Harry and Tonto (1974) - Quotes

The Importance of Eating in Life

Harry: Jesus, eating is the most important thing in the life of a cat.

Grocery Clerk: Eating is the most important thing in the life of me, too.

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A Conversation About Lifestyle Choices

Harry: Your office near your place?

Eddie Coombes: I don't need an office anymore, Pop. I'm living off the cream now. I sell a little insurance once in a while... or move a nice piece of real estate whenever I need some fast cash. But mostly I play.

Harry: Well, I must say, Eddie, you look like a playboy.

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Economic Struggles: A Conversation on Reality

Harry: Let me tell you something: times are bad. Don't you believe what they're saying in the papers about a recession. We're in a depression.

Taxi Driver: You better believe it.

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Generational Perspectives on Experience and Tolerance

Burt Coombes Jr.: I know you think you're really far out. You smoke a couple of joints, and you think you're into something, right? No... hey, I know. I mean, I took 32 trips, you ninny. Pure stuff. Pure rainbow! I had more coke stuffed up this nose than you could breathe air. I was into heavy Tibetan meditation for two years, you jimbo!

Harry: You're not very tolerant, Junior.

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Complexities of Love and Like

Harry: Shirley?

Shirley: What?

Harry: Do you love me?

Shirley: Look, I'll tell you something, Harry: I don't always like you, but I do love you.

Harry: Then why do we always argue?

Shirley: I don't know. I guess that's the way we talk to each other, Harry.

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Reflections on Life and Loss

Wade Carlton: So I was broke. I rode me down to Galveston. Read an article in the paper... about catchin sharks. Shark's good for a lot of things. Got a job with a Portuguese feller. Caught sharks till I couldn't move my arms. Made me $300 and come home. Hadn't shaved for three weeks. Come walkin up to the front door. The wife thought it was a bum. Told me to clear on out. That's when I got into cats.

Harry: Your wife still alive?

Wade Carlton: Nope. Buried three of em. Good women. Bad diets.

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A Close Encounter on the Road

Harry: Did you see that?

Jacob: No.

Harry: Fellow almost ran me over.

Jacob: What kind of car?

Harry: I don't know... a big gray job.

Jacob: Capitalist bastard!

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The Trade-off of Pleasure and Pain

Nick Lewis: [Indicates to Harry the rather obvious hair piece he's wearing; [w:strychnine|strychnine] I am 62 years old. I can't get it up unless I take a dose of ].

Harry: Strychnine? I thought strychnine was poisonous.

Nick Lewis: Naw, no... It really gives you a lift, you know? But I wanna tell ya, it isn't worth it. Cause I get such terrible headaches. Right through my skull. "Bong! Bong!" Like a sledgehammer. So, a fella has to decide whether he wants a migraine headache... or a piece of ass, you know?

Harry: Well, Nick, you live and learn.

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Complex Affection in Family Dynamics

Shirley: I like you, Norman.

Norman: I like you too, Aunt Shirley, but I think you're a bitch.

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The Difference Between Having and Enjoying

Stephanie: When's the last time you made it, Harry?

Harry: Oh, I haven't had sex in a long time.

Stephanie: Had? Or enjoyed?

Harry: [chuckling] What's the difference?

Stephanie: You'll have to pay to find out.

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Questioning the Relevance of Race in Crime

Leroy: You all right, Harry?

Harry: I was mugged.

Leroy: White boy or black boy?

Harry: What the hell difference does it make?

Leroy: I'd just like to know, that's all.

Harry: White.

Leroy: Hot damn.

Harry: If it makes you feel any better, the last one was Puerto Rican.

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Unexpected Confessions in Jail

Harry: [in jail for urinating in public] This is the first time in my life I've ever been in jail.

Sam Two Feathers: What are you in for?

Harry: Peeing.

Sam Two Feathers: I got a ticket once for shitting.

Harry: Where'd you do it?

Sam Two Feathers: No, not me. My horse - in a hotel lobby.

Harry: Oh.

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The Challenge of Friendship in Aging

Harry: You know, the strangest thing about being old is... all your friends are dead.

Shirley: Well, all your old friends, maybe. You could make new friends, you know?

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Reflecting on Past Relationships

Harry: When did you last have a woman, Jacob?

Jacob: What?

Harry: When did you last sleep with a woman?

Jacob: [pause; pause] Saturday night. March. 1951. Yeah, it was about ten o'clock at night.

Difficulties of Living Together Explored

Jacob: You want, you can move in with me.

Harry: I appreciate that, Jacob, but I think we'd end up hating each other. You know, I can be a real pain in the ass.

Jacob: I lived with my wife for 40 years. I can live with you.

Displacement for Development: A Modern Dilemma

Harry: Jacob, they want me to move.

Jacob: What?

Harry: I got a notice that they're tearing down my building. They're putting up a fancy parking lot.

Jacob: Capitalist bastards!

Balancing Medicine Between Good and Bad

Sam Two Feathers: I practice good medicine on good people... bad medicine on bad people.

A Foreboding Prediction of Economic Hardship

Jacob Rivetowski: We are in for a depression... that will make the 30's look like paradise. Maybe it's a good thing - the hard-hats and the phony liberals will kill each other.

Activism Beyond the Courts

Jacob Rivetowski: You can't fight capitalism in the courts. You got to go to the streets. Man the barricades, plant the dynamite. Blow up the cesspool.

Reflections on Cars and Their Names

Harry Coombes: [Talking to his cat, reminiscing about an earlier New York City] There were trolleys, Tonto. Cobblestones. The aroma of corned beef and cabbage. The tangy zest of... apple strudel. You had to hand-crank the cars in those days, Tonto. Cars like REO's, Franklins, Hudsons. Those were names fit for a car. These days a man doesn't know whether he's driving a car or an animal: "Mustangs," "Jaguars," "Cougars,"... "Pintos." - Silly.