I think all of the same ideas above can apply with certain authors or books as well. Take Douglas Adams for instance. I only got around to reading the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in the last couple of years but my god is it filled to the brim with memorable and quotable lines. Unlike any other book I’ve read before.
“It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.”
My mother quoted Princess Bride to me once. ONCE!
Get outta here, Vermin.
HEY! That’s it, we’re fighting.
(I wish it hadn’t been so long since I’ve fought just one person at a time.)
Seconded. storyteller0910, that was a most excellent post, thank you!
Re: PoTC, I also agree with you, Bosstone. About the only line that gets quoted around here (and my friends and I are crazy about that movie) is “Hello? Pirate!” whenever we jokingly call one another on our shit.
“Tammy’s cleaning again? How’s that OCD going, Tammy?”
“Hello? Pirate!”
“Greg, you gonna share that wine, or keep it all to yourself?”
“Hello? Pirate!”
PoTC’s got some great dialogue, but much of it is simply too long, and it takes too long to build on itself, to be really quotable. And, as you say, much of it is very plot specific. You couldn’t use even the “Hello? Pirate!” line on someone who hasn’t seen the movie.
Why should that make such a <oof> difference?
Thanks! As my post probably made clear, I really love that movie and may have given it too much thought over the years. I think the screenplay is incredibly under-rated, actually. I think it might be one of the very best screenplays of all time. It has limited ambition, perhaps, but it sure does every single thing it sets out to do, doesn’t it? There’s not a bad line, a false moment. Should have won an Oscar.
Stupid Oscars.
Such a simple thing, storyteller, and yet that aspect never occurred to me until you put in words. You’re a credit to your name.
Not to piss on your in-joke, but I don’t think that line is preceded with “Hello?”. It’s simply “Pirate.”
It’s possible. There’s great contention among the group, no matter how often we watch it, and I’m generally in the “Pirate!” camp. However for that post I googled it to be sure, and found two cites for “Hello…pirate!” instead. cite and cite.
Hmm…Google. That’s the beauty of it…it doesn’t DO anything! :smack:
Another vote for the beauty of storyteller’s analysis.
Also, I wanted to second Robot Arm’s commentary about Airplane! by contrast. That movie is almost ALL about delivery. There are very few lines I can quote from the film that would make someone laugh if they didn’t know it was from Airplane! Fortunately for that film, the delivery is brilliant in all cases, and quoting from the film to someone who has seen it will immediately evoke memories of the scene.
F.U. Shakespeare mentioned Dr. Strangelove. While I really, really enjoy this movie and will sit down to watch it any time it’s on, I’ve never thought of it as being an overly quotable film. There are a couple of one-liners that stand out in my head, but it’s just not the same sort of thing to me (in terms of quotability, mind you – generally speaking, I think it’s one of the most brilliant films ever made).
Not to mention:
“My preciousssssssssssss”
and
“Is it secret? It is safe?”
“Not all who wander are lost”, ivylass. 
I quote Princess Bride, LOTR, Discworld novels, and the WB cartoons. I’m hopeless.