THE MOVIE VERSION
“Quel rat!”
Roughly, “What a rat!”
Holly gives the insult a French flourish—a dismissive little verdict on an unpleasant man. The line is commonly transcribed as “quel rat,” rather than “quelle rat.”
Read the language noteAn affectionate film note
Kale Rat
A little mishearing.
A lasting affection.
A tribute to two unforgettable words from Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Hear it at 2:44
01 / THE SCENEBreakfast at Tiffany’s · 1961
Two words.
Worth another listen.
Listen around 2:44.
We heard “Kale Rat.”
Loading embedded preview · begin at 2:44
Holly Golightly · Paul Varjak · a line heard our own way
02 / THE PHRASE
What Holly said. What we heard.
THE ANGELA & PAUL VERSION
“Kale Rat.”
What we heard. What stuck.
Two wonderfully odd little words that became a memory of our own. Not a correction—just the version that stayed with us.
Sometimes the best translation is the one you make together.
THE NASA DAYS
Pleasanton Sunnyvale
Angela, back in the NASA days, you’d drive from Pleasanton to Sunnyvale to hang out with me after work. We watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s in my old apartment, and you loved those two words: “Kale Rat.”
About ten years later, I still love that this is what we heard. I created kalerat.com to give that little memory a home.
Love, Paul