Since Wes Anderson’s directorial debut in 1996 with Bottle Rocket, this beloved auteur has created 10 additional movies and four short films, many of which became instant classics or grew cult followings. Known for his colorful, symmetrical style and his sharp, sometimes jarring dialogue, he has a knack for creating memorable scenes that will make you laugh, cry, or contemplate life in a way you haven’t before.
With The Phoenician Scheme, his thirteenth full feature film, coming out this month, we’ve compiled the best quotes from his films thus far:
1.
Anthony (Luke Wilson): Grace thinks I’m a failure.
Dignan (Owen Wilson): What? What has she ever accomplished in her life that’s so great?”
— Bottle Rocket
2.
“They’ll never catch me… because I’m f*cking innocent. — Dignan (Owen Wilson), Bottle Rocket
3.
“Just remember, they can buy anything, but they can’t buy backbone. Don’t let them forget it.” — Herman J. Blume (Bill Murray), Rushmore
4.
Herman J. Blume (Bill Murray): Why did you ask me to come here?
Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman): Oh, I was going to drop that tree on you.
Herman: That big one?
Max: Yeah.
Herman: It would’ve flattened me like a pancake.
— Rushmore
5.
“I guess you’ve just gotta find something you love to do and then… do it for the rest of your life.” —Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), Rushmore
6.
Herman J. Blume (Bill Murray): She’s my Rushmore.
Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman): I know. She was mine, too.”
— Rushmore
7.
Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman): I like your nurse’s uniform, guy.
Dr. Peter Flynn: (Luke Wilson): These are O.R. scrubs.
Max: O, R they?”
— Rushmore
8.
Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams): Well, you pulled it off.
Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman): yeah, it went okay. At least nobody got hurt.”
Rosemary: Except you.
— Rushmore
9.
Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman): He saved my life, you know. Thirty years ago. I was knifed at a bazaar in Calcutta, and he carried me to the hospital on his back.
Ari (Grant Rosenmeyer): Who stabbed you?
Royal: He did. There was a price on my head, and he was a hired assassin. Stuck me in the gut with a shiv.
—The Royal Tenenbaums
10.
Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman): You know, Richie, this illness, this closeness to death… it’s had a profound affect on me. I feel like a different person, I really do.
Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson): Dad, you were never dying.
Royal: “But I’m going to live.”
— The Royal Tenenbaums
11.
“I think we’re just gonna have to be secretly in love with each other and leave it at that, Richie.” — Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow), The Royal Tenenbaums
12.
“I’m very sorry for your loss. Your mother was a terribly attractive woman.” — Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman), The Royal Tenenbaums
13.
Chas Tenenbaum (Ben Stiller): Is it dark?
Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson): Of course it’s dark, it’s a su*cide note.
— The Royal Tenenbaums
14.
Eli Cash (Owen Wilson): I’m not in love with you anymore.
Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow): I didn’t know you ever were.
Eli: Let’s not make this any more difficult than it already is.
Margot: Okay.
Eli: Okay, what?
Margot: Okay, I’m not in love with you either.
Eli: Yes, I know, you’re in love with Richie. Which is sick and gross.
— The Royal Tenenbaums
15.
“Don’t point that gun at him, he’s an unpaid intern.” — Steve Zissou (Bill Murray), The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
16.
Festival Director (Antonio Monda): That’s an endangered species at most. What would be the scientific purpose of killing it?
Steve Zissou (Bill Murray): Revenge.
— The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
17.
“We’ve never made great husbands, have we? Of course, I have a good excuse. I’m part gay.” — Alistair Hennessey (Jeff Goldblum), The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
18.
Steve Zissou (Bill Murray): Anne-Marie, do all the interns get Glocks?
Anne-Marie Sakowitz (Robyn Cohen): No, they all share one.
— The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
19.
“Please don’t make fun of me. I just wanted to flirt with you.” — Steve Zissou (Bill Murray), The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
20.
“Dad’s bags aren’t gonna make it.” — Francis Whitman (Owen Wilson), The Darjeeling Limited
21.
Jack Whitman (Jason Schwartzman): What did he say?
Peter Whitman (Adrien Brody): He said the train is lost.
Jack: How can a train be lost? It’s on rails.”
— The Darjeeling Limited
22.
Rita (Amara Karan): What’s wrong with you?
Jack Whitman (Jason Schwartzman): Let me think about that. I’ll tell you the next time I see you.
— The Darjeeling Limited
23.
Brendan (Wallace Wolodarsky): Why are your eyes so red?
Francis Whitman (Owen Wilson): Why is your head so bald?
— The Darjeeling Limited
24.
Francis Whitman (Owen Wilson): Peter, you cannot abandon your wife just because she’s pregnant.
— The Darjeeling Limited
25.
“I wonder if the three of us would’ve been friends in real life. Not as brothers, but as people.” —Jack Whitman (Jason Schwartzman), The Darjeeling Limited
26.
“I think it may very well be all the beautiful differences among us that might just give us the tiniest glimmer of a chance of saving my nephew, and letting me make it up to all of you for getting us into this crazy… whatever it is.” — Mr. Fox (George Clooney), Fantastic Mr. Fox
27.
“I think I have this thing where I need everybody to think I’m the greatest, the quote-unquote ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox.’ And if people aren’t knocked out and dazzled and slightly intimidated by me, I don’t feel good about myself.” — Mr. Fox (George Clooney), Fantastic Mr. Fox
28.
“They say our tree may never grow back, but one day, something will.” — Mr. Fox (George Clooney), Fantastic Mr. Fox
29.
“We’re all different. Especially him. But there’s something kind of fantastic about that, isn’t there?” — Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep), Fantastic Mr. Fox
30.
Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward): “Was he a good dog?”
Sam Sakusky (Jared Gilman): “Who’s to say? But he didn’t deserve to die.”
— Moonrise Kingdom
31.
“It takes time to figure things out. It’s been proven by history. All mankind makes mistakes.” — Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), Moonrise Kingdom
32.
Sam Sakusky (Jared Gilman): I feel like I’m in a real family now. Not like yours, but similar to one.
Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward): I always wished I was an orphan. Most of my favorite characters are. I think your lives are more special.
Sam: I love you, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Suzy: I love you, too.
— Moonrise Kingdom
33.
Sam Sakusky (Jared Gilman): Why do you always use binoculars?
Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward): It helps me see things closer. Even if they’re not very far away. I pretend it’s my magic power.
Sam: That sounds like poetry. Poems don’t always have to rhyme, you know. They’re just supposed to be creative.
— Moonrise Kingdom
34.
Sam Sakusky (Jared Gilman): “What happened to your hand?”
Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward): “I got hit in the mirror.”
Sam: “Really? How did that happen?”
Suzy: “I lost my temper at myself.”
— Moonrise Kingdom
35.
“You see, there are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity… Indeed, that’s what we provide in our own modest, humble, insignificant—oh, f*ck it.” — Monsieur Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), The Grand Budapest Hotel
36.
“There’s really no point in doing anything in life because it’s all over in the blink of an eye, and the next thing you know, rigor mortis sets in.” — Monsieur Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), The Grand Budapest Hotel
37.
“Rudeness is merely an expression of fear. People fear they won’t get what they want. The most dreadful and unattractive person only needs to be loved, and they will open up like a flower.” — Monsieur Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), The Grand Budapest Hotel
38.
M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes): She was dynamite in the sack, by the way.
Zero (Tony Revolori): She was 84, Monsieur Gustave.
— The Grand Budapest Hotel
39.
M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes): I’ll never part with it. It reminded me of her; it will remind me of her always. I’ll die with this picture above my bed. See the resemblance?
Zero (Tony Revolori): Oh… oh, yes.
M. Gustave: Actually, we should sell it. Sooner rather than later.
— The Grand Budapest Hotel
40.
Nutmeg (Scarlett Johansson): Will you help him, the little pilot?
Chief (Bryan Cranston): Why should I?
Nutmeg: Because he’s a twelve year old boy, dogs love those.
— Isle Of Dogs
41.
“Perhaps the doubtful old maxim speaks true: All grant beauties withhold their deepest secrets.” — Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson), The French Dispatch
42.
“We have to accept it. His need to fail is more powerful than our strongest desires to help him succeed. I give up. He’s defeated us.” — Julian Cadazio (Adrien Brody), The French Dispatch
43.
Lt. Nescaffier (Steve Park): “I’m not brave. I just wasn’t in the mood to be a disappointment to everybody. I’m a foreigner, you know.”
Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright): This city is full of us, isn’t it? I’m one myself.”
Lt. Nescaffier: “Seeking something missing, missing something left behind.”
Roebuck Wright: “Maybe with good luck, we’ll find what eluded us in the places we once called home.”
— The French Dispatch
44.
“I have so often shared the day’s glittering discoveries with… no one at all. But always, somewhere along the avenue or the boulevard there was a table set for me. A cook, a waiter, a bottle, a glass, a fire. I chose this life. It is the solitary feast that has been very much like a compared, my great comfort and fortification.” — Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright), The French Dispatch
45.
“In my loneliness, and perhaps because of it, I’ve learned not to judge people, to take people as I find them, not as other find them. And most of all, to give complete and unquestioning faith to the people I love.” — Stanley Zak (Tom Hanks), Asteroid City
46.
Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzmann): “I still don’t understand the play.”
Schubert Green (Adrien Brody): “It doesn’t matter. Just keep telling the story.”
— Asteroid City
47.
Actress (Margot Robbie): I’m not coming back, Augie. Then you take a picture and start crying, and I say… ‘I hope it comes out.’”
Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzmann): And I say: ‘’All my pictures come out.’
— Asteroid City
48.
“I mean, I think I know now what I realize we are. Two catastrophically wounded people who don’t express the depths of their pain because we don’t want to. That’s our connection.” — Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson), Asteroid City
49.
Imdad Khan (Ben Kingsley): Audiences loved it, but no one ever believed it to be genuine. Still don’t. Even doctors, such as yourself, who blindfold me in the most expert fashion, refuse to believe anyone can see without eyes. They forget there are other ways of sending an image to the brain.
Dr. Chatterjee (Dev Patel): What other ways?
Imdad Khan: Quite honestly, I do not know.
— The Wonderful Life Of Henry Sugar
50.
“Roald Dahl (Ralph Fiennes): “Men like Henry Sugar are to be found drifting like seaweed all over the world. They can be seen especially in London, New York, Paris, Nassau, Montego Bay, Cannes, and San Tropez. They are not particularly bad men, but they are not good men either. They are of no particular importance; they’re simply part of the decoration.” — Roald Dahl (Ralph Fiennes) The Wonderful Life Of Henry Sugar
51.
Timber Woods (Dev Patel): I mean, he owes you his life, doctor.
Dr. Ganderbai (Ben Kingsley): No, he doesn’t.
Timber Woods: I’m sorry.
Dr. Ganderbai: You can’t be.
— Poison
52.
“Some people, when they have taken too much and have been driven beyond the point of endurance, simply crumble and collapse and give up. Others however, though they are not many, who will for some reason always be unconquerable. You meet them in time of war and also in time of peace. They have an indomitable spirit. And nothing, neither pain, nor torture, nor threat of death, will cause them to give up. Little Peter Watson was one of these.” — Roald Dahl (Ralph Fiennes), The Swan
53.
“Ernie had been given a rifle for his birthday. He too the gun, and a box of bullets, and went out to see what he could kill.” — Narrator (Rupert Friend), The Swan
54.
Editor (Richard Ayoade): Something extremely unpleasant was about to happen, I was sure of that. Something sinister and cruel, but I had to see it now. — Editor (Richard Ayoade), The Rat Catcher