Quotes

Lewis: Sometimes you have to lose yourself 'fore you can find anything.

Bobby: Mister, I love the way you wear that hat.

Old man: [after taking off his hat and examining it] You don't know nothin'.

[Lewis and Ed take a wrong turn looking for the river]

First Griner: Where you goin' city boy?

Lewis: We'll find it. We'll find it.

Second Griner: It ain't nothin' but the biggest fuckin' river in the state.

[preparing to bury Drew in the river]

Ed: Drew was a... a good husband to his wife Linda, and... you were a wonderful father to your boys, Drew... Jimmy and Billy Ray. And if we come through this, I promise to do all I can for 'em.

[pause]

Ed: He was the best of us.

Ed: Look, what is it that you require of us?

Mountain Man: What we, uh, "re-quire" is that you get your god-damn asses up in them woods.

[Ed just killed a man believed to be the second rapist]

Bobby: That's him? I mean... he wasn't just some guy out hunting, was it?

Ed: [shouts] You tell me!

Taxi Driver: Right there's the town hall. Right over there's the old fire station. Played a lot of checkers over there, sure did. All this land's gonna be covered with water - best thing ever happened to this town.

[a truck in front of the cab is carrying a small church building on a flatbed trailer]

Taxi Driver: We might have to wait a minute for the church to get out the way.

[Lewis and Drew are arguing about whether to bury the dead mountain man]

Drew: It is a matter of the law!

Lewis: The law! Ha! The law! What law? WHERE'S THE LAW, DREW? HUH?

[sarcastically]

Lewis: You believe in democracy, don't you?

Drew: Yes, I do.

Lewis: Well, then we'll take a vote. And I'll stand by it. And SO WILL YOU.

[points menacingly at Drew]

Bobby: [indicating a junk car by a rural gas station] That's my '51 Dodge. No, that's my car! That's my car! Whooee! All my youth and passion... spent in that back seat. It's all gone, you see? It's all gone - rust and dust.

Ed: No matter what disasters may occur in other parts of the world... or whatever petty little problems arise in Atlanta... no one can find us up here. Good night, Lewis.

Lewis: Your name Griner?

First Griner: What you wanna know for?

Lewis: Can you and your brother drive two cars down to Aintry for us?

First Griner: Drive 'em down there for what?

Lewis: Me and my buddy here are taking a canoe trip down the Cahulawassee. We'd like our cars to be down in Aintry when we get there. Be there about Sunday noon.

First Griner: [sarcastically] Canoe trip?

Lewis: That's right, a canoe trip.

First Griner: What the hell you wanna go fuck around with that river for?

Lewis: Because it's there.

First Griner: It's there all right. You get in there and can't get out, you gonna wish it wasn't.

Ed: [to Lewis, whispering] Look, Lewis, let's go back to town and, ah... play golf.

Lewis: [ignoring Ed] I'll give you thirty dollars to take those cars down to Aintry.

First Griner: I'll take fifty.

Lewis: Fifty, my ass.

Ed: Lewis, don't play games with these people!

First Griner: Whud you say?

Lewis: I said "fifty, my ass."

Ed: [whispering urgently] Lewis!

First Griner: I'll do it for forty.

Lewis: Mm-hmm...

[to Ed]

Lewis: You good for ten?

Ed: Sure.

Lewis: Now you listen, Ed. Damn it, we can get out of this thing, without any questions asked. We get connected up with that body, and the law, this thing's gonna be hangin' over us the rest of our lives. We've gotta get rid of that guy.

Drew: Just how're you gonna do that, Lewis? Where?

Lewis: Anywhere. Everywhere. Nowhere.

Lewis: Can that chubby boy handle himself?

Ed: Bobby? He's rather well thought of in his field, Lewis.

Lewis: Insurance? Shit. I never been insured in my life. I don't believe in insurance. There's no risk.

Bobby: Talk about genetic deficiencies-isn't that pitiful?

Mountain Man: Looks like we got us a sow here instead of a boar.

[first lines]

Lewis: You w- you wanna... you wanna talk about the vanishing wilderness?

Bobby: Lewis, listen - what are you so anxious about this?

Lewis: Because they're buildin' a dam across the Cahulawassee River; they're gonna flood a whole valley, Bobby, that's why. Dammit, they're drownin' a river; they're drownin' a river, man.

Bobby: [about Drew] I really didn't know him.

Mountain Man: You ever had your balls cut off you fucking ape?

Lewis: Anybody know anything about the law?

Drew: I was on a jury once.

Lewis: We killed a man, Drew. Shot him in the back. A mountain man. A cracker.

Bobby: Hey, what happens if we flip this thing over?

Lewis: Now that you brought that up, hang onto your paddle. And if you hit any rocks, don't hit 'em with your head.