All the King's Men (1949) · 40 quotes
Most-quoted character in All the King's Men (1949): in 17 of its 40 quotes
Most scenes with: Anne (5), Sadie Burke (2)
Just tell 'em you're gonna soak the fat boys and forget the rest of the tax stuff...Willie, make 'em cry, make 'em laugh, make 'em mad, even mad at you. Stir them up and they'll love it and come back for more, but, for heaven's sakes, don't try to improve their minds.
Jack Burden As I watched him shake his big fist and listened to his words boom out across that field, I had the feeling that here was a man with a will of iron. I had the feeling that Willie Stark would neither be steered away nor scared away from his purpose. I had the feeling that in Willie Stark, Kanoma County had found that rare thing: an honest man with courage.
Jack Burden It was separated from the mainland by a body of water. For the first time, I wondered if it wasn't separated by more than that.
Jack Burden But Willie wasn't drifting. He knew where he was going. He had his foot in the door and he kept right on pushing to get in. He had lost the election, but he had won the state - and he knew it, and the people knew it. They were all hopping on his bandwagon, even Tiny Duffy. Yup, Willie came back like he said he would...
Jack Burden Willie was right. He'd learned how to win. He spent a lot of money doing it. An awful lot of money. I was beginning to wonder where he got it from. There were rumors throughout the state that Willie was making deals with all kinds of people, strange deals...The second time out, it wasn't a campaign, it was a slaughter. It was Saturday night in a mining town. Yup, Willie came back like he said he would. He came back and he took me with him.
Jack Burden What if it is his bribe? He swept the old gang out of office. What if they hollered like stuck pigs? He jammed through bill after bill and the people got what they wanted...He started to build the roads, schools, power dams, to change the face of the state from one end to the other. His methods? Politics is a dirty game and he played it rough and dirty. Willie's little black book was a record of sin and corruption. And me, Jack Burden, I kept the book and added up the accounts. Clown, show-off, playboy they yelled at him. Building football stadiums, fiercely proud of his son who played...He said he was building up a private army, but he was building, always building, always playing up to the crowd, letting them trample on tradition. Well, tradition needed trampling on. The crowds loved it, and Willie loved it, and so did I.
Jack Burden I kept saying to myself that Willie was wrong about the judge. If there was anything left at Burden's Landing, it was honor. I had to believe that.
Jack Burden Will I find anything, Judge? Will I? I didn't find it all at once. It takes a long time to go through old courthouse records and musty deeds, a very long time. But it wasn't too hard for me. I was well trained in research, especially this kind. I found what I didn't want to find.
Jack Burden Now he had us all, me, Anne, and Adam. Now we all worked for him.
Jack Burden The chips were down and Willie knew it. He was fighting for his life. He roared across the state making speech after speech and all of them adding up to the same thing. It's not me they're after, it's you. Willie hollered FOUL. Willie knew if you hollered long enough, hard enough, and loud enough, people begin to believe you. Just in case they didn't, he organized spontaneous demonstrations....In case anyone hollered back, he organized spontaneous slugging. Willie pulled every trick he ever knew - and added a few more...And always the trail led to one place, to Burden's Landing and the Judge.
Jack Anne, Burden's Landing is a place on the moon. It isn't real. It doesn't exist. It's me, pretending I live on what I earn. It's my mother, trying to keep herself young and drinking herself old doing it. She and Adam living in this house as though your father was still alive. It's an old man like the judge, dreaming of the past. Anne, come away with me.
And do what?
Jack Live in a shack and eat red beans. Anne, what do you want me to do?
Oh Jack, you haven't been sure. You've gone from one thing to the other. A year at law school and now this job as a reporter.
Jack Are you afraid I can't make a living?
Oh no Jack, it isn't that. I don't care about the money. It's just that I, I want you to be something.
Jack What is it you want me to be?
I don't know. It's just that I want you to be, to do something important.
Jack Like your father? All right, I'll run for governor. Anne, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I said that.
All right, Jack. I'll go away with you. I'll do anything you want me to.
Jack I've wanted you to say that more than anything in the world. And now that you have said it - Anne, I guess you were right. I'm not sure of anything, including myself. I'm not sure I could live up to the...Anne, wait for me. Please wait for me.
I'll wait for you.
Jack You don't have to be smart to frame a guy like Willie Stark.
No, no brother, you don't.
Jack It is a frame, isn't it?...To split the vote and win the election for Harrison, huh?
You know, why do ya ask?
Jack I just want to make sure. Look, why don't you tell the boys to save their money? Willie couldn't steal a vote from Abe Lincoln in the cradle of the Confederacy.
I wish the poor ...had enough sense to have somebody give him a good reason for the beating he's going to get. 'Cause this way, all he gets out of it is the ride. Hey, those speeches, ain't they awful? Ain't they just plain awful? Question to you: If somebody told him he was a sucker, do you think he'd quit?
Jack I don't know, Sadie. I really don't know.
How'd you get him here? He was out stiff.
Jack The hair of the dog that bit him.
Hair? He must have swallowed the dog.
Jack I learned something from him [Willie]. You can't make an omelette without cracking eggs.
Adam Or heads?
But at least a hospital will be built and the sick will be cared for.
Adam At what price?
Jack At any price.
Adam Do you really believe that, Jack?
Jack I really believe that Stark wants to do good. You do too. It's a matter of method. Many times, out of evil comes good. Pain is evil. As a doctor, you should know that.
Adam Pain is an evil. It is not evil. It is not evil in itself. Stark is evil.
Jack The people of this state don't think so.
Adam How would they know? The first thing Stark did was to take over the newspapers and the radio stations. Why be so afraid of criticism? If Stark is interested in doing good, he should also be interested in the truth. I don't see how you can separate the two. No, Stark is not for me.
No, Stark is not for you. Well, what's for you? Pride, pride, that's all it is, foolish, stupid pride. All you've ever talked about is what you could do if somebody would tear down and build. All right, all right, somebody has and he's given it to you. But he's not for you. No, he's not for you.
Jack Why did you do it?
He wasn't like anybody I ever knew before.
Jack You mean he wasn't like me.
He wasn't like anybody I ever knew before. I love him, I guess. I guess that's the reason.
Jack Everybody loves him.
He wants to marry me.
Jack Are you going to?
Not now, it would hurt him. Divorce would hurt his career.
Jack His career!
Jack, Jack, what are you going to do? You can't leave him now. He needs you now more than he ever did before.
Jack What Willie needs, Willie's got.
You don't know him. You've known him all these years and you don't really know him at all.
Jack What about Adam?
Adam?
Jack Well, you don't have to worry about him. If Adam finds out, it'll be easy to prove a Stanton is no different than anyone else. Just show him these. [He hands her evidence he uncovered about her uncle] Willie was right. Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption, even Judge Stanton. Show them to him, Anne. Change the picture of the world that Adam has in his head, just like our picture of it has been changed. Wipe out everything he's ever believed in, it'll be good for him. There's no god but Willie Stark. I'm his prophet and you're his... Anne, Anne, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. Anne.
I tried to explain to him that it wasn't the way he thought it was.
Jack How was it, Anne? You tell me.
He hit me, Jack. My own brother, he hit me.
Jack Your brother's an old-fashioned man. He believes in his sister's honor. Me, I'm a modern man, the 20th-century type, I run.
I'm frightened, Jack.
Jack For who, your brother or Willie?
We're through.
Jack Who's through with who?
He called me this afternoon. He's going back to Lucy. He said it was better this way.
Jack Better for who, him?
Both of us.
Jack Did he tell you that too when he asked you to betray the judge? At least I walked out on him.
Oh Jack, help me, please! Please! Adam's all I've got left now. Oh Jack, if you ever loved me.
Jack If I ever loved you? ...I'll go find Adam.
Jack Anne, where are you going?
I don't know. Leave me alone.
Jack To do what?
I don't care.
Jack No, that's too easy.
I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!
Jack I do.
Leave me alone, please.
Jack No, no more.
He's dead.
Jack We're alive.
My brother's dead.
Jack We've got to go on living.
How?
Jack So that Adam's death has meaning. So that it wasn't wasted. Anne, our life has to give his death meaning. Don't you see that? Look at those people. LOOK AT THEM! They still believe. And we've got to make them see Willie the way Adam always saw him or there's no meaning in anything, anything.
