"I wanted to be a pharmacist. I liked the way our local pharmacist was always dressed in a nice white coat; he looked very calm, you'd give him money, and he'd give you something that you wanted to buy"
About this Quote
Matthau’s deadpan charm is doing a lot of work here: he frames a childhood ambition not around science or helping people, but around the clean choreography of a transaction. The “nice white coat” isn’t just a costume detail; it’s a symbol of authority you can buy into. The pharmacist “looked very calm” because his job, in the kid’s eye, is to stay serene while the world comes to him with needs, complaints, and cash. Calm reads as power when you’re young and everything feels chaotic.
Then Matthau snaps the sentiment into something more mischievous: “you’d give him money, and he’d give you something that you wanted to buy.” It’s almost tautological, and that’s the joke. He drains the romance out of the profession and reveals the underlying appeal: control, predictability, and a socially approved way to hand people what they crave. “Something that you wanted” nods to the half-taboo, half-tempting aura of medicine as sanctioned desire. It’s not moralized, just observed with that Matthau shrug: people want things; the world runs on being the guy behind the counter.
As an actor, Matthau is also quietly talking about performance. The white coat is wardrobe; the calm is a practiced demeanor; the exchange is a scene with clear marks and a guaranteed payoff. In a single anecdote, he turns career aspiration into a lesson about how much of adulthood is costume, composure, and selling reassurance one small package at a time.
Then Matthau snaps the sentiment into something more mischievous: “you’d give him money, and he’d give you something that you wanted to buy.” It’s almost tautological, and that’s the joke. He drains the romance out of the profession and reveals the underlying appeal: control, predictability, and a socially approved way to hand people what they crave. “Something that you wanted” nods to the half-taboo, half-tempting aura of medicine as sanctioned desire. It’s not moralized, just observed with that Matthau shrug: people want things; the world runs on being the guy behind the counter.
As an actor, Matthau is also quietly talking about performance. The white coat is wardrobe; the calm is a practiced demeanor; the exchange is a scene with clear marks and a guaranteed payoff. In a single anecdote, he turns career aspiration into a lesson about how much of adulthood is costume, composure, and selling reassurance one small package at a time.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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