Screenplays By Oliver Stone

"Doesn't make sense, my not having a home, a family, a life."

"[to Beamen] You're very, very young... and your very, very stupid."

"I don't know what to say, really. Three minutes 'til the biggest battle of our professional lives all comes down to today. Now either we heal as a team or we're gonna crumble, inch by inch, play by play, until we're finished. We're in hell right now, gentlemen, believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell, one inch at a time.Now, I can't do it for ya. I'm too old. I look around. I see these young faces, and I think, I mean, I made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make. I, uh, I pissed away all my money, believe it or not. I chased off anyone who's ever loved me. And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in a mirror. You know, when you get old in life, things get taken from you. I mean that's, that's, that's part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losin' stuff. You find out life's this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game - life or football - the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast, and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second.On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when we add up all those inches, that's gonna make the fuckin' difference between winnin' and losin'! Between livin' and dyin'! I'll tell ya this - in any fight, it's the guy who's willin' to die who's gonna win that inch. And I know if I'm gonna have any life anymore, it's because I'm still willin' to fight and die for that inch. Because that's what livin' is! The six inches in front of your face!!Now, I can't make you do it. You gotta look at the guy next to you. Look into his eyes! Now I think you're gonna see a guy who will go that inch with ya. You're gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows, when it comes down to it, you're gonna do the same for him! That's a team, gentleman! And, either we heal, now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's football, guys. That's all it is. Now, what are you gonna do?"

"That's what a leader's about: sacrifice. The times he's gotta sacrifice because he's gotta lead, by example. Not by fear and not by self-pity."

"It's TV, it changed everything, changed the way we think forever. I mean the first time they stopped the game to cut away to some fucking commercial that was the end of it. Because it was our concentration that mattered, not theirs, not some fruitcake selling cereal."

"Four seconds is a lifetime!"

"On any given Sunday you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. The point is - can you win or lose like a man?"

"You're a goddamn quarterback! You know what that means? It's the top spot, kid. It's the guy who takes the fall. It's the guy everybody's looking at first - the leader of a team - who will support you when they understand you. Who will break their ribs and their noses and their necks for you, because they believe. 'Cause you make them believe. That's a quarterback."

"I'm trying to win coach. I ain't trying to disrespect nobody, but winning is the only thing I respect."

"I look at those pictures on the wall, it just makes me sad. Its like a room full of ghosts. When I'm done with the game, or the game is done with me, I don't wanna be some ghost up on the wall, I wanna be more than that."

"Maybe it's not racism, maybe it's placism. A brother has to know his place, right, coach?"

"If I play my way, I just might win. Then what the fuck was your life about, anyway?"

"And with the time I got left, I'm going to play my way. Get my dollars up. So when you go to waive me, trade, injured reserve me, or whatever the fuck y'all do, I'll be worth ten times what I was worth before I got here."

"[to Willie Beamen] Let me tell you something: For every sucker who makes it, for every Barry Sanders, for every Jerry Rice... there's a hundred niggers you never heard of. Sure, the game's taught you how to strut, how to talk shit, how to hit. But what else? Suddenly, there's no more money. No more women, no more applause. No more dream. This is what I'm trying to say to you. When a man looks back on his life, he should be proud of all of it. Not just the years he spent in pads and cleats. Not just memories of when he was great. You gotta learn that in here. Or if you don't, you ain't a man, you're just another punk."

"[after slicing Beamen's car in half when he insulted the defense] In football, you have the offense and the defense. You can't have one without the other. Respect will be paid."

"Don't you guys drop me. I'm worth a million dollars."

"Football's my life, Coach, my life. [whispers] Its all I know how to do."

"What's next, stigmata?"

"He's fucked up; they're all fucked up."

"He's so freaked about Beamen taking his spot, he'd play with a fractured neck."

"I'm going to consult with a player? What are you talking about? I know his answer! And getting killed, what? Maybe, maybe not. One chance in a thousand. They couldn't take a piss in the morning, without the pills. You want to play innocent? Fuck your innocence! You don't want to hear the answer, don't ask the question. I didn't have to ask him, because I knew the answer. These men are football players, they are gladiators. They will not live with shame, like you. And long ago, they made that choice. Not you, not you. Not me. And I'm not going to take responsibility for standing between them... Didn't you ever have a... dream?"

"Fine, stay here and get butt-fucked by 12 Neanderthals."

"Jack Rose: It's like my ex-wife. 21 different personalities and 7 of them hated me."

"Jack 'Cap' Rooney: Hey, they love you today, but a season is 16 games kid, and its how you live through the bad ones that make you a quarterback, not a punk."

"Margaret Pagniacci: She will sell the team, and everything her father stood for is going to die."

"Margaret Pagniacci: And what will you do after football, Tony, with no one to control?"

"Commissioner: [about Christina Pagniacci] I honestly believe that woman would eat her young."

"Life is a contact sport."

"This Christmas. It's Better To Give Than Receive."

"Play or be played"

"Al Pacino — Tony D'Amato"

"Cameron Diaz — Christina Pagniacci"

"My Alexander... I remember the young man who wanted to be Achilles, and then out did him."

"To love excellence is truly to love the gods."

"Although an inferior race the Persians control at least four fifths of the known world. They rule and we sit around like frogs!"

"Excess in all things is the undoing of men!"

"I promise that I will beat you one day, Hephaistion."

"When men lie together in lust, it is a surrender to the passions and does nothing for the excellence in us. Nor does any other excess, Cassander, jealousy among them. But when men lie together, and knowledge and virtue are passed between them, that is pure and excellent. When they compete to bring out the good, the best in each other, this is the love between men that can build a city-state and lift us from our frog pond."

"The east has a way of swallowing men and their dreams."

"I can only warn you, not teach you. Beware of what you dream for; the gods have a way of punishing such pride."

"If only these frogs could look outward from their favoured position in the centre, Greece could rule the world."

"(Of his father Phillip) This is the man who is going to take you from Macedonia to Persia?! He can't even make it from one couch to the next."

"I didn't cross Asia to steal this victory, Cassander." And right not my butt."

"If you were to fall Hephaestion, even if Macedonia were to lose a king I would avenge you, and follow you down to the house of death."

"You've all honored your country and your ancestors and now we come to this most distant place in Asia where across from us Darius has at last gathered a vast army, but look again at this horde and ask yourselves, who is this great king who pays assassins in gold coins to murder my father, our king in a most despicable and cowardly manner? Who is this great king Darius who enslaves his own men to fight? Who is this king but a king of air? These men do not fight for their homes. They fight because this king tells them they must. And when they fight, they will melt away like the air, because they know no loyalty to a king of slaves! But we are not here today as slaves. We are here today... as Macedonian free men! And all their arms, their numbers, their chariots and their fine horses will mean nothing in the hands of slaves. Some of you, perhaps myself, will not live to see the sun set over these mountains today, for I will be in the very thick of battle with you. But remember this, the greatest honor a man can achieve is to live with great courage, and to die gloriously in battle for his home. I say to you what every warrior has known since the beginning of time: conquer your fear and I promise you you will conquer death! Someday I promise you, your sons and grandsons will look into your eyes. And when they ask you why you fought so bravely at Gaugamela, you will answer, with all the strength of your great, great hearts: "I was here this day at Gaugamela...for the freedom...and glory...of Greece!" Zeus be with us!"

"I am not my father!"

"I've taken you farther than my father ever dreamed!"

"It's a high ransom she charges for nine months lodging in the womb."

"Stay with me tonight, Hephaestion."

"In the end, all that matters is what you've done."