One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest quotes

View Quote Harding: I'm not just talking about my wife, I'm talking about my life, I can't seem to get that through to you. I'm not just talking about one person, I'm talking about everybody. I'm talking about form. I'm talking about content. I'm talking about interrelationships. I'm talking about God, the devil, Hell, Heaven! Do you understand, finally?!

View Quote They uh, was givin' me ten thousand watts a day, you know, and I'm hot to trot. The next woman who takes me out is gonna light up like a pinball machine, and pay off in silver dollars.

View Quote She was fifteen years old, going on thirty-five, Doc, and she told me she was eighteen. She was very willing if ya know what I mean, I practically had to take to sewing my pants shut. Between you and me, uh, she might have been fifteen, but when you get that little red beaver right up there in front of you, I don't think it's crazy at all and I don't think you do either. No man alive could resist that, and that's why I got into jail to begin with. And now they're telling me I'm crazy over here because I don't sit there like a goddamn vegetable. Don't make a bit of sense to me. If that's what's being crazy is, then I'm senseless, out of it, gone-down-the-road, wacko. But no more, no less, that's it.

View Quote Young Psychiatrist: Have you ever heard of the old saying, "a rolling stone gathers no moss"?
McMurphy: Yeah.
Young Psychiatrist: Does that mean something to you?
McMurphy: Uh, it's the same as, don't wash your dirty underwear in public.
Young Psychiatrist: I'm not sure I understand what you mean.
McMurphy: [smiling] I'm smarter than him, ain't I? [laughs] Well, that sort of has always meant, is, uh it's hard for something to grow on something that's moving.

View Quote Cheswick: Rules?! Piss on your ****ing Rules, Miss Ratched! I want you to know something right here and now, Miss Ratched! I'm no little kid! I ain't no little kid! Where are you going to have cigarettes kept for me, like cookies, and I want something done?!

View Quote McMurphy: [When The Chief slowly raises his hand] The Chief voted. Now, will you please turn on the television set?
Nurse Ratched: [she opens the glass panel] Mr. McMurphy, the meeting was adjourned and the vote was closed.
McMurphy: But the vote was 10 to 8. The Chief, he's got his hand up! Look!
Nurse Ratched: No, Mr. McMurphy. When the meeting was adjourned, the vote was 9 to 9.
McMurphy: Aw come on, you're not gonna say that now. You're not gonna say that now. You're gonna pull that hen-house shit now when the vote...the Chief just voted - it was 10 to 8. Now I want that television set turned on, right now!
[Nurse Ratched slides the glass panel across the front of the Nurse's Station, shutting out his protest.]

View Quote [The inmates are playing cards and betting with cigarettes]
Martini: [rips a cigarette in half] I bet a nickel.
McMurphy: Dime's the limit, Martini.
Martini: I bet a dime.
[Puts the two halves onto the table]]
McMurphy: This is not a dime, Martini. This is a dime.
[shows a whole cigarette]
McMurphy: If you break it in half, you don't get two nickels, you get shit. Try and smoke it. You understand?
Martini: Yes.
McMurphy: You don't understand.

View Quote Chief Bromden: My pop was real big. He did like he pleased. That's why everybody worked on him. The last time I seen my father, he was blind and diseased from drinking. And every time he put the bottle to his mouth, he don't suck out of it, it sucks out of him until he shrunk so wrinkled and yellow even the dogs didn't know him.
McMurphy: Killed him, huh?
Chief Bromden: I'm not saying they killed him. They just worked on him. The way they're working on you.

View Quote How about it? You creeps, you lunatics, mental defectives? Let's hear it for Bull Goose Randall back in action... You ding-a-lings. The Mental Defective League, in formation.

View Quote McMurphy: [when asked about Nurse Ratched] Well, that ****ing Nurse, man. She, uh, she ain't honest.
Dr. Spivey: Oh now, look. Miss Ratched's one of the finest nurses we've got in this institution.
McMurphy: Ha! Well I don't wanna break up the meeting or nothing, but she's something of a ****, ain't she, Doc?
Dr. Spivey: How do you mean that?
McMurphy: She likes a rigged game, you know what I mean?

View Quote McMurphy: You fooled 'em, Chief! You fooled 'em. You fooled 'em all. God damn. What are we doing here Chief? Huh? What's us two guys doing in this ****ing place? Let's get out of here. Out!
Chief Bromden: Canada.
McMurphy: Canada. I'll be there before these son-of-bitches know what hit 'em. Listen to Randall on this one.

View Quote Night Nurse: Mr. Turkle?
McMurphy: Where the **** is he, why doesn't he answer her?
Taber: He's jerking off somewhere.
Orderly Turkle: Ain't no one jerking off nowhere, mother****er!
McMurphy: Turkle what the **** are you doing in here? Go out and talk to her.
Orderly Turkle: I'm doing the same ****ing thing you're doing--hiding!

View Quote If Mr. McMurphy doesn't want to take his medication orally, I'm sure we can arrange that he can have it some other way.

View Quote Dr. Spivey: It said you've been belligerent, talked when unauthorized, been resentful in attitude toward work in general, that you're lazy.
McMurphy: Chewing gum in class. Ha-ha.
Dr. Spivey: Well, the real reason that you've been sent over here is because they wanted you to be evaluated, to determine whether or not you are mentally ill. This is the real reason.
McMurphy: Well, as near as I can figure out, it's 'cause I, uh, fight and **** too much.
Dr. Spivey: In prison?
McMurphy: No, no!
Dr. Spivey: Well, you've had five prior arrests for assault.
McMurphy: Five fights, huh? Rocky Marciano's got forty and he's a millionaire.

View Quote Chief Bromden: Mac, they said you escaped. I knew you wouldn't leave without me. I was waiting for you. Now we can make it, Mac; I feel big as a damn mountain. [he suddenly sees the lobotomy scars] Oh, no. [embracing McMurphy] I'm not goin' without you, Mac. I wouldn't leave you this way. You're coming with me. [laying him down] Let's go.