How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Sunset Boulevard.
Quote #1
JOE: A neglected house gets an unhappy look. This one had it in spades. It was like that old woman in Great Expectations—that Miss Havisham in her rotting wedding dress and her torn veil, taking it out on the world because she'd been given the go-by.
Miss who? In Great Expectations, Miss Havisham is angry at the world because her fiancé stood her up at their wedding—she's still stuck being a Miss when she could have been a Mrs. Norma Desmond, on the other hand, is angry at the world for a slightly different reason—the movie business is no longer in love with her and her celebrity has faded.
Quote #2
JOE: She sure could say a lot of things with those pale eyes of hers. They'd been her trademark. They'd made her the Number One Vamp of another era. I remember a rather florid description in an old fan magazine which said: "Her eyes are like two moonlit waterholes, where strange animals come to drink."
Joe sees Norma as a kind of enchantress—even though she's deluded and crazy in a not very attractive way, some of the old magic of her star power remains. You can't deny: girl's got charisma.
Quote #3
JOE: Honestly, it's a little old hat. They don't want that any more.
NORMA: They don't? Then why do they still write me fan letters every day? Why do they beg me for my photographs? Because they want to see me, me, me! Norma Desmond.
Joe is trying to convince Norma to cut out an unnecessary scene in her screenplay, but Norma wants more screen time and resists for that reason. It's just one more instance of her neurotic self-obsession. (Also, Norma's servant Max is secretly writing most—if not all—of those fan letters.)