Part of the American Film Institute's 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 quotations in American cinema. The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS. The program was hosted by Pierce Brosnan and had commentary from many Hollywood actors and filmmakers. A jury consisting of 1,500 film artists, critics, and historians selected "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn", spoken by Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in the 1939 American Civil War epic Gone with the Wind, as the most memorable American movie quotation of all time.
Criteria Jurors were asked to consider the following criteria in making their selections: Movie quotation: A statement, phrase or brief exchange of dialogue spoken in an American film. Lyrics from songs are not eligible. Cultural impact: Movie quotations that viewers use in their own lives and situations; circulating through popular culture, they become part of the national lexicon. Legacy: Movie quotations that viewers use to evoke the memory of a treasured film, thus ensuring and enlivening its historical legacy.
The list
The table below reproduces the quotes as the AFI published them. RankQuotationCharacterActor/ActressFilmYear1 "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."Rhett ButlerClark Gable Gone with the Wind19392 "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."Vito CorleoneMarlon Brando 19723 "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."Terry MalloyMarlon Brando On the Waterfront19544 "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."Dorothy GaleJudy Garland The Wizard of Oz19395 "Here's looking at you, kid."Rick BlaineHumphrey Bogart Casablanca19426 "Go ahead, make my day."Harry CallahanClint Eastwood Sudden Impact19837 "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."Norma DesmondGloria Swanson Sunset Boulevard19508 "May the Force be with you."Han SoloHarrison Ford Star Wars19779 "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night."Margo ChanningBette Davis All About Eve195010 "You talkin' to me?"Travis BickleRobert De Niro Taxi Driver197611 "What we've got here is failure to communicate."CaptainStrother Martin Cool Hand Luke196712 "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."Lt. Col. Bill KilgoreRobert Duvall Apocalypse Now197913 "Love means never having to say you're sorry."Jennifer Cavalleri,Oliver Barrett IVAli MacGrawRyan O'Neal Love Story197014"The stuff that dreams are made of."Sam SpadeHumphrey Bogart 194115 "E.T. phone home."E.T.Pat Welsh E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial198216 "They call me Mister Tibbs!"Virgil TibbsSidney Poitier In the Heat of the Night196717 "Rosebud."Charles Foster KaneOrson Welles Citizen Kane194118 "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"Arthur "Cody" JarrettJames Cagney White Heat194919 "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"Howard BealePeter Finch Network197620 "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."Rick BlaineHumphrey Bogart Casablanca194221 "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti."Hannibal LecterAnthony Hopkins 199122 "Bond. James Bond."James BondSean Connery Dr. No196223 "There's no place like home."Dorothy GaleJudy Garland The Wizard of Oz193924 "I am big! It's the pictures that got small."Norma DesmondGloria Swanson Sunset Boulevard195025 "Show me the money!"Rod TidwellCuba Gooding Jr. Jerry Maguire199626 "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?"Lady LouMae West She Done Him Wrong193327 "I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!""Ratso" RizzoDustin Hoffman Midnight Cowboy196928 "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'"Ilsa LundIngrid Bergman Casablanca194229 "You can't handle the truth!"Col. Nathan R. JessupJack Nicholson A Few Good Men199230 "I want to be alone."GrusinskayaGreta Garbo Grand Hotel193231 "After all, tomorrow is another day!"Scarlett O'HaraVivien Leigh Gone with the Wind193932 "Round up the usual suspects."Capt. Louis RenaultClaude Rains Casablanca194233 "I'll have what she's having."CustomerEstelle Reiner When Harry Met Sally...198934 "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow."Marie "Slim" BrowningLauren Bacall To Have and Have Not194435 "You're gonna need a bigger boat." Reportedly an ad lib. Commonly misquoted as "We're gonna need a bigger boat," as for example at the Urban Dictionary.Martin BrodyRoy Scheider Jaws197536 "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"Gold HatAlfonso Bedoya 194837 "I'll be back."The TerminatorArnold Schwarzenegger 198438 "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth."Lou GehrigGary Cooper 194239 "If you build it, he will come."Shoeless Joe JacksonRay Liotta (voice) Field of Dreams198940"My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." Forrest GumpTom Hanks Forrest Gump199441 "We rob banks."Clyde BarrowWarren Beatty Bonnie and Clyde196742 "Plastics."Mr. MaguireWalter Brooke 196743 "We'll always have Paris."Rick BlaineHumphrey Bogart Casablanca194244 "I see dead people."Cole SearHaley Joel Osment 199945 "Stella! Hey, Stella!"Stanley KowalskiMarlon Brando A Streetcar Named Desire195146 "Oh, Jerry, ask for the moon. We have the stars."Charlotte ValeBette Davis Now, Voyager194247 "Shane. Shane. Come back!"Joey StarrettBrandon deWilde Shane195348 "Well, nobody's perfect."Osgood Fielding IIIJoe E. BrownSome Like It Hot195949 "It's alive! It's alive!"Henry FrankensteinColin Clive Frankenstein193150 "Houston, we have a problem."Jim LovellTom Hanks Apollo 13199551 "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"Harry CallahanClint Eastwood Dirty Harry197152 "You had me at 'hello.'"Dorothy BoydRenée Zellweger Jerry Maguire199653 "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know."Capt. Geoffrey T. SpauldingGroucho Marx Animal Crackers193054 "There's no crying in baseball!"Jimmy DuganTom Hanks A League of Their Own199255 "La-dee-da, la-dee-da."Annie HallDiane Keaton Annie Hall197756 "A boy's best friend is his mother."Norman BatesAnthony Perkins Psycho196057 "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."Gordon GekkoMichael Douglas Wall Street198758 "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."Michael CorleoneAl Pacino 197459 "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again."Scarlett O'HaraVivien Leigh Gone with the Wind193960 "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!"OliverOliver Hardy Sons of the Desert193361 "Say 'hello' to my little friend!"Tony MontanaAl Pacino Scarface198362 "What a dump."Rosa MolineBette Davis Beyond the Forest194963 "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?"Benjamin BraddockDustin Hoffman 196764 "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"President Merkin MuffleyPeter Sellers Dr. Strangelove196465 "Elementary, my dear Watson."Sherlock HolmesBasil Rathbone 193966 "Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape."George TaylorCharlton Heston Planet of the Apes196867 "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."Rick BlaineHumphrey Bogart Casablanca194268 "Here's Johnny!"Jack TorranceJack Nicholson 198069 "They're here!"Carol Anne FreelingHeather O'Rourke Poltergeist198270 "Is it safe?"Dr. Christian SzellLaurence Olivier Marathon Man197671 "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!"Jakie Rabinowitz/Jack RobinAl Jolson 192772 "No wire hangers, ever!"Joan CrawfordFaye Dunaway Mommie Dearest198173 "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?"Rico BandelloEdward G. Robinson Little Caesar193174 "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown."Lawrence WalshJoe Mantell Chinatown197475 "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."Blanche DuBoisVivien Leigh A Streetcar Named Desire195176 "Hasta la vista, baby."The TerminatorArnold Schwarzenegger Terminator 2: Judgment Day199177 "Soylent Green is people!"Det. Robert ThornCharlton Heston Soylent Green197378 "Open the pod bay doors, HAL."Dave BowmanKeir Dullea 2001: A Space Odyssey196879 Striker: "Surely you can't be serious."Rumack: "I am serious ... and don't call me Shirley."Ted Striker and Dr. RumackRobert Hays and Leslie Nielsen Airplane!198080 "Yo, Adrian!"Rocky BalboaSylvester Stallone Rocky197681 "Hello, gorgeous."Fanny BriceBarbra Streisand Funny Girl196882 "Toga! Toga!"John "Bluto" BlutarskyJohn Belushi National Lampoon's Animal House197883 "Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make."Count DraculaBela Lugosi Dracula193184 "Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast."Carl DenhamRobert Armstrong King Kong193385 "My precious."GollumAndy Serkis 200286 "Attica! Attica!"Sonny WortzikAl Pacino Dog Day Afternoon197587 "Sawyer, you're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!"Julian MarshWarner Baxter 42nd Street193388 "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!"Ethel ThayerKatharine Hepburn On Golden Pond198189 "Tell 'em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper."George GippRonald Reagan Knute Rockne, All American194090 "A martini. Shaken, not stirred."James BondSean Connery Goldfinger196491 "Who's on first?"DexterBud Abbott 194592 "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!"Carl SpacklerBill Murray Caddyshack198093 "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!"Mame DennisRosalind Russell Auntie Mame195894 "I feel the need—the need for speed!" Pete Mitchell and Nick BradshawTom Cruise and Anthony Edwards Top Gun198695 "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary."John KeatingRobin Williams Dead Poets Society198996 "Snap out of it!"Loretta CastoriniCher Moonstruck198797 "My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you.""During the 'Gay Nineties' period, George M. coined [this as] his famous curtain speech..."-- George M. CohanJames Cagney Yankee Doodle Dandy194298 "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."Johnny CastlePatrick Swayze Dirty Dancing198799 "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!"Wicked Witch of the WestMargaret Hamilton The Wizard of Oz1939100 "I'm the king of the world!"Originally a quote by Muhammad Ali, who repeatedly Soon after winning his first bout against Sonny Liston in 1964.Jack DawsonLeonardo DiCaprio Titanic1997
By the numbers With six quotes, Casablanca is the most represented film. Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz are tied for second, with three each. Sunset Boulevard, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Graduate, and Jerry Maguire each have two quotes.
Rick Blaine (Casablanca) is the character with the most quotes (four); Dorothy Gale (The Wizard of Oz), Harry Callahan (Dirty Harry and Sudden Impact), James Bond (Dr. No and Goldfinger), Norma Desmond (Sunset Boulevard), Scarlett O'Hara (Gone with the Wind), and The Terminator (The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day) have two quotes each.