Sometimes a particularly memorable quotation makes its way into everyday conversation. Mine come from TV and movies rather than literary classics because I’m bourgeois. Some favorites I actually use:
“Everybody remember where we parked,” said by Captain Kirk (William Shatner) in Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home. It’s both a sensible thing for a parent to say in a parking lot and for a Starfleet captain to tell his crew when disembarking from an invisible time-traveling spaceship in 1986 San Francisco.
“Important safety tip, thanks Egon,” said by Venkman (Bill Murray) in Ghostbusters after Egon (Harold Ramis) warns that they might disintegrate themselves. Useful for both dire and trivial hazards.
“I’ll alert the media,” said by the stuffy butler Hobson (John Gielgud) to his man-child employer Arthur (Dudley Moore) in the eponymous movie, after Arthur announces his plan to take a bath. Distilled sarcasm for any occasion.
“Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?” –Robert Redford, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
“A man’s got to know his limitations.” –Clint Eastwood, Magnum Force.
“Have fun storming the castle!”—Billy Crystal, The Princess Bride.
“You sit on a throne of lies!” –Will Ferrell, Elf.
“Hang onto your wigs and keys.” –David Letterman.
“You knew the job was dangerous when you took it.” –Super Chicken.
A good quotation can delight listeners when they get the reference and mystify them when they don’t. The challenge of working one into a conversation is that it’s hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it.
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