North by Northwest (1959) quotes

Cast
Cary Grant.
Eva Marie Saint.
James Mason.

A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.

Something wrong with your eyes?
– Ticket Seller
Yes, they’re sensitive to questions.
– Roger Thornhill

What happened with your first two marriages?
– Eve Kendall
My wives divorced me.
– Roger Thornhill
Why?
– Eve Kendall
They said I led too dull a life.
– Roger Thornhill

In the world of advertising, there’s no such thing as a lie. There’s only expedient exaggeration.
– Roger Thornhill

Now you listen to me, I’m an advertising man, not a red herring. I’ve got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me, and I don’t intend to disappoint them all by getting myself “slightly” killed.
– Roger Thornhill

You gentlemen aren’t REALLY trying to kill my son, are you?
– Clara Thornhill

That’s funny, that plane’s dustin’ crops where there ain’t no crops.
– Man at Prairie Crossing

What possessed you to come blundering in here like this? Could it be an overpowering interest in art?
– Phillip Vandamm

Yes, the art of survival.
– Roger Thornhill
He followed me here from the hotel.
– Eve Kendall
He was in your room?
– Leonard
Sure. Isn’t everybody?
– Roger Thornhill

Roger… Pay the two dollars.
– Clara Thornhill

The moment I meet an attractive woman, I have to start pretending I have no desire to make love to her.
– Roger Thornhill
What makes you think you have to conceal it?
– Eve Kendall
She might find the idea objectionable.
– Roger Thornhill
Then again, she might not.
– Eve Kendall

No. No, Mother, I have not been drinking. No. No. These two men, they poured a whole bottle of bourbon into me. No, they didn’t give me a chaser.
– Roger Thornhill

It’s going to be a long night.
– Eve Kendall
True.
– Roger Thornhill
And I don’t particularly like the book I’ve started.
– Eve Kendall
Ah.
– Roger Thornhill
You know what I mean?
– Eve Kendall
Ah, let me think. Yes, I know exactly what you mean.
– Roger Thornhill

I’m a big girl.
– Eve Kendall
Yeah, and in all the right places, too.
– Roger Thornhill

Then, then your name isn’t Kaplan?
– Roger Thornhill
Can’t say it is, ’cause it ain’t.
– Man at Prairie Crossing

Roger O. Thornhill. What does the O stand for?
– Eve Kendall
Nothing.
– Roger Thornhill

I don’t like the way Teddy Roosevelt is looking at me.
– Roger Thornhill

I didn’t realize you were an art collector. I thought you just collected corpses.
– Roger Thornhill

How do we know it’s not a fake? It looks like a fake.
– Roger Thornhill
Well, one thing we know. You’re no fake. You are a genuine idiot.
– Bidder

That wasn’t very sporting, using real bullets.
– Phillip Vandamm

Mr. Kaplan, you are quite the performer. First you’re the outraged Madison Avenue advertising executive who claims that he has been mistaken for someone else. Next, you play the fugitive from justice supposedly trying to clear himself of a crime he knows he didn’t commit. And now, you’re the jealous lover spurned by love and betrayal.
– Phillip Vandamm
Apparently the only performance that will satisfy you is when I play dead.
– Roger Thornhill
Your very next role, and you’ll be quite convincing, I assure you.
– Phillip Vandamm

If I thought there was any chance of changing your mind, I’d talk about Miss Kendall, of whom you so obviously disapprove.
– The Professor
Yes, for using sex like some people use a flyswatter.
– Roger Thornhill

I tipped the steward five dollars to seat you here if you should come in.
– Eve Kendall
Is that a proposition?
– Roger Thornhill
I never discuss love on an empty stomach.
– Eve Kendall
You’ve already eaten!
– Roger Thornhill
Eve Kendall: But you haven’t.

When I was a little boy, I wouldn’t even let my mother undress me.
– Roger Thornhill
Well, you’re a big boy now.
– Eve Kendall

Well, didn’t you hear what I said? I want to be taken to police headquarters. I’m a dangerous assassin, I’m a mad killer on the loose!
– Roger Thornhill
You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
– Sergeant Flamm – Chicago Policeman

What’s wrong with men like me?
– Roger Thornhill
They don’t believe in marriage.
– Eve Kendall
I’ve been married twice.
– Roger Thornhill
See what I mean?
– Eve Kendall

I don’t think I caught your name.
– Roger Thornhill
I don’t think I pitched it.
– The Professor

How does a girl like you get to be a girl like you?
– Roger Thornhill
Lucky, I guess.
– Eve Kendall

War is hell, Mr. Thornhill, even when it’s a cold one.
– The Professor

Has anyone ever told you that you overplay your various roles rather severely, Mr. Kaplan?
– Phillip Vandamm

We’ll get them. We’ll throw the book at them. Assault and kidnapping. Assault with a gun and a bourbon and a sports car. We’ll get them.
– Roger Thornhill