Death of a Salesman

don’t say »Gee«. »Gee« is a boy’s word. A man walking

in for fifteen thousand dollars does not say »Gee!«

Don’t be so modest. You always started too low. Walk in

with a big laugh. Don’t look worried. Start off with a couple of

your good stones to lighten things up. It’s not what you say,

it’s how you say it — because personality always wins the day.

HAPPY (grabbing Biff, shouts): Wait a minute! I got an idea. I got

a feasible idea. Come here, Biff, let’s talk this over now, let’s

talk some sense here. When I was down in Florida last time, I

thought of a great idea to sell sporting goods. It just came back

to me. You and I, Biff — we have a line, the Loman Line. We

train a couple of weeks, and put on a couple of exhibitions, see?

WILLY: That’s an idea!

HAPPY: Wait! We form two basketball teams, see? Two waterpolo

teams. We play each other. It’s a million dollars’ worth of

publicity. Two brothers, see? The Loman Brothers. Displays in

the Royal Palms — all the hotels. And banners over the ring

and the basketball court: »Loman Brothers«. Baby, we could

sell sporting goods!

And the beauty of it is, Biff, it wouldn’t be like a business.

We’d be out playin’ ball again...

Million-dollar...

HAPPY: And you wouldn’t get fed up with it, Biff. It’d be the family

again. There’d be the old honor, and comradeship, and if

you wanted to go off for a swim or somethin’ — well, you’d do

it! Without some smart cooky gettin’ up ahead of you!

DA: Hap, Hap.

BIFF: I don’t care what they think! They’ve laughed at Dad for

years, and you know why? Because we don’t belong in this

nuthouse of a city! We should be mixing cement on some open

plain or — or carpenters. A carpenter is allowed to whistle!

WILLY: Go back to the West! Be a carpenter, a cowboy, enjoy

yourself!

I tell you he put his

whole life into you and you’ve turned your backs on him.

HAPPY: Sure you will. The trouble with you in business was you

never tried to please people.

BIFF: I know, I...

HAPPY: Like when you worked for Harrison’s. Bob Harrison said

you were tops, and then you go and do some damn fool thing

like whistling whole songs in the elevator like a comedian.

BIFF (against Happy): So what? I like to whistle sometimes

tell you something that I hate so say, Biff, but in the

business world some of them think you’re crazy.