The main character of the 1976 film *Taxi Driver* is **Travis Bickle**, portrayed in an Oscar-nominated performance by **Robert De Niro**.
Directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader, the film presents Travis as a complex and deeply alienated antihero. He is a 26-year-old former U.S. Marine and Vietnam War veteran living in a decaying, mid-1970s New York City. Suffering from chronic insomnia and a profound sense of social detachment, he takes a job as a night-shift taxi driver to fill his sleepless hours. His descent from a lonely observer into a violent vigilante forms the core of the movie's narrative.
### Most Memorable Lines
Travis Bickle’s dialogue often comes from his internal monologues (voiced over as diary entries) or his increasing detachment from reality. Here are his most iconic lines:
#### 1. "You talkin' to me?"
* **Context:** This is arguably the most famous line in cinema history. Travis stands in front of a mirror in his apartment, practicing his quick-draw with a concealed sleeve-gun he has rigged up. He imagines a confrontation, repeating the line with growing aggression: *"You talkin' to me? Well, I'm the only one here."*
* **Detail:** Remarkably, this entire scene was **improvised** by Robert De Niro. The script simply said, "Travis looks in the mirror," but De Niro used the moment to showcase the character's burgeoning madness and desire for conflict.
#### 2. "Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."
* **Context:** Spoken as a voiceover during one of Travis’s night shifts, this line reflects his deep-seated disgust with the city's "urban decay"—the crime, prostitution, and poverty he witnesses from his cab.
* **Detail:** This quote establishes Travis’s "savior complex." He views himself as a potential moral cleanser for a city he perceives as an "open sewer."
#### 3. "Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man."
* **Context:** Another voiceover from his diary entries, this line highlights the character's existential isolation. Despite being surrounded by millions of people in NYC, he feels completely invisible and disconnected.
* **Detail:** The phrase "God's lonely man" was a central theme for screenwriter Paul Schrader, who drew inspiration from Thomas Wolfe’s essay of the same name to capture the specific, crushing weight of urban solitude.
#### 4. "June 29th. I gotta get in shape. Too much sitting has ruined my body... From now on, there will be 50 pushups each morning, 50 pullups. There will be no more pills, no more bad food... From now on will be total organization."
* **Context:** This marks the turning point where Travis stops being a passive observer and begins preparing for "the mission"—his plan to assassinate a presidential candidate or "save" the young prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster).
* **Detail:** This sequence, often accompanied by a montage of him training and preparing weapons, signifies his transition into a self-styled soldier fighting a private war.
#### 5. "Now I see it clearly. My whole life is pointed in one direction. I see that now. There never has been any choice for me."
* **Context:** As Travis becomes fully radicalized by his own delusions, he delivers this line to justify his upcoming violent rampage.
* **Detail:** It illustrates his fatalistic mindset; he no longer sees himself as an individual with agency, but as a tool of destiny or a "force of nature" meant to enact justice.