films-about-deaf-people

"Terrence Howard - Louis Russ"

"Alicia Witt - Gertrude Lang"

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

"Olympia Dukakis - Principal Helen Jacobs"

"A symphony of life."

"Jay Thomas - Bill Meister"

"Glenne Headly - Iris Holland"

"Richard Dreyfuss - Glenn Holland"

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

"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."

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

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

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

"Balthazar Getty - Stadler"

"Beth Maitland - Deaf School Principal"

"Joanna Gleason - Governor Gertrude Lang"

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

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

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

"Alexandra Boyd - Sarah Olmstead"

"Jean Louisa Kelly - Rowena Morgan"

"Damon Whitaker - Bobby Tidd"

"Kevin Spacey – Kirgo"

"You mean I'm not white?!?"

"I hear prison isn't so bad if you like it up your butt."

"Today, I threatened to shoot a naked woman with my erection. That doesn't happen every day."

"Well excusez-moi, monsieur hot shit!"

"We're in a warehouse, and you just hit a cow. I think we better back up."

"Did she say ship, or shit?"

"Captain Braddock: What's the story here, Gatlin? I got the commissioner crawling up my ass!"

"One's blind. The other's deaf. The girl's a killer. And they're in it over their heads."

"The first drop dead comedy of the year."

"MURDER! The blind guy couldn't see it. The deaf guy couldn't hear it. Now they're both wanted for it."

"Richard Pryor – Wallace "Wally" Karew"

"Gene Wilder – Dave Lyons"

"Joan Severance – Eve"

"Alan North – Braddock"

"Anthony Zerbe – Sutherland"

"Louis Giambalvo – Gatlin"

"Kristen Childs – Adele"

"I'm an oil man, ladies and gentlemen. I have numerous concerns spread across this state. I have many wells flowing at many thousand barrels per day. I like to think of myself as an oil man. As an oil man, I hope that you'll forgive just good old-fashioned plain speaking. Now, this work that we do is very much a family enterprise. I work side by side with my wonderful son, H. W.—I think one or two of you might have met him already—and I encourage my men to bring their families as well. Of course, it makes for an ever so much more rewarding life. Family means children, and children means education, so wherever we set up camp, education is a necessity, and we're just so happy to take care of that. We'll have to build a wonderful school in Little Boston. These children are the future that we strive for, and so they should have the very best of things. Now, there's something else, and please don't be insulted if I speak about this: bread. Let's talk about bread. Now to my mind, it's an abomination to consider that any man, woman or child in this magnificent country of ours should have to look upon a loaf of bread as a luxury. We're going to dig water wells here, and water wells means irrigation. Irrigations means cultivation. We're going to raise crops here where before it simply wasn't possible. You're going to have more grain than you know what to do with! Bread'll be coming right out of your ears, ma'am. New roads, agriculture, employment, education: these are just a few of the things that we can offer you, and I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, that if we do find oil here—and I think there's a very great chance that we will—this community of yours will not only survive. It will flourish!"

"David Warshofsky - H.M. Tilford"