1960s-american-films

"– the Widow"

"Look, boss: a big, beautiful, wild widow."

"– Alexis Zorba"

"[when dancing] Whoopa! Whoopa! Whoopa!"

"Do you know how old I am? Ah, never mind, that's a secret. But I... have got to go fast. You know, they... they say that age kills the fire inside of a man. That he hears death coming. He opens the door, says, "Come in. Give me rest." That is a pack of God damned lies. I've got enough fight in me to... to devour the world! So... I fight!"

"They hate her because they cannot have her. Only one man here can. You."

"If there is God—and I ask you, why not?—I imagine him to look just like me, Zorba. Only bigger, stronger and crazier. And more permanent. His house is the sky. The walls are clouds and the floor is covered with sheepskins. And there he sits, very comfortable, like a pasha. In his right hand he holds something which is not a sword and not a pair of scales either. Only killers and grocers have any use for such things. No sir. He holds a big sponge, dripping with water like a raincloud. On his right side, there is Paradise. On his left, Hell. ... Suddenly, a soul arrives. Naked poor thing and shivering with cold. God looks at the soul and smiles under his big moustaches. But he plays tough. "Come here," he says, putting on his special deep voice. "Come here, you no good tramp, you miserable worm. Confess!" "Have a heart, dear God," the soul cries, "Be merciful." And off she goes. She tells him one thing, then another, then another. And still there is no end to the bloody sins. Talk, talk, talk, talk. God gets bored. He yawns. "Shut up!" he shouts. "You give me a headache." And flop, flop with a sponge... and he wipes out all the sins. "Enough! Clear out, to Paradise. Quick! Hey, Peter, here's another one for you! ... [smiles and strokes beard] Poor little soul." ... That's God for you: a king, a great big king. And you know what it means to be a king?"

"Am I not a man? And is a man not stupid? I'm a man, so I married. Wife, children, house, everything, the full catastrophe."

"When my little boy, Dimitri, died, everybody was crying. Me? I got up, and I danced. They said, 'Zorba is mad.' But it was the dancing—only the dancing—that stopped the pain. You see, he was my first. He was only three. When I'm happy, it's the same thing."

"Why'? Will no man ever do something without a 'why'? Just like that, for the hell of it."

"– Mavrandoni"

"Boss, why did God give us hands? To grab. Well, grab!"

"Silly old bitch. She's not alone, she's with Suleiman Pasha having a hell of a time."

"And, as for women, you make fun of me that I love them. How can I not love them? They are such poor, weak creatures. They think so little. A man's hand on their breast, and they give you all they got."

"You are cruel! Why you abandon me? The whole village is laughing at me. Where is my white satin? Where is my wedding dress?"

"The extraordinary is as rare in motion pictures as it is in life. [...] Yet there is no better word for Anthony Quinn in the role he was born to play: Zorba the Greek. [...] Everything about the film and the man is different. [...] When Zorba talks, you listen. [...] When Zorba drinks, you taste it. When Zorba loves, you feel it. Because this is a man who devours life as if it were a feast, a man who never puts off till tomorrow what he can enjoy today. Here is his world: sea-bathed, sun-washed Greece. Its sights, its sounds, its music, its dancing. Above all, here are its people: as proud as the silent village beauty whose desires only Zorba understood; [...] the vulnerable English youth whom Zorba sent stumbling into love; the Rabelaisian French madame who was loved by no less than four admirals; people as proud, as cruel, as revengeful, as murderous, as their barren, mountainous homeland. [...] And overshadowing them all, Zorba fighting for life, laughing at death, attaining his place among the immortal characters of our time."

"You think too much. That is your trouble. Clever people and grocers, they weigh everything."

"Remember this: if a woman sleeps alone, it puts a shame on all men. God has a very big heart, but there is one sin He will not forgive [slaps table]: if a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go. I know, because a very wise old Turk told me."

"No more fooling around, not in this place. We'll pull our pants up and make a pile of money."

"There will be no funeral. She was a Frank, she crossed herself with four fingers. The priest will not bury her like everybody else."

"You bastard mountain! I'll eat your guts!"

"Listen to that bitch—the sea—that maker of widows."

"– Manolakas"

"(deleted scenes) – Peasant girl"

"– Mimithos"

"– Madame Hortense"

"The lamb, it will burn!"

"Those damn cats!"

"Hey boss, did you ever see a more splendiferous crash?"

"All right, we go outside where God can see us better."

"What kind of man are you, don't you even like dolphins?"

"I fought breasts to breasts."

"Anthony Quinn plays Zorba. NO Anthony Quinn is Zorba!"

"Life. Lust. Love. Zorba."

"On a deaf man's door, you can knock forever!"

"Zorba, you are in paradise."

"David Weston - Gino"

"Jane Asher - Francesca"

"Nigel Green - Ludovico"

"Vincent Price - Prince Prospero"

"SHUDDER... at the blood-stained dance of the Red Death! TREMBLE... to the hideous tortures of the catacombs of Kali! GASP... at the sacrifice of the innocent virgin to the vengeance of Baal!"

"Hazel Court - Juliana"

"John Westbrook - The Red Death"

"Horror has a face."

"The hostility the film received from the US Catholic Legion of Decency came as a total surprise. I'm a lapsed Catholic myself. We had to make cuts for blasphemy and nudity, and the film was censored even more heavily in the UK. But I'm being asked to talk about it a great deal at the moment, with the pandemic. ... The Red Death plays almost as if it were about the coronavirus. And Prospero's behaviour – shutting himself away in the castle – is not dissimilar to our former president's."

"Stare into this face and count if you can the orgies of evil...."

"It's time for a new dance to begin... the Dance of Death!"

"[to Prospero] Why should you be afraid to die? Your soul has been dead for a long long time."

"Do you command me to wait? Very well, I wait."

"Do you know how a falcon is trained, my dear? Her eyes are sewn shut. Blinded temporarily, she suffers the whims of her God patiently, until her will is submerged and she learns to serve - as your God taught and blinded you with crosses."