# Best single lines of dialogue from artistic works **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 20, 2023, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111 "2023-02-20T22:37:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/61 "2023-02-22T23:50:42Z")
Speaking of Commando there is always this exchange… “You scared, motherf\*\*\*\*\*? Well, you should be, because this Green Beret is going to kick your big a\*\*” “I eat Green Berets for breakfast. And right now, I’m very hungry!” ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/62 "2023-02-22T23:54:53Z")
There is this exchange in _The Outlaw Josey Wales_: Josey Wales: “Reckon I’m right popular. You a bounty hunter?” Bounty hunter #1: “A man’s got to do something for a living these days.” Josey Wales: “Dyin’ ain’t much of a living, boy.” ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/63 "2023-02-23T00:02:55Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > Speaking of Commando there is always this exchange… > > “You scared, motherf\*\*\*\*\*? Well, you should be, because this Green Beret is going to kick your big a\*\*” > > “I eat Green Berets for breakfast. And right now, I’m very hungry!” You forgot Rae Dawn Chong’s rejoinder: “I can’t believe this macho bull#$%&” ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/64 "2023-02-23T00:05:59Z")
There many great lines from _Airplane!_ so I pick the one I have quoted the most: Some bad happens and I say: “It looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.” ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/65 "2023-02-23T00:15:34Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” > > – Friedrich Nietzsche, _Beyond Good and Evil_ Did he turn it into a screenplay? ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/66 "2023-02-23T00:30:12Z")
In the 1973 film The Exorcist, when a priest asks Regan why she doesn’t break her own straps and release herself, she says… “That’s much too vulgar a display of power.” That line always gives me chills! ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/67 "2023-02-23T00:57:18Z")
“I lie awake at night wondering what fresh hell tomorrow will bring.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/68 "2023-02-24T02:01:19Z")
Yes. Yes, I did it; I killed Yvette; I hated her SO much: i-i-the f, flames, _flames_, _ **flames** _, on the _side_ of my face, breathing, breathle, _heaving_ breaths… ---
**Author:** ![fordgt100](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fordgt100](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fordgt100)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/69 "2023-02-24T22:42:20Z")
“The first thing we do, we kill all the lawyers.” Shakespeare. Feel free to substitute realtors, developers, politicians, the people who stopped us from enjoying those little greenish glass bottles of Coke that definitely tasted better, etc. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/70 "2023-02-25T01:17:30Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > Speaking of Commando there is always this exchange… **Rae Dawn Chong:** What did you do with Sully? **Arnold:** I let him go. ---
**Author:** ![Galactus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galactus/32/3581_2.png) [@Galactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galactus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/71 "2023-02-25T03:15:38Z")
“All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain”. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/72 "2023-02-25T03:24:20Z")
“Like grains of sand through an hourglass, so flow the days of our lives.” _—Ted “Theodore” Logan_ ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/73 "2023-02-25T03:51:08Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > “Well, nobody’s perfect” > (_Some Like It Hot_) In the same vein of last lines: “Shut up and deal” _The Apartment_ And, spoken by Humphrey Bogart to the woman who has just this moment become his ex-fiancee: “Next time, rattle before you strike.” _The Stand-in_ And a line I shouldn’t have to source: “Vorga, I kill you filthy!” _The Stars My Destination_ ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/74 "2023-02-25T03:55:52Z")
“You song-singin’ skinny old maid!” —Humphrey Bogart to Katharine Hepburn in _ **The African Queen** _ ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/75 "2023-02-25T05:17:51Z")
Good one, but better than, “By the authority vested in me by Kaiser William the Second I pronounce you man and wife. Proceed with the execution.” ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/76 "2023-02-25T05:44:54Z")
“If it ain’t, it’ll do till the mess gets here.” ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/77 "2023-02-25T05:47:16Z")
> [@Galactus](#): > > “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain” Good one! Best line in the film, spoken by (in my cockeyed opinion) the true hero. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/78 "2023-02-25T08:04:50Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > “You song-singin’ skinny old maid!” > > —Humphrey Bogart to Katharine Hepburn in _ **The African Queen** _ And her character’s “Nature, Mr. Allnutt, is what we are put in this world to rise above.” ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/79 "2023-02-25T13:10:33Z")
" I hate little notes on my pillow. Like this morning. ‘We’re all out of cornflakes. F.U.’ It took me three hours to figure out that ‘F.U.’ was Felix Unger." - The Odd Couple I wonder if, in the development of the play, Neil Simon named Felix specifically to make that joke possible, because it’s worth it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111/80 "2023-02-25T13:12:58Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > And her character’s “Nature, Mr. Allnutt, is what we are put in this world to rise above.” My favorite line from that movie involves the sheer Katharine-Hepburn-ness with which she says _“…dear? What is your first name?”_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-single-lines-of-dialogue-from-artistic-works/980111.md?page=5)