North by Northwest quotes

View Quote CIA agent: [referring to Thornhill] He's the poor sucker who got mistaken for George Kaplan...Vandamm's men must have grabbed him, tried to put him away using Lester Townsend's house - and the unsuspecting Mr. Townsend winds up with a stray knife in his back. C'est la guerre. It's so horribly sad. How is it I feel like laughing?

View Quote The Professor: We do nothing...That's right, nothing. Oh, we could congratulate ourselves on a marvelous stroke of good fortune. Our non-existent decoy George Kaplan created to divert suspicion from our actual agent has fortituously become a live decoy... What can we do to save him, without endangering our own agent?...We didn't invent our non-existent man and give him the name of George Kaplan, establish elaborate behavior patterns for him, move his prop belongings in and out of hotel rooms for our own private amusement. We created George Kaplan and labored successfully to convince Vandamm that this was our own agent hot on his trail for a desperately important reason...If we make the slightest move to suggest that there is no such agent as George Kaplan, give any hint to Vandamm that he's pursuing a decoy instead of our own agent, then our agent working right under Vandamm's very nose will immediately face suspicion, exposure and assassination, like the two others who went before.

View Quote Man: That's funny...That plane's dustin' crops where there ain't no crops.

View Quote Vandamm: That wasn't very sporting, using real bullets.

View Quote Clara: I don't see why you want me along.
Roger: Well, you lend a certain air of respectability.
Clara: Don't be sarcastic, Roger.

View Quote Clara: Roger, I think we should go.
Roger: Don't be nervous.
Clara: I'm not nervous. I'll be late for the bridge club.
Roger: Good, you'll lose less than usual.

View Quote [Roger is wearing sunglasses to hide his identity]
Ticket Seller: Something wrong with your eyes?
Roger: Yes, they're sensitive to questions.

View Quote Eve: I tipped the steward five dollars to seat you here if you should come in.
Roger: Is that a proposition?
Eve: I never discuss love on an empty stomach.
Roger: You've already eaten!
Eve: But you haven't.
...
Roger: Oh, you're that type.
Eve: What type?
Roger: Honest.
Eve: Not really.
Roger: Good, because honest women frighten me.
Eve: Why?
Roger: I don't know. Somehow they seem to put me at a disadvantage.
Eve: Because you're not honest with them?
Roger: Exactly.
...
Roger: The moment I meet an attractive woman, I have to start pretending I have no desire to make love to her.
Eve: What makes you think you have to conceal it?
Roger: She might find the idea objectionable.
Eve: Then again, she might not.
...
Eve: I'm Eve Kendall. I'm twenty-six and unmarried. Now you know everything.
Roger: Tell me. What do you do besides lure men to their doom on the Twentieth Century Limited?
Eve: I'm an industrial designer.
Roger: Jack Phillips. Western sales manager for Kingby Electronics.
Eve: No, you're not. You're Roger Thornhill of Madison Avenue, and you're wanted for murder on every front page in America, and don't be so modest.
Roger: Whoops!
Eve: Oh, don't worry, I won't say a word.
Roger: How come?
Eve: I told you. It's a nice face.
Roger: Is that the only reason?
Eve: It's going to be a long night.
Roger: True.
Eve: And I don't particularly like the book I've started.
Roger: Ahhh.
Eve: You know what I mean?
Roger: Uh, let me think. [Pause] Yes, I know exactly what you mean...
...
Eve: Incidentally, I wouldn't order any dessert if I were you.
Roger: I get the message.
Eve: That isn't exactly what I meant. This train seems to be making an unscheduled stop, and I just saw two men get out of a police car as we pulled into the station. They weren't smiling.

View Quote Roger: To a long and lasting friendship, meaning from now on, I'm not going to let you out of my sight, sweetheart.
Eve: I'm afraid you'll have to.
Roger: Oh no.
Eve: I do have plans of my own, you know, and you do have problems.
Roger: Well, wouldn't it be nice if my problems and your plans were somehow connected? Then we could always stay close to each other and not have to go off in separate directions. Togetherness, you know what I mean?

View Quote Eve:I want you to do a favor for me. A big, big favor.
Roger: Name it.
Eve: I want you to leave right now. Stay far away from me and don't come near me again. We're not going to get involved. Last night was last night and it's all there was and that's all there is. There isn't going to be anything more between us. So please, goodbye, good luck, no conversation, just leave.

View Quote Roger: [After a valet tells him he will return his pressed suit in 20 minutes] Now, what can a man do with his clothes off for twenty minutes? Couldn't he have taken an hour?
Eve: You could always take a cold shower. [She helps him remove his suit jacket.]
Roger: That's right. When I was a little boy, I wouldn't even let my mother undress me.
Eve: You're a big boy now.
Roger: Yes, tell me. How does a girl like you get to be a girl like you?
Eve: Lucky, I guess.
Roger: No, not lucky. Naughty, wicked, up to no good. Ever kill anyone? Because I bet you could tease a man to death without half trying. So stop trying, huh?

View Quote Vandamm: What possessed you to come blundering in here like this? Could it be an overpowering interest in art?
Roger: Yes, the art of survival.
Eve: He followed me here from the hotel.
Leonard: He was in your room?
Roger: Sure. Isn't everybody?
...
Vandamm: Has anyone ever told you that you overplay your various roles rather severely, Mr. Kaplan? First, you're the outraged Madison Avenue man who claims he's been mistaken for someone else. Then you play the fugitive from justice, supposedly trying to clear his name of a crime he knows he didn't commit. And now, you play the peevish lover, stung by jealousy and betrayal. It seems to me you fellows could stand a little less training from the FBI and a little more from the Actor's Studio.
Roger: Apparently, the only performance that will satisfy you is when I play dead.
Vandamm: Your very next role. You'll be quite convincing, I assure you.
Roger: I wonder what subtle form of manslaughter is next on the program. Am I to be dropped into a vat of molten steel and become part of a new skyscraper, or are you going to ask this female to kiss me again and poison me to death?
[Eve tries to slap him]
Roger: Who are you kidding? You have no feelings to hurt.

View Quote Roger: [at an art auction] How do we know it's not a fake? It looks like a fake.
Bidder: Well, one thing we know. You're no fake. You are a genuine idiot.
Roger: Thank you.

View Quote Roger: You're police, aren't you? Or is it FBI?
The Professor: FBI, CIA, ONI... we're all in the same alphabet soup.
...
The Professor: [referring to Vandamm] Oh, you could say he is a sort of importer/exporter.
Roger: Of what?
The Professor: Oh, government secrets perhaps.

View Quote The Professor: If I thought there was any chance of changing your mind, I'd talk about Miss Kendall, of whom you so obviously disapprove.
Roger: Yes, for using sex like some people use a fly swatter.