Robert RedfordQuotes

Bill McKay: I just worked through the weekend - 20 straight hours - and I loved every minute of it. So, why do I need what you're offering? I'm happy.

Lucas: You're happy?

Bill McKay: Yeah.

Lucas: Clams are happy. What did you accomplish?

Klein: You're going to be sitting camera right. All the time while Jarmon's talking, just keep looking at Jarmon. Jarmon talks, you look at Jarmon.

Bill McKay: Right.

Klein: Try to keep your eyes steady. Don't blink. Whatever you do, don't look up at all. Don't look up. Don't look up, because your eyes are glazed and you look cock-eyed. You look like a moron.

Bill McKay: I'm going to challenge Jarmon to a crapshoot. Crapshoot is a matter of individual enterprise. Crapshoot made this country great.

Lucas: God made this country great.

Bill McKay: God shoots crap.

Bill McKay: [in a mock session, preparing for a TV interview, Bill is asked what he thinks about legalized abortion] I'm for it. I think every woman should have that right.

Lucas: Ah, uh, wait a minute, Bill. You can't put it that way.

Bill McKay: That's what I think.

Lucas: Well, it's not going to be understood without hell of a long explanation. So, eh, how about this for time being? Uh, just say it's worth studying.

Bill McKay: Okay. I'll think about it.

Klein: I dig it! It's raw, but I eat it up. A lot of work to be done, my friend, but I get the feeling you know where you're going.

Bill McKay: I don't.

Floyd J. Starkey: There's no point in us chewing over our differences. When we get right down to it, you might find we have a lot in common.

Bill McKay: I don't think we have shit in common.

Lucas: You're the Democratic nominee for Senator.

Bill McKay: You make that sound like a death sentence.

Bill McKay: You're free, McKay. You don't have a chance, so say what you want. It's just between you and the public. The question is whether you can put your ass on the line.

Lucas: No, the question is whether it's worth it.

Bill McKay: [last line] What do we do now?

Bill McKay: Are there any questions? I'd be happy to respond to anything that's on your minds. Any comments? Suggestions? Dirty jokes?

Bill McKay: Maybe I am middle class, in a way. But I didn't find that out today. I found that out working with people trying to make sure their kids have enough to eat tomorrow morning.

Bill McKay: I can tell you what's basic for the ghetto. It's a scandal. There's no hospital. There's no on-the-job training for medical aides. There's no housing program. Excuse me, just a second. They have no housing program. They have no public transportation. There's no birth control centers.

Bill McKay: The time has passed when you can turn your back on the fundamental needs of the people. And don't think that you can distract them any more by playing off the young against the old, black against white, the poor against the less poor. I think the time has come when the American people realize that we're in this together - and that we sink or swim together. And I say to you, maybe, just maybe that's the way it should be. A test of our courage, of our compassion, our faith in ourselves, and our faith in our country.

Bill McKay: [with his team after giving one speech too many; begins making gagging noises; makes the sound of an explosion] Can't any longer play off black against old - young against poor. This country cannot house its houseless - feed its foodless. They're demanding a government of the people - peopled by people. Our faith, our compassion, our courage on the gridiron. The basic indifference - that made this country great. And on election - and on election day - we won't run away. Vote once, vote tuh-wice, for Bill McKay, you middle-class honkies!

Bill McKay: Everything that happens is a complete surprise to me.

Bill McKay: Crime isn't an issue, it's a symptom.

Bill McKay: We subsidize trains, we subsidize planes. Why not subsidize people?

Hallie: Mr. Steele, why were you 45 minutes late to the press conference?

Sonny: Well, I'd like to apologize for that. I was giving mouth to mouth resuscitation to a bottle of tequila. And, we lost her too.

Hallie: They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Sonny: I know. I'm the one who said it.

Hallie: I'm just trying to be pleasant. You get so worked up about everything.

Sonny: What have I got to be worked up about? I've only got a stolen horse; everybody except the Coast Guard is after me; I've got nothing but miles of open country to cross; and now I'm carrying a crazy woman around, wearing shoes from Bloomingbirds who thinks she's seen a rattlesnake round up.

Hallie: I've been to the rodeo, twice.

Sonny: Did you stay for the rattlesnake round up?

Hallie: Yes, I stayed. Right until the end. I saw the whole thing.

Sonny: They don't have one. How're you going to round up a rattlesnake?

Sonny: I ain't carrying it. And you can't carry it.

Hallie: The hell I can't. I've carried this stuff a lot of times.

Sonny: Where? Up the escalator at Bloomingtons, or Bloomingbirds or wherever the hell it is?

Hallie: Bloomingdales!

Sonny: You've had a hard day. Why don't you scrunch down in the bag?

Hallie: Oh, I wish it were that easy. I don't sleep.

Sonny: Ever? How old are you?

Bishop: Carl?

Carl: [to Bernard Abbot] The, uh, young lady with the Uzi, is she single?

Bishop: [sets Carl aside] Uh, you know, Carl. Carl, this is the brass ring. Now you've got to think bigger thoughts.

Carl: I just want her telephone number, that's all. Please?

Bishop: Hey Abby, how about a lunch? You can chaperon.

Bernard Abbot: [Male NSA agents smirk] No, I will not do this.

Bishop: Hey, Abby, Abby, come on, now the FBI'd give him twins-

Abbot: NO!

NSA Agent Mary: Wait a second. You can have anything you want, and you're asking for my phone number?

Carl: Yes.

NSA Agent Mary: 273-9164. Area code 415.

Carl: [offers hand] Thanks. I'm Carl.

NSA Agent Mary: [smiles while shaking Carl's hand] I'm Mary.

Abbot: I'm going to be sick. Are we done here?

Bishop: Not yet. Whistler?

Whistler: I want peace on earth and good will toward man.

Abbot: Oh, this is ridiculous.

Bishop: He's serious.

Whistler: I want peace on earth and goodwill toward men.

Abbot: We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.

Bishop: You're just gonna have to try.

Abbot: All right, I'll see what I can do.

Whistler: Thank you very much. That's all I ask.

Cosmo: You could have had the power.

Bishop: I don't want it.

Cosmo: Don't you know the places we can go with this?

Bishop: Yeah, I do. There's nobody there.

Cosmo: Exactly! The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money, it's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons.

Bishop: [walks away] I don't care.

Cosmo: I don't expect other people to understand this but I do expect you to understand this. We started this journey together.

Bishop: It wasn't a journey, Cos. It was a prank.

Cosmo: There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!

Bishop: If I were you, I'd destroy that thing.

Cosmo: [aims at Bish's head as he prepares to go down the ladder] Don't go. Don't go.

Bishop: [leaves] You do what you have to do, Cos, but if you want to stop me, you'll have to pull the trigger. You.

Cosmo: In prison I learned that everything in this world, including money, operates not on reality...

Bishop: ...but the perception of reality.

Cosmo: Posit: people think a bank might be financially shaky.

Bishop: Consequence: people start to withdraw their money.

Cosmo: Result: pretty soon it is financially shaky.

Bishop: Conclusion: you can make banks fail.

Cosmo: Bzzt. I've already done that. Maybe you've heard about a few? Think bigger.

Bishop: Stock market?

Cosmo: Yes.

Bishop: Currency market?

Cosmo: Yes.

Bishop: Commodities market?

Cosmo: Yes.

Bishop: Small countries?

Cosmo: With luck, I might even be able to crash the whole damned system. Destroy all records of ownership. Think of it, Marty. No more rich people, no more poor people, everybody's the same, isn't that what we said we always wanted?

Bishop: Cos, you haven't gone crazy on me, have you?

Cosmo: [[w:Greenpeace|Greenpeace] Who else is going to change the world, Marty? ]?

Cosmo: What's wrong with this country, Marty? Money. You taught me that. Evil defense contractors had it, noble causes did not. Politicians are bought and sold like so much chattel. Our problems multiply. Pollution, crime, drugs, poverty, disease, hunger, despair; we throw gobs of money at them! The problems always get worse. Why is that? Because money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it.

Bishop: I agree. Now who did you say you were working for?

Cosmo: Oh, that's just my day job.

Cosmo: There I was in prison, and one day I helped some nice older gentlemen make some free telephone calls. They turned out to be... let us say, good family men.

Bishop: Organized crime?

Cosmo: Ha, don't kid yourself. It's not that organized.

Crease: Don't tell me you can't do it because I know you can. And don't tell me you won't do it because I've got to have it. I need to know, and I need to know now.

Mother: [[w:Federal Trade Commission|Federal Trade Commission] Guys, that federal building's been scheduled for demolition since August. Housed the ] and Department of Agriculture. Been vacant for a month.

Carl: [checks out the Yellow Pages] The NSA never had an office in San Francisco. Their West Coast operations are out of Los Angeles.

Crease: [shocked; hangs up; throws phone in disgust; to Marty] Oh, God. Yeah, thanks. Jannek's grant is from the NSA. How could you be so goddamn stupid?!? Two guys show up, say they're government, and you just buy it.

Whistler: [everybody looks at him] They probably were government - just not ours.

Bishop: [gets revolver] Everybody pack up whatever you can. This place isn't safe.

Mother: What are you doing?

Bishop: I'm going to a concert.

Liz: [upon seeing the data for the Air Traffic Control System] Oh, my God.

Mother: How is this possible?

Whistler: Cryptography systems are based on mathematical problems so complex they cannot be solved without a key.

Liz: Jannek must have figured out a way to solve those problems without the key and he hard-wired it into that chip.

Crease: Turn it off.

Whistler: Anybody want to crash some passenger jets?

Crease: I said turn it off.

Bishop: [shuts down computer] Turn it off!

Carl: [contemplates] So, it's a code-breaker.

Bishop: [leaves] No, it's The code-breaker. No more secrets.

Bishop: Carl?

Carl: [breathing from helium] I'd like to have a deep relationship with a beautiful woman who melts from the very first time our eyes meet.

Bishop: We're not getting paid that much, Carl.

Carl: Well, you know, someone like Liz.

Bishop: We're definitely not getting paid that much.

Bishop: The probable level of security is very low. But if you guys don't want to take that chance just to keep me out of jail, fine, I understand, I'll do it.

Whistler: Well, Bish, I can't speak for the other guys, but I'm in it for the money, I don't care if you go to jail.

Carl: Me neither. I'm in.

Mother: Uh... could we maybe just go back to the "they might kill us" part?

Bishop: Mother, if I thought that was likely to happen, I wouldn't bring this to you. But there is a risk.

Whistler: And it pays $175,000!

Mother: I'm in.

Crease: You guys will be chalk outlines without me. All right, what do we need?

Buddy Wallace: [looks at a folder while Martin has a blank stare. Wallace turns the folder to show it has no papers] And then, there's Martin Bishop... He doesn't seem to have a past.

Bishop: [Walks away] I'm sorry, but I don't work for the government.

Dick Gordon: [Shows a card; [w:National Security Agency|National Security Agency] We do. ].

Bishop: Ah. You're the guys I hear breathing on the other end of my phone.

Gordon: No, that's the FBI. We're not chartered for domestic surveillance.

Bishop: Oh, I see. You just overthrow governments. Set up friendly dictators.

Gordon: No, that's the CIA. We protect our government's communications, we try to break the other fella's codes. We're the good guys, Marty.

Bishop: Gee, I can't tell you what a relief that is...Dick.

Gordon: [gives Bishop a folded piece of paper] Change your mind, call us at this number... Mr. Brice.

Jeremiah Johnson: Feels like far.

Bear Claw: Were it worth the trouble?

Jeremiah Johnson: [painfully] Ah, what trouble?

Jeremiah Johnson: Indians put you here?

Jeremiah Johnson: [Jeremiah and Caleb see a bird flying across the sky] Hawk. Goin for the Musselshell. Take me a week's ridin', and he'll be there in... hell, he's there already.

Jeremiah Johnson: [Caleb is crying] Stop that, boy!

Iris Gaines: You know, I believe we have two lives.

Roy Hobbs: How... what do you mean?

Iris Gaines: The life we learn with and the life we live with after that.

Roy Hobbs: I coulda been better. I coulda broke every record in the book.

Iris Gaines: And then?

Roy Hobbs: And then? And then when I walked down the street people would've looked and they would've said there goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in this game.

The Judge: I thought I could rely on your honor, Hobbs?

Roy Hobbs: You're about to.

Gus Sands: [trying to pay off Hobbs to tank] If it isn't enough, tell us what you had in mind.

Roy Hobbs: To hit away.

Max Mercy: You read my mind.

Roy Hobbs: That takes all of three seconds.

Pop Fisher: I'd have walked away from baseball and I'd have bought a farm.

Roy Hobbs: Nothing like a farm. Nothing like being around animals, fixing things. There's nothing like being in the field with the corn and the winter wheat. The greenest stuff you ever saw.

Pop Fisher: You know my mama wanted me to be a farmer.

Roy Hobbs: My dad wanted me to be a baseball player.

Pop Fisher: Well you're better than any player I ever had. And you're the best God damn hitter I ever saw. Suit up.

Pop Fisher: Batting practice tomorrow, be there!

Roy Hobbs: I have been. Every day.

Pop Fisher: Hobbs. I'm sending you down Hobbs, Class B ball. Tomorrow you go to the Great Lakes Association.

Roy Hobbs: All right. You make the rules.

Pop Fisher: That's right, that's right and you ain't been playing by em. Don't you remember signing a contract!

Roy Hobbs: I remember signing a contract, to play ball not to be put to sleep by some two bit carney hypnotist! I won't do that Pop! I can't.

Roy Hobbs: Red, it took me sixteen years to get here. You play me, and I'll give ya the best I got.

Red Blow: I believe ya.

Roy Hobbs: [after his hand-made bat breaks] Pick me out a winner Bobby.

Roy Hobbs: Some mistakes I guess we never stop paying for.

Maj. Julian Cook: I have just been informed that our Nine O'clock arrival has been postponed until ten, so you can all have an extra hour of fun and relaxation.

U.S. lieutenant: Major, we got any more information on those boats?

Cook: I have been reliably informed that they float. Outside of that we don't know squat. Not how many, not how heavy, not how big. We are sure that the river is wide and the current is strong and if there is any more cheery information that comes along I'll just be too happy to pass it along. In the meantime just think of this as on the job training.

Brig. Gen. James Gavin: What's the best way to take a bridge?

Maj. Julian Cook: Both ends at once.

Gavin: I'm sending two companies across the river by boat. I need a man with very special qualities to lead.

Cook: Go on, sir.

Gavin: He's got to be tough enough to do it and he's got to be experienced enough to do it. Plus one more thing. He's got to be dumb enough to do it... Start getting ready.

U.S. captain: What was all that about, Major?

Cook: Well, someone's come up with a real nightmare. Real nightmare.

Anna Cathcart: The Scotch is older than she is...

Nathan Muir: Am I supposed to feel bad about that?

Tom Bishop: Happy Birthday, Nathan. Did you know Langley has seven different birth dates for you?

Nathan Muir: And they're all wrong.

Tom Bishop: I know, believe me, it wasn't easy. KGB, Mossad, also wrong. Fortunately I was well trained.

Nathan Muir: When I was a kid I used to spend summers on my uncle's farm. And he had this plow horse he used to work with everyday. He really loved that plow horse. One summer she came up lame. It could barely stand. The vet offered to put her down. You know what my uncle said?

Charles Harker: No, Muir, what did he say?

Nathan Muir: He said, "Why would I ask somebody else to kill a horse that belonged to me?

Tom Bishop: Fuck your rules, Nathan.

Nathan Muir: Okay, but tonight they saved your life.

Tom Bishop: Don't tell me that. Don't fucking tell me that. You didn't look in his eyes. Don't tell me that!

Nathan Muir: He was your asset, somebody you use for information.

Tom Bishop: Ah, Jesus Christ, you just... You don't just trade these people like they're baseball cards! It's not a fucking game!

Nathan Muir: Oh, yes it is. It's exactly what it is. And it's no kid's game either. This is a whole other game. And it's serious and it's dangerous. And it's not one you want to lose.

Tom Bishop: Nathan, we killed this man. We used him and we killed him. Okay then, you got to help me understand this one. You got... Nathan, what are we doing here? And don't give me some bullshit about the greater good.

Nathan Muir: That's exactly what it's about. Because what we do is unfortunately very, very necessary. And if you're not willing to sacrifice scum like Schmidt for those that want nothing more than their freedom, then you better take a long hard look at your chosen profession, my friend. Because it doesn't get any easier. You wanna walk? You wanna walk, walk.

Robert Aiken: Patricia?

Nathan Muir: Yeah, my third wife.

Dr. William Byars: My God, how many wives have you had?

Nathan Muir: Four. You want to hear about them or Bishop?

Tom Bishop: I thought spies drank martinis.

Nathan Muir: Scotch, never less than twelve years old.

Tom Bishop: Is that right? Agency rules?

Nathan Muir: My rules.

Nathan Muir: You just gave her four pieces of personal information for one dubious impersonal fact. 1) You're straight, 2)You're engaged, 3)Tomorrow's your girls birthday, and 4)You have terrible taste in women's clothing.

Tom Bishop: Just trying to find out where she got that dress.

Nathan Muir: What if she were an asset? You told her four lies that now have to be true.

Tom Bishop: So, when do I get my first assignment?

Nathan Muir: When I decide you're ready.

Gladys Jennip: What is this about?

Nathan Muir: Money. Free trade, microchips, toaster ovens.

Gladys Jennip: And what does that have to do with you?

Nathan Muir: Nothing.

Charles Harker: We need the press on this like we need a third tit.

Nathan Muir: You using the other two?

Nathan Muir: The man reading the menu. Threat?

Tom Bishop: Only to the hostess.

Charles Harker: If these walls could talk, huh. All this history, I envy you.

Nathan Muir: Then bag your job, you can be just like me.

Charles Harker: No, really. The debt this country owes you guys.

Nathan Muir: Chuck, are you gonna dance with your hand on my ass all night or are you gonna make your move?

Tom Bishop: She's just someone I used to get to the camp.

Nathan Muir: She gonna be of any more use to us?

Tom Bishop: Not to us.

Nathan Muir: I take it you didn't get to be a marksman putting food on your mama's table.

Tom Bishop: No, sir. We have a Safeway back home.

Nathan Muir: Where'd you learn to shoot?

Tom Bishop: [[Boy scouts] ], sir.

Nathan Muir: What, are you kidding me?

Tom Bishop: No, sir.

Nathan Muir: Hell of an ad for the Boy Scouts.

Nathan Muir: See that building across the way?

Tom Bishop: Yeah.

Nathan Muir: Do you know anyone there?

Tom Bishop: No.

Nathan Muir: In five minutes I want to see you on the balcony.

Tom Bishop: What do...

Nathan Muir: Five minutes.

Tom Bishop: Can't we discuss it over coffee?

Nathan Muir: You just lost ten seconds.

Tom Bishop: All right, so what else? What else do I need to know?

Nathan Muir: Put away some money so you can die someplace warm and don't ever touch it. Not for anyone, ever.

Tom Bishop: Okay, is that it?

Nathan Muir: Don't ever risk your life or career for an asset. If it comes down to you or them... send flowers.

Tom Bishop: [walking in on Nathan Muir shaving] My God, you're hideous. Why do you even bother?

Nathan Muir: I missed you, too.

Tom Bishop: You want flowers at 6am?

Nathan Muir: Flowers would be nice, but I'll settle for breakfast.

Tom Bishop: I got a good spot--I taught a guy to make migas.

Nathan Muir: A Mexican restaurant in Beirut? I'm impressed.

Tom Bishop: Happy?

Nathan Muir: Seventy-five casualties, an apartment block leveled, one dead terrorist? Yeah, happy.

Tom Bishop: We have some fucked up barometer for success, don't we?

Gladys Jennip: Feeling a little paranoid on our last day?

Nathan Muir: When did Noah build the ark, Gladys? Before the rain.

Nathan Muir: We didn't know when the Doc was going to be giving the Shiek his physical, but it was our one and only opportunity to take him out. So I didn't have the usual time to butter him up. Which means we needed twice the sex with half the foreplay.

Nathan Muir: She had worked both ends against the middle for so long, the middle decided to give up and go home.

Nathan Muir: Technology gets better everyday. That's fine. But most of the time all you need is a stick of gum, a pocket knife and a smile.

Nathan Muir: You go off the reservation, I will not come after you.

Nathan Muir: You're gonna make a beautiful corpse.

Nathan Muir: If I'm walking into a shit storm I wanna know which way the wind's blowing.

Henry Brubaker: That's murder they're talking about in there. And if they condone it, how are you gonna turn around and tell these guys why they're locked up?

Bob Woodward: [To Bernstein, getting on an elevator] Is there any place you don't smoke?

Bob Woodward: This is terrific work, if you like rejection.

Bob Woodward: [about Martha Mitchell] I just don't get it; a CREEP secretary being scared, that's one thing. But what does the wife of one of the most powerful men in America have to be afraid of?

Bob Woodward: Hi, I'm Bob Woodward of the Washington Post—and—what's that?--you've never heard of me?--I can't help that—you don't believe I'm with the Post?--what do you want me to do, Madam, shout "extra--extra"?

Bob Woodward: The head of security for the reelection of a Republican President got caught bugging the national offices of the Democrats? What the hell does that mean?

Harvey: Guns or knives?

Butch: Neither.

Harvey: Pick!

Butch: I don't wanna shoot with ya, Harvey.

Harvey: [pulling out a large Bowie knife] Anything you say, Butch.

Butch: [low voice, to Sundance] Maybe there's a way to make a profit in this. Bet on Logan.

Sundance: I would, but who'd bet on you?

Harvey: Sundance, when we're done and he's dead, you're welcome to stay.

Butch: [low voice, to Sundance] Listen, I don't mean to be a sore loser, but when it's done, if I'm dead, kill him.

Sundance Kid: [low voice to Butch] Love to.

Butch: No, no, not yet, not until me and Harvey get the rules straightened out.

Harvey: [Butch kicks Harvey in the groin] Rules? In a knife fight? No rules!

Butch: Well, if there aint going to be any rules, let's get the fight started. Someone count. 1,2,3 go.

Sundance: [Butch knocks Harvey out] 1,2,3, go!

Flat Nose: I was really rooting for you, Butch.

Butch: Well, thank you, Flatnose. That's what sustained me in my time of trouble.

Alexander Pierce: [Last words] Hail HYDRA.

Alexander Pierce: [To World Security Council official] Let me ask you a question. What if Pakistan marched into Mumbai tomorrow, and you knew they were going to drag your daughters into a soccer stadium for execution and you could stop it with a flick of a switch, wouldn't you?