Culture quotes

“The worst news of the night is that three out of four people in this country say they rather watch TV than have sex with their spouse. The second worst news is that some kids needed money for crack last night so you know what they did? They stuck a knife in the throat of an eighty year old grandmother down on Euclid Avenue. Right here in Dallas....” (continue)(continue reading)
Eric Bogosian - Barry

“- Somerset: [to the library guards] Gentlemen, gentlemen... I'll never understand. All these books, a world of knowledge at your fingertips. What do you do? You play poker all night.
- Second Guard at the Library: Hey! We've got culture! We've got culture comin' out our ass!”
Morgan Freeman - Somerset
Bob Collins - Second Guard at the Library

In Europe, when someone says "It looks like rain", in all probability, he's trying to make polite conversation. But here, where people die as easily as they're born, they're speaking in terms of life and death.

George Brent - Tom Ransome

“What a culture can't assimilate, it destroys.”
Charles Durning - Dr. Jim McKeever

“There are only two things I can't stand in this world: people who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch.”
Sir Michael Caine - Nigel Powers

“- Uchiyama: I am the Japanese manager for Japanese baseball team that you agreed to play for. It is your duty to learn my ways, not the other way around!
- Jack Elliot: Different language, same attitude! Let's go!”

Ken Takakura - Uchiyama
Tom Selleck - Jack Elliot

“I try to give them a little culture now and then so they don't beat each other to death with bicycle chains all the time.”

Woody Allen - David Dobel

“In some cultures, donkeys are revered as the smartest of animals.”
Eddie Murphy - Donkey

I had to go to Greek school, where I learned valuable lessons such as, "If Nick has one goat and Maria has nine, how soon will they marry?"
Nia Vardalos - Toula Portokalos

“Our people live, but our culture is dying. We are like a stone the ocean beats against. With each passing year a little more of us is worn away.”
Cree Summer - Princess 'Kida' Kidagakash

“Let's all put on a folk hat and learn something about a foreign culture!”
Patricia Hearst - Wanda's Mother

“- Teammate: So, could you choose a white boy?
- Jesminder 'Jess' Kaur Bhamra: White, no, black, definitely not, a Muslim, eh-eh!
- Teammate: You'll marry an Indian, then!
- Jesminder 'Jess' Kaur Bhamra: Probably.
- Teammate: How can you stand it?
- Jesminder 'Jess' Kaur Bhamra: It's just culture. Why sleep with boys you aren't going to marry?”
Parminder Nagra - Jesminder 'Jess' Kaur Bhamra

“As basic material, you may not be bad, but you are the unfortunate product of a doomed culture. I feel very sorry for you.”

Greta Garbo - Nina Ivanovna Yakushova aka Ninotchka

“- Principal Elder: Bruce, we do things differently here. One of the things we do not do is teach our secrets to white, blacks. They are the enemy.
- Bruce Lee: They are not the enemy. They just don't know us. We've been so closed for so long, they've never seen the real beauty of our culture. Lets show it to them.”

Aki Aleong - Principal Elder
Jason Scott Lee - Bruce Lee

“I'm a professional businessman not a professional Pakistani. And there is no question of race in the new enterprise culture.”

Saeed Jaffrey - Uncle Nasser

“- Sheriff Hank Keough: I'm a little unclear as to why the museum would send somebody here.
- Kelly Scott: You got a thing against museums?
- Sheriff Hank Keough: Naw, I got nothin' against museums.
- Kelly Scott: Ever been in one?”
Brendan Gleeson - Sheriff Hank Keough
Bridget Fonda - Kelly Scott

“- Ariel: What are transvestites?
- Christy: A man who dresses up as a woman.
- Ariel: For Halloween?
- Christy: No, all the time. It's just what they do here.”
Emma Bolger - Ariel
Sarah Bolger - Christy

“All the Schlegels are exceptional. They are British to the backbone, of course, but their father was German, which is why they care for literature and art.”
Prunella Scales - Aunt Juley

“I'm interested in how Michael Myers embodies the politics of violence embedded in pop mythology.”
Daisy McCrackin - Donna

“- Alvin Seville: I need a little culture in my life! The Eiffel Tower, the Sixteen Chapel, the Louvre in Rome!
- Simon Seville: The Louvre is in Paris, Alvin.
- Alvin Seville: You see? I don't even know where the Louvre is!”
Ross Bagdasarian Jr. - Alvin Seville
Ross Bagdasarian Jr. - Simon Seville

“- Sara McDowel: What did you have in mind?
- Harris K. Telemacher: Well, I was thinking of taking you on a cultural tour of L.A.
- Sara McDowel: That's the first fifteen minutes, then what?”
Victoria Tennant - Sara McDowel
Steve Martin - Harris K. Telemacher

“- Ted: Japan? What's she doing in Japan?
- Healy: Well, you've heard of mail-order brides? Well, they go that way too.
- Ted: What, are they desperate? She's a whale!
- Healy: You can't forget, it's a sumo culture, Ted. They pay by the pound over there. Sorta like, um, tuna.”
Ben Stiller - Ted
Matt Dillon - Healy

“- Huey: You read the whole encyclopedia?
- Genie: Cover to cover to cover... what's this? Baseball? Bowling ball? Cinderella's ball?
- Huey: No, it's a globe of the Earth.
- Genie: Get back. You mean the Earth isn't flat? I must have missed that part.
- Louie: Boy, he has been in that lamp for a long time!”
Russi Taylor - Huey
Rip Taylor - Genie
Russi Taylor - Louie

“[referring to the Hat Creek Cattle Company sign]
- Woodrow F. Call: And if that ain't bad enough you got all them Greek words on there, too.
- Augustus 'Gus' McCrae: I told you, Woodrow, a long time ago it ain't Greek, it's Latin.
- Woodrow F. Call: Well what does it say in Latin?
- Augustus 'Gus' McCrae: Well, it's a motto. It just says itself...” (continue)(continue reading)
Tommy Lee Jones - Woodrow F. Call
Robert Duvall - Augustus 'Gus' McCrae

“Ladies, may I present the reason we have opened to your our home: our birthday boy, Monsieur Jose Marco Filipo Juan Franloco Lopez de Vega Esteban Machado Jorge Santiago de la Rocha Gaspar Carlos de Fuentes Coruna Diego et Sevilla! Of course, his friends call him Pepito.”

Arturo Venegas - Mr. Spanish Ambassador