You know that guy who makes quotation marks with his fingers while talking, to convey a sense of sarcasm around certain words when his voice would easily suffice? Well, your Mountain Times staff is not that guy. To prove it, here are some of our favorite quotations from page and screen, both in convenient and agreeable print format.

Melanie Davis: “You’re being very un-Dude.”

“Jeffrey. Love Me.” “That’s my robe.”

“Way out west, there is this fella that I want to tell you about. Goes by the name of Jeff Lebowski.”

When it comes to movie quotes, one film sneaks into my daily conversation more than any other. The Big Lebowski is a plethora of fun statements. When mistaken identity leads to a soiled rug, the Dude, the ultimate in slackers, is immersed into a complex plot of millionaires, adult film empires, a possible kidnapping and nihilists. This hilarious film proves, “Sometimes, there’s a man, well, he’s the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that’s the Dude. The Dude, from Los Angeles. And even if he’s a lazy man – and the Dude was most certainly that.”

The Dude’s bowling buddy plays a major role in the film. Walter, a gun-toting veteran with anger issues, provides the best and my most-used quote of the movie. “F#@* it, Dude, let’s go bowling,” as a legitimate response to anything from threats with a marmot to “Dude’s car got a little dinged up.”

The aspect about this movie which, in my opinion, gives it the cult classic status, is the fact that the Dude never gets anxious or angry during the many plot turns. I have now tried to apply that to my life. Whenever I start feeling uptight, I remind myself of Walter’s words of wisdom, “Come on, you’re being very un-Dude.”

Jeff Eason: Replicants and Romantics

Rutger Hauer as replicant Roy Batty in Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner.

One of my favorite movie quotes occurs in “Blade Runner,” when the renegade replication (human-like robot) Roy Batty, played by Rutger Hauer, has just had a change of heart and has saved Det. Deckard’s (Harrison Ford) life instead of killing him. Batty knows his internal clock is almost at its end and utters these words:

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”

I’ve read where Hauer made up that soliloquy on the spot, but I don’t know if that’s true or not.

Another favorite is in “Casablanca,” when Claude Rains’ character, Captain Renault, asks Rick (Humphrey Bogart) how he ended up in North Africa: “I’ve often speculated why you don’t return to America. Did you abscond with the church funds? Run off with a senator’s wife? I like to think you killed a man. It’s the romantic in me.”

Frank Ruggiero: Hail Caesar!

Rome or bust.

Throughout the generations, this particular quotation has come to define hubris. All the same, it remains one of the coolest retorts ever, especially if you refuse to budge on an issue, like the fact that Jack Nicholson would have made a good Wolverine in the “X-Men” movies.

Wait for the set-up, then assume a confident (but not too arrogant) air about you and in a calm, assured tone say, “I am constant as the northern star.”

This excerpt of a quotation comes from Act III, Scene I of William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” just before the title character is brutally stabbed to death by conspirators. When Caesar is asked by noblemen on multiple occasions to repeal a Roman’s banishment, he coolly replies, “But I am constant as the northern star, of whose true-fix’d and resting quality there is no fellow in the firmament.”

He proceeds to liken himself to the Olympian gods, and then the conspirators liken him to a pin cushion.

Literary minds have also found the excerpt makes a particularly good response to the frequently asked question, “How are you?”

Scott Nicholson: Scott Scopes a Scoot

Look in book of Fox in Socks!

“Chicks with bricks and blocks and clocks come.”

Theodor Geisel, toiling under the subversive pseudonym “Dr. Seuss,” was probably the most gifted stylist of the English language since Shakespeare. His work in “Fox in Socks” is not as famous as “The Cat in the Hat” or “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” but for sheer tongue-tripping delight it can’t be topped. This is the kind of book that makes reading fun for kids and adults alike, and while the “beetle battle” segment is a slightly better lingual challenge and sobriety test, I favor the “chicks” line because of its inscrutability and double entendre. I’ve been analyzing this line for nearly 20 years and I’m still just as dumbfounded and amazed.

Jason Reagan: The Last Editor

Jason Reagan (not really).

There are so many quotes from film and page that leap to mind when faced with this pick. However, the movie “The Last Samurai” produced a very life-affirming, inspirational and pithy line when Katsumoto (played at Oscar-level by Ken Watanabe) says, “To know life in every breath.”

It’s short but it’s one of my favorites. Although (or maybe because) I read about two to three books per week, pinning a specific book quote is tough, but I guess I’ll take the easy road and chose the famous quip from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
The book also offers some of the best advice in Western literature: “Simplify, simplify.” So, with that in mind, I’ll simply stop writing now. Thanks. (Extra note: It goes without saying that all novels written by Mountain Times staff writer Scott Nicholson are also in the Top Ten.)

Mark Mitchell: Toga... toga... toga!!

Sen. John Blutarsky

Picking one favorite movie quote for me is like trying to choose my favorite chocolate dessert ... impossible. But, in the spirit of cooperation, I’ll try. In fact, I’ll give it my best college try, which coincidently, takes me to Faber College, home of the best movie of all time ... Animal House. Now, there are many quotes from this movie gem, but being a family newspaper, I have to pick one that is devoid of colorful language. With that in mind, here goes.
The scene takes place in Dean Vernon Wormer’s office. Wormer has just received the grades regarding the Delta House fraternity, a fraternity he despises because of their lewd behavior. With poor grades in hand, he smugly addresses a few select members.

“Mr. Kroger: Two Cs, two Ds and an F. That’s a 1.2 grade average. Congratulations, Kroger. You’re at the top of the Delta pledge class. Mr. Dorfman (aka Flounder).”

“Hello!”

“Zero point two. Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son. Mr. Hoover, president of Delta house. One point six; four Cs and an F. A fine example you set! Daniel Simpson Day... Has no grade point average. All courses incomplete. Mr. Blu ... ( at this point he hesitates as he notices John Belushi, who plays Blutarsky, with two pencils stuck in his nostrils) Mr. Blutarsky, Zero point zero.”

The line of note, of course, is fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son. But, it’s all priceless. And yes, I spared you the image of Flounder vomiting on Dean Wormer.