Roxanne: There are two of you. One that kills and one that loves.

Roxanne (after asking if Willard will go back to America after the war and he replies no): Then you are like us; your home is here.

Roxanne: The war will still be here tomorrow.

Lance: Disneyland. Fuck, man, this is better than Disneyland.

Zack Johnson (radio announcer): And now here's another blast from the past coming out to Big Cind, all alone in the men's room out there with the First Battalion Thirty-fifth Infantry, and dedicated by the fire team at An Khe to their groupie CO Fred the Head: The Rolling Stones' Satisfaction.

Hubert: You are fighting for the biggest nothing in history.

Lt. Carlsen: You're in the asshole of the world, Captain!

Clean: This sho' nuff a bizarre sight in the middle-a all this shit!

General Corman: Well, you see Willard... In this war, things get confused out there, power, ideals, the old morality, and practical military necessity. Out there with these natives it must be a temptation to be god. Because there's a conflict in every human heart between the rational and the irrational, between good and evil. The good does not always triumph. Sometimes the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. Every man has got a breaking point. You and I have. Walter Kurtz has reached his. And very obviously, he has gone insane.

Lucy (Playmate): Being playmate of the year... is the loneliest experience i can imagine. It's like... you try to express your feelings to someone and show them your heart and there's this glass wall between you, this invisible glass. They can see your mouth moving. But they can't hear what you're saying. You can never really make them hear what you're trying to say. That's why i tried so desperately... to show somebody that i had some talent. They make you do things you don't wanna do... like, this picture here. I started feeling repulsed with myself. Maybe i'm unfit to have a relationship with a beautiful, innocent boy. I wish... I wish i could find.. just one person... that could share my point of view.

Colonel Lucas: Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River in a Navy patrol boat. Pick up Colonel Kurtz's path at Nu Mung Ba, follow it and learn what you can along the way. When you find the Colonel, infiltrate his team by whatever means available and terminate the Colonel's command.
Willard: Terminate?..... the Colonel?
General Corman: He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And he is still in the field commanding troops.
Jerry (CIA Civilian): Terminate..... with extreme prejudice.
Colonel Lucas: You understand, Captain, that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist.

Chef: How come all you guys sit on your helmets?
Soldier: So we don't get our balls blown off.
[Chef laughs a little, seems to think for a second and then sits on his helmet]

Willard: My mission is to make it up into Cambodia. There's a Green Beret Colonel up there who's gone insane. I'm supposed to kill him.
Chef: That's fucking typical! Shit. Fuckin' Vietnam mission! I'm short and we gotta go up there so you can kill one of our own guys? That's fuckin' great! That's just fuckin' great, man. Shit. That's fuckin'... crazy! I thought you were going in there to blow up a bridge, or, some fucking railroad tracks or somethin'.

Willard: Could we, uh, talk to Colonel Kurtz?
Photojournalist: Hey, man, you don't talk to the Colonel. You listen to him. The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet-warrior in the classic sense. I mean, sometimes he'll, uh, well, you'll say hello to him, right? And he'll just walk right by you, and he won't even notice you. And suddenly he'll grab you, and he'll throw you in a corner, and he'll say "Do you know that 'if' is the middle word in life? 'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you'..." I mean, I'm no, I can't – I'm a little man, I'm a little man, he's, he's a great man. I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas ... (Note: The last sentences here reference first Rudyard Kipling's poem If— and then T.S. Eliot's poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.)

Willard: Are you crazy, God damn it? Don't you think its a little risky for some R&R?
Kilgore: If I say it's safe to surf this beach Captain, then it's safe to surf this beach. I mean, I'm not afraid to surf this place, I'll surf this whole fucking place!

Kilgore: How're you feeling, Jimmy?
Door Gunner: Like a mean motherfucker, sir!

[the boat has arrived at the Do Lung bridge, which is a combat zone]
Chef: Lance, hey Lance. What do you think?
Lance: It's beautiful.
Chef: What's the matter with you? You're acting kinda weird.
Lance: Hey, you know that last tab of acid I was saving? I dropped it.
Chef: You dropped acid? ... Far out.

Roxanne: Do you know why you can never step into the same river twice?
Willard: Yeah, 'cause it's always moving.

Kurtz: Did they say why, Willard, why they want to terminate my command?
Willard: I was sent on a classified mission, sir.
Kurtz: It's no longer classified, is it? Did they tell you?
Willard: They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound.
Kurtz: Are my methods unsound?
Willard: I don't see any method at all, sir.
Kurtz: I expected someone like you. What did you expect? Are you an assassin?
Willard: I'm a soldier.
Kurtz: You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill.

Willard: Who's in charge here, soldier?
Infantryman: Ain't you?
...
Willard: Soldier, do you know who's in command here?
The Roach: Yeah. [turns away]

Willard: How long has this kid been on this boat?
Chief Phillips: Seven months.
Willard: He's really specializing in busting my balls.
Chief Phillips: Very possible, Captain, he thinks the same of you ...
Willard: Oh yeah? And what you think, Chief?
Chief Phillips: I don't think! My orders say I'm not supposed to know where I'm taking this boat, so I don't! But one look at you and I know it's gonna be hot, wherever it is. (Brief pause)
Willard: We're going about 70 klicks above the Do Lung bridge.
Chief Phillips: That's Cambodia, Captain.
Willard: That's classified. We're not supposed to be in Cambodia, but that's where I'm going. You just get me close to my destination, and I cut you and the crew loose.
Chief Phillips: All right, Captain.