100 greatest movie quotes from 100 years of film

- Quote: "I'm the King of the World!"
- Character: Jack Dawson
- Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio

James Cameron famously shouted this movie line (delivered as Jack Dawson spreads his arms and shouts it from the ship's prow) after winning the Oscar for Best Director for "Titanic" in 1998. Twenty years later, he told "Vanity Fair" that he regretted the "hubris." "I now realize what was wrong with my choice to do that." "Titanic" is still tied with "Ben-Hur" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" for the most Oscar wins of all time.

- Quote: "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!"
- Character: Wicked Witch of the West
- Actor: Margaret Hamilton

"The Wizard of Oz" remains one of the most influential films in history, in part because it features witches (both good and bad). These on-screen witches gave way to the popular Broadway show "Wicked," and this famous line pops up anywhere witches are referenced.

- Quote: "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."
- Character: Johnny Castle
- Actor: Patrick Swayze

"Dirty Dancing" writer Eleanor Bergstein, explained that Patrick Swazye didn't want to say the iconic line, but he gave it one take. Swayze's earnest performance as Johnny Castle made this line an enduring classic, both silly and sweet. The line was also a 2005 song title for the rock band Fall Out Boy.

- Quote: "My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you."
- Character: George M. Cohan
- Actor: James Cagney

Released in 1942, this story about the composer of America's most patriotic songs, became easy propaganda to get the U.S. in a rousing mood for World War II. James Cagney as Cohan speaks the line to President Roosevelt after receiving a medal for serving his country. The line solidifies the notion of the family as a cornerstone of patriotism, and as an extension of the strength of powerful, good men.

- Quote: "Snap out of it!"
- Character: Loretta Castorini
- Actor: Cher

As Loretta, Cher slaps Nicolas Cage twice before speaking this famous admonition. Loretta's inspired anger in the face of a declaration of love comes across as a spirited rebellion against traditional romantic norms.

- Quote: "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary."
- Character: John Keating
- Actor: Robin Williams

Robin Williams was already a star when "Dead Poets Society" premiered, but he would grow into a beloved cultural icon after this film. "Dead Poets Society" endures due to its theme, tied to this powerfully optimistic line, in a film that's beautiful, but sorrowful.

- Quote: "I feel the need—the need for speed!"
- Character: Pete Mitchell & Nick Bradshaw
- Actor: Tom Cruise & Anthony Edwards

Tom Cruise's hotshot pilot Maverick was a famously adorable rapscallion—a trait embodied in this short, simple line. Despite its overall campiness, reflected best in the unforgettable volleyball scene, the film's sequel is set to release in 2020. Cruise will reprise his role.

- Quote: "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!"
- Character: Mame Dennis
- Actor: Rosalind Russell

This film became famous for bucking Hays Code restrictions in the 1950s with open references to homosexuality and gender-bending. This film became a camp classic for its "gay sensibility" and for Rosalind Russell's exuberant costumes and one-liners like this one, delivered to her repressed nephew.

- Quote: "Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac...It's in the hole! It's in the hole! It's in the hole!"
- Character: Carl Spackler
- Actor: Bill Murray

Bill Murray's famous "Cinderella" monologue didn't appear in the "Caddyshack" script—the actor was only given directions to lop the heads off tulips while practicing his golf swing. Murray requested mums instead, and improvised the famous riff doing imaginary sports commentary.

- Quote: "Who's on first?"
- Character: Dexter
- Actor: Bud Abbott

It's hard to imagine this long bit about about a baseball player named "Who's" would appeal to a contemporary audience. The classic comedy duo Abbott and Costello use the line "Who's on first?" as fodder for wordplay antics. In this routine filled with dialogue about baseball players, some also have the names "Tomorrow" and "Naturally," allowing for extended comic hijinks.

- Quote: "A martini. Shaken, not stirred."
- Character: James Bond
- Actor: Sean Connery

This line captures the essence of the special agent hero: handsome and cultured, with impeccable taste. Not surprisingly, the line (which originated in Ian Fleming's "007" novels) endures not only in the films, but in contemporary cocktail culture.

- Quote: "Tell 'em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper."
- Character: Knute Rockne
- Actor: Pat O'Brien

George Gipp was a real-life football player who became forever entwined with the political mythology of Ronald Reagan. The former president starred as the dying "Gipper," and asks his coach to inspire his team with the line. It became a catchphrase during Reagan's campaign, a crossover between politics and popular culture.

- Quote: "Listen to me, mister. You're my knight in shining armor. Don't you forget it. You're going to get back on that horse, and I'm going to be right behind you, holding on tight, and away we're gonna go, go, go!"
- Character: Ethel Thayer
- Actor: Katharine Hepburn

In this tear-jerking scene, stars confront old age and mortality in a love story rarely shown in Hollywood. Katharine Hepburn performed the role while suffering from Parkinson's, and delivers this line while comforting her ailing husband.

- Quote: "Sawyer, you're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!"
- Character: Julian Marsh
- Actor: Warner Baxter

Ruby Keeler (as Peggy) stars in this Busby Berkeley musical set in the "backstage" of Broadway, filled with cinematic dance numbers. When the star breaks her ankle, the show must go on, so the director sends ingenue understudy Peggy to the stage with this famous line.

- Quote: "Attica! Attica!"
- Character: Sonny Wortzik
- Actor: Al Pacino

"Dog Day Afternoon," about a bank heist gone wrong, got the audience on the side of the criminals. When Al Pacino (as robber Sonny) emerges from the bank and confronts the cops, he gets the crowd to chant "Attica! Attica!" This is a reference to the 1971 prison riot and the prisoner's rights movement, demonstrating the film's strong anti-establishment bent. Pacino ad-libbed the lines after consulting with the assistant director.

- Quote: "My precious."
- Character: Gollum
- Actor: Andy Serkis

Gollum became an emblem for CGI performances after "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," setting the bar for characters created by animators and portrayed by actors. Gollum is especially intriguing for his grotesque obsession that's somehow still relatable. The line was quickly "memed" as a stand-in for obsessive behavior.

- Quote: "Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast."
- Character: Carl Denham
- Actor: Robert Armstrong

This line is delivered when King Kong has fallen off the Empire State and lies dead in the street below. It's a romantic rigaromole: it really was the airplanes, but here the men who tortured the poor creature deflect responsibility onto a woman.

- Quote: "Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make."
- Character: Count Dracula
- Actor: Bela Lugosi

If the castle wasn't freaky enough, Count Dracula utters these creepy lines to an out-of-town guest who hears howls in the distance. The line is eerie, but also filled with humanity and beauty that breathes within Bela Lugosi's intense performance as the iconic vampire.

- Quote: "Toga! Toga!"
- Character: John "Bluto" Blutarsky
- Actor: John Belushi

John Belushi shines as the emblematic co-ed in this paean to college party life set in a fraternity house on probation. Belushi plays the feral Bluto with an animal-like unshackling, as if he's the unfettered id of the frat boy soul.

- Quote: "Hello, gorgeous."
- Character: Fanny Brice
- Actor: Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand repeated this famous line during her Best Actress Academy Award acceptance speech. In the film, the camera pans to her character, decked out in a leopard print coat and hat, gazing at herself in the mirror and greeting her lovely visage.

- Quote: "Yo, Adrian!"
- Character: Rocky Balboa
- Actor: Sylvester Stallone

After the brutal fight, and the even crueler loss to Apollo Creed, Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) tries to make his way through the throng to Adrian. "Rocky" was a small film, and an early major role for Stallone, but the underdog story took the country by storm and became a titan franchise.

- Quote: "I am serious…and don't call me Shirley."
- Character: Dr. Rumack
- Actor: Leslie Nielsen

Leslie Nielsen's deadpan delivery comes after the perfect set-up, "Surely you can't be serious." "Airplane's" slapstick silliness reveled in wordplay and sight gags, but popular culture fell in love with this line as the ideal rejoinder to use upon hearing "surely."

- Quote: "Open the pod bay doors, HAL."
- Character: Dave Bowman
- Actor: Keir Dullea

The sentient HAL computer in Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi epic speaks with a calm and chilling voice. When Keir Dullea (as astronaut Dave) implores the computer to open the doors, the simple red eye and disembodied voice of HAL offers an eerie counterpart to the outwitted human.

- Quote: "Soylent Green is people!"
- Character: Det. Robert Thorn
- Actor: Charlton Heston

In this sci-fi thriller about environmental disaster, set in 2022, the apocalypse has caused a shortage of food and humans subsist on a mysterious substance called, you guessed it, soylent. This famous line, which admittedly gives away the movie's ending, is performed by Charlton Heston with characteristic hysteria.

- Quote: "Hasta la vista, baby."
- Character: The Terminator
- Actor: Arnold Schwarzenegger

There's something about Arnold Schwarzenegger's line deliveries—he performs in a way that's both stiff and also infused with sincerity. Since he plays a robot in the "Terminator" franchise, his dialogue is rife with humor. The script co-writer revealed that he and director James Cameron used to say this catchphrase to one another, but Schwarzenegger made it one of his trademarks.

- Quote: "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
- Character: Blanche DuBois
- Actor: Vivien Leigh

Vivien Leigh captures the vulnerability of Blanch DuBois that's epitomized in this line—it also contains an irony that strangers aren't kind. The world is harsh and women like her won't survive, despite her optimistic facade that hides a traumatized woman just beneath.

- Quote: "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown."
- Character: Lawrence Walsh
- Actor: Joe Mantell

In 1974, "Chinatown" shocked audiences with its distressing, tragic ending. The chilling effect of one of its final lines relays the dark notion that no one can be saved, and even the most twisted corruptors get away with their crimes.

- Quote: "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?"
- Character: Rico Bandello
- Actor: Edward G. Robinson

"Little Caesar" was one of the first gangster films, brimming with corruption, violence, and indecency before the film industry's organized censorship. The famous last line, gangster Rico's dying words were toned down from "Mother of God," in order to avoid offending the religious.

- Quote: "No wire hangers, ever!"
- Character: Joan Crawford
- Actor: Faye Dunaway

Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford doubled the appeal of glamourous rage-filled melodrama in "Mommie Dearest." She delivers the line wearing a layer of face cream and smeared red lipstick in the middle of the night, as her hysteria is revealed.

- Quote: "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!"
- Character: Jakie Rabinowitz/Jack Robin
- Actor: Al Jolson

This famous line inaugurates the moment in film history when "talkies" took over. It was the first film with a synchronized soundtrack that included both dialogue and singing. "The Jazz Singer" is just as famous for sequences with Al Jolson donning blackface, which complicates the film's history and legacy.

- Quote: "Is it safe?"
- Character: Dr. Christian Szell
- Actor: Laurence Olivier

The chilling irony of asking about safety during a torture scene makes "Marathon Man" an unforgettable horror film that's still relevant today. Laurence Olivier plays a Nazi war criminal whose brutality is especially apparent when Dustin Hoffman's character, an unwitting runner caught up in his plot, ends up in his dentist chair.

- Quote: "They're here!"
- Character: Carol Anne Freeling
- Actor: Heather O'Rourke

Young Carol Anne seems happy enough when she announces the presence of the entities who are about to wreak terrifying havoc on her family. The television static, usually innocuous, becomes a sign of unrest. As in many horror films, the ideal American life is ripe for shock and horror in "Poltergeist."

- Quote: "Here's Johnny!"
- Character: Jack Torrance
- Actor: Jack Nicholson

1980's "The Shining" was deemed one of the scariest movies of all time based on a study of viewers' heart rates while viewing the film. This quintessential cinematic jump scare has origins in "The Tonight's Show's" iconic introduction of Johnny Carson by Ed McMahon. During the "Here's Johnny!" scene, when the deranged Jack bursts through a door with an axe, viewers' pulses rose by 28.2%.

- Quote: "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."
- Character: Rick Blaine
- Actor: Humphrey Bogart

Rock band Fall Out Boy's 2005 album, "From Under the Cork Tree," has two song titles that are famous movie lines: "Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner," and "Of All the Gin Joints in All the World." Humphrey Bogart's leading man Rick delivers this line that captures the universal notion of fated love. More than 75 years after its release, "Casablanca" still has a strong hold on popular culture.

- Quote: "Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape."
- Character: George Taylor
- Actor: Charlton Heston

The first "Planet of the Apes" film premiered in 1968, with five additional films through 1973. Director Tim Burton rebooted the series in 2001, and audiences have flocked to new films beginning with "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" in 2011. Charlton Heston delivers the famous line as the marooned and imprisoned astronaut Taylor, with his characteristic emotional grit. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" repeats the line, but gets a response this time: "No!" from leader Caesar.

- Quote: "Elementary, my dear Watson."
- Character: Sherlock Holmes
- Actor: Basil Rathbone

This quip became the ultimate response from smarties to those less-adept. Sherlock Holmes is the quintessential deductive genius, magnified by the simpler wits of this sidekick Watson. The quote is not actually in any of Arthur Conan Doyle's books; it's an invention from the cinematic adaptations.

- Quote: "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"
- Character: President Merkin Muffley
- Actor: Peter Sellers

Stanley Kubrick's surreal dark comedy captures the absurdity of war and senselessness of atomic weapons in this line. During a live reading of the movie script, comedic actress Catherine O'Hara channeled President Merkin Muffley, delivering the line to laughter.

- Quote: "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?"
- Character: Benjamin Braddock
- Actor: Dustin Hoffman

This line's iconicity comes from the visual that accompanies it. The young college grad, Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) delivers the line while shot through the silhouette of Mrs. Robinson's leg, giant in the foreground. The shot offers the striking composition of the older woman overpowering the diminutive Benjamin.

- Quote: "What a dump."
- Character: Rosa Moline
- Actor: Bette Davis

Bette Davis' campy delivery of this snarky line still inspires imitations of those in need of the perfect insult to toss at reasonably non-dumpy locales. The line was given gorgeously caustic homage by Elizabeth Taylor in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," who says it when surveying a nice enough, well-furnished room.

- Quote: "Say hello to my little friend!"
- Character: Tony Montana
- Actor: Al Pacino

Al Pacino's unhinged portrayal of Tony Montana makes this violent spectacle an oft-parodied line due to its over-the-top carnage. In 2017, a play version starring kids went viral.

- Quote: "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!"
- Character: Oliver
- Actor: Oliver Hardy

The iconic comedy duo known for films packed with slapstick hijinks popularized this recurring catchphrase. Hardy would say it with a deadpan delivery to the hapless Laurel.

- Quote: "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again."
- Character: Scarlett O'Hara
- Actor: Vivien Leigh

Showing the theatrical nature of the cinema, Vivein Leigh as Scarlett delivers a powerful soliloquy set to the rousing, emotional score. She speaks this line right before the film's intermission, her silhouette against the sunset and the plantation land. Though Scarlett has barely suffered, in terms of what's possible in the 19th century south, the line represents the power to rebuild and carry on after losing the civil war, and the slavery system that maintained the Southern economy.

- Quote: "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."
- Character: Michael Corleone
- Actor: Al Pacino

Michael Corleone is merciless and brutal in this award-winning film. Though the sentiment in this line is often attributed to the ancient text "The Art of War," or Machiavelli's "The Prince," both guides for ruthless leadership, the line was in fact written by filmmakers Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola.

- Quote: "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."
- Character: Gordon Gekko
- Actor: Michael Douglas

Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko transcended his titan character and captured the capitalist zeitgeist of the "decade of excess." His slicked hair and reptilian namesake helped present a broad critique of wealth in America.

- Quote: "A boy's best friend is his mother."
- Character: Norman Bates
- Actor: Anthony Perkins

Hitchcock's psychological thriller was Freudian to the core: that is, obsessed with a mother who wasn't even there. Bates blames his behavior on his mother, when in actuality, he embodies her and wreaks havoc in her place.

- Quote: "La-dee-da, la-dee-da."
- Character: Annie Hall
- Actor: Diane Keaton

In 1977, Diane Keaton introduced a fresh type of romantic heroine: the prototypical manic pixie dream girl. Keaton won the Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of the quirky, unabashed woman.

- Quote: "There's no crying in baseball!"
- Character: Jimmy Dugan
- Actor: Tom Hanks

While Tom Hanks may be America's sweetheart, in "A League of Their Own," he plays a grumpy curmudgeon with a heart of gold. Despite delivering this line, the tough coach still has a soft spot.

- Quote: "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know."
- Character: Capt. Geoffrey T. Spaulding
- Actor: Groucho Marx

The wordplay wit in this line characterizes the Marx Brothers humor style as seen in their many film comedies. In "Animal Crackers," Groucho Marx plays a cowardly outdoorsman who tells tall tales at an upper-crust party, like the joke here, about an African safari he took.

- Quote: "You had me at 'hello.'"
- Character: Dorothy Boyd
- Actor: Renée Zellweger

Tom Cruise as Jerry Maguire brought the notion of self-awareness to romance films. The line quickly became a cultural catchphrase, representing an elaborate way to say "yes" that's easy to tailor to any situation.

- Quote: "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"
- Character: Harry Callahan
- Actor: Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood often plays lone cowboys and tough cops. As Harry, he delivers his iconic line after rising from a lunch counter to stop a crime. He's even still chewing his food as he struts across the street, gun in hand. Harry laughs, a towering figure over the wounded man, then he strolls away.

- Quote: "Houston, we have a problem."
- Character: Jim Lovell
- Actor: Tom Hanks

"Apollo 13" is based on the 1970 moon landing mission. Astronauts Jack Swigert and James Lovell each said close versions of the famous line, but they expressed it in past tense. The revised line was used earlier in pop culture, but Tom Hanks' delivery in "Apollo 13" as the imperiled astronaut gave the phrase new life.

- Quote: "It's alive! It's alive!"
- Character: Henry Frankenstein
- Actor: Colin Clive

Dr. Frankenstein's excitement in achieving his goal comes through clearly in this iconic line. This eventually disastrous narcissism became ripe fodder for parody. Gene Wilder does an excellent spoof of this line in "Young Frankenstein" from 1974.

- Quote: "Well, nobody's perfect."
- Character: Osgood Fielding III
- Actor: Joe E. Brown

The gender-bending subtext of "Some Like It Hot" is powerful, and not even that subtle. Joe E. Brown as Osgood has been wooing Jack Lemmon's character who's dressed in drag. When Lemmon says "I'm a man," and pulls off his wig, Osgood's quip (it almost didn't make it in the movie) displays open and romantic, homosexual love.

- Quote: "Shane. Shane. Come back!"
- Character: Joey Starrett
- Actor: Brandon De Wilde

This movie includes the classic Western trope of a lone cowboy riding into town, heroically saving it, then disappearing into the sunset. The tear-jerker ending has gotten the meme treatment, now a joke of sentimental hokum, when the child cries for the hero to return.

- Quote: "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars."
- Character: Charlotte Vale
- Actor: Bette Davis

Bette Davis stars as a woman who's diagnosed with cancer, undergoes a flashy makeover, and falls in love with a married man. The line captures her can-do spirit with regards to going without love.

- Quote: "Stella! Hey, Stella!"
- Character: Stanley Kowalski
- Actor: Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando delivers this famous line using his signature "method" acting style, revealing seemingly unstaged anguish. The line appears over in over in other iterations as a representation of melodramatic acting. In "The Disaster Artist," James Franco (as hack actor Tommy Wiseau) performs an over-the-top interpretation of this line in acting class.

- Quote: "I see dead people."
- Character: Cole Sear
- Actor: Haley Joel Osment

Haley Joel Osment was the ultimate turn-of-the-millennium child actor, speaking this line in a profoundly creepy manner. He in fact delivers this line earlier than the notorious twist ending, offering a clue that audiences famously missed the first time around.

- Quote: "We'll always have Paris."
- Character: Rick Blaine
- Actor: Humphrey Bogart

"Casablanca" has multiple lines in the top 100 greatest, and two of them come from Humphrey Bogart as Rick, during his final monologue to Ilsa on the tarmac. "We'll always have Paris" caught on as a catchphrase to use to make light of great loss. "Casablanca's" Paris montage also provides a quick shorthand for the couple's romance and breakup.

- Quote: "Plastics."
- Character: Mr. Maguire
- Actor: Walter Brooke

When it premiered in 1967, "The Graduate" stood out as a cinematic anthem for counterculture men who longed to break free of social expectations. Young Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) runs away with another man's bride, for example. Earlier, the line "Plastics" summarizes the out-of-touch, shallow nature of an older generation that only cares about money and tradition.

- Quote: "We rob banks."
- Character: Clyde Barrow
- Actor: Warren Beatty

"Bonnie and Clyde" used a new style of editing that changed American cinema and offered a subversive take on glamorous criminality. Set during the Great Depression, the line "We rob banks," comes across as an exciting, seductive brag without a touch of shame.

- Quote: "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."
- Character: Forrest Gump
- Actor: Tom Hanks

"Forrest Gump" was beloved by '90s audiences for its perceived wholesome take on American history. In the film, the box of chocolates adage acts a profound segue between Hanks as the simpleton Forrest and his partners on the bus bench. In 2019, the scene was used on " Saturday Night Live" to mock the first attorney general in Trump's administration, the Southerner Jeff Sessions.

- Quote: "If you build it, he will come."
- Character: Shoeless Joe Jackson
- Actor: Ray Liotta (voice)

The entire premise of "Field of Dreams," building a cornfield baseball diamond as a time portal for famous players, should never have worked. However, despite the premise and the disembodied voice that first speaks the lines, the movie became a beloved, sentimental hit with this catchphrase often quoted.

- Quote: "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth."
- Character: Lou Gehrig
- Actor: Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper played famous ballplayer Lou Gehrig in this true story that's still considered a cultural touchstone. Gehrig's speech moved the nation as he reflected on his career in the wake of a devastating diagnosis of ALS that he referred to as " a bad break." Gehrig's wife helped write the speech that appeared in the film.

- Quote: "I'll be back."
- Character: The Terminator
- Actor: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger became a star thanks to his hilariously stiff deliveries, not in spite of them. This line got laughs in "The Terminator," when Schwarzenegger's killer robot says it to a cop. He makes good on his promise by crashing a car into the precinct.

- Quote: "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"
- Character: Gold Hat
- Actor: Alfonso Bedoya

The "stinking badges" line from "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" endures throughout popular culture, as an idiom and in movies, comics, video games, and music. It appeared in Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles," as well as in the Broadway production of rock band Green Day's "American Idiot."

- Quote: "You're gonna need a bigger boat."
- Character: Martin Brody
- Actor: Roy Scheider

Much of the suspense in "Jaws" was created through the film's soundtrack and the point of view shots, rather than seeing the shark itself. This famous line, still commonly referenced today, created a sense of scale through Chief Brody's reaction shot to one of the film's first big reveals.

- Quote: "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow."
- Character: Marie "Slim" Browning
- Actor: Lauren Bacall

The production code prevented movies from featuring lewd content, so films used innuendo. These seemingly innocent lines sizzled with an undercurrent of sex. Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart's characters have a love-hate relationship (as well as a real-life romance) in "To Have and Have Not."

- Quote: "I'll have what she's having."
- Character: Customer
- Actor: Estelle Reiner

Director Rob Reiner's mother spoke this one-liner, the comic relief to Meg Ryan's epic fake climax as the prim Sally. In an early screening for movie distributors, men failed to laugh, but women in the audience erupted at seeing their dissatisfaction validated.

- Quote: "Round up the usual suspects."
- Character: Capt. Louis Renault
- Actor: Claude Rains

The 1995 film "The Usual Suspects" took its title directly from this line in "Casablanca." The line refers to "fall guys" or "patsies" who are framed for crimes. The line is delivered by corrupt police chief Renault, but this time he's helping out hero Rick.

- Quote: "After all, tomorrow is another day!"
- Character: Scarlett O'Hara
- Actor: Vivien Leigh

Scarlett thinks through her husband's decision to leave her, and after a series of aural flashbacks finds her bearings and vows to win him back. While she does get the final line in the film, it doesn't quite overpower Rhett's betrayal.

- Quote: "I want to be alone."
- Character: Grusinskaya
- Actor: Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo became known for her reclusive nature, which was linked to her repeated line as the dancer in "Grand Hotel." She gained fame for her notoriously beautiful and emotive close-ups, especially in black and white. Recently, a cache of her letters was discovered that reinforced Garbo's reputation for loneliness and solitude.

- Quote: "You can't handle the truth!"
- Character: Col. Nathan R. Jessup
- Actor: Jack Nicholson

The courtroom histrionics in this military trial drama, written by Aaron Sorkin, bristle with rage and tension. Tom Cruise plays a defense attorney bent on outwitting the colonel (played by Jack Nicholson) by tricking him into confessing on the witness stand. Nicholson delivers an unforgettable performance in a speech that begins with with "You can't handle the truth" and continues to confront the responsibility of those who guard the nation.

- Quote: "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'"
- Character: Ilsa Lund
- Actor: Ingrid Bergman

This famous line is usually misquoted as "Play it again, Sam," a line that's not actually in the movie. Woody Allen's film and stage play also misquote the line. Both Rick and Ilsa ask Sam to simply play the nostalgic song.

- Quote: "I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!"
- Character: Ratso Rizzo
- Actor: Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman's character Ratso pounds the hood of a cab about to hit him as he crosses the street. The line captures the frustration of being a pedestrian ignored by cars. The line was ad-libbed when a car drove through the shot. Hoffman almost shouted, " We're shooting a movie here," instead of "I'm walking here."

- Quote: "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?"
- Character: Lady Lou
- Actor: Mae West

Mae West spoke these lines to Cary Grant in a film filled with the usual censorship-defying double entendres. West was ahead of her time as an openly desirous woman, defying cultural norms at the time about women's behavior. She once spent ten days in jail over the content in her play, "Sex."

- Quote: "Show me the money!"
- Character: Rod Tidwell
- Actor: Cuba Gooding Jr.

Cuba Gooding Jr. won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his vibrant performance as a football player who doesn't get the money or recognition he wants. The famous line endures, and regularly gets gif and meme treatment as shorthand for the bottom line.

- Quote: "I am big! It's the pictures that got small."
- Character: Norma Desmond
- Actor: Gloria Swanson

This melodrama about an aging actress is a larger reflection on Hollywood's constant shifts, especially during the change from silent cinema to talkies. Norma Desmond's line shows her refusal to let go of her celebrity persona.

- Quote: "There's no place like home."
- Character: Dorothy Gale
- Actor: Judy Garland

"The Wizard of Oz" is one of the most influential films of all time, still generating constant allusions in films and popular culture today. "The Last Black Man in San Francisco," a recent indie movie about longing for home, referenced this famous line. The film's universal themes about home and exile have influenced thousands of other works.

- Quote: "Bond. James Bond."
- Character: James Bond
- Actor: Sean Connery

All the Bond actors eventually deliver this line, but Sean Connery was the first. Dashing, slick, and a paragon of handsome masculinity, he's just as dapper in a tuxedo lighting a cigarette as he is killing an adversary in cold blood.

- Quote: "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti."
- Character: Dr. Hannibal Lecter
- Actor: Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins, the Welsh Shakespearean actor, was cast against type as the sicko murderer in "The Silence of the Lambs." There's an odd allure in the clash between Dr. Hannibal Lector's taste for refined gourmet food and also, for cannibalism. In the scene when Lector tries to intimidate the FBI agent (Jodie Foster) he's supposed to help, he utters this line then performs a strange sucking flutter that ups the creep factor.

- Quote: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
- Character: Rick Blaine
- Actor: Humphrey Bogart

"Casablanca's" producer reportedly wanted an " upbeat closing line" that also included cynicism. They almost went with "Louis, I might have known you'd mix patriotism with a little larceny," but the famous line about friendship does a better job of delivering a more optimistic Hollywood ending.

- Quote: "I'm as mad as h*ll, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
- Character: Howard Beale
- Actor: Peter Finch

Not only does enraged news anchor Howard Beale declare this on-air when he veers off-script, he encourages viewers to go to their windows and shout it to the streets. The screenplay about the merger between news and entertainment proved a harbinger for contemporary media.

- Quote: "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"
- Character: Arthur "Cody" Jarrett
- Actor: James Cagney

James Cagney plays a desperate gangster particularly devoted to his criminal mother in a final shootout scene to rival them all. The betrayed tough guy goes out in a blaze of glory after delivering this final line with unhinged fervor.

- Quote: "Rosebud."
- Character: Charles Foster Kane
- Actor: Orson Welles

The payoff for the mystery of Kane's final word comes in the closing shots of the film. The realization of what "Rosebud" was and what it meant to the wealthy tycoon gives the film a tragic overlay for first-time viewers. The line is oft-parodied, including several times in the "Peanuts" comic strip, in particular one from 1973 when Lucy spoils the "Rosebud" revelation for Linus.

- Quote: "They call me Mister Tibbs!"
- Character: Virgil Tibbs
- Actor: Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poiter, one of the first black movie stars, plays Virgil Tibbs, a city cop wrongly accused of a crime. The film's sequel uses this line as its title. Poitier's intense delivery demonstrates the groundbreaking actor's strength and dignity in the face of racist injustice.

- Quote: "E.T. phone home."
- Character: E.T.
- Actor: Pat Welsh

Steven Spielberg's blockbuster became an instant cultural touchstone that delighted audiences and guaranteed tears. E.T. remains a well-known film with its main character both wise and childlike, generating widespread appeal. The simple line captures the longing for home and desire for connection that are the film's central themes.

- Quote: "The stuff that dreams are made of."
- Character: Sam Spade
- Actor: Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart's hard-boiled detective Sam Spade takes the line from Shakespeare's "The Tempest," and alters it from "the stuff that dreams are made on." Here, it refers to the emptiness of the titular statue (and the cynicism of romance) at the center of the film.

- Quote: "Love means never having to say you're sorry."
- Character: Oliver Barrett IV
- Actor: Ryan O'Neal

This weepy romance was a huge hit in 1970, and though its famous line endures, the film eventually fell out of favor. To contemporary audiences, the line now tends to come across as dysfunctional or trite. Psychotherapists certainly don't recommend this approach. It's become a meme as well — for instance, cats who have been up to no good.

- Quote: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."
- Character: Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore
- Actor: Robert Duvall

Robert Duvall plays the colonel in "Apocalypse Now" with a war-weary bravado that's both optimistic and brazen in the face of horror. The line goes on to use a slur to reference the enemy and ends with "smells like victory." This quip is oft-used in movies and TV to crack a joke about any pungent smell.

- Quote: "What we've got here is failure to communicate."
- Character: Captain
- Actor: Strother Martin

A sadistic prison guard says this line to irrepressible prisoner Luke (played by Paul Newman) in this film about rebellion in the face of brutal authority. The audience roots for Luke to escape, but by the end, as he's surrounded by police, he repeats the line with woeful irony.

- Quote: "You talkin' to me?"
- Character: Travis Bickle
- Actor: Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro was nominated for the Best Actor for his role as crazed vigilante veteran Travis Bickle. The line captures the universal behavior of rehearsing in front of the mirror while trying to be and look cool. Bickle pulls a gun and practices what he might say when it came time to use it.

- Quote: "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night."
- Character: Margo Channing
- Actor: Bette Davis

Bette Davis perfectly delivers this witticism as aging actress Margo. She downs a martini and struts to the staircase to deliver this zinger at a party. As an older actress, Margo is up against Eve (Ann Baxter) in this film about the adversarial relationships between women in the entertainment industry.

- Quote: "May the Force be with you."
- Character: Han Solo
- Actor: Harrison Ford

The force from the "Star Wars" universe is a touchstone in popular culture. When Han Solo offers these words to Luke Skywalker, it shows that even the cynical space outlaw has faith in the young Jedi. Now the line commemorates " Star Wars Day," a celebration for fans on May 4th. Get it?

- Quote: "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."
- Character: Norma Desmond
- Actor: Gloria Swanson

Norma Desmond's line captures the delusional narcissism of the lead character. The line is often parodied, notably on "The Carol Burnett Show," making light of her being unaware her time has passed.

- Quote: "Go ahead, make my day."
- Character: Harry Callahan
- Actor: Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood's tough guy cop line became a touchstone of the Reagan era, when the actor-turned- president used it in political speeches to signal the same kind of masculine prowess used in "Dirty Harry" movies. Notably, the scene in "Sudden Impact" shows the Eastwood character using the line on a black man, a stereotypical representation of a witless criminal whose partners are easily overtaken by the single white man.

- Quote: "Here's looking at you, kid."
- Character: Rick Blaine
- Actor: Humphrey Bogart

This line, a popular quip in the 1930s, was reportedly ad-libbed by star Humphrey Bogart. The line captures the raffish bravado of heartbreak. Rick delivers the line to the love of his life, right before she leaves forever to be with another man.

- Quote: "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
- Character: Dorothy Gale
- Actor: Judy Garland

Dorothy's classic line about finding yourself in a new world resurfaces again and again in pop culture. A YouTube supercut has 58 examples of the line used in movies and TV shows. One notable reference occurs in "Avatar" when Colonel Quaritch says, "You are not in Kansas anymore. You are on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen."

- Quote: "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am."
- Character: Terry Malloy
- Actor: Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando as washed-up boxer Terry delivers this famous line that captures the "coulda woulda shoulda" lament of anyone who feels their time has passed. Robert DeNiro as Jake LaMotta repeats the line in "Raging Bull," but Brando's delivery is what endures.

- Quote: "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."
- Character: Vito Corleone
- Actor: Marlon Brando

For first-time viewers, this line's payoff comes in the form of a grotesque surprise: the head of a beloved racehorse in the bed of a movie producer. That's the "offer" Vito Corleone makes to get a movie role for his godson. The line euphemizes strongarm tactics, using feigned civility as a cover for the extreme violence of these cinematic gangsters.

- Quote: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
- Character: Rhett Butler
- Actor: Clark Gable

Even though Scarlett plans to win back husband Rhett, (in another famous line,) his quip is delivered with such confidence that the audience loses faith Rhett will ever return. The line could have been " I don't give a straw," as revealed in a sheet of alternate options.

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