Shane You were watchin' me down the trail for quite a spell, weren't you?
Yes I was.
Shane You know, I... I like a man who watches things go on around. It means he'll make his mark someday.
Played by Alan Ladd 
Shane (1953) · 18 quotes
Shane (1953) · 18 quotes
Most-quoted character in Shane (1953): in 11 of its 18 quotes
Most scenes with: Marion (5), Joe (4), Joey (4)
Scenes with Shane
11 scenes Shane Shane Howdy Starrett.
'specting trouble?
I don't want no trouble, Starrett. I came to inform ya. I got that beef contract for the reservation.
Did it take this many of you to tell me that?
I mean business.
Then you tend to your own.
That's just what I'm doing! I'm telling ya now, I'm gonna need all my range.
Now that you've warned me, would you mind gettin' off my place?
Your place! You're gonna have to get out before the snow flies.
And supposin' I don't?
You and the other squatters...
Homesteaders, you mean, don't you?
I could blast you out of here right now, you and the others.
Now you listen to me, the time for gun-blastin' a man off of his own place is past. Why, they're building a penitentiary right now...
Shane I'm a friend of Starrett's.
These old-timers, they just can't see it yet, but runnin' cattle on an open range just can't go on forever. It takes too much space for too little results. Those herds aren't any good. They're all horns and bone. Now, cattle that is bred for meat and fenced in and fed right - that's the thing. You gotta pick your spot, get your land, your own land. Now a homesteader, he can't run but a few beef. But he can sure grow grain and cut hay. And then what with his garden and the hogs and milk, well, he'll make out all right. We make out, don't we, Marion?
I wouldn't ask you where you're bound.
Shane One place or another. Some place I've never been.
Chris
Well now, looky here what we got. [to Pete] That’s one of the new ones. We call him Sody-pop.
Pete
Deal me out.
Chris
Why, what's the matter, Pete?
Pete
Just say I'm superstitious.
Chris
[to Shane]
I guess you don’t hear very well, sodbuster. I told you that if you wanted to stay healthy you’d keep out of here. Look pig farmer, you’d better get back inside with the women and kids where it’s safe.... D’you hear me? Get goin’.
Shane Don’t push it, Calloway.
Chris
Did you think you were goin’ to come in here and drink with the men?
Shane Set ‘em up, bartender. Two whiskies.
Chris
You ain’t going to drink that in here.
Shane You guessed it.
Why don't you ever wear your six-shooter, Shane?
Shane Well, I guess I don't see as many bad men as you do.
...
Shane One, for instance, likes to have a shoulder holster. Another one puts it in his - the belt of his pants. And there are some who like two guns. But one's all you need if you can use it.
Which is the best way?
Shane What I'm telling you is a good a way as any and better than most.
Guns aren't going to be my boy's life.
Why do you always have to spoil everything?
Shane A gun is a tool, Marion. No better and no worse than any other tool - an axe, a shovel, or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.
We'd all be much better off if there wasn't a single gun left in this valley - including yours.
Who goes there?
Brother Rufe's come to pay you a little visit.
Howdy, Starrett. 'Evening, Ma'am. I had something I wanted to talk over with you Starrett.
Whatever business you and I got we can say it right here.
I'll just lay it on the barrel-head then. How'd you like to work for me?
I work for myself. I've done enough working for others.
Wait till I tell ya. I'll pay ya top wages, more than you can make on this patch of ground.
Nope. I'm not interested.
I haven't said it all. You can run your cattle with mine. What's more I'll buy your homestead. Set a price you think is reasonable, you'll find me reasonable. Is that fair?
You've made things pretty hard for us, Ryker, and us in the right all the time.
Right? You in the right! Look, Starrett. When I come to this country, you weren't much older than your boy there. We had rough times, me and other men that are mostly dead now. I got a bad shoulder yet from a Cheyenne arrowhead. We made this country. Found it and we made it. We worked with blood and empty bellies. The cattle we brought in were hazed off by Indians and rustlers. They don't bother you much anymore because we handled 'em. We made a safe range out of this. Some of us died doin' it but we made it. And then people move in who've never had to rawhide it through the old days. They fence off my range, and fence me off from water. Some of 'em like you plow ditches, take out irrigation water. And so the creek runs dry sometimes and I've got to move my stock because of it. And you say we have no right to the range. The men that did the work and ran the risks have no rights? I take you for a fair man, Starrett.
I'm not belittlin' what you and the others did. At the same time, you didn't find this country. There was trappers here and Indian traders long before you showed up and they tamed this country more than you did.
They weren't ranchers.
You talk about rights. You think you've got the right to say that nobody else has got any. Well, that ain't the way the government looks at it.
I didn't come to argue. I made you a fair proposition.
What about the others?
Shane already knows he can work for me anytime.
The other homesteaders.
Look, be reasonable! After all, there's only so many hands in a deck of cards.
Then I've got to say no.
You don't give a man much choice do you, Starrett? [to Joey] How do you feel about it, son? Wouldn't you like to go partners with me? I don't want trouble with your father. We don't want anyone to get hurt, do we?
Joey ain't quite of age, Ryker.
What d'you say, son?.
Come up here, Joey.
I don't want you to be sorry, Starrett. I'll see ya. [he leaves].
Shane He's no cowpuncher.
No. He don't look the part sure enough.
Torrey was a pretty brave man, and I figure we'd be doin' wrong if we wasn't the same...We can have a regular settlement here, we can have a town and churches and a school...We've just got to, that's all...We can't give up this valley and we ain't gonna do it. This is farmin' country, a place where people can come and bring up their families. Who is Rufe Ryker or anyone else to run us away from our own homes? He only wants to grow his beef and what we want to grow up is families, to grow 'em good and grow 'em, grow 'em up strong, the way they was meant to be grown. God didn't make all this country just for one man like Ryker.
Lewis
He's got it though and that's what counts.
Shane You know what he wants you to stay for? Something that means more to you than anything else - your families. Your wives and kids. Like you, Lewis, your girls; Shipstead with his boys. They've got a right to stay here and grow up and be happy. That's up to you people to have nerve enough to not give it up.
You were through with gun-fighting?
Shane I changed my mind.
Shane For you, Marion - for Joe - and little Joe.
Then we'll never see you again?
Shane Never's a long time, ma'am. Tell him, tell him I was sorry.
No need to tell him that.
Shane I came to get your offer, Ryker.
I'm not dealing with you. Where's Starrett?
Shane You're dealing with me, Ryker.
I got no quarrel with you, Shane. You walk out now and no hard feelings.
Shane What's your offer, Ryker?
To you, not a thing.
Shane That's too bad.
Too bad?
Shane Yeah, you've lived too long. Your kind of days are over.
My days! What about yours, gunfighter?
Shane The difference is I know it.
All right. So we'll all turn in our six-guns to the bartender. We'll all start hoeing spuds. Is that it?
Shane Not quite yet. [to Wilson] We haven't heard from your friend here.
I wouldn't push too far if I were you. Our fight ain't with you.
Shane It ain't with me, Wilson?
No it ain't, Shane.
I wouldn't pull on Wilson, Shane. [to Will Atkey] Will, you're a witness to this.
Shane So you're Jack Wilson.
What's that mean to you, Shane?
Shane I've heard about you.
And what've you heard, Shane?
Shane I've heard that you're a low-down Yankee liar.
Prove it.
[after the gun battle]
Shane! I knew you could, Shane. I knew it. I knew it just as well as anything. Was that him? Was that Wilson?
Shane That was him. That was Wilson alright. He was fast - fast on the draw. Joey, what are you doing here?
I'm sorry, Shane.
Shane You don't have to be. You'd better run back.
Can I ride home behind you?
Shane Afraid not, Joey.
Please, why not?
Shane I gotta be goin' on.
Why, Shane?
Shane A man has to be what he is, Joey. You can't break the mold. I tried it and it didn't work for me.
We want you, Shane.
Shane Joey, there's no living with, with a killing. There's no going back from it. Right or wrong, it's a brand, a brand that sticks. There's no going back. Now you run on home to your mother and tell her, tell her everything's alright, and there aren't any more guns in the valley.
Shane, it's bloody. You're hurt.
Shane I'm alright, Joey. You go home to your mother and your father. And grow up to be strong and straight. And Joey, take care of them, both of them.
Yes, Shane. [Tears well up in Joey's eyes] He'd never have been able to shoot you - if you'd have seen him.
Shane Bye, little Joe.
He never even would have cleared the holster, would he, Shane? [calling after him] Pa's got things for you to do, and Mother wants you. I know she does. Shane. Shane! Come back! 'Bye, Shane.
Note: bolded section ranked #47 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.