Category: Collected Quotations

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

Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.

Said after his own retirement from film, in his later years. Perhaps reflecting an appreciation that he, himself, must now be counted among those who envied the iconic “Cary Grant persona” of His Girl Friday. And that this was a character that he, then, could no longer portray?

Ironically, by virtue of having made this observation, himself, I think he evidences an ongoing command of that very thing he claims to have lost.

Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart):

If you kill me, how are you gonna get the bird? And if I know you can’t afford to kill me, how are you gonna scare me into giving it to you?

Kasper Gutman, “the Fat Man” (Sydney Greenstreet):

Well, sir, there are other means of persuasion besides killing and threatening to kill.

Sam Spade:

Yes, … that’s true. But they’re none of ’em any good unless the threat of death is behind them. Do you see what I mean? If you start something, I’ll make it a matter of your having to kill me or call it off.

Kasper Gutman:

That’s an attitude, sir, that calls for the most delicate judgment on both sides. ‘Cause as you know, sir, in the heat of action, men are likely to forget where their interests lie and that their emotions carry them away.

Sam Spade:

Then the trick from my angle is to make my play strong enough to tie you up, but not make you mad enough to bump me off against your better judgment.

— John Huston, director

We also need to realize that every happy, successful couple has approximately ten areas of disagreement that they will never resolve.

— Diane Sollee

Rather flies in the face of promises made by opportunistic divorce lawyers and jealous “friends” intent on exploiting marriages in distress.