Greatest Lines of Dialogue

By: Uli Cain, Cinefidel¹³

(There is no order to this list, just my favorite pieces of dialogue)

“I struggle, you collaborate.” – Harvey Keitel in The Last Temptation of Christ

“You know, if your manner of speech is in anyway a reflection of what goes on inside your head, you’re lucky you can tie your shoes.” – Meg Ryan in HurlyBurly

“Do you realize how broke I am? What do you want me to do, huh? I don’t have a job, I’m a loser, shoot me.” – Parker Posey in Party Girl

“Wouldn’t this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive; if needy were a turn on.” – Albert Brooks in Broadcast News

“We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams.” – Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

“I’m talking about form. I’m talking about content. I’m talking about interrelationships. I’m talking about God, the devil, Hell, Heaven.” – William Redfield in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“I’m sorry about that, Pete, but tailgating is one thing I cannot tolerate.” – Robert Loggia in Lost Highway

“Listen pal, you can’t waltz in here, use my toaster, and start spouting universal truths without qualification.” – Martin Donovan in Surviving Desire

“It ain’t the way I wanted it! I can handle things! I’m smart! Not like everybody says… like dumb… I’m smart and I want respect!” – John Cazale in The Godfather Part II

“Would that be physically, or just a mental state?” – Gabriel Byrne in Miller’s Crossing

“What are they going to say about him? What, are they going to say, he was a kind man, he was a wise man, he had plans, he had wisdom? Bullshit, man!” – Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now

“I’m your Huckleberry.” – Val Kilmer in Tombstone

“Fuck you. Fuck the lot of you. Fuck you all.” – Ed Harris in Glengarry Glen Ross

“You may run like Hayes, but you hit like shit.” – James Gammon in Major League

“I understand you fancy yourself as a writer; you should find a more… athletic hobby.” – Sir Alec Guinness in Kafka

“It’s so damn hot… Milk was a bad choice.” – Will Ferrell in Anchorman (both Anchorman and Talladega Nights have many great lines, but I’ll just have this one to rep both movies)

“Holy Hell son, you’re about as useful as a poopy-flavored lollipop.” – Rip Torn in Dodgeball

“I don’t have to tell you things are bad, everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter, punks are running wild in the street, there’s nobody anywhere seems to know what to do, there’s no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breath, our food is unfit to eat. We sit watching our TVs as some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides, sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be. We know things are bad, worse than bad, they’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore, we sit in our house and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller, and all we say is ‘Please at least leave us alone in our living rooms, leave me my toaster and my TV, my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything, just leave us alone.’ Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad. I don’t want you to protest, I don’t want you to riot, I don’t want you to write to your congressman, because I wouldn’t know what to tell you write, I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street, all I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad, you’ve got to say ‘I’m a human being, Goddamn it, my life has value…’” – Peter Finch in Network

“When he didn’t work, he drank, bragged, ran through women, ate like a beast and hated himself.” – Narrator on Orson Welles from The Battle Over Citizen Kane (not in Database)

I wanna avoid dialogue sequences in favor of single lines or monologues, but I always loved this:

Chung Mee: Opium is my business. The bridge mean more traffic. More traffic mean more money. More money mean more power.
Lawrence: Yeah, well, before I commit any of that to memory, would there be anything in this for me?
Chung Mee: Speed is important in business. Time is money.
Lawrence: You said opium was money.
Chung Mee: Money is Money.
Lawrence: Well then, what is time again? – Ernest Harada and Tom Hanks in Volunteers

(Will add as the mood strikes me.)