[smashing the door to bits with an axe] Wendy, I'm home.
Catalog
Jack Torrance
John Daniel Edward Torrance is the main protagonist/antagonist of Stephen King's horror novel The Shining (1977). He was portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the novel's 1980 movie adaptation (as antagonist) and by Steven Weber in the 1997 miniseries. The American Film Institute rated the character (as played by Nicholson) the 25th greatest film villain of all time. In 2008, Jack Torrance was selected by Empire Magazine as one of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters. Premiere Magazine also ranked Torrance on their list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.He is married to Wendy Torrance, the father of Daniel Torrance and Lucy Stone and grandfather of Abra Stone. 2Biography 3In novel Jack Torrance grew up in Stovington, Vermont, where his father worked in the Regional Community Hospital. He is a writer and former teacher whose alcoholism and volatile temper cost him his teaching position at a small preparatory school and nearly ended his marriage to Wendy Torrance. He gives up the drinking after breaking his son Danny's arm in a blind rage and promises Wendy that she can leave him if he ever drinks or uses again. He accepts a position maintaining the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado for the winter, hoping this will salvage his family, re-establish his career, and give him the time and privacy to finish a promising play. He moves to the hotel with Wendy and Danny, who is telepathic and sensitive to supernatural force
White Man's Burden, Lloyd, my man! White Man's Burden.
Come out, come out, whereever you are.
Lloyd: What will you be drinking, sir? Jack Torrance: Hair of the dog that bit me, Lloyd.
Jack Torrance: [laughs] Well, it's certainly got plenty of that. Stuart Ullman: ...The winters can be fantastically cruel. And the basic idea is to cope with the very costly damage and depreciation which can occur. And this consists mainly of running the boiler, heating different parts of the hotel…
Wendy, listen. Let me out of here and I'll forget the whole damn thing! It'll be just like nothing ever happened. Wendy, baby, I think you hurt my head real bad. I'm dizzy, I need a doctor. Honey, don't leave me here.
[staring at the drink in his hand] Here's to five miserable months on the wagon, and all the irreparable harm it has caused me.
I like you, Lloyd. I always liked you. You were always the best of them. Best goddamned bartender from Timbuktu to Portland, Maine. Or Portland, Oregon, for that matter.
Jack Torrance: Well, that is quite a story. Stuart Ullman: Yeah it is. It's still hard for me to believe it happened here. It did, and I think you can appreciate why I wanted to tell you about it. Jack Torrance: I certainly can and I also understand why your people in Denver left it for you to tell…
[about Wendy] Delbert Grady: I feel you will have to deal with this matter in the harshest possible way, Mr. Torrance. Jack Torrance: There's nothing I look forward to with greater pleasure, Mr. Grady.
Jack Torrance: The most terrible nightmare I ever had. It's the most horrible dream I ever had. Wendy Torrance: It's OK, it's OK now. Really. Jack Torrance: I dreamed that I, that I killed you and Danny. But I didn't just kill ya. I cut you up in little pieces. Oh my God. I must be losing my mind.
Wendy Torrance: Hey. Wasn't it around here that the Donner Party got snowbound? Jack Torrance: I think that was farther west in the Sierras. Wendy Torrance: Oh. Danny Torrance: What was the Donner Party? Jack Torrance: They were a party of settlers in covered-wagon times. They got snowbound one…
God, I'd give anything for a drink. I'd give my goddamned soul for just a glass of beer.
Jack Torrance: Mr. Grady, you were the caretaker here. I recognize ya. I saw your picture in the newspapers. You, uh, chopped your wife and daughters up into little bits. And then you blew your brains out. Delbert Grady: That's strange, sir. I don't have any recollection of that at all.
Danny Torrance: Dad? Jack Torrance: Yes? Danny Torrance: Do you like this hotel? Jack Torrance: Yes, I do. I love it. Don't you? Danny Torrance: I guess so. Jack Torrance: Good. I want you to like it here. I wish we could stay here forever... and ever... and ever.
Jack Torrance: Wendy, let me explain something to you. Whenever you come in here and interrupt me, you're breaking my concentration. You're distracting me. And it will then take me time to get back to where I was. You understand? Wendy Torrance: Yeah. Jack Torrance: Now, we're going to make a new…
Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in. Not by the hair of your chiny-chin-chin? Well then I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in. [axes the door]
Have you ever had a single moment's thought about my responsibilities? Have you ever thought, for a single solitary moment about my responsibilities to my employers? Has it ever occurred to you that I have agreed to look after the Overlook Hotel until May the first. Does it matter to you at all that…
Lloyd: Women: can't live with them, can't live without them. Jack Torrance: Words of wisdom, Lloyd my man. Words of wisdom.
Wendy Torrance: [crying] Stay away from me. Jack Torrance: Why? Wendy Torrance: I just wanna go back to my room! Jack Torrance: Why? Wendy Torrance: Well, I'm very confused, and I just need time to think things over! Jack Torrance: You've had your whole fucking life to think things over, what good's…