“Great movie quotes become part of our cultural vocabulary...

When you consider that any phrase from American cinema is eligible, you realize this is our most subjective topic to date. We expect nothing less than a war of words as we reignite interest in classic American movies.” --Jean Picker Firstenberg; CEO of the American Film Institute
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I keep a list of quotes in a word document on my computer. It is mostly things from movies and TV (obviously) but some of them are from books and some are from real people. It is single-spaced, size 10, times new roman and is currently 47 pages long.

I also have separate lists for Joss Whedon projects and Aaron Sorkin projects, and the TV shows Friends, Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, The Black Donnellys, Grey’s Anatomy and The Vampire Diaries.

The very first quote I ever saved was from Ferris Buellar's Day Off, said by Ferris to the snooty maitre d':
"It’s understanding that makes it possible for people like us to tolerate a person like yourself."

The most recent addition to my list was from last week's Private Practice, from Sam to Addison:
“You want to have your cake and eat it too, but you know what, you can’t because I’m the cake and from here on out, I’m taking the cake away. No more cake for you. I’m good cake too, double-chocolate, cream-filled with the little raspberries on top, so. No more cake for you, so just shut-up.”

And here are just some of my random favorites:

MOVIES:

Hook
Tinker Bell: You know that place between sleep and awake? That place where you still remember dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you, Peter Pan. That’s where I’ll be waiting.

Empire Records
Gina: Attention Rex Manning fans, to your left you will notice a shoplifter being chased by night manager Lucas. This young man will be caught, deep-fried in a vat of hot oil and served to our first hundred customers. Just another tasty treat from the gang at Empire Records.

Liberty Heights
Ben: If I knew things would no longer be, I would have tried to remember them better.

Notting Hill
Anna: Happiness isn’t happiness without a violin-playing goat.

Ratatouille
Linguini: Ratatouille. It's like a stew, right? Why do they call it that? If you're gonna name a food, you should give it a name that sounds delicious. Ratatouille doesn't sound delicious. It sounds like "rat" and "patootie." Rat-patootie, which does not sound delicious.

Life As A House
George Voiceover: I’d always thought of myself as a house, that was always what I lived in. It didn’t need to be big, it didn’t even need to be beautiful, it just needed to be mine. It became what I was meant to be, I built myself a life, I built myself a house.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Sam: It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The one’s that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end, because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But, in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it’ll shine out the clearer. Those are the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But, I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now, folk in those stories had lots of chances of turnin’ back, only they didn’t. They kept goin’, because they were holdin’ on to somethin’.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fightin’ for.

The Boondock Saints
Priest: We must always fear the wicked. But there is another kind of evil that we must fear the most, and that is the indifference of good men.

The Hours
Laura Brown: What does it mean to regret when you have no choice?

Velvet Goldmine
Brian Slade: Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he'll tell you the truth.

Boys on the Side
Elaine: That’s what you get in life, you know? You get whoever you end up with. Whoever is willing to stick by you, and fight for you, when everyone else is gone. And it ain’t always who you expect. But you just have to make do.

Pirates of the Caribbean : At World’s End
Captain Barbossa: You have to be lost to find the places that can’t be found.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
Penny: Sometimes people are layered like that. There’s something totally different underneath than what’s on the surface
Dr. Horrible: And sometimes there’s a third deeper level and that one is the same as the top surface level
Penny: Huh?
Dr. Horrible: Like with pie

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy: All I want to do is graduate from high school, go to Europe, marry Christian Slater, and die. Now it may not sound too great to a sconehead like you, but I think it's swell. And you come along and tell me I'm a member of the hairy mole club so you can throw things at me?

Serenity
Wash: This landing is going to get pretty interesting
Mal: Define interesting
Wash: [dead-pan] Oh God, oh God, we’re all going to die?
Mal: (on loud-speaker) This is the Captain, we have a little problem with our entry sequence so we may experience some slight…turbulence and then…explode



TV:
Good Morning, Miami
Jake: There’s something about your eyes and your smile. It’s not just that they’re beautiful and it’s not just that they light up a room. They’re like a gateway into a world that I want to be a part of.

My So-Called Life
Angela: This life has been a test. If it had been an actual life, you would have received instructions on where to go and what to do.

Battlestar Gallactica
Number Six: Life has a melody, Gaius. A rhythm of notes which become your existence once played in harmony with God's plan.

NCIS
Ziva: It’s like shooting fish in a pond
John: Haha, I think you mean a barrel
Ziva: Why would fish be in a barrel?
John: Uhm, I-uh, that’s a good point, I never really thought about it before

Accidentally on Purpose
Davis: Dude, you were born to be a chef, okay?! When the stork brought you, you grabbed that bird and cooked it into something delicious!

Ugly Betty
Betty: I’ve had to say ‘good-bye’ more times than I would have liked, but everyone can say that. And no matter how many times we do it, even when it’s for the greater good, it still stings. And though we’ll never forget what we’ve given up, we owe it to ourselves to keep moving forward. What we can’t do is live our lives always afraid of the next ‘good-bye,’ because chances are they’re not going to stop. The trick is to recognize when a ‘good-bye’ can be a good thing, when it’s a chance to start again.

How I Met Your Mother
Barney: (After blowing his nose) I’m fine. My nose is just over-flowing with awesome and I had to get some of it out.

The West Wing
President Bartlett: I was watching a television program before, with a kind of roving moderator who spoke to a seated panel of young women who were having some sort of problem with their boyfriends - apparently, because the boyfriends had all slept with the girlfriends' mothers. And they brought the boyfriends out, and they fought, right there on television. Toby, tell me: these people don't vote, do they?

Sports Night
Isaac: If you’re stupid, surround yourself with smart people. If you’re smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you.

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Wes: Living where there’s free speech means sometimes you get offended

The Black Donnellys
Tommy: We’re gonna need some scotch, and a lot of it, but we’re not gonna be able to pay for it, you see
Store Owner: Get outta here
Tommy: I think you’re gonna wanna give it to us
Owner: Oh yeah, and why’s that?
Tommy: Because your daughter has a crush on Kevin, he’s gonna date her if you don’t

Friends
Rachel: C’mon, Daddy, listen to me. It’s like, it’s like all my life everyone has always told me, “You’re a shoe. You’re a shoe, you’re a shoe, you’re a shoe” and then today I just stopped and I said, “What if I don’t want to be a shoe? What if I want to be a-a purse, you know, or, or, or a hat”….No, I don’t want you to buy me a hat! I’m saying that I am a hat - It’s a metaphor, Daddy!

Gilmore Girls
Sookie: Jackson’s sleeping with the zucchini tonight
Lorelai: What’s that? Farm jargon?
Sookie: No, he’s sleeping with the zucchini
Lorelai: But what does that mean? “Sleeping with the zucchini”?
Sookie: It means he’s sleeping with the zucchini
Lorelai: Uh, Sookie, fill me in here. Where’s Jackson?
Sookie: Well, he checked the weather forecast today and there’s a potential cold front coming in from Canada and he knows how important the zucchini is for opening day menu, so..
Lorelai: Are you saying that “sleeping with zucchini” means…
Sookie: He’s sleeping with the zucchini
Michele: She said it four times, you are very slow tonight
Lorelai: Oh, my god!
Sookie: Well, you said to do whatever it takes to make sure we have fresh zucchini
Lorelai: Within the realm of reason!
Sookie: Oh, now you add that!

Grey’s Anatomy
Meredith: We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Giles: So we have a threat against the students on their big night. A hellhound trained to attack people in formal wear
Cordelia: Oh, are we all catching up now?
Giles: This Tucker is planning to attack the prom tonight
Oz: Once again the hell mouth puts the 'special' in 'special occasion'
Xander: Why do I even buy tickets for these things, I ask you!
Willow: I wonder if I can take my dress back
Buffy: Don't you dare!
Willow: But Tucker's gonna...
Buffy: No! You guys are gonna have a prom, the kind of prom that everyone should have. I'm gonna give you all a nice, fun, normal evening if I have to kill every single person on the face of the earth to do it!
Xander: Yay?

Angel
Angel: What’s going on?
Wesley: We’re being attacked
Angel: I thought you had double-protection sanctorium spells!
Lorne: I do and they work. It’s a thing with the door and the stairs and the world and a thing. Never mind!
Gunn: Apparently, you can be outside and chuck stuff in
Lorne: I just said that

Firefly
Mal: Zoe, why do I have a wife?
Jayne: You got a wife? All I got is that dumbass stick, sounds like its raining. How come you got a wife?

Dollhouse
Topher: I am obsolete. This must be what old people feel like…and Blockbuster

The Vampire Diaries
Tyler: Look, there’s Elena and her new boyfriend. Oh, what are they doing? Oh, they’re walking…walking…walking…yup, right into the sunset.

Veronica Mars
Veronica Voiceover: I think we all learned a valuable lesson about faith. You give it to the people you love. But the people who really deserve it are the ones who come through even when you don't love them enough.

REAL PEOPLE:
"During your life, everything you do and everyone you meet rubs off in some way. Some bit of everything you experience stays with everyone you’ve ever known, and nothing is lost. That’s what’s eternal, these little specks of experience in a great, enormous river that has no end." --Harriet Doerr

“Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen.” --Conan O’Brien

“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” --Robert Byrne

“We should never separate the lives we live from the words we speak. To me, the most important goal is to live a life consistent with the values I hold dear and to act on what I believe in.” --Senator Paul Wellstone


I usually save things that make me laugh or make me think or mirror things I am feeling at the time. It is one of the many reasons that I love my DVR because as soon as I hear a line that I want to save I can rewind it as many times as I need to get the words right.

I am not really sure why I keep the lists, I guess it just gives me something to do :o)

xoxo
c

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