Charlie Anderson quotes from Shenandoah (1965)

Charlie Anderson

My corn I take serious because it's my corn, and my potatoes and my tomatoes and fences I take note of because they're mine.  But this war is not mine and I take no note of it!

Charlie Anderson

Lord, We cleared this land; We plowed it, sowed it, and harvested it. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn't be here—we wouldn't be eating it—if we hadn't done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel But we thank you just the same anyway, Lord, for this food we're about to eat. Amen.

Charlie Anderson

What d'you do with dead soldiers?

Charlie Anderson

  Now it concerns us.

Charlie Anderson

You run a sad kind of train, mister.  It takes people away when they don't want to go, and won't bring them back when they're ready.

Charlie Anderson

I'm not going to kill you.  I want you to live.  I want you to live to be an old man, and I want you to have many, many, many children, and I want you to feel about your children then the way I feel about mine now.  And someday, when a man comes along and kills one of 'em, I want you to remember!  Okay?  I want you to remember.

Charlie Anderson

I don't even know what to say to you anymore, Martha. There's not much I can tell you about this war. It's like all wars, I guess. The undertakers are winning. And the politicians who talk about the glory of it. And the old men who talk about the need of it. And the soldiers, well, they just wanna go home. I guess you're not so lonely anymore, with Ann and James and Jacob. And maybe the boy. You didn't know Ann, did you? Well, you'd like her. You'd like her, Martha. Why, she and James are so much alike, they're just like... no... no... we were never that much alike, were we Martha? We just sorta grew alike through the years. But I wish, I wish I could just know what you're thinking about it all, Martha. And maybe it wouldn't seem so bad to me if I knew what you thought about it. [He notices the church bells are ringing] You never give up, do you?

Charlie Anderson

I wanna say somethin'. I've known since the train that we weren't liable to find him. It was just a hair of a chance that we got Sam back. I knew that. Maybe I knew even before we left home, but somehow I just had to try! And if we don't try, we don't do. And if we don't do, why are we here on this earth?

Jacob Anderson

  They come closer everyday, pa.

Charlie Anderson

  They on our land?

Jacob Anderson

  No, sir.

Charlie Anderson

  Well, then, it doesn't concern us.

Charlie Anderson

  I've got five hundred acres of good, rich dirt, here, and as long as the rains come and the sun shines, it'll grow anything I have a mind to plant.  And we pulled every stump, and we cleared every field, and we done it ourselves without the sweat of one slave.

Johnson

  So?

Charlie Anderson

  "So"!?  So, can you give me one good reason why I should send my family, that took me a lifetime to raise, down that road like a bunch of damn fools to do somebody else's fighting?

Johnson

  Virginia needs all of her sons, Mr. Anderson.

Charlie Anderson

  That might be so, Johnson, but these are my sons! They don't belong to the state.   When they were babies, I never saw the state coming around with a spare tit!  We never asked anything of the state, and never expected anything.  We do our own living and thanks to no man for the right.  But seeing as how you're so worried about it, I'll tell ya:  If any of my boys thinks this war's right, and wants to join in, he's free to do it.  You all hear that!?  Did you hear it!?  You wanna dress up like these fellas, go ahead; here's your chance.  [none of Anderson's sons volunteer; the soldier realises he has lost this battle]

  What's confiscate mean, pa?

Charlie Anderson

  Steal!

Sam

  [who has just learned he's being called to service]  I'll hav'ta leave ya; you know that, don't you?  Do you understand?

Jennie

  Do you?

Jennie

  Yes, I'm a woman, but I don't see anybody here that I can't outrun, outride, and outshoot.  I'll unstrap for you, papa, and unhook, and I'll even sit here and watch you ride out of sight.

Charlie Anderson

  And then what?

Jennie

  And then I'll follow.

Charlie Anderson

  That's what I thought.

Charlie Anderson

What about you, James? You ever think you might like to own a slave?

Well, I guess I never thought about it, Pa.

Charlie Anderson

Well, think about it! Think about it! If you had money would you go out and buy a slave?

No sir, I wouldn't.

Charlie Anderson

Why not?

Well, if I can't do my own work with my own hands it'd never get done.

Lt. Johnson

When are you going to take this war seriously, Anderson?

Charlie Anderson

Now let me tell you something, Johnson, before you get on my wrong side. My corn I take seriously, because it's mine. And my potatoes and tomatoes and my fence I take note of because they're mine. But this war is not mine and I don't take note of it.

Charlie Anderson

It's no easy job, Sam, to take care of a woman.

Sam

No, sir.

Charlie Anderson

They expect things they never ask for. And when they don't get them, they ask you why. Sometimes they don't ask... and just go ahead and punish you for not doing something you didn't know you were supposed to do in the first place.

Charlie Anderson

Do you like her?

Sam

Well, I just said I...

Charlie Anderson

No, no. You just said you loved her. There's some difference between lovin' and likin'. When I married Jennie's mother, I-I didn't love her - I liked her... I liked her a lot. I liked Martha for at least three years after we were married and then one day it just dawned on me I loved her. I still do... still do. You see, Sam, when you love a woman without likin' her, the night can be long and cold, and contempt comes up with the sun.