“The Shining” quotes

(1980)
Movie The Shining
Stanley Kubrick directed this movie in 1980
Title The Shining
Year 1980
Director Stanley Kubrick
Genre Drama, Horror
Plot – Jack Torrance, an alcoholic former teacher and writer, takes a job as a custodian for the winter season of the deserted and immense Hotel Overlook in the Rocky Mountains, hoping to find himself and his lost inspiration again. Ten years before, in similar circumstances, a man slaughtered his wife and his two daughters before committing suicide. Jack knows the story, but he does not care about it and reaches the location with his wife Wendy and his seven-year-old son Danny. The black chef Hallorann, clairvoyant like Danny, is the only one who fears the worst. As the weeks pass by, Danny gets more scared because with his para-psychic abilities he sees flowing rivers of blood and encounters the characters of the tragedy happened ten years earlier. Jack, more and more stunned, keeps writing over and over 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, all play and no work makes Jack a mere toy'. Wendy Torrance tries to save herself and their son when Jack becomes a crazy homicidal maniac. Hallorann, worried by the lack of news and communication, arrives at the hotel just in time to be attacked by the crazy man and to help the other two to escape. Jack will end up in the great garden labyrinth thanks to Danny's childish cunning plan.
All actors – Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone, Joe Turkel, Anne Jackson, Tony Burton, Lia Beldam, Billie Gibson, Barry Dennen, David Baxt, Manning Redwood, Lisa Burns, Louise Burns, Robin Pappas, Alison Coleridge, Burnell Tucker, Jana Shelden, Kate Phelps, Norman Gay, , Paul Desbois, Vivian Kubrick, Bertha Lynn, Derek Lyons, Chris Parsons, Glenn Rinker
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  • “- Jack Torrance: I'm not gonna hurt you.
    - Wendy Torrance: Stay away from me!
    - Jack Torrance: Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just going to bash your brains in! Gonna bash 'em right the fuck in!”

    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
    Shelley Duvall - Wendy Torrance
    [Tag:danger, violence]
  • “When some things happen, it can leave other traces behind. Not things anyone can notice, but things that only people with shine can see. Just like they can see things that haven't happened yet, sometimes they can see things that happened a long time ago. I think a lot of things happened in this particular hotel over the years... and not all of...” (continue)(continue reading)

    Scatman Crothers - Hallorann
    [Tag:mystery, past, power]
  • “- Jack Torrance: The most terrible nightmare I ever had. It's the most horrible dream I ever had.
    - Wendy Torrance: It's okay, it's okay now. Really.
    - Jack Torrance: I dreamed that I... that I killed you and Danny. But I didn't just kill ya. I cut you up in little pieces. Oh my God. I must be losing my mind.”

    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
    Shelley Duvall - Wendy Torrance
  • “My predecessor in this job left a man named Charles Grady as the Winter caretaker. And he came up here with his wife and two little girls, I think were eight and ten. And he had a good employment record, good references, and from what I've been told he seemed like a completely normal individual. But at some point during the winter, he must have...” (continue)(continue reading)
    Barry Nelson - Ullman
    [Tag:madness, murder]
  • “- Wendy Torrance: I just wanna go back to my room!
    - Jack Torrance: Why?
    - Wendy Torrance: Well, I'm very confused, and I just need time to think things over!
    Jack Torrance: You've had your whole fucking life to think things over, what good's a few minutes more gonna do you now?”

    Shelley Duvall - Wendy Torrance
    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
  • “- Delbert Grady: Your wife appears to be stronger than we imagined, Mr. Torrance. Somewhat more... resourceful. She seems to have got the better of you.
    - Jack Torrance: For the moment, Mr. Grady. Only for the moment.”

    Philip Stone - Grady
    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
    [Tag:defeat, rivalry, wife]
  • “- Lloyd: Women: can't live with them, can't live without them.
    - Jack Torrance: Words of wisdom, Lloyd my man. Words of wisdom.”

    Joe Turkel - Lloyd
    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
    [Tag:wisdom, women]
  • “- Jack Torrance: You are concerned about him.
    - Wendy Torrance: Yes!
    - Jack Torrance: And are you concerned about me?
    - Wendy Torrance: Of course I am!
    - Jack Torrance: Of course you are! Have you ever thought about my responsibilities?!”

    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
    Shelley Duvall - Wendy Torrance
  • “- Stuart Ullman: Four presidents, movie stars...
    - Wendy Torrance: Royalty?
    - Stuart Ullman: All the best people.”

    Barry Nelson - Ullman
    Shelley Duvall - Wendy Torrance
    [Tag:guests, hotel]
  • Does it matter to you at all that the owners have placed their complete confidence and "trust" in me, and that I have signed a letter of agreement, a "contract", in which I have accepted that responsibility? Do you have the slightest idea what a "moral and ethical principal" is? Do you? Has it ever occurred to you what would happen to my future,... (continue)(continue reading)

    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
  • “- Jack Torrance: Mr. Grady, you were the caretaker here. I recognize ya. I saw your picture in the newspapers. You, uh, chopped your wife and daughters up into little bits. And then you blew your brains out.
    - Delbert Grady: That's strange, sir. I don't have any recollection of that at all.”

    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
    Philip Stone - Grady
    [Tag:memory, murder]
  • “Some places are like people: some shine and some don't.”
    Scatman Crothers - Hallorann
    [Tag:people, place]
  • “- Danny Torrance: What was the Donner Party?
    - Jack Torrance: They were a party of settlers in covered-wagon times. They got snowbound one winter in the mountains. They had to resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive.
    - Danny Torrance: You mean they ate each other up?
    - Jack Torrance: They had to, in order to survive.”

    Danny Lloyd - Danny
    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
    [Tag:cannibalism]
  • “- Dick Hallorann: Mrs. Torrance, your husband introduced you as Winifred. Now, are you a Winnie or a Freddy?
    - Wendy Torrance: I'm a Wendy.
    - Dick Hallorann: Oh. That's nice. That's the prettiest.”

    Scatman Crothers - Hallorann
    Shelley Duvall - Wendy Torrance
    [Tag:name]
  • My girls, sir, they didn't care for the Overlook at first. One of them actually stole a pack of matches, and tried to burn it down. But I "corrected" them sir. And when my wife tried to prevent me from doing my duty, I "corrected" her.

    Philip Stone - Grady
    [Tag:family, killing]
  • I can remember when I was a little boy your age... my grandmother and I could hold entire conversations without ever opening our mouths. She called it "shining". And for a long time I thought it was only the two of us who had the shine... just like you who thought you was the only one. But there are other folks who don't know it or don't believe... (continue)(continue reading)

    Scatman Crothers - Hallorann
    [Tag:power]
  • “The police thought that it was what the old-timers used to call cabin fever. A kind of claustrophobic reaction which can occur when people are shut in together over long periods of time.”

    Barry Nelson - Ullman
    [Tag:madness]
  • “- Jack Torrance: Wendy, let me explain something to you. Whenever you come in here and interrupt me, you're breaking my concentration. You're distracting me. And it will then take me time to get back to where I was. You understand?
    - Wendy Torrance: Yeah.
    - Jack Torrance: Now, we're going to make a new rule. When you come in here and you hear me...” (continue)
    (continue reading)
    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
    Shelley Duvall - Wendy Torrance
  • “- Stuart Ullman: Physically, it's not a very demanding job. The only thing that can get a bit trying up here during the winter is, uh, a tremendous sense of isolation.
    - Jack Torrance: Well, that just happens to be exactly what I'm looking for. I'm outlining a new writing project and, uh, five months of peace is just what I want.”

    Barry Nelson - Ullman
    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
    [Tag:solitude, writing]
  • “- Jack Torrance: Mr. Grady, you were the caretaker here.
    - Delbert Grady: I'm sorry to differ with you sir, but you are the caretaker. You've always been the caretaker. I should know sir. I've always been here.”

    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
    Philip Stone - Grady
    [Tag:confusion]
  • “- Danny Torrance: Do you like this hotel?
    - Jack Torrance: Yes, I do. I love it. Don't you?
    - Danny Torrance: I guess so.
    - Jack Torrance: Good. I want you to like it here. I wish we could stay hereforever... and ever... and ever.”

    Danny Lloyd - Danny
    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
    [Tag:like, place]
  • “- Danny Torrance: What about Room 237?
    - Dick Hallorann: Room 237?
    - Danny Torrance: You're scared of Room 237, ain't you?
    - Dick Hallorann: Uh... no, I ain't.
    - Danny Torrance: Mr. Hallorann, what is in Room 237?
    - Dick Hallorann: Nothing! There ain't nothing in Room 237. But you ain't got no business going in there anyway. So, stay out of Room...” (continue)
    (continue reading)
    Danny Lloyd - Danny
    Scatman Crothers - Hallorann
  • “- Stuart Ullman: For some people, solitude and isolation can of itself become a problem.
    - Jack Torrance: Not for me.
    - Stuart Ullman: How about your wife and son? How do you think they'll take to it?
    - Jack Torrance: They'll love it.”

    Barry Nelson - Ullman
    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
  • “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

    Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
    [Tag:stress, working]
  • “- Danny Torrance: Tony's a little boy who lives in my mouth.
    - Dick Hallorann: Does Tony tell you things?
    - Danny Torrance: Yes.
    - Dick Hallorann: How does he tell you things?
    - Danny Torrance: It's like when I go to sleep, he shows me things. But when I wake up, I can't remember everything.”

    Danny Lloyd - Danny
    Scatman Crothers - Hallorann
    [Tag:dreams, memory]
Highlights