Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (2024)

Table of Contents
“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!” “They call me Mister Tibbs!” “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” “If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.” “You complete me.” “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this li “I drink your milkshake!” “Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!” “You make me want to be a better man.” “As if!” “Chewie, we’re home.” “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.” “These go to eleven.” “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!” “It was Beauty killed the Beast.” “Badges? We ain’t got no badges! We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!” “I’m just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.” “They call it a Royale with cheese.” “They’re here!” “Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” “Nobody’s perfect.” “Yo, Adrian!” “Wax on, wax off.” “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!” “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the war room!” “I don’t want to survive. I want to live.” “Elementary, my dear Watson.” “That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.” “I wish I knew how to quit you.” “Good morning, Vietnam!” “My precious.” “Argo f— yourself.” “It’s alive! It’s alive!” “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” “Go ahead, make my day.” “I mean, funny like I’m a clown? I amuse you?” “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.” “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.” “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” “After all, tomorrow is another day!” “Stella! Hey, Stella!” “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” “I’m also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.” “The Dude abides.” “Hasta la vista, baby.” “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!” “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.'” “I’m having an old friend for dinner.” “I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.” “If you build it, he will come.” “Just keep swimming.” “Mama says, ‘Stupid is as stupid does.'” “I’m the king of the world!” “Shaken, not stirred.” “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” “I am big! It’s the pictures that got small.” “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” “You don’t understand! I could’ve had class. I could’ve been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.” “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.” “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” “You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya punk?” “Say hello to my little friend!” “Show me the money!” “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.” “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys.” “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me, aren’t you?” “I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.” “Here’s Johnny!” “There’s no crying in baseball!” “You had me at hello.” “Houston, we have a problem.” “To infinity and beyond!” “Yippie-ki-yay, motherf—er!” “E.T. phone home.” “You can’t handle the truth!” “I’ll be back.” “I see dead people.” “Bond. James Bond.” “We’ll always have Paris.” “This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” “I’ll have what she’s having.” “Why so serious?” “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” “I am your father.” “The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club.” “There’s no place like home.” “You talkin’ to me?” “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.” “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” “May the Force be with you.” “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” “Here’s looking at you, kid.” “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

Everybody has a favorite movie line, even movie moguls. Disney’s Alan Horn likes, “I’ll have what she’s having,” from When Harry Met Sally …. Fox’s Stacey Snider picks “You complete me,” from Jerry Maguire. Tellingly, several top executives — Viacom’s Philippe Dauman, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos — choose “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse,” from The Godfather.

  • “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (1)

    One of the most parodied movie lines in cinema — even Ryan O’Neal himself poked fun at it in Peter Bogdanovich's screwball comedy What's Up, Doc?. When Barbra Streisand quotes it, he retorts, "That's the dumbest thing I have ever heard."

  • “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (2)

    The only way Paramount pictures would fund Mel Gibson's passion project about the 13th century Scottish noble was if he agreed to star in it as well as direct.

  • “They call me Mister Tibbs!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (3)

    Poitier did not want to shoot the film in Mississippi because he had been harassed by the Ku Klux Klan when he had visited there with Harry Belafonte at the height of the civil rights movement in 1964, so most of it was filmed in Sparta, Illinois. Filmmakers even changed the name of the fictional Mississippi town in the movie to Sparta so they wouldn’t have to pay to have the town’s water tower repainted.

  • “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (4)

    Writer Nora Ephron’s first draft didn’t have Sally and Harry ending up together because she considered a breakup to be a more realistic ending. So when it came time to film the revised happy ending, Billy Crystal ad-libbed much of his dialogue with Meg Ryan, including this most remembered line of the picture.

  • “If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (5)

    True to his word, Liam Neeson kills 35 men in 93 minutes in the first film, scores more in the second and third, and who knows how many in the planned TV prequel.

  • “You complete me.”

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    "It was one of those lines that came so easily, it felt almost too easy," remembers writer-director Cameron Crowe. "When I first gave the script to Tom Cruise, and we were reading through it, I said, 'I'm going to change that line.' He said, 'Uh, I love that line. Why don't you give me a crack at it.' I left it in, and on the night of filming — it was 4 a.m., on a Friday, and everybody was dropping from exhaustion — Tom says the line. By the end of his speech, everybody was in tears. Across the room, Renee was a wreck. Tom had delivered the line so powerfully, and so directly to her, she was still getting over it. Later he told me, 'I had always wanted to say 'I love you' like that in a movie.'"

  • “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this li

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (7)

    Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott didn’t quite see eye to eye on the screenplay, and on this line in particular. He routinely strayed from the script — by John Logan and William Nicholson — trying to improvise a bunch of alternatives, until Scott forced him to read the line as written. It went over like gangbusters, even though Crowe still hated it: "It was shit. But I'm the greatest actor in the world and I can make even shit sound good." The "shit" script would get nominated for best original screenplay at the 2001 Oscars and Crowe would win best actor.

  • “I drink your milkshake!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (8)

    A variation of the line was uttered by Sen. Albert Fall of New Mexico during congressional hearings in 1924 on the Teapot Dome scandal, which also involved oil tycoon Edward Doheny, who was the basis for Daniel Day-Lewis’ character: "Sir, if you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake, and my straw reaches across the room, I’ll end up drinking your milkshake."

  • “Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (9)

    The secret behind Charlton Heston’s hoarse, gravelly delivery? Great acting, sure, but also Heston had the flu through much of the production.

  • “You make me want to be a better man.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (10)

    Though Jack Nicholson worried that his character was so unlikeable people would flee theaters, he ended up winning an Oscar for it, along with co-star Helen Hunt.

  • “As if!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (11)

    "I am always compiling slang words," says Clueless writer-director Amy Heckerling about the line’s origins. “In the early to mid-'90s 'as if' was floating around in the gay community, and I heard it and thought it was a multipurpose phrase. Some of the people I knew were already beyond 'as if' and they were just going, 'zif!'"

  • “Chewie, we’re home.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (12)

    Harrison Ford considers director J.J. Abrams a "communications genius" for his decision to use the line in the movie's trailer. "'Chewie, we're home' was kind of the key in the door. Familiarity was unlocked at that moment," said Ford.

  • “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (13)

    Even though Nicholson and director Roman Polanski fought endlessly during the making of the movie, when the actor saw the rough cut he told producer Robert Evans, "We got a hot one. Get those checks ready — we’re on our way!"

  • “These go to eleven.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (14)

    Amp maker Marshall liked the publicity surrounding this line so much, they made Christopher Guest a special set of speakers whose highest setting is infinity.

  • “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (15)

    Dustin Hoffman’s line was ad-libbed, and the scene was shot guerilla style because they didn’t have enough money to shut down a New York street. The cab "almost hit us," Hoffman once recalled. "I guess the brain works so quickly, I said, in a split of a second, 'Don’t go out of character …' So I said, 'I'm walking here.' Director John Schlesinger started laughing. He clapped his hands and said, 'We must have that, we must have that,' and redid it two or three times, because he loved it."

  • “It was Beauty killed the Beast.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (16)

    When producer Merian C. Cooper pitched the role to Fay Wray, he told her, "You’ll have the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood." Wray was sure she’d be acting with Cary Grant.

  • “Badges? We ain’t got no badges! We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (17)

    The misquote of the line — "We don’t need no stinking badges!" — started with Micky Dolenz in a 1967 episode of The Monkees TV series, but Mel Brooks got it wrong, too, in 1974's Blazing Saddles.

  • “I’m just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (18)

    The National Science Teachers Association encourages biology and life sciences teachers to use this line to start a conversation about body image, nutrition and digestion among teenagers.

  • “They call it a Royale with cheese.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (19)

    If John Travolta’s character had been hiding out in Italy rather than France, the line would have been "They call it a McRoyal DeLuxe." If he’d been in Japan, he might have skipped the beef and tried the "Filet-O-Shrimp Burger."

  • “They’re here!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (20)

    Actress Heather O’Rourke, who was just 6 when she made Poltergeist, tragically died at age 12, in 1988, from complications of a bowel obstruction.

  • “Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (21)

    Snow White was the only major character then-18-year-old Adriana Caselotti ever voiced. "Walt Disney thought it would spoil the illusion if you knew who the people were who provided the voices in the film," she revealed in a 1987 interview, about the strict contract that kept her from other parts. (She died in 1997 at age 80.)

  • “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (22)

    Mario Puzo’s literary estate, which contained 20 different versions of the Godfather III script written between 1978 and 1989, recently sold at auction to a private collector for $625,000.

  • “Nobody’s perfect.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (23)

    The film’s closing line was never supposed to make it into the final cut. The writers — I.A.L Diamond and director Billy Wilder — put it into the script as a placeholder, until they came up with something better.

  • “Wax on, wax off.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (25)

    "I never imagined the 'wax on, wax off' would amount to anything," says screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen. "The crane at the end was the one. I wanted that to be the big moment. If I thought anyone remembered anything they'd remember that."

  • “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (26)

    Al Jolson was so excited about his rendition of "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face" that he spontaneously uttered the line before segueing into "Toot, Toot, Tootsie." The line was going to be cut but Sam Warner insisted it stay.

  • “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the war room!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (27)

    When Stanley Kubrick sat down with Peter George to adapt George’s novel Red Alert, the director struggled with treating the material as a straight drama, as he initially intended. "My idea of doing it as a nightmare comedy came in the early weeks of working on the screenplay,"Kubrick said after the film’s release. "I found that in trying to put meat on the bones and to imagine the scenes fully, one had to keep leaving out of it things which were either absurd or paradoxical, in order to keep it from being funny; and these things seemed to be close to the heart of the scenes in question."

  • “I don’t want to survive. I want to live.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (28)

    This line comes right from Solomon Northup’s 1853 book. Writer John Ridley has said he tried to remain true to the original. "To modify the man, no matter how sincere the desire, would have ultimately been dishonest. Solomon's story begs for honesty. As the voice of his own history, what he wrote deserved fidelity."

  • “Elementary, my dear Watson.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (29)

    Sherlock Holmes never utters this line in any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories. It was invented entirely for the movies.

  • “That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (30)

    Although James Cromwell would get more screen time in George Miller'stalking pig tale than in any of his previous films, he had only 171 words of dialogue. These are his best five.

  • “I wish I knew how to quit you.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (31)

    Screenwriter Diana Ossana got this gem directly from the New Yorker short story that inspired the film, co-written by Larry McMurtry. "The film has become a part of the popular culture," says Ossana. "We have a Google Alert for the film, and in the 10 years since it came out there hasn't been a day that there wasn't something, somewhere in the news about Brokeback Mountain."

  • “Good morning, Vietnam!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (32)

    The real-life Adrian Cronauer says he came up with the drawn out "goooood moooorning" sign-on because he was often shuffling papers to start the show and needed to stall for time.

  • “My precious.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (33)

    Want your own? You don't have to battle orcs and dragons — you just have to shop online. A platinum version, complete with Elvish script, retails for $3,100.

  • “Argo f— yourself.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (34)

    Screenwriter Chris Terrio actually foundthis memorable piece of dialogue in the real, declassified CIA report that agent Tony Melendez (played by Ben Affleck) wrote about the Iran Hostage Crisis rescue mission.

  • “It’s alive! It’s alive!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (35)

    Censors cut Dr. Frankenstein’s original line — "It's alive! It's alive! In the name of God! Now I know what it's like to be God!"

  • “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (36)

    This line was originally delivered onstage by Jessica Tandy, who played Blanche on Broadway, and was almost delivered in the movie by Olivia de Havilland (she was offered the role but wanted too much money). Vivian Leigh took it for $100,000, making her the highest-paid English actress of the time, but there may have been moments she regretted it; she and co-star Marlon Brando initially hated each other.

  • “Go ahead, make my day.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (37)

    In Kenya the mispronunciation of "make my day" is "makmende," which is slang for someone who tries to be a hero and was the name creators chose for the country’s first locally created superhero, described by CNN as "one part Shaft, one part Superman."

  • “I mean, funny like I’m a clown? I amuse you?”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (38)

    The "funny how" bit was heavily based on an incident Joe Pesci experienced as a young waiter when he complimented a mobster on his sense of humor. Needless to say, the man didn’t take it too well. Martin Scorsese heard the story during rehearsal and liked it so much that he let Pesci and Ray Liotta incorporate it by improvising their dialogue. The other actors in the scene weren’t given advanced notice because Scorsese wanted their genuine, unrehearsed reactions, and he shot it with only medium takes and no close-ups in order to capture their surprise.

  • “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (39)

    Soon after the film came out in 1977, Sir Alec Guinness told the BBC that fans sought him out for Obi-Wan-like wisdom. "I’ve been getting some pretty strange letters: 'My wife and I have got problems, could you come over and live with us.'"

  • “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (40)

    The racy double entendre wasn’t penned by the credited screenwriters — that’d be Jules Furthman and William Faulkner — but by producer Howard Hawks, who came up with the line at Lauren Bacall’s test screening. She was so good at it, Hawks asked Faulkner to pencil it into the shooting script.

  • “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (41)

    "One of the weirdest places I've seen the line pop up," says writer-director Tate Taylor, "was in a gift shop in Mississippi. It was crocheted toilet-seat cover that said, 'You is kind, you is smart, you is important.' I guess they thought it would be a beautiful place to those words every day."

  • “After all, tomorrow is another day!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (42)

    Though the screenplay, which went through numerous revisions, has four credited writers, this line is lifted directly from the book, where it is the closing line of the novel.

  • “Stella! Hey, Stella!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (43)

    Since 1997, the annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival has held a Stanley and Stella shouting contest.

  • “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (44)

    L. Frank Baum, the author of the novel on which the film is based, reportedly thought up the name "Oz" when looking at his filing cabinets, which were organized from A to N and O to Z.

  • “I’m also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (45)

    No surprise that one of the ultimate rom-com lines of all time also had the biggest disparity between male and female voters. Women had it at No. 28. Men just No. 100.

  • “The Dude abides.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (46)

    The inspiration for Jeff Bridges' character was Jeff Dowd, legendary publicist and former head of the Seattle Film Festival. At Sundance in 2009, the real Dude famously got into a fistfight with Variety film critic John Anderson over a disagreement over a documentary titled Dirt! The Movie.

  • “Hasta la vista, baby.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (47)

    "Sayonara, baby" was used in the Spanish-language version of the film since hasta la vistawouldn’t have been funny to Spanish-speaking audiences.

  • “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (48)

    Judy Garland became so attached to the little black Cairn Terrier who played Toto that she tried to adopt the pooch after filming ended. (His owner said no.) The dog, whose real name was Terry, was compensated well for his work: He got more than twice what the Munchkins received.

  • “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.'”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (49)

    Blame Woody Allen and his 1972 comedy, Play it Again, Sam, for making this the all-time most misquoted movie line in film history.

  • “I’m having an old friend for dinner.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (50)

    With lines as good as this one, Anthony Hopkins only needed about 16 minutes of screen time to win a best actor Oscar, among the shortest performances ever to earn someone an Academy Award in the category.

  • “I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (51)

    The line was voiced before any part of Roger Rabbit had been illustrated, so to get Bob Hoskins in the mood, director Robert Zemeckis told the late actor to simply imagine his ideal sexual fantasy.

  • “If you build it, he will come.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (52)

    Another misquote! Nobody in Field of Dreams ever says, "If you build it, they will come."

  • “Just keep swimming.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (53)

    This line — voiced by talk show host Ellen DeGeneres — was so popular, it’s earned her sidekick fish character, Dory, her own Nemo sequel, Finding Dory, coming this summer.

  • “Mama says, ‘Stupid is as stupid does.'”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (54)

    Forrest Gump may have popularized the phrase, but it’s actually a variant of the old adage, "Handsome is as handsome does,” which appears in, among other places, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and Herman Melville's Billy Budd.

  • “I’m the king of the world!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (55)

    Director James Cameron admitted "making a fool of" himself by repeating the line as he accepted the movie's best picture Oscar.

  • “Shaken, not stirred.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (56)

    The line is uttered onscreen for the first time by Dr. No, the villain in the first Bond movie. Bond himself doesn’t say it until Goldfinger, the third movie.

  • “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (57)

    Screenwriter Frank Pierson thought the line seemed too refined to be uttered by Strother Martin’s prison warden, so he wrote an elaborate backstory for the character that involved criminology courses that improved his vocabulary.

  • “I am big! It’s the pictures that got small.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (58)

    Numerous retired silent film stars were considered for the role of Norma Desmond — Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Pola Negri — but, of course, the part ultimately went to Gloria Swanson, who stayed in character throughout the entire shoot.

  • “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (59)

    There are 42 rings heard during the movie, meaning, if Clarence (Henry Travers) is right, 42 new angels.

  • “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (60)

    Although this line is variously attributed to Sun Tzu, Machiavelli and an Arabian proverb, this specific phrasing came straight from the pens of screenwriters Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola.

  • “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (61)

    The line actually comes from 19th century French poet Charles Baudelaire’s poetry collection Paris Spleen. In French it is, “La plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas."

  • “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (62)

    Network screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky originally envisioned Paul Newman in the the role that won Peter Finch an Oscar — the first to be given posthumously (the second went to Heath Ledger). Two months before the Academy Awards,Finch suffered a heart attack in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel while waiting for a meeting with director Sidney Lumet.

  • “You don’t understand! I could’ve had class. I could’ve been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (63)

    Rod Steiger's reaction to this line was filmed without Brando present. Brando’s deal with the studio allowed him to leave at 4:00 every day to attend therapy to deal with the recent death of his mother.

  • “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (64)

    One of two lines on this list that have been quoted inState of the Union addresses (see also: No. 32). "There is just no greater tribute you can get than have the president of the United States quote your movie, no matter what your politics are," says writer Bob Gale.

  • “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (65)

    Despite holding the record for the most Academy Award nominations for a single film (14, tied with Titanic) and making nearly every list of the top 100 movies of all time, this is one of the most misquoted lines in movie history. Most say, “…It’s going to be a bumpy RIDE.

  • “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (66)

    In the 37 years since the movie was released, this line has been parodied more than 50 times in other TV shows and movies, including Lizzie Maguire ("I love the smell of pop quizzes in the morning!") and Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie("I love the smell of destruction in the evening!").

  • “You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya punk?”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (67)

    Another misquote. Contrary to popular belief, Clint Eastwood never says, "Do you feel lucky, punk?"

  • “Say hello to my little friend!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (68)

    Al Pacino's M203 grenade launcher — which was custom-made for the film and later appeared in Predator — sold at an auction in November for $54,400.

  • “Show me the money!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (69)

    "The most surreal part of hearing the line reappear in the culture," writer-director Cameron Crowe tells THR about Cuba Gooding Jr.'s signature phrase, "was when George W. Bush and then Barack Obama both quoted it in their State of the Union speeches. When Obama said it, my mom called immediately: 'OK, you did it,' she said, 'you got Bush and Obama to agree about something.'"

  • “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (70)

    Richard Castellano, who played Clemenza, ad-libbed"take the cannoli,"riffing on an earlier scene where his character's wife asks him to pick up the dessert on his way home.

  • “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (71)

    "I have a pair of pants from a company called Carpe Denim," screenwriter Tom Schulman tells THR. "I didn't realize when I bought them, but when they were folded in a certain way I saw it on the inside of the waistband. The 'Denim' is pretty much the funniest thing I've seen with that line."

  • “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me, aren’t you?”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (72)

    In Mike Nichols' movie, Mrs. Robinson is supposed to be 25 years older than recent college grad Ben Braddock. But in reality, 35-year-old Anne Bancroft was only six years older than 29-year-old Dustin Hoffman.

  • “I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (73)

    "I think people remember the line because of Leslie Nielsen’s delivery,"Jeff Zucker (who co-wrote the script with his brother David and Jim Abrahamson) tells THR. "The way he said it was exactly what we were going for. We told the actors to pretend they didn’t know they were in a comedy."

  • “Here’s Johnny!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (74)

    All the script called for was for Jack Nicholson’s deranged writer, Jack Torrance, to break down the door to get to his cowering wife. But Nicholson added a little something to cut the tension — the production went through dozens of doors before director Stanley Kubrick was satisfied — and his improvised "Here’s Johnny!" made the cut.

  • “There’s no crying in baseball!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (75)

    "If somebody put a gun to my head and said 'What would be sort of the defining line from A League of Their Own, I would pick a line much later in the movie," says screenwriter Babaloo Mandel. "Geena Davis is quitting and she's trying to tell him, 'It just got too hard,' and Tom Hanks says to her, 'It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard everyone would do it. The "hard" is what makes it great.' I would pick that."

  • “You had me at hello.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (76)

    "It was a straight-up tip of the hat to Billy Wilder and the last line of The Apartment," says writer-director Cameron Crowe. "I always loved it when Shirley MacLaine said to Jack Lemmon, 'Shut up and deal.' It was the favorite last line to any movie in my family growing up. We loved it. So for Jerry Maguire, I wanted Renee to just cut him off and say it. The actual full line is, 'Shut up — you had me at hello.' It's pretty much a rule of thumb for every screenwriter: Billy Wilder will never steer you wrong."

  • “Houston, we have a problem.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (77)

    Hollywood doing a little historical revisionism: In real life, astronaut Jim Lovell said, "Houston, we've had a problem."

  • “To infinity and beyond!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (78)

    Buzz Lightyear's catchphrase is actually a variation of the line "Beyond the infinite," which appears as a title card in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The phrase later served as the title of Karen Paik's book recounting the history of Pixar — and as a lyric in Beyonce's 2008 hit, "Single Ladies."

  • “Yippie-ki-yay, motherf—er!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (79)

    "I wrote 'Yippe-ki-yay, asshole,'" says screenwriter Steven E. de Souza. "But Bruce, on his final take, ad-libbed the 'motherfer,' much to the amusement of the crew. The studio nervously left it in for the first test screening and the reaction made it permanent. But you don't always know.”

  • “E.T. phone home.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (80)

    Director Steven Spielberg voiced E.T. during shooting — standing just to the side of the camera and interacting with the child actors. Then sound designer Ben Burtt recorded actress Pat Welsh, whose raspy smoker’s voice he overheard one day at a camera store, and mixed it with animal sounds to get the friendly alien’s voice just right.

  • “You can’t handle the truth!”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (81)

    It took an entire day to shoot the climatic courtroom scene where Nicholson utters this line. When it came time to shoot coverage — filming reaction shots from others in the scene — director Rob Reiner told Nicholson he would get someone else to read his lines off-camera, but Nicholson insisted on reading them himself, doing the speech about 50 times. Why? "I just love to act," he told Reiner.

  • “I’ll be back.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (82)

    Schwarzenegger wanted to change the line to "I will be back" because it sounded more machine-like and he had trouble pronouncing "I'll." He said director James Cameron "looked at me like I'd lost my mind."

  • “I see dead people.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (83)

    As Haley Joel Osment says this line, the camera pans over Bruce Willis' face. That worried producer Frank Marshall, who thought it might give away the movie's twist. Test audience, though, didn't have a clue.

  • “Bond. James Bond.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (84)

    Ian Fleming named his superspy by looking for the most boring moniker he could find on his bookshelves — it turned out to be the author of a bird-watching guide. "By God, [that] is the dullest name I've ever heard," Fleming recalled of his eureka moment.

  • “We’ll always have Paris.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (85)

    In an oral history for the Writers Guild, screenwriter Julius Epstein recalled, "I wrote a note to [producer] Hal Wallis telling him how terrible [the script for Casablanca] was. He put it in a drawer. Thereafter, any time we had an argument about anything, he would open the drawer, pull out that note and hand it to [me] to read."

  • “This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (86)

    The original draft of the screenplay ended with Claude Rains, not Bogart, saying "This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," and Bogart replying, "Yes, but don't forget you still owe me 10,000 francs."

  • “I’ll have what she’s having.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (87)

    According to Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan was so self-conscious about faking an orgasm, director Rob Reiner faked "an orgasm that King Kong would be jealous of" to make her relax.

  • “Why so serious?”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (88)

    Heath Ledger's brilliantly twisted delivery may account for why this line finished No. 1 among 20- to 29-year-old voters.

  • “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (89)

    Mandy Patinkinhas said that this line — by far the most famous he's ever uttered — gets repeated back to him by fans at least two or three times a day.

  • “I am your father.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (90)

    One of the most misquoted lines in movie history, right up there with "Play it again, Sam."The real line has no "Luke" in it.

  • “The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (91)

    Edward Norton and Brad Pitt took their preparation for Fight Club seriously. Both took lessons in boxing, tae kwon do, grappling and studied hours of UFC programming. Pitt even visited a dentist to have his front tooth chipped. They also almost didn’t get the roles: Matt Damon and Sean Penn were considered for The Narrator, but David Fincher wanted Norton, as he was impressed with his performance inThe People vs. Larry Flynt. One producer has his eye on Russell Crowe for Tyler Durden, but another producer overruled him.

  • “There’s no place like home.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (92)

    The film adaption took a lot of liberties with L. Frank Baum's 1900 fantasy novel. The filmmakers did, however, take this jewel straight from the book.

  • “You talkin’ to me?”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (93)

    Robert De Niro improvised the line. The script simply said, "Travis speaks to himself in the mirror." Writer Paul Schrader told the actor his character was just "a little kid playing with guns and acting tough."

  • “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (94)

    Casablanca has the most quotes in the top 100. In addition to this one there are Casablanca lines at Nos. 2, 15, 16 and 52.

  • “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (95)

    Some variation of this line appears in all three Godfather movies. Screenwriter Mario Puzo and director Francis Ford Coppola were on opposite coasts when they were co-writing the script for the first film — Puzo in New York City, Coppola in San Francisco — and they literally mailed drafts back and forth to each other.

  • “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (96)

    Since Dorothy first uttered it 77 years ago, this line has popped up in countless TV shows and movies, from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids to Avatar, from Grey’s Anatomy toGilmore Girls. Not to mention Jo Dee Messina’s 1996 hit “You’re Not in Kansas Anymore.”

  • “May the Force be with you.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (97)

    Several characters say this line in the original movie, but surprisingly not Obi-Wan Kenobi, who doesn't utter it until 2002's Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

  • “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (98)

    "[Richard] Zanuck and [David] Brown were very stingy producers and everyone kept telling them 'You're gonna need a bigger boat,'" recalls Jawsscreenwriter Carl Gottlieb (who moved in with director Steven Spielberg for four months to work on the shooting script). "It became a catchphrase for anytime anything went wrong — whether lunch was late or if the swells were rocking the camera."

  • “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (99)

    The Japanese version of the line — "Kimi no hitomi ni kanpai'' — literally translates as, "Cheers to your eyes."Manako Ihaya of the American Translators Association calls it "a classic example of a good movie script translation" for its ability to capture the nuance of the English for the Japanese audience.

  • “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

    Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (100)

    Two months before the movie’s release, censors demanded that "damn" be dropped. The producers came up with 22 variations of the line, including "Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a whoop,"before the censors relented and allowed the "damn"to stay. Read more here.

    Click here to see the 10 lines that just missed making the list.

Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes (2024)
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