by Ginger Marin
Cool pick up lines, famous speeches, and infamous sound bites…they are what makes a film immortal. These are some of Lotta’s favorite movie quotes. Each was chosen because it represents screenwriting eloquence, intelligent and acute social observation, or because they’re just plain fun.
Special Honorary Quotation
“I have been battling something I cannot win and I am withdrawing from the field with honor.”
–spoken by actor Roddy McDowall shortly before his death on Oct. 3, 1998–
“At some point, you have to choose between life and fiction. The two are very close, but they never actually touch.” (Dennis Quaid in “The Words”)
“We all make our choices in life, the hard thing to do is live with them.” (Jeremy Irons in “The Words”)
“You should never stop thinking about a life you’ve taken. That’s the price you pay for taking it.” (Guy Pearce as Eric to Robert Pattinson’s Rey in “The Rover”)
“You don’t have the sense God gave a donut, do you? (Scott Glenn as newspaperman Jack Buggit to Kevin Spacey’s hapless Quoyle in “The Shipping News”.)
“How could I forget about you? You’re the only person I know.” – (Matt Damon as the amnesiac spy Jason Bourne in “The Bourne Identity”)
“I feel thin, like butter spread over too much bread” (Ian Holm as the elderly Bilbo Baggins in “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring“)
“Don’t you want to hear my last words?”
“I just did.” — (Danny DeVito as backstabber Bergman in the David Mamet film “Heist” and Gene Hackman’s response as jewel thief Joe Moore before killing Bergman)
“There’s no wise old man, … there’s just us” (Kevin Costner as Presidential aide Kenny O’Donnell in “Thirteen Days” commenting on the need for wisdom to cope with the Cuban Missile Crisis.)
“What is there about the free world that pisses off the rest of the world?” (Kevin Costner as Presidential aide Kenny O’Donnell in “Thirteen Days”)
“Communicate with the Soviets? We can’t communicate with the Pentagon.” (Kevin Costner as Presidential aide Kenny O’Donnell in Thirteen Days)
“Your faults as a son are my failures as a father.” (Richard Harris as Marcus Aurelius to son Commodus in “Gladiator)
“I don’t pretend to be a man of the people, Senator, but I do try to be a man for the people.” (Derek Jacobi as the Roman Senator Gracus in “Gladiator“)
“Clear the mechanism” (Kevin Costner as star baseball pitcher Billy Chapel in “For Love of the Game”. He used this term each time he was to pitch, allowing him to block out all sounds of the ballpark and thus focus totally on his technique)
“Land is a ship too big for me.” (Tim Roth as the legendary piano prodigy in “The Legend of 1900″, a man who lived his entire life aboard an ocean liner)
“Failure is never quite so frightening as regret.” – (San Neill as Cliff Buxton in “The Dish” quoting his deceased wife.)
“How to deal with death is at least as important as how to deal with life.” (William Shatner as Admiral Kirk in “Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan”)
“He’s a businessman. I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.” (Marlon Brando as Don Corleone in “The Godfather”)
“Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth”. (Stephen Fry as Oscar Wilde in “Wilde”)
“The last time you were sorry was when you had to use the pay toilet and the string on your pet dime broke.” (Kathy Bates in “Delores Claiborne”)
“You work for the American Dream, you don’t steal it” (Bill Paxton as Hank in “A Simple Plan”)
“A gun is a tool, Marian, no better, no worse than any other tool, an ax, a shovel, or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it, remember that.” (Alan Ladd in “Shane”, screenplay by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.)
“For our policeman we created a race of robots. Their function is to patrol the planets in spaceships like this one and preserve the peace. In matters of aggression we have given them absolute power over us. Their power cannot be revoked. At the first signs of violence they act automatically against the aggressors. The penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk. The result is we live in peace without arms or armies, secure in the knowledge that we are free from aggression and war, free to pursue more profitable enterprises. Now we do not pretend to have achieved perfection, but we do have a system, and it works.” (Michael Rennie, in “The Day The Earth Stood Still” – 1951)
“If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill, as God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.” (Vivien Leigh in “Gone With The Wind”)
“I had a farm in Africa….” (Meryl Streep in “Out of Africa”)
“People who hate the light usually hate the truth. (Burt Lancaster in “Separate Tables”)
“Communism. Capitalism. It’s the innocents who get slaughtered.” (Richard Burton in “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold”)
Nobody ever lies about being lonely.” (Montgomery Clift in “From Here to Eternity”)
“As old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth.” (Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle in “Miracle on 34th Street” in response to a question about his age)
“Live? I can’t go on live! I’m a movie star – not an actor.” (Peter O’Toole in “My Favorite Year”)
“Stand up wherever you are, go to the nearest window and yell as loud as you can, ‘I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.'” (Peter Finch as an angry newsanchor in “Network”)
“People put you down, you start to believe it…the bad stuff is easier to believe…did you ever notice that?” (Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman”)