Z (1969) - Quotes

La mère de Nick: Come and eat.

Nick: He killed a man.

La mère de Nick: What man?

Nick: A deputy.

La mère de Nick: In the government?

Nick: No, the opposition.

La mère de Nick: He did right. What's it to you?

Nick: He got his picture in the paper.

La mère de Nick: Eat. Let them kill each other.

Examining Magistrate: You're a Communist.

Vago: Me?

Examining Magistrate: You and Yago. You're friends. It was something you let slip out: "A rich man catches a cold, we poor still have to work or we die." Then you caught yourself and stopped.

Vago: I hate Communists!

Examining Magistrate: Not words. I want proof! Only a Communist would say that.

Vago: I belong to an anti-Communist group!

Examining Magistrate: And Yago?

Vago: Yago too.

Examining Magistrate: Which one?

Vago: CROC! Christian Royalist Organization against Communism.

Examining Magistrate: Any convictions?

Vago: Yes, four.

Examining Magistrate: Four?

Vago: Yes, four. Illegal possession of a weapon, abuse and slander, theft - and rape.

Examining Magistrate: Rape?

Vago: It wasn't really. I was a Boy Scout camp counselor.

The General: That one's a mad dog. He'll make the most of it. No shame. A Jew, naturally.

Le colonel de gendarmerie: A half-Jew.

The General: Worst kind. They feel superior even to other Jews.

Le rédacteur en chef du journal: What happened to you?

Vago: There was a demonstration. We taught the bastards a lesson. They can't stop them from getting or keep us from reacting either. It's like a biological process. You see, we're society's healthy elements, its antibodies. We gave em hell.

Examining Magistrate: What did you do the day of the murder?

The General: I'd decided to attend the Bolshoi. Not out of love for dance. I'm no pervert, thank God. But it was a chance to spot sympathizers.

Attorney General: So you'd indict the chiefs of police and security?

Examining Magistrate: It's inevitable.

Attorney General: Only events dictated by divine will are inevitable.

Title Card: Any similarity to real persons and events is not coincidental. It is INTENTIONAL.

Attorney General: As if it's not enough that our country's been invaded by long-haired thugs, atheists and junkies of unclear sex, now you want to disparage our armed forces and courts - the only elements not corrupted by parliamentarianism. Just when we dream of renewal, a country without parties, without Left or Right, heeding God and its destiny, you want to ruin it all.

Narrator: [[Sophocles; [Tolstoy; [Euripides; [Aristophanes; [Eugène Ionesco|Ionesco; [Sartre; [Edward Albee|Albee; [Harold Pinter|Pinter; [freedom of the press; [sociology; [Beckett; [Dostoyevsky] The military regime banned: long hair, miniskirts, ], ], ], Russian-style toasts, strikes, ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], modern music, pop music, new math, and the letter Z, which means HE LIVES in Ancient Greek.

Manuel: We have a saying: "A hungry bear doesn't dance.

Manuel: Always blame the Americans. Even if you're wrong!

The General: We must preserve the healthy parts of our society and heal the infected parts.

The General: [[socialism; [anarchism; [imperialism; [communism] With the outbreak of such "-isms" as ], ], ], ], etc., sunspots began to swarm across the face of the diurnal orb. God casts no light on the Reds. Scientists have announced a major increase in sunspots since the advent of beatniks, Provos, and, most of all, pacifist tendencies from Italy, France and Scandinavia.

The General: Our system is not an "-ism." This is a democracy.

Z: The truth is the start of powerful, united action.

Z: We live in a weak and corrupt society where it's everyman for himself - Even imagination is suspect, yet it is required to solve the problems of our planet, where the destructive power of stockpiled nuclear warheads equals a ton of dynamite for each person.

Z: Worldwide, there are too many soldiers ready to fire at the slightest display of progress...

Z: A single cannon is fired and a teacher's monthly salary goes up in smoke.

Z: They struck me. Why? Why do the ideas we stand for incite such violence? Why is peace intolerable to them? Why don't they attack other organizations and movements? The answer is simple. The other movements are national, for domestic purposes, and thus leave our allies indifferent...