Category: Quotes from My Collection

Quoting Sparky Anderson, on power versus speed

If you have to choose between power and speed — and it often turns out you have to make that choice — you’ve got to go for speed.

Quoting “Star Trek,” on presentation

Admiral James T Kirk (William Shatner):

You’re not exactly catching us at our best.

Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy):

That much is certain

— Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Leonard Nimoy

Quoting “Any Given Sunday,” on how to succeed

Three minutes until the biggest battle of our professional lives, all comes down to today ….

I look around, I see these young faces and I think, I mean, I made every wrong choice a middle aged man can make …. But, you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out life is this game of inches. So’s football.

Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early, and you don’t quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast, you don’t quite catch it.

The inches we need are everywhere around us, they’re in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch ….

Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino).

— Oliver Stone, director

Quoting Martin Mull, on family life

Having a family is like having a bowling alley installed in your head.

Said shortly after he became a stepfather.

Quoting “Tomorrow Never Dies,” on countering rationalization

Dr. Kaufman (Vincent Schiavelli):

I’m just a professional doing a job.

James Bond (Pierce Brosnan):

Me, too.

— Roger Spottiswoode; Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli

Quoting “Goldfinger,” on self-discipline

Discipline, Double-O Seven. Discipline.

James Bond (Sean Connery).

— Guy Hamilton; Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman (character originally created by Ian Fleming)

Quoting “Star Trek,” on disagreement in perspective

All right, Doctor—. Let’s hope we have time to argue about it.

Captain James T Kirk (William Shatner).

— “The Corbomite Maneuver,” Gene Roddenberry

Quoting Dr Joy Browne, on divorce

As long as there are children, there are hostages.

Quoting “Shawshank Redemption,” on hope

In 1966, Andy Dufrane escaped from Shawshank Prison.

Ellis Boy “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman), voiceover.

— Frank Darabont

Quoting “Jurassic Park,” on reassurance

Lex (Ariana Richards):

Alan?

Dr Alan Grant (Sam Neill):

Yeah?

Lex:

What if the dinosaurs come back while we’re all asleep?

Dr Grant:

Well—. I’ll stay awake.

Recall that we are introduced to Dr Grant as a man who is both uncomfortable with children and actively disinterested in changing that. At one point, he answers a question by telling a story designed to frighten the lad who’d inquired of him.

The dialogue above symbolizes his growth through his character arc in the movie. All the more so in that it is not only compassionate, but plays against his nature — responding to feeling with feeling, as opposed to an attempt to dissuade through logic.

Generally damn good parenting.

— Steven Spielberg, director