Quotes (Blood Brothers)

Key quotes from Blood Brothers by Willy Russell for GCSE English Literature revision; this section provides key quotes from the play sorted by the key themes: Nature Vs Nurture, Violence, Superstition and Fate and Social Class.

Nature Vs Nurture 

Mrs Johnstone “And when he grew up / He could never be told / To stand and queue up / For hours on end at the dole / He’d grow up to be / A credit to me” 

Narrator “There’s a pact been sealed, there’s a deal been born” 

Mickey “Ey, we were born on the same day…that means we can be blood brothers” 

Mrs Lyons “You learn filth from them and behave like this like a, like a horrible little boy, like them. But you are not like them. You are my son, mine, and you won’t, you won’t ever…” “It’s just…it’s these people…these people that Edward has started mixing with. Can’t you see how he’s drawn to them?” “Afraid he might eventually have forgotten you? On no. There’s no chance of that” “I started…just for a while I came to believe that he was actually mine” 

Mickey “Why didn’t you give me away? I could have been…I could have been him!”

Violence 

Narrator “But you know that if you cross your fingers / And if you count from one to ten / You can get up off the ground again / It doesn’t matter / The whole thing’s just a game” 

Mickey “I’m gonna get a real gun soon” 

“We always shoot at that, don’t we Linda?” Stage Directions [Shoots down a few imaginary Indians but somehow the magic has gone out of genocide] [his father produces a toy gun…he ‘shoots’ his father, who spiritedly ‘dies’] [Sammy produces a knife] [The gun explodes and blows Edward apart] [They open fire and four guns explode, blowing Mickey away] 

Sammy “I got y’, I shot y’, An’ y’ bloody know I did”

Superstition and Fate

Narrator “There’s shoes on the table an’ a joker in the pack” 

“Someone broke the lookin’ glass” 

“Now y’ know the devil’s got your number, y’ know he’s gonna find y’, y’ know he’s right behind y’” 

“the salt’s been spilled” “You’re walking on pavement cracks” 

“The dealers dealt the cards, and he won’t take them back” 

“There’s a black cat stalking and a woman who’s afraid” 

Mrs Johnstone “Oh God, Mrs Lyons, never put new shoes on a table…You never know what’ll happen” 

“I’m not superstitious” 

Mrs Lyons “they say that if either twin learns that he was once a pair, they shall both immediately die” 

Edward “It’s just a secret, everybody has secrets, don’t you have secrets?”

Social Class 

Edward “Don’t you know what a dictionary is?” 

“P***** off. You say smashing things don’t you?” 

“Are you feeling better now, Mummy?” 

“Talk of Oxbridge” (Edward’s Teacher) “I’m going away to tomorrow…to University” 

Mickey “Gis a sweet” / “Gis a ciggie” “It used to be just sweets an’ ciggies he gave me” 

“You sorted it out. You an’ Councillor Eddie Lyons”

 “Well, how come you got everything...an’ I got nothin’?” 

Sammy “he’s a friggin’ poshy” 

Mrs Johnstone “I start a job next week. I’ll have money comin’ in an’ I’ll be able to pay y’” 

“Havin’ babies, it’s like clockwork to me” 

Mrs Lyons “you are not like them”

“It’s a pretty house isn’t it? It’s a pity it’s so big”