172 quotes found
"Prison life is more structured than most men care for."
"I tried to stand up and fly straight, but it wasn't easy with that sumbitch Reagan in the White House. I don't know. They say he's a decent man, so maybe his advisors are confused."
"At first I didn't believe it — that this woman, who looked as fertile as the Tennessee Valley, could not bear children. But the doctor explained that her insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase."
"I drifted off thinking about happiness, birth, new life. But now I was haunted by a vision of — he was horrible! — a lone biker of the apocalypse; a man with all the powers of hell at his command. He turned day into night and laid to waste everything in his path. He was especially hard on the little things, the helpless and the gentle creatures. He left a scorched earth in his wake, befouling even the sweet desert breeze which crossed his brow. I didn't know where he came from or why. I didn't know if he was dream or vision, but I feared that I myself had unleashed him. He was the fury that would be as soon as Florence Arizona found her little Nathan gone!"
"There's what's right, and there's what's right, and never the twain shall meet."
"Nathan needs some Huggies, I'll be out directly. Mind you stay strapped in."
"I'll be taking these Huggies and whatever cash you got."
"That night I had a dream. I dreamt I was as light as the ether, a floating spirit visiting things to come. The shades and shadows of the people in my life wrestled their way into my slumber. I dreamt that Gale and Evelle had decided to return to prison. Probably that's just as well. I don't mean to sound superior, and they're a swell couple of guys, but maybe they weren't ready yet to come out into the world. And then I dreamed on, into the future, to a Christmas morn in the Arizona home where Nathan Junior was opening a present from a kindly couple who preferred to remain unknown. I saw Glen a few years later, still having no luck getting the cops to listen to his wild tales about me and Ed. Maybe he threw in one Polack joke too many. I don't know. And still I dreamed on, further into the future than I'd ever dreamed before, watching Nathan Junior's progress from afar, taking pride in his accomplishments, as if he were our own, wondering if he ever thought of us, and hoping that maybe we'd broadened his horizons a little, even if he couldn't remember just how they got broadened. But still I hadn't dreamt nothin' about me and Ed, until the end. And this was cloudier, 'cause it was years, years away. But I saw an old couple being visited by their children, and all their grandchildren too. The old couple wasn't screwed up, and neither were their kids or their grandkids. And I don't know. You tell me. This whole dream, was it wishful thinking? Was I just fleeing reality like I know I'm liable to do? But me and Ed, we can be good, too. And it seemed real. It seemed like us, and it seemed like, well, our home. If not Arizona, then a land not too far away, where all parents are strong and wise and capable, and all children are happy and beloved. I don't know. Maybe it was Utah."
"Give me that baby, you warthog from hell!"
"We didn't escape, we released ourselves on our own recognizance."
"H.I., you're young and you got your health. What you want with a job?"
"Well, this is nothing but a goddamn shakedown and a screwjob, any way you look at it!"
"And if a frog had wings he wouldn't bump his ass a-hoppin'."
"I don't know what his damn jammies looked like... they had Yodas and shit on them."
"Nobody sleeps naked in this house boy!"
"800 leaf tables and no chairs. You can't sell leaf tables and no chairs. Chairs you got a dinette set, no chairs you got dick! I ask my wife she got more sense."
"Are you boys gonna chase down your leads or are you gonna sit around drinking coffee in the one house in the state where I know my boy ain't at?"
"Everyone leaves microbes and whatnot. Hell, that’s your forte ain’t it, tracking down them microbes left by criminals and commies n’ shit. That's your whole God-damn raison d'etre, ain't it?"
"I said, "Healthy white baby? Five years? What else you got?" Said they got two Koreans and a negra born with his heart on the outside. It's a crazy world."
"Say, did you hear about the person of the Polish persuasion who walked into a bar with a big 'ol pile of shit in his hands and he says, "Look what I almost stepped in"?"
"Payroll Cashier: Government do take a bite, don't she?"
"Leonard Smalls: You want to find an outlaw, hire an outlaw. You want to find a Dunkin' Donuts, call a cop."
"Feisty Hayseed: Well, which is it young feller? You want I should freeze or get down on the ground? I mean to say, if'n I freeze I can't rightly drop, and if'n I drop I'm a gonna be in motion."
"Hayseed in Pickup: Son, you got a panty on your head."
"Dot: Riley!. ... You take that diaper off your head! You put it back onto your sister!"
"Dot: You gotta get 'em diptet boosters yearly or else they'll develop lockjaw and night vision."
"Dot: That there's for his orthodonture and his university. You soak his thumb in iodine and you might get by without the orthodonture, but it won't knock a thing off the university."
"Nicolas Cage as Herbert "H.I."/"Hi" McDunnough"
"Holly Hunter as Edwina "Ed" McDunnough"
"Trey Wilson as Nathan Arizona, Sr."
"John Goodman as Gale Snoats"
"William Forsythe as Evelle Snoats"
"Sam McMurray as Glen"
"Frances McDormand as Dot"
"Randall "Tex" Cobb as Leonard Smalls (Lone Biker of the Apocalypse)"
"T.J. Kuhn as Nathan Jr."
"Lynne Dumin Kitei as Florence Arizona"
"Warren Keith as Younger FBI Agent"
"Henry M. Kendrick as Older FBI Agent"
"Charles "Lew" Smith as Whitey (convenience store clerk)"
"M. Emmet Walsh as Machine Shop Ear-Bender"
"Patrick McAreavy as Whitetail Ferguson"
"You fascinate me."
"Sorry. I'm not omniscient."
"Ham sandwich on stale rye bread. Lots of mayo, easy on the ham."
"Let the record show that the Baron has identified Rex Rexroth as the silly man!"
"I've invested five good years in my marriage to Rex and I've nailed his ass fair and square. Now I'm going to have it stuffed, mounted, and have my lady friends come over and throw darts at it."
"You want tact, call a tactician. You want an ass nailed, you call Gus Petch."
"[repeated line] I'm gonna nail your ass!"
"You didnt tell me they had a hard-on for anus africanus!"
"Who needs a home when you have a colostomy bag"
"[Wheezy Joe has just accidentally shot himself] Told him it was no go..."
"Why kill the only woman you've ever loved when she's the richer party."
"Explain this away, darling!"
"I'm going to talk to you about the law. We serve the law. We honor the law. And sometimes, we obey the law. But this is not one of those times."
"You should have seen this coming you Australian piece of shit!"
"Has any one got some bones?"
"I am a baron you silly man!"
"[Pointing to Rex Rexroth] I introduced her to that silly man."
"Engage the enemy."
"A romantic comedy with bite."
"George Clooney - Miles Massey"
"Catherine Zeta-Jones - Marylin Hamilton Rexroth Doyle Massey"
"Geoffrey Rush - Donovan Donaly"
"Cedric the Entertainer - Gus Petch"
"Edward Herrmann - Rex Rexroth"
"Paul Adelstein - Wrigley"
"Richard Jenkins - Freddy Bender"
"Billy Bob Thornton - Howard D. Doyle"
"Julia Duffy - Sarah Batista O'Flanagan Sorkin"
"Jonathan Hadary - Heinz, the Baron Krauss von Espy"
"Tom Aldredge - Herb Myerson"
"Stacey Travis - Bonnie Donaly"
"Wendle Josepher - Miles' Receptionist"
"Jack Kyle - Ollie"
"Isabell O'Connor - Judge Marva Munson"
"Irwin Keyes - Wheezy Joe"
"Colin Linden - Father Scot"
"Kiersten Warren - Claire O'Mara"
"Me, I don't talk much. I just cut the hair."
"I lived in a little bungalow on Napa Street. The place was OK, I guess. It had an electric ice box, gas hearth, and a garbage grinder built into the sink. You might say I had it made."
"Sooner or later everyone needs a haircut."
"I sat in the house, but there was nobody there. I was a ghost; I didn't see anyone. No one saw me. I was the barber."
"Time slows down right before an accident, and I had time to think about things. I thought about what an undertaker had told me once - that your hair keeps growing, for a while anyway, after you die, and then it stops. I thought, "What keeps it growing? Is it like a plant in soil? What goes out of the soil? The soul? And when does the hair realize that it's gone?""
"[about his lawyer's courtroom speech] And then it was Riedenschneider's turn. I gotta hand it to him, he tossed a lot of sand in their eyes. He talked about how I'd lost my place in the universe; how I was too ordinary to be the criminal mastermind the D.A. made me out to be; how there was some greater scheme at work that the state had yet to unravel. And he threw in some of the old "truth" stuff he hadn't had a chance to trot out for Doris. He told them to look at me, look at me close. That the closer they looked, the less sense it would all make; that I wasn't the kind of guy to kill a guy; that I was The Barber, for Christsake. I was just like them - an ordinary man. Guilty of living in a world that had no place for me, yeah. Guilty of wanting to be a dry cleaner, sure. But not a murderer. He said I was modern man, and if they voted to convict me, well, they'd be practically cinching the noose around their own necks. He told them to look, not at the facts, but at the meaning of the facts. Then he said the facts had no meaning. It was a pretty good speech. It even had me going until Frankie interrupted it."
"Yeah, I guess I'm sorry about the pain I caused other people, but I don't regret anything. I used to. I used to regret being the barber."
"I don't know where I'm being taken. I don't know what waits for me beyond the earth and sky. Maybe the things I don't understand will be clearer there, like when a fog blows away. Maybe Doris will be there, and maybe there I can tell her all those things they don't have words for here."
"One more thing: you keep your mouth shut. I get the lay of the land. I tell you what to say. No talking out of school. What's out of school? Everything's out of school. I do the talking. You keep your trap shut. I'm an attorney. You're a barber. You don't know anything. Understood?"
"I litigate. I don't capitulate."
"They got this guy in Germany, Fritz Something-or-other. Or is it? Maybe it's Werner. Anyway, he's got this theory. You wanna test something, you know, scientifically - how the planets go round the sun, what sunspots are made of, why the water comes out of the tap. Well, you gotta look at it. But sometimes you look at it, your looking changes it. You can't know the reality of what happened, or what would've happened if you hadn't-a stuck in your own goddamn schnozz. So there is no "what happened," not in any sense that we can grasp with our puny minds, because our minds — our minds get in the way. Looking at something changes it. They call it the "Uncertainty Principle." Sure, it sounds screwy, but even Einstein says the guy's on to something."
"The more you look, the less you really know."
"Jacques Carcanogues: [to Ed, after Birdy's piano audition] Nice girl. Someday, I think, maybe, she make a very good typist."
"Birdy Abundas: You know what you are? An enthusiast."
"Ann Nirdlinger Brewster: Knowledge can be a curse."
"The last thing on his mind is murder."
"Billy Bob Thornton - Ed Crane"
"Frances McDormand - Doris Crane"
"Michael Badalucco - Frank"
"James Gandolfini - Big Dave Brewster"
"Katherine Borowitz - Ann Nirdlinger Brewster"
"Jon Polito - Creighton Tolliver"
"Scarlett Johansson - Birdy Abundas"
"Richard Jenkins - Walter Abundas"
"Tony Shalhoub - Freddy Riedenschneider"
"Christopher Kriesa - Officer Persky"
"Brian Haley - Officer Krebs"
"Jack McGee - P.I. Burns"
"Tell them, "Thanks, but no thanks." That short enough for you?"
"Here at Capitol Pictures, as you know, an army of technicians, actors, and top notch artistic people are working hard to bring to the screen the story of the Christ. It's a swell story."
"Hey, Hobie. You're a Communist, too?"
"That's what happened to me when I went to Reno with Danny Kaye and he asked me to shave his back. Exact same thing. Because, I'm thinkin', who benefits? So, let me tell ya, everybody thinks that Danny's a jerk, he's not really a jerk. That's just a theory generating its own anti-theory. Anyway, there we were, it's me and Danny and I'm wondering what the hell am I doin' with a razor in my hand? And he says it's for a Norman Taurog picture. But, Judy Canova's there and she knows Norman and she says, "Danny's not doing a Norman Taurog picture! He just wants you to shave his back!" And that's who benefits!"
"It is 5:00 AM. Still shank of night for some. But, for Eddie Mannix, beginning of a new work day. The movie studio for which he works manufactures stories. Each, its own daylit drama, or moonlit dream. But, the work of Essie Mannix cares not for day or night. And cares little for his rest."
"Would that it were so simple?"
"It's complicated."
"We are heading out to sea and however it will be, it ain't gonna be the same. cause no matter what we see, when we're out there on the sea, we ain't gonna see a dame. we'll be searching high and low on the deck and down below but it's a crying shame. Oh, we'll see a lot of fish but we'll never clock a dish. We ain't gonna see a dame. No dames! we might see some octopuses No dames! or a half a dozen clams No dames! we might even see a mermaid But mermaids got no gams! No gams! Have I got a girl for you! out there on the sea! Here's how it will be i'm gonna dance with you, pal you're gonna dance with me! When we're out there on the sea we'll be happy as can be Or so the Captain claims! But we have to disagree. Cause the only guarantee Is I'll see a lot of you And you'll see a lot of me! And it's absolutely certain That we'll see a lot of sea. But we ain't gonna see no dames. No dames! We're going to sea! No dames! We're going to sea! No dames! We're going to sea! We ain't gonna see no Dames!"
"Director: Squint against the grandeur!"
"Carlotta Valdez: It's all in the hips, the lips, and the eyes and the thighs."
"Josh Brolin — Eddie Mannix"
"George Clooney — Baird Whitlock"
"Alden Ehrenreich — Hobart "Hobie" Doyle"
"Ralph Fiennes — Laurence Laurentz"
"Scarlett Johansson — DeeAnna Moran"
"Frances McDormand — C.C. Calhoun"
"Tilda Swinton — Thora and Thessaly Thacker"
"Channing Tatum — Burt Gurney"
"Alison Pill — Connie Mannix"
"Veronica Osorio — Carlotta Valdez"
"Emily Beecham — Dierdre"
"Heather Goldenhersh — Natalie"
"Wayne Knight — Communist operative who kidnaps Baird Whitlock."
"Jonah Hill — Joseph Silverman"
"Max Baker — John Howard Hermann"
"Christopher Lambert — Arne Seslum"
"Geoffrey Cantor — Sid Siegelstein"
"Ian Blackman — Cuddahy"
"Fred Melamed — Fred"
"Patrick Fischler — Benedict"
"David Krumholtz — Herschel"
"Fisher Stevens — a Communist screenwriter"
"Alex Karpovsky — Mr. Smitrovich"
"Greg Baldwin — Dutch Zweistrong"
"Clancy Brown — Gracchus"
"Robert Picardo — Rabbi"
"Allan Havey — Protestant Clergyman"
"Natasha Bassett — Gloria DeLamour"
"John Bluthal — Herbert Marcuse"
"Dolph Lundgren (uncredited) — Soviet submarine commander"
"Robert Trebor — producer of Hail, Caesar!"
"Michael Gambon — Narrator"
"The Uncertainty Principle. It proves we can't ever really know... what's going on. So it shouldn't bother you. Not being able to figure anything out. Although you will be responsible for this on the mid-term."
"Mere sir my sir?"
"Embers is not the forum for legalities, Larry."
"The Jolly Roger is the appropriate course of action. It has a swimming pool. It is eminently habitable."
"Michael Stuhlbarg - Lawrence "Larry" Gopnik"
"Richard Kind - Arthur Gopnik"
"Sari Lennick - Judith Gopnik"
"Fred Melamed - Sy Ableman"
"Aaron Wolff - Danny Gopnik"
"Jessica McManus - Sarah Gopnik"
"Alan Mandell - Rabbi Marshak"
"Adam Arkin - Don Milgram"
"George Wyner - Rabbi Nachtner"
"Amy Landecker - Mrs. Vivienne Samsky"
"Katherine Borowitz - Mimi Nudell"
"Allen Lewis Rickman - Velvel"
"Yelena Shmulenson - Dora"
"Fyvush Finkel - Traitle Groshkover"
"Simon Helberg - Rabbi Scott Ginsler"
"Michael Lerner - Solomon Schlutz"
"David Kang - Clive"
"Steve Park - Clive's father"
"Ari Hoptman - Arlen Finkle"