to his lies. My heart goes out to him because he tries - he does try. But I hate him for failing. I hate me, too. I hate me cause I've failed, too. I have. I don't know what's going to happen to us, Oliver. No matter how much you love somebody... how do you live out the days?

• Oliver Niles : You know Libby you missed a lot not knowing Norman Maine.

  Matt Libby : Not knowing him? I spent my life knowing him. I knew what he was going to do before he did it. I knew him backwards.

  Oliver Niles : You didn't know him at all. He was quite a guy.