All Quotes

"Alec Baldwin - Blake"

"Ed Harris - Dave Moss"

"Alan Arkin - George Aaronow"

"Kevin Spacey - John Williamson"

"Jonathan Pryce - James Lingk"

"Bruce Altman - Larry Spannel"

"Jude Ciccolella - Detective"

"[in deleted scene, when asked by Jason Evans what will happen to humanity] Well, mankind survived the last Ice Age. We are certainly capable of surviving this one. The only question is, will we learn from our mistakes? I sure as hell would like a chance to learn from mine."

"[Deleted scene; upon learning the Mexicans have closed the US-Mexico border to Americans crossing over, suggesting military action to force an opening] What about them? America is built on land stolen from the Indians, so is Mexico. The only claim nations have on the land they hold is force."

"[addressing as President] These past few weeks have left us all with a profound sense of humility in the face of nature's destructive power. For years, we operated under the belief that we could continue consuming our planet's natural resources, without consequence. We were wrong. I was wrong. The fact that my first address to you comes from a consulate on foreign soil is a testament to our changed reality. Not only Americans, but people all around the globe have become guests in the nations we once called 'the Third World'. In our time of need, they have taken us in and sheltered us, and I am deeply grateful for their hospitality. ... For days now, we have despaired about the fate of the people who are trapped in the North. Today, there is cause for hope. Only a few hours ago, I received word that a small group of people survived in New York City, against all odds and in the face of tremendous adversity. I've ordered an immediate search-and-rescue mission to bring them home - and to look for more survivors."

"Where Will You Be?"

"10,000 Years Ago, One Storm Changed The Face Of Our Planet. On May 28, It Will Happen Again."

"Nature Has Spoken."

"This Year, A Sweater Won't Do."

"Whoever Said "Tomorrow Is Another Day"...Didn't Check The Weather."

"Dennis Quaid - Jack Hall"

"Jake Gyllenhaal - Sam Hall"

"Emmy Rossum - Laura Chapman"

"Dash Mihok - Jason Evans"

"Jay Sanders - Frank Harris"

"Sela Ward - Dr. Lucy Hall"

"Nestor Serrano - Thomas "Tom" Gomez"

"Austin Nichols - J.D."

"Arjay Smith - Brian Parks"

"Ian Holm - Terry Rapson"

"Kennth Welsh - Vice President Becker"

"Fine, large, meaningless, general terms like romance and business can always be related. They take the place of thinking, and are highly useful to optimists and lecturers."

"Every compulsion is put upon writers to become safe, polite, obedient, and sterile. In protest, I declined election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters some years ago, and now I must decline the Pulitzer Prize."

"Fortune has dealt with me rather too well. I have known little struggle, not much poverty, many generosities. Now and then I have, for my books or myself, been somewhat warmly denounced — there was one good pastor in California who upon reading my Elmer Gantry desired to lead a mob and lynch me, while another holy man in the state of Maine wondered if there was no respectable and righteous way of putting me in jail. And, much harder to endure than any raging condemnation, a certain number of old acquaintances among journalists, what in the galloping American slang we call the "I Knew Him When Club", have scribbled that since they know me personally, therefore I must be a rather low sort of fellow and certainly no writer. But if I have now and then received such cheering brickbats, still I, who have heaved a good many bricks myself, would be fatuous not to expect a fair number in return."

"The trouble with this country is... that there're too many people going about saying "The trouble with this country is—""

"Slow yellow river flowing, willows that gesture in tepid August airs, and four children playing at greatness, as, doubtless, great men themselves must play."

"Probably none of the Weagles gave five minutes' thought a year to theology or ecclesiology, except Ora, who occasionally stirred up a lot of interesting family irritation by announcing that he was going to become a Catholic, an Episcopalian, a Buddhist, or a Seventh Day Adventist."

"Myron reflected that there are so many people in the world who are eager to do for you things that you do not wish done, provided only that you will do for them things that you don't wish to do."

"I understand you all want to be writers. Well, what are you doing here? Why the devil aren't you home writing?"

"Mr. Blingham, and may he fry in his own cooking-oil, was assistant treasurer of the Flaver-Saver Company."

"His entire system of theology was comprised in the Bible, which he never read, and the Methodist Church, which he rarely attended."

"Maybe he was not a good-enough Christian to get the proper zest out of mortifying his indolent flesh. ~ Ch. 15"

"The reason for it all, nobody who is actually engaged in it can tell you, except the bosses, who believe that these sacred rites of composing dull letters and solemnly filing them away are observed in order that they may buy the large automobiles in which they do not have time to take the air."

"Mr. Wilkins came back and hemmed and hawed a good deal; he praised the work she hadn't considered well done, and pointed out faults in what she considered particularly clever achievements."

"It has been calculated that ninety-three million women in all parts of the world have ruined their complexions, and therefore, their souls, by Pemberton's creams and lotions for saving the same; and that nearly three-tenths of the alcohol consumed in prohibition counties is obtained in Pemberton's tonics and blood-builders and women's specifics, the last being regarded by large farmers with beards as especially tasty and stimulating."

"This age, which should adjudge happiness to be as valuable as soap or munitions, would never come so long as the workers accepted the testimony of paid spokesmen... to the effect that they were contented and happy, rather than the evidence of their own wincing nerves to the effect that they live in a polite version of hell."

"She was not a Respectable Married Woman but fully a human being."

"There had to be one man in town independent enough to sass the banker!"

"I went to a denominational college and learned that since dictating the Bible, and hiring a perfect race of ministers to explain it, God has never done much but creep around and try to catch us disobeying it."

"The outhouse was so overmodestly masked with vines and lattice that it was not concealed at all."

"I think perhaps we want a more conscious life. We're tired of drudging and sleeping and dying. We're tired of seeing just a few people able to be individualists. We're tired of always deferring hope till the next generation. We're tired of hearing politicians and priests and cautious reformers... coax us, 'Be calm! Be patient! Just give us a bit more time and we’ll produce it; trust us; we’re wiser than you!' For ten thousand years they've said that. We want our Utopia now— and we're going to try our hands at it."

""I wonder if you can understand the 'fun' of making a beautiful thing, the pride and satisfaction of it, and the holiness!" The company glanced doubtfully at one another. In Gopher Prairie it is not good form to be holy except at church, between ten-thirty and twelve on Sunday."

"The content of his theology was that there was a supreme being who had tried to make us perfect, but presumably had failed; that if one was a Good Man he would go to a place called Heaven.... Upon this theology he rarely pondered. The kernel of his practical religion was that it was respectable, and beneficial to one's business, to be seen going to services; that the church kept the Worst Elements from being still worse; and that the pastor's sermons, however dull they might seem at the time of taking, yet had a voodooistic power which 'did a fellow good — kept him in touch with higher things.' ~ Ch. 16"

"She did her work with the thoroughness of mind which reveres details and never quite understands them. ~ Ch. 18"

"Carol was discovering that the one thing that can be more disconcerting than intelligent hatred is demanding love. "She supposed that she was being gracefully dull and standardized in the Smails' presence, but they scented the heretic, and with forward-stooping delight they sat and tried to drag out her ludicrous concepts for their amusement. They were like the Sunday-afternoon mob starting at monkeys in the Zoo, poking fingers and making faces and giggling at the resentment of the more dignified race... They were staggered to learn that a real tangible person, living in Minnesota, and married to their own flesh-and-blood relation, could apparently believe that divorce may not always be immoral; that illegitimate children do not bear any special and guaranteed form of curse; that there are ethical authorities outside of the Hebrew Bible; that men have drunk wine yet not died in the gutter; that the capitalistic system of distribution and the Baptist wedding-ceremony were not known in the Garden of Eden;... that there are Ministers of the Gospel who accept evolution; that some persons of intelligence and business ability do not always vote the Republican ticket straight;... that a violin is not inherently more immoral than a chapel organ... 'Where does she get all them the'ries?' marveled Uncle Whittier Smail."