Category: Film/Television Excerpt

Galen:

The answer is still “no.”

Dureena:

I didn’t say anything.

Galen:

That was the look you gave me the last time you asked me to teach you what I know. The answer was “no” then, and it is “no” now.

Dureena:

Why?!

Galen:

Because there is a time and place for everything, and right now is the wrong time. You want to learn for the worst of all possible reasons: the need for revenge.

Dureena:

The Drakh killed my entire race! And they will do the same to yours…and you don’t want revenge?!

Galen:

[sternly] When you have reached the end of the road, then you can decide whether to go to the left or to the right—to fire or to water. If you make those decisions before you have even set foot upon the road, it will take you nowhere. Except to a bad end.

Dureena:

I don’t understand.

Galen:

That’s why I said “no.” When you have grown out of your rage then we will talk. Not before.

— “Racing the Night” – Crusade (1999)

Katsumoto:

…You do not fear death, but sometimes you wish for it. Is this not so?

Algren:

Yes.

Katsumoto:

I, also. It happens to men who have seen what we have seen. And then I come to this place of my ancestors, and I remember: like these blossoms, we are all dying. To know life in every breath. Every cup of tea. Every life we take.

The Way of the Warrior.

Algren:

(whispers) Life in every breath….

Katsumoto:

That is Bushidō.

— “The Last Samurai” (2003)

Akira:

I’m a wizard, mind you! This place is kept by powerful gods and spirits of kings! Harm my flesh and you will have to deal with the dead!

Conan:

Can you summon demons, wizard?

Akira:

Yes! To strike at you, I would summon a demon more ferocious than all in Hell!

— “Conan the Barbarian” (1982)

Walker Smith:

That’s what the game is all about. To be the best, you have to face the best.

— “TKO” – Babylon 5, Season 1 (1994)

Vinny Terranova:

I don’t believe in luck. I make it and I take it, but I don’t stand around waiting for it to happen.

— “Independent Operator” – Wiseguy, Season 1 (1987)

G’Kar:

There are things in the universe billions of years older than either of our races. They are vast, timeless…and if they are aware of us at all, it is as little more than ants. And we have as much chance of communicating with them as an ant has with us. We know; we’ve tried. And we’ve learned that we can either stay out from underfoot, or be stepped on.

Catherine Sakai:

That’s it? That’s all you know?

G’Kar:

Yes. They are a mystery. And I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the universe—that we have not yet explained everything. Whatever they are, Miss Sakai, they walk near Sigma Nine-Five-Seven, and they must walk there…alone.

— “Mind War” – Babylon 5, Season 1 (1994)

Marcus Cole:

I am a Ranger! We walk in the dark places no others will enter! We stand on the bridge, and no one may pass! We live for the One! We die for the One!

— “Grey 17 Is Missing” – Babylon 5, Season 3 (1996)

The Ancient One:

Matter is energy which is all around us. Sorcery is simply the art of wielding that energy….

Control the forces around your hands, and limitations become irrelevant.

— “Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme” (2007)

Not eliminated. Just irrelevant.

Sergeant Hazard:

From here on in, you guys are Charlie. Glide through this shit; you don’t clomp through it. Feel the terrain. Feel it, don’t fight it. This jungle is not an obstacle. It’s your friend. Use it. Let it help you. Love it. Love it, and it’ll love you back.

— “Gardens of Stone” (1987)

Harry “the Hunch”:

Who’s the muscle on the Cerrera hit?

Vinny:

Nobody I know.

Harry “the Hunch”:

Well, if it weren’t for outside contracts, Americans wouldn’t eat pizza.

Vinny:

How do you figure?

Harry “the Hunch”:

Aww, this business is doomed ’cause you kids ain’t got no sense of history! Now Lucky figured the best way to get rid of a business problem was to bring in outside muscle. Make the hit, send ’em home. Works to this day. But Genovese, he opened a pizza parlor in Red Hook. Brought in Sicilian muscle to work it. They’d stay a week, a month; get a go on a hit; and boom. Back to Sicily with an American fortune. Next thing you know, there’s pizza stands from Brooklyn to Baltimore.

— “New Blood” – Wiseguy, Season 1 (1987)

Connor MacLeod:

Duncan, what you give up to your adversary in the feet is everything.

— “Highlander: Endgame” (2000)

Yoda:

Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it; makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you: here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere….

— “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980)

Emphasis mine. This is the original, understated spirituality of the Star Wars saga.

Wyatt Earp:

The Cowboys are finished, you understand me?! I see a red sash, I kill the man wearin’ it!
So run, you cur! Run! Tell all the other curs the law’s comin’! You tell ’em I’m coming! And Hell’s coming with me, you hear?! Hell’s coming with me!

— “Tombstone” (1993)

Joe:

One sharp knife can feed you, clothe you, keep you warm and dry.

— “Band of the Hand” (1986)

Chandler Jarrell:

What’s this knife?

Kala:

The Crossed Dagger of Ajanti. They brought it to this world to kill the second Golden Child, the bearer of Justice. His death was a great loss.

— “The Golden Child” (1986)

Don Raphael Aiuppo:

The world that I found had no room for me, so I had to create my own. Me and men like me. We spilt blood to do that. To do something important, which was to feed and protect our families. Today, our grandchildren remember only how to spill blood. They don’t even know why!

— “Squeeze” – Wiseguy, Season 1 (1987)

Unicorn:

Don’t look back, and don’t run. You must never run from anything immortal; it attracts their attention.

— “The Last Unicorn” (1982)

Ahmed ibn Fahdlan:

For all we ought to have thought, and have not thought;
For all we ought to have said, and have not said;
For all we ought to have done, and have not done;
I pray thee, God, for forgiveness.

— “The 13th Warrior” (1999)

Jenner:

I’ve learned this much: take what you can, when you can!

Justin:

Then you’ve learned nothing!

— “The Secret of NIMH” (1982)

Brandon Castellano:

…We can reduce costs, reduce manpower.

Don Raphael Aiuppo:

I’ve always measured wealth in the number of people loyal to me!

— “Squeeze” – Wiseguy, Season 1 (1987)