Mr. Holland's Opus

"Playing music is supposed to be fun. It's about heart, it's about feelings, moving people, and something beautiful, and it's not about notes on a page. I can teach you notes on a page, I can't teach you that other stuff."

"The day they cut the football budget in this state, that will be the end of Western Civilization as we know it!"

"It's almost funny. I got dragged into this gig kicking and screaming, and now it's the only thing I want to do."

"You work for 30 years because you think that what you do makes a difference, you think it matters to people, but then you wake up one morning and find out, well no, you've made a little error there, you're expendable. I should be laughing."

"[to Rowena Morgan - after she tells him she'd love to be a singer in New York] ... you have a great talent and if you have the passion, if you have the hunger, then you oughta go to New York and do what you want to do, no matter what anyone tells you."

"A teacher has two jobs; fill young minds with knowledge, yes, but more important, give those minds a compass so that that knowledge doesn't go to waste."

"Iris Holland: Why is everyone else's child more important than yours?"

"Bill Meister(crying over the grave of Louis Russ, a former student killed in Vietnam): We know too many of these kids!"

"Gertrude Lang: [as an adult] Mr. Holland had a profound influence on my life and on a lot of lives I know. But I have a feeling that he considers a great part of his own life misspent. Rumor had it he was always working on this symphony of his. And this was going to make him famous, rich, probably both. But Mr. Holland isn't rich and he isn't famous, at least not outside of our little town. So it might be easy for him to think himself a failure. But he would be wrong, because I think that he's achieved a success far beyond riches and fame. Look around you. There is not a life in this room that you have not touched, and each of us is a better person because of you. We are your symphony Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus. We are the music of your life."

"A symphony of life."

"We are your symphony Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus. We are the music of your life."

"It's not about the direction you take. It's about the direction you give."

"Of all the lives he changed, the one that changed the most was his own."

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

"Richard Dreyfuss - Glenn Holland"

"Glenne Headly - Iris Holland"

"Jay Thomas - Bill Meister"

"Olympia Dukakis - Principal Helen Jacobs"

"William H. Macy - Vice Principal (later Principal) Gene Wolters"

"Alicia Witt - Gertrude Lang"

"Terrence Howard - Louis Russ"

"Damon Whitaker - Bobby Tidd"

"Jean Louisa Kelly - Rowena Morgan"

"Alexandra Boyd - Sarah Olmstead"

"Nicholas John Renner - Coltrane "Cole" Holland (age 6)"

"Joseph Anderson - Coltrane "Cole" Holland (age 15)"

"Anthony Natale - Coltrane "Cole" Holland (age 28)"

"Joanna Gleason - Governor Gertrude Lang"

"Beth Maitland - Deaf School Principal"

"Balthazar Getty - Stadler"