Memorable Quotes from Anthony Quinn
41 quotesThe Risks of Strength and Performance
Zampanò
Here we have a piece of chain that is a quarter of an inch thick. It is made of crude iron, stronger than steel. With the simple expansion of my pectoral muscles, or chest, that is, I'll break the hook. Thank you, thank you. Now, to do this feat, I must fill myself up like a tire. If a blood vessel should break, I would spit blood. For instance, in Milan a man weighing 240 pounds lost his eyesight doing this trick. That is because the optical nerves take a beating, and once you lose your eyes, you are finished. If there's any delicate person in the audience, I would advise him to look away cause there could be blood.
[reciting his act by rote before a crowd; collecting money from the crowd; with seemingly great effort, he breaks the chain]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Zorba's View on Love and Women
Alexis Zorba
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.
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Obeying Authority and Following Instructions
Zampanò
Do only what I tell you to.
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The Indomitable Spirit of Age
Alexis Zorba
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!
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A Remarkable Perspective on Failure
Alexis Zorba
Hey boss, did you ever see a more splendiferous crash?
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A Disparaging Conversation About a Car
Zampanò
Get in.
Prostitute
Is this piece of junk your car?
Zampanò
Don't you like it?
Prostitute
Are you crazy?
Zampanò
It's American. Hasn't broken down once in seven years.
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Endless Efforts Yield No Response
Alexis Zorba
On a deaf man's door, you can knock forever!
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The Burden of Overthinking
Alexis Zorba
You think too much. That is your trouble. Clever people and grocers, they weigh everything.
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Expression of Joy and Excitement
Alexis Zorba
Whoopa! Whoopa! Whoopa!
[when dancing]
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A Lighthearted Perspective on Companionship
Alexis Zorba
Silly old bitch. She's not alone, she's with Suleiman Pasha having a hell of a time.
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Appreciating the Beauty of Life's Wildness
Alexis Zorba
Look, boss: a big, beautiful, wild widow.
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The Sea's Role in Human Suffering
Alexis Zorba
Listen to that bitch—the sea—that maker of widows.
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Defiance Against Nature's Challenges
Alexis Zorba
You bastard mountain! I'll eat your guts!
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A Traveling Artist and His Sidekick
Prostitute
What line of work are you in?
Zampanò
I'm a traveling artist. This is my sidekick. I taught her everything. When I took her on, she couldn't even quack.
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Embracing Nature's Visibility and Divine Presence
Alexis Zorba
All right, we go outside where God can see us better.
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Confrontation Over Responsibility in Destruction
Peter
This burning city is no work of ours. This isn't how the new kingdom is going to be made. You were wrong.
[Arrested for arson, Barabbas has been brought to the dungeons housing the Christians falsely accused of the act]
Barabbas
Who are you to tell me I'm wrong?
Peter
Many years ago, we spoke together. Do you remember?
Barabbas
No.
Peter
You asked me why I was making a net so far from the sea.
Barabbas
Jerusalem. The street of the potters.
Peter
You were as mistaken then as you are again now.
Female Christian
We didn't set fire to the city.
Male Christian
You've done the work of the wild beasts of the emperor.
Female Christian
Are you a lunatic?
Male Christian
It was his fire, you fool. Not God's.
Barabbas
Why can't God make himself plain? What's become of all the fine hopes, the trumpets, the angels, all the promises? Every time I've seen it end up in the same way, with torments and dead bodies, with no good come of it. Huh? All for nothing.
[the realization of his error sinks in]
Peter
Do you think they persecute us to destroy nothing? Or, for that matter, do you think that what has battered on your soul for twenty years has been nothing? It wasn't for nothing that Christ died. Mankind isn't nothing. In His eyes, each individual man is the whole world. He loves each man as though there were no other.
Barabbas
I was the opposite of everything he taught, wasn't I? Why did He let Himself be killed instead of me?
Peter
Because being farthest from Him, you were the nearest.
Barabbas
I'm no nearer than I was before.
Peter
Nor any farther away. The truth of the matter is, He's never moved from your side. I can tell you this: there has been a wrestling in your spirit back and forth in your life which, in itself, is knowledge of God. By the conflict you have known Him. I can tell you as well that so it will be with the coming of the kingdom. A wrestling back and forth and a laboring of the world spirit, like a woman in childbirth. We are only the beginning. We won't see the time when the earth is full of the kingdom. And yet, even now, even here, the hour at the end of life, the kingdom is within us. There's nothing more to fear. Upon us, the years will be but many years, many martyrdoms. The ground of men is very stubborn to mature. But men will look back to us in our day, and will wonder, and remember our hope. It is the end of the day. We shall trust ourselves to a little pain, and sleep, saying to world, "Godspeed.
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The Purpose of Hands in Life
Alexis Zorba
Boss, why did God give us hands? To grab. Well, grab!
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A Call to Seriousness and Profit
Alexis Zorba
No more fooling around, not in this place. We'll pull our pants up and make a pile of money.
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Auda and Ali's Tense Exchange
Auda abu Tayi
It is Auda of the Howitat who speaks.
Sherif Ali
It is Ali of the Harith who answers.
Auda abu Tayi
Harith! Ali... does your father still steal?
Sherif Ali
No. Does Auda take me for one of his own bastards?
Auda abu Tayi
No, there is no resemblance. Alas, you resemble your father.
Sherif Ali
Auda flatters me.
Auda abu Tayi
You're easily flattered. I knew your father well.
Sherif Ali
(pause) (To Auda) Did you know your own?
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Frustration with Cats
Alexis Zorba
Those damn cats!
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Dancing as a Response to Loss
Alexis Zorba
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.
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Desire and Jealousy in Human Relationships
Alexis Zorba
They hate her because they cannot have her. Only one man here can. You.
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A Unique Perspective on Death and Burial
Alexis Zorba
There will be no funeral. She was a Frank, she crossed herself with four fingers. The priest will not bury her like everybody else.
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A Foreboding Statement on Sacrifice
Alexis Zorba
The lamb, it will burn!
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Auda's Reluctance to Join the Cause
T.E. Lawrence
My friends, we have been foolish. Auda will not come to Aqaba. Not for money...
Auda abu Tayi
No.
T.E. Lawrence
...for Feisal...
Auda abu Tayi
No!
T.E. Lawrence
...nor to drive away the Turks. He will come... because it is his pleasure.
Auda abu Tayi
Thy mother mated with a scorpion.
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Invitation to Dine in Wadi Rum
Auda Abu Tayi
(To Lawrence) Dine with Auda, English. Dine with him. (To Harith Envoy) It is my pleasure, that you should dine with me... in WADI RUM!
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The Burden of Responsibility in Daily Life
Zampanò
You always eat standing up like a horse?
Widow
I always eat on my feet. Who's going to keep the house going if not me?
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Identity and Unity Among Arab Tribes
T.E. Lawrence
We do not work this thing for Feisal.
Auda abu Tayi
No? For the English, then?
T.E. Lawrence
For the Arabs.
Auda abu Tayi
The Arabs? The Howitat, Ajili, Rala, Beni Saha; these I know, I have even heard of the Harith, but the Arabs? What tribe is that?
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Questioning a man's connection to nature
Alexis Zorba
What kind of man are you, don't you even like dolphins?
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Auda Abu Tayi's Declaration of Identity
Auda Abu Tayi
I am Auda Abu Tayi! Does Auda serve? (Tribesmen in tent shout no, turns to ask those gathered outside) DOES AUDA SERVE?!? (Crowd yells angrily no)... I carry twenty-three great wounds, all got in battle. Seventy-five men have I killed with my own hands in battle. I scatter, I burn my enemies tents. I take away their flocks and herds. The Turks pay me a golden treasure, yet I am poor! Because *I* am a river to my people! (Audas tribesmen cheer)
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The Nature of Freedom and Violence
Pontius Pilate
It seemed to me at the time, Barabbas, when you were given your liberty before, it wasn't a fortunate exchange. They were calling for death and disorder when they called your name. This is what I thought and this is what has occurred. They put the scourge back into the fist. By that I mean you and your life. And many men have suffered and died in consequence.
Barabbas
The other man, too. They're dying because of that.
[referring to Christ]
Pontius Pilate
This is a local matter, which I hope will soon be adjusted. The shock and fear of an unreasoning fanaticism will pass. But the appetite to destroy which, alas, the human being shares with the wild beast, is always with us. And it has rigorously to be disciplined in the name of civilization, and according to the law.
Barabbas
That's what you say. But I tell you, whichever side of the law we're on, we're the same men. You and your kind, and me and my kind. How else have you lived except my way? What we haven't got, we go out and take!
Pontius Pilate
Let him speak!
Barabbas
Well, how else have you lived except my way? Whoever's against us or gets in our way, we get rid of. My knife may have bitten a few throats, but what about your weapons? They've spit at thousands upon thousands. If I've taken a passing woman to myself, your armies have looted and raped across continents - and have been called the glory of the earth for doing it! You were born according to the law and raised according to the law. I was born by a girl thrown out of a brothel, who gave birth and cursed me before she died. But I tell you, we belong to the same herd.
[the guards unhand him, and he continues]
Pontius Pilate
Unfortunately for you, Barabbas, the law is indispensable. The law is the pass and permit to life in this world. You were without it. However, the law here tells me that a man who has been released by the will of the people at a holy festival cannot thereafter be given a capital punishment.
Barabbas
Huh? Y-you can't kill me?
Pontius Pilate
Easier on you if we could. I sentence you to transportation for life, whatever that's worth, to the sulfur mines on the island of Sicily.
Barabbas
I... I can't... be killed. He meant me to live... No killing for Barabbas. No death for Barabbas. He died in my place!
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Cultural Differences in Romantic Pursuit
Nick Acropolis
Rose! Rose, I am trying again. Will you please accept these flowers?
Rose
I don't want them. And I don't date Greeks.
Nick Acropolis
You know, you and I could make each other so happy. Greek men are great lovers.
Rose
And Greek men never bathe.
Nick Acropolis
I bathe twice a day! Three times! When I do my sit-ups. Feel that stomach. Hard like an eighteen-year-old's. Come on, feel it!
Rose
I'm not feeling anything of yours.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Shame of a Woman's Solitude
Alexis Zorba
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 : if a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go. I know, because a very wise old Turk told me.
[slaps table]
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Silence as a Condition of Companionship
Gelsomina
You're one of those men who runs around with women.
Zampanò
What?
Gelsomina
Who runs around with women.
Zampanò
If you want to stay with me, you've got to learn one thing - to keep your mouth shut!
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Desire for Elegance and Presentation
Zampanò
Come here. There should be something here to fit you. I want you to look elegant. I don't want to see you in rags. My women have always looked smart.
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The Nature of Human Motivation
Alexis Zorba
Why'? Will no man ever do something without a why'? Just like that, for the hell of it.
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The Nature of Relationships and Authority
Zampanò
Why don't you remarry?
Widow
What? Another husband? I'm the only one who gives orders around here.
Zampanò
Is that all a husband is good for? Giving orders?
Widow
Think I'm not made of flesh and blood? Everybody likes sweets after a good meal.
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Embracing the Beauty of Paradise
Alexis Zorba
Zorba, you are in paradise.
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Conflicted Affection in Relationships
Eufemio Zapata
I love you—but I do not like you.
[to Fernando]
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Embracing Life's Full Catastrophe
Alexis Zorba
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.
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