[Mocking Fiver's prophecies]
But I'm in a mist! Everything's bad! Oh, I have got a funny feeling in my foot!
Bigwig
Michael Graham Cox · 20 quotes
Fiver
Richard Briers · 12 quotes
Kehaar
Zero Mostel · 12 quotes
General Woundwort
Harry Andrews · 9 quotes
Blackberry
Simon Cadell · 7 quotes
Dandelion
Richard O'Callaghan · 7 quotes
Silver
Terence Rigby · 6 quotes
Hyzenthlay
Hannah Gordon · 4 quotes
Narrator/Frith
Michael Hordern · 4 quotes
Pipkin
Roy Kinnear · 4 quotes
Campion
Nigel Hawthorne · 3 quotes
Most scenes together: Hazel & Bigwig (9), Fiver & Hazel (6), Kehaar & Bigwig (5)
Watership Down quotes
Page 1 of 4All the world will be your enemy, Prince With a Thousand Enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you - digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.
Come back! Come back, you fools! Come back! Come back and fight! Dogs aren't dangerous!
The Cat
[catching Hazel]
Can you run? I think not... I think not...
It's set.
When?
Get them to the near hind mark at sunset, just before early silflay.
Suppose something happens?
Nothing will happen. We can do it.
Yes. I think we can. Sometimes I can tell when things are true. Sometimes... I can see it. The high down with trees, and... [shakes head] I've become foolish.
We'll be ready.
Sunset, then. And a bird will fight for us.
A bird?
Even Woundwort won't expect that.
There's a dog loose in the wood!
Well, that does it!
A dog?
Come on. What do you think will happen when he picks up our scent? Those that can swim, swim. The others will have to make out the best they can.
That's not good enough. We all got into this together, we'll all get out of it together.
They need to rest, Hazel.
Something up ahead. [sniffs and sees a bean field nearby]
A warm, friendly burrow, perhaps?
No, no, no, not a burrow. A field. A great field of scented plants that will cover us sight and sound until we're rested.
You're beginning to sound like a chief, Hazel. Hazel-rah!
Hazel-rah? That'll be the day I call him chief, that will.
Blackavar
It nearly came off. We'll take one or two of them with us before it's finished.
Chief Rabbit
Now, Walnut. It is Walnut, isn't it?
No, sir. Hazel.
Chief Rabbit
Hazel. I knew your mother well. And your friend?
My brother, sir. Fiver.
Chief Rabbit
Your brother. Now, do tell me how I can help you.
Well, he says there's a bad danger coming to our warren.
Chief Rabbit
A bad danger? How very upsetting. Now, what sort of danger, I wonder?
I don't know, but it's bad! It's so bad!
Chief Rabbit
Well, now. What ought we to do?
Go away! All of us! Now!
Chief Rabbit
[flabbergasted]
Now? In May? The mating season? And where would we go to?
He's had these feelings before, and he's been right again and again.
Chief Rabbit
I shall have to consider this very carefully. Perhaps we'll discuss it later, in the summer.
Chief Rabbit
It's been good of you to come, Walnut.
Chief Rabbit
[Hazel leaves the burrow, Bigwig is about to follow, but the Chief Rabbit calls for him.]
Bigwig! [Bigwig doesn't respond and tries to ignore the Chief Rabbit.] Bigwig!
Sir?
Chief Rabbit
What was that all about?
Well, sir--
Chief Rabbit
Your duty as an officer is to protect this burrow.
Yes, sir.
Chief Rabbit
Those two lunatics have better be watched.
Yes, sir.
[After Fiver has a vision of blood in the fields]
Alright, alright, Fiver. It's getting dark. I think we should get back to the burrow.
Back to the burrow?! It'll come there! Don't think it won't! It's all around us!
Now, stop it, Fiver.
We've got to go away from here! All of us!
Go away? The whole warren?
Yes, before it's too late!
Don't be silly. They won’t come, they'll think you're out of your mind.
You must listen to me, Hazel! Something very bad is going to happen!
Well, I suppose we'd better try and see the Chief Rabbit. You can tell him about it. But I don't expect he'll like the idea at all.
[As Hazel and Fiver prepare to leave Sandleford in the night, Blackberry joins them.]
Who's that?
It's me.
Dandelion?
No. Blackberry. Dandelion told me you were leaving the warren tonight. [several other rabbits join them] If it's true, I'd like to come along.
Violet
We'd like to come along too.
I don't much like the look of things.
We must get everyone.
That Toadflax fellow followed me down the run. It could mean the Owsla has been turned out tonight.
Then the sooner we're off, the better.
Shhhh!
Aren't you going to silflay?
Blackavar
I don't silflay at this time, sir.
Chervil
Tell him why you're here, Blackavar.
Blackavar
[Mumbles]
I've come here for the Mark to... [Chervil swipes at him to make him speak up, and he does] I... I've come here for the Mark to see me. I... I've been punished for trying to leave the warren. [Chervil glares] The Council were merciful... [Chervil threatens him again, and Blackavar cowers] The Council were merciful.
Chervil
He keeps trying to run away. Captain Campion caught him this time. The Council ripped his ears and says he has to show himself every morning early silflay as an example to the others. If you ask me, he won't last much longer. He'll meet a blacker rabbit than himself one of these nights.
That doe over there...what's her name?
Chervil
Fancy her, do you? She's called Hyzenthlay. But I'd look elsewhere if I were you; she's a troublemaker. The Council's got their eye on her.
Hazel? It is Hazel, isn't it?
It is.
What are you doing here?
We? You mean he wants to see him, too?
Yes.
I must.
Look, Bigwig, when have I EVER asked to see the chief rabbit before?
[thinks over, hesitating]
Oh, all right. Wait here. [goes into warren, speaks to Chief Rabbit for a moment, comes back up] Come along, then. Though I'll probably get my ears chewed off for this...