Dan Fredricks,
Janesville, Wis.
In Jaws, Police Chief Brody’s
humorous one-liner to Quint
after his experience with the
great white: “You’re gonna
need a bigger boat.”Tom Quigley,
Garden City, N.Y.
“The world ain’t all sun-
shine and rainbows. It’s a
very mean and nasty place
and ... it will beat
you to your knees and
keep you there perma-
nently if you let it. You,
me, or nobody is gonna hit
as hard as life. But it ain’t
about how hard you hit;
it’s about how hard you
can get hit and keep mov-
ing forward. How much
you can take and keep
moving forward. That’s
how winning is done.”
— Rocky BalboaDaniela Zini, Oviedo, Fla.
“But to make yourself
feel nothing so as not
to feel anything—what96 SEPTEMBER 2019 THE ATLANTIC
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Email [email protected]
with your response to the question for
our November issue: If you could go
back in time and change one thing,
what would it be?Illustrations by GRAHAM ROUMIEUQ:
What is the
greatest movie quote
of all time?
tions, anyway. Which is why
the line that Dorothy utters
when she steps out into that
enchanted world defines, for
me, the inexhaustible magic
of movies: “Toto, I’ve a
feeling we’re not in Kan-
sas anymore.”Jenny Han, author, To All
the Boys I’ve Loved Before
“As if !,” from Clueless. Short
and to the point. It gave girls
a language for dealing with
unwanted attention from
creepy guys, in a way that was
clear and bold but also funny.READER RESPONSES
Michael E. Zuller, Great
Neck, N.Y.
Humphrey Bogart’s toast
to Ingrid Bergman in Casa-
blanca: “Here’s looking
at you, kid.” Fraught with
bitter sweet regret, a ground-
swell of longing, and, just
maybe, a glint of hope.Alan Ruttenberg,
Englewood, N.J.
“Gentlemen! You can’t
fight in here! This is
the war room!,” from
Dr. Strangelove. It’s both
absurd and deadly serious.
And the sardonic use of the
word Gentlemen is priceless.a waste!” Michael Stuhl-
barg’s heartbreaking speech
as Elio’s father in Call Me
by Your Name feels like cool
rain on scorched earth. He
tells his son that he accepts
him as he is, that his heart-
break will pass—and that he
shouldn’t regret his first love.
The speech reminds us that
heartbreak is a product of
our ability to feel, and should
not be taken for granted.Kevin Morales,
Edinburg, Texas
In The Shawshank Redemp-
tion, Andy Dufresne says
to Red: “I guess it comes
down to a simple choice,
really. Get busy living, or
get busy dying.”Frank Tokarsky,
Kettering, Ohio
A special honor should go
to the Godfather movies
for their body of memo-
rable quotes: “I’m gonna
make him an offer he
can’t refuse”; “Leave the
gun. Take the cannolis”;
“Luca Brasi sleeps with
the fishes”; “Never hate
your enemies — it affects
your judgment.”THE BIG QUESTIONTracy Clayton, host,
Strong Black Legends
podcast
Nas’s character in the movie
Belly is trying to get his girl-
friend, played by T-Boz of
TLC, to go to Africa with him.
Her response is stunning in
its simplicity: “Africa is far.”
Indeed, young T-Boz!
Africa is far (from New
York City, the movie’s set-
ting). Black folks in Amer-
ica are emotionally and
spiritually removed from
Africa. So what looks like
just a simple and obvious
response is actually deep and
thought-provoking.
A. O. Scott, New York
Times film critic and
author, Better Living
Through Criticism
I grew up watching The Wiz-
ard of Oz on a black-and-
white television set, so it
wasn’t until my 20th viewing
or so that I discovered that
it was in color—the Oz por-