Robert ShawQuotes

King Henry VIII: Oh, Thomas, Thomas, Thomas! Does a man need a Pope to tell him where he's sinned? It was a sin. God's punished me. I have no son. Son after son she's borne me– all dead at birth or dead within the month. Never saw the hand of God so clear in anything. It's my bounden duty to put away the Queen and all the popes back to Peter shall not come between me and my duty! How is it that you cannot see? Everyone else does.

More: Then why does your Grace need my poor support?

King: Because you're honest... and what is more to the purpose, you're known to be honest. There are those like Norfolk who follow me because I wear the crown, those like Master Cromwell who follow me because they are jackals with sharp teeth and I'm their tiger, there's a mass that follows me because it follows anything that moves. And then there's you.

More: I am sick to think how much I must displease your Grace.

King: No, Thomas, I respect your sincerity. But respect—man, that's water in the desert.

King Henry VIII: I have no wife! Catherine is not my Queen! No priest can make her so!

Squadron Leader Skipper: Where are you taking those vultures?

RAF NCO: Officers to the mess, NCOs to the guard room, sir.

Squadron Leader Skipper: [turning and gesturing to the ruined field] Like hell you are. They're responsible for all that , get em to clear it up!

RAF NCO: But, what about the officers, sir?

Squadron Leader Skipper: Give em a bloody shovel!

Barnsby: What happened to you?

Weaver: He bit me in all the excitement. But damn it to hell, we did it, Colonel! We did it!

Barnsby: Yes we did, Sergeant! Yes we did!

Miller: And a merry Christmas!

Mallory: [chuckling] Yes, gentlemen, we did it! But before we can start awarding ourselves Victoria Crosses and Congressional Medals of Honor and so on and so forth and such like... I think I'd better point out that one, we're now on the wrong side of the river. That two, we have no hope whatsoever of rejoining the partisans. That three, this neck of the woods will soon be crawling with very bad-tempered Germans. And that four, I don't think our little genius Sergeant Miller there has even got a box of matches left in his suitcase. And so I think we can take it, gentlemen, that we're going to have a very long walk home.

Mallory: [with Lescovar standing next to Major Petrovitch] I was sent here to identify a German agent, code name "Nicolai." We are reliably informed that he has infiltrated the People's Resistance Army, and is now known as Capt. Lescovar.

Maj. Petrovitch: And having identified this man, what were your further orders?

Mallory: I was to eliminate him, sir.

Maj. Petrovitch: Eliminate? Don't you mean kill?

Mallory: Yes, sir. I do mean kill.

Maj. Petrovitch: [to Lescovar; Bursts out laughing] Do you hear that, Lescovar? The gentlemen from London want us to shoot you. I'm sorry, major. I must admit you are indeed partly right. There was an agent named Nicolai... operating somewhere south of here and also calling himself Lescovar. But he was identified many months ago. And eliminated. The British were informed.

Mallory: But London were very specific, sir

Maj. Petrovitch: [to Marko] Yes, they frequently are specific... and just as frequently wrong! Lt. Marko, see that these gentlemen... give you a full report on their activities in the Chetnik camp. A specific report.

Mallory: May I talk to you personally, sir?

Maj. Petrovitch: You are talking to me personally.

Mallory: No, I mean alone.

Maj. Petrovitch: No. The People's army does not conduct military business in secret.

Mallory: I don't suppose they taught you German at that awful school of yours?

Miller: What, instead of Latin? Heaven forbid, old boy.

Mallory: [thoughtfully] Miller, what would happen to the bridge if that central arch were suddenly hit by several million tons of water?

Miller, Barnsby: Water?

Mallory: I think we've been talking about the wrong target. Remember that dam we passed by on the way up here?

Miller: [suddenly all ears] Dam? What sort of dam?

Barnsby: It's just up the road, about half a mile that way.

Miller: Well, my dear chap, why didn't you say so before? Oh, I could do a tremendous job on the dam! See, with the dam, you've got your natural elements working for you. It's like having an enormous bath - what have you got to do? Pull the plug!

Mallory: Next time, you can play the corpse. You seem pretty handy with that thing, though.

Barnsby: Could've been luck.

Barnsby: Sorry about Marko.

Lescovar: Thank you. It's a risk we all take. He was a brave man and a good friend. Then he got careless.

Mallory: You think that big sergeant spotted him as a partisan?

Barnsby: [to Lescovar] I can't buy that. The sergeant wasn't that bright. He saluted you - you're wearing a corporal's uniform. That doesn't rate a salute in the German army.

Mallory: Not in anybody's army. Why do you think he saluted you, Lescovar?

Lescovar: Perhaps he recognized my natural superiority.

Mallory: Yes, perhaps.

Maj. Schroeder: Ah, tell me what has all this to do with that, uh, suitcase case you keep looking at?

Mallory: Well, that suitcase is full of our penicillin.

Maj. Schroeder: Oh, indeed. Perhaps I could see some of it?

Mallory: Certainly, Major. Open it Miller.

Miller: You can't do that here, sir. You'll ruin the lot. You know perfectly well that any contamination will destroy it. It's got to be opened under laboratory conditions.

Jensen: [Handing Miller and Mallory a photograph; sees no sign that they recognize anyone in the picture] I'm afraid it's not exactly a masterpiece... but I wonder if you can identify this fellow. Think back to Navarone.

Miller: I'd rather not, sir.

Jensen: Nicolai? Yes. Let you down a bit, didn't he?

Mallory: But what about him? Andrea's people had him shot as a traitor, didn't they?

Jensen: Yes, so we were told. In fact, he escaped. He wasn't a traitor. He was a German agent, who we believe is operating now in Yugoslavia with the Partisans, posing as one Captain Lescovar. Now, you both knew Nicolai. In fact, you're the only people we know of can make a positive identification. So I'd like you to go out there and cope.

Miller: Cope, sir?

Mallory: Kill him.

Jensen: We're tacking you onto Force 10. The code name for an operation for the Allied mission in Yugoslavia.

Mallory: Excuse me, sir. What's their objective?

Jensen: It's being treated on a need-to-know basis. And you don't need to know.

Doyle Lonnegan: [Repeated line] You follow?

Doyle Lonnegan: You see that fella in the red sweater over there? His name's Donnie McCoy. Works a few of the protection rackets for Cunnaro when he's waiting for something better to happen. Donnie and I have known each other since we were six. Take a good look at that face, Floyd. Because if he ever finds out I can be beat by one lousy grifter, I'll have to kill him and every other hood who wants to muscle in on my Chicago operation.

Doyle Lonnegan: [to Gondorff] Not only are you a cheat, you're a gutless cheat as well.

Chief Brody: [pointing at Quint's tattoo scar] What's that one?

Quint: What?

Chief Brody: That one, there, on your arm.

Quint: Oh, that's a tattoo. I got that removed.

Hooper: [laughs] No, Don't tell me. Don't tell me. Mother!

Quint: [[w:USS Indianapolis (CA-35)|U.S.S. ''Indianapolis''] Mr. Hooper, that's the ].

Hooper: [his face drops] You were on the Indianapolis?

Chief Brody: What happened?

Quint: [[w:Little Boy|Hiroshima bomb; [w:tiger shark|tiger; [w:infantry square|old squares; [w:Battle of Waterloo|Battle of Waterloo; smiles and lifts his cup] Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin back from the island of Tinian to Leyte - just delivered the bomb, the ]. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about half an hour. A ], thirteen footer - you know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by lookin from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like ] in the battle like that you see in the calendar named The ]. And the idea was, the shark comes to the nearest man and he starts poundin and hollerin and screamin'. Sometimes the shark go away... Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into ya, right into your eyes. Y'know, the thing about a shark, he's got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes after ya, he doesn't seem to be livin until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white, and then... aww, then you hear that terrible, high-pitched screamin', the ocean turns red, and in spite of all the poundin and the hollerin', they all come in and... rip ya to pieces. You know, by the end of that first dawn, we lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I don't know how many men. They averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us. He was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later, a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. You know, that was the time I was most frightened - waitin for my turn. I'll never put on a life jacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

Quint: [seeing Hooper's equipment; examining the shark cage] What are you? Some kind of half-assed astronaut? Jesus H. Christ, when I was a boy, every little squirt wanted to be a harpooner or a sword fisherman. What d'ya have there - a portable shower or a monkey cage?

Hooper: Anti-shark cage.

Quint: [singing] Anti-shark cage. You go inside the cage? Cage goes in the water? You go in the water? Shark's in the water? Our shark? "Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain. For we've received orders for to sail back to Boston. And so nevermore shall we see you again.

Quint: I'm not talkin about pleasure boatin or day sailin'. I'm talkin about workin for a livin'. I'm talkin about sharkin'.

Hooper: Well I'm not talkin about hookin some poor dogfish or sand shark. I'm talkin about findin a Great White.

Quint: [stares at Hooper; gives Hooper some rope] Porkers? Ya talkin about Porkers, Mr. Hooper? Tie me a sheep shank.

Hooper: [ties the knot expertly; tosses rope back to Quint] I haven't had to pass basic seamanship in a long time. You didn't say how short you wanted it.

Quint: [grabs Hooper's wrists and looks at his hands and examines them; contemptuously] Gimme your hands... Dogfish? You've got city boy hands, Hooper. You been countin money all your life.

Hooper: [pulls away] All right, hey, I don't need this! I don't need this working-class-hero crap!

Quint: Maybe I should go alone.

Quint: Here lies the body of Mary Lee; died at the age of a hundred and three. For fifteen years she kept her virginity; not a bad record for this vicinity.

Quint: Y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'. I'll catch this bird for you, but it ain't gonna be easy. Bad fish! Not like going down to the pond and chasing bluegills and tommycods. This shark, swallow ya whole. Little shakin', little tenderizin', down you go. And we gotta do it quick, that'll bring back the tourists, that'll put all your businesses on a payin basis. But it's not gonna be pleasant! I value my neck a lot more than three thousand bucks, chief. I'll find him for three, but I'll catch him, and kill him, for ten. But you've gotta make up your minds. If you want to stay alive, then ante up. If you want to play it cheap, be on welfare the whole winter. I don't want no volunteers, I don't want no mates, there's too many captains on this island. $10,000 for me by myself. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.