Hazel [to the cat]
You look hungry! Rats getting too clever, I suppose?
Voiced by John Hurt 
Watership Down (1978) · 58 quotes
Watership Down (1978) · 58 quotes
Most-quoted character in Watership Down (1978): in 23 of its 58 quotes
Most scenes with: Bigwig (9), Fiver (6), Dandelion (5)
My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today.
More lines from Hazel
5 quotes Hazel Hazel Tell you the truth, I'm getting sick and tired of it. Sometimes I feel like clearing out of the warren altogether. Never mind. Let's forget it, and try to enjoy the evening.
Hazel [to the Chief Rabbit; about Fiver]
He's had these feelings before, and he's been right again and again.
Hazel Look, once we're beyond the woods, we'll really be clear of the Owsla. And we can rest then.
Hazel [to Bigwig; about Holly]
Let him be. He's had a bad time. He can tell us about it when he's rested.
Scenes with Hazel
17 scenes
There's something very **** about the warren this evening...
Hazel Is it dangerous?
It's not exactly danger, it's... oh, I don't know. Something oppressive... like thunder.
Hazel? It is Hazel, isn't it?
Hazel It is.
What are you doing here?
Hazel [Motioning to Fiver]
We want to see the chief rabbit, Bigwig.
We? You mean he wants to see him, too?
Hazel Yes.
I must.
Hazel 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...
[while all are digging in the rain]
What's happening back home, I wonder? Think, when we lived in our own burrows? Dry, soft, warm bodies...
It keeps getting worse and worse wherever we go. Where ARE we going?
Hazel It won't be much longer, then we can all rest.
How MUCH longer?
We never should have left.
Suppose Fiver's all wrong?
We want to go back and find out.
Hazel Go back? After all we've been through?
And probably get killed for wounding Captain Holly? An Owsla officer? Talk sense, for Frith's sake!
Hazel Where are you going?
Away, to the hills.
Hazel By yourself, alone? You'll die!
You're closer to death than I am.
Hazel [Bigwig is being strangled in a snare]
Bigwig! Listen, you're in a snare! A snare! And what did they tell you in Owsla? Think!
[looking at the countryside from Watership Down]
O Frith on the hills! He made it all for us!
Hazel Frith may have made it, but Fiver found it.
Hazel [The rabbits first meet Kehaar the seagull]
Are you hurt?
KAH, KAH!
Hazel Bigwig, I've got an idea. See if you can find some worms--
Worms? What for, for Frith's sake?
Hazel Well if he's hurt, maybe we ought to help him.
A bird? What for?
Hazel [to Kehaar]
We - help - you.
PISS OFF!!! What for help me?
[After the rabbits decide to ask Kehaar to find mates for them] [sitting and musing in a burrow]
What home? This hole? Where are mates? Where are chicks? Mate make eggs, mate sit on eggs, hatch eggs, many eggs. We feed chicks. Egg robbers come, we fight.
[Bigwig pounces on him from behind to get his attention]
YAAAAAAAAAH, YAAAAAAAAAAH!!! KAH, KAH, KAH, KAH, KAH, KAH, KAH!!! YOU STUPID BUNNIES! You got no mates! Where are mates?! WHERE ARE CHICKS?! Plenty trouble for you! You need MATES!
You got no brains! You no plan! You need mates for plan! Listen - I got plan for you. Wing better. I go fly; fly for you. I find mates.
Hazel What a splendid idea, Kehaar!
How clever of you to think of it. You very fine bird.
Hazel Did you find anything on your flight?
Efrafa.
Hazel Can you guide us there?
Many rabbits. Too many rabbits.
Holly
A lot of us wouldn't be enough to fight one of their wide patrols.
What do you mean?
Holly
[shows Bigwig the scar on his shoulder]
You see this? They did it to me. It's an identification mark. Tells you when you can be above ground.
What do you mean? Who's to stop you?
Holly
Their Owsla. Their chief is called Woundwort. General Woundwort. I don't think even you'd match up to him, Bigwig. Under him are his captains, each one in charge of a Mark. If you're found above ground at the wrong time, they take you before the Council for punishment.
Some of them must get away.
Holly
They caught one trying to run away when I was there. Blackavar was his name. When they'd finished with him, both his ears were ripped to shreds...worse than this one of mine. He was lucky not to have been killed. There was another one, a doe, Hyzenthlay. I couldn't have escaped without her help.
Why didn't she go with you?
Holly
She wouldn't go without the others.
Hazel Then there are some that might be persuaded to leave?
Holly
Oh, yes. But you'd never get them out of Efrafa.
Well, you got out.
Holly
Only because Lord Frith sent one of his great messengers. [a flashback shows Holly running away from two Efrafans, the Efrafans are run over by a train and Holly rolls down a steep slope] I didn't see what happened to them. It must have cut them down.
Hazel Well, it's not going to be easy, but I'm afraid we don't have much choice. We'll start off as soon as I'm fit to travel.
Holly
I don't like this idea of yours at all, Hazel.
Hazel Holly, I want you to stay here. You're known to them and it could be dangerous for you.
Holly
I've been in Efrafa, and I tell you you're making a bad mistake that might very well get you all killed.
You were one of those on the riverbank. Did Bigwig send you?
Hazel I'm a friend of Bigwig's.
What was left unfinished on the riverbank will be finished now.
Hazel It would be better for both of us if we could come to terms.
Terms?... Very well. These are my terms. Hand over all the deserters immediately.
Hazel We couldn't agree to that. But I can suggest something better, for both of us--
Hazel We shouldn't be fighting each other. We have enough enemies as it is. Perhaps we should be together. A joining of free, independent warrens.
Shall I kill him, sir?
No. [to Hazel] You take back our terms. And you tell your chief, Bigwig, that if he and Hyzenthlay and the others aren't waiting outside when I come for them, I'll tear out every throat in the place!
Hazel Lord Frith, I know you've looked after us well, and it's wrong to ask even more of you. But my people are in terrible danger, and so I would like to make a bargain with you. My life in return for theirs.
There is not a day or night when a mother doe does not offer her life for her kittens, or an honest captain of Owsla his life for his chief's. But there is no bargain. What is, is what must be.
El-ahrairah
Hazel... Hazel... you know me, don't you?
Hazel I don't know. [The apparition reveals himself to be El-ahrairah, and Hazel gasps] Yes, my lord. I know you.
El-ahrairah
I've come to ask if you'd like to join my Owsla. We shall be glad to have you, and I know you'd like it. You've been feeling tired, haven't you? If you're ready, we might go along now. [Hazel looks at all the younger rabbits of Watership Down] You needn't worry about them. They'll be all right, and thousands like them. If you come along now, I'll show you what I mean.
Hazel [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!
Hazel Now, stop it, Fiver.
We've got to go away from here! All of us!
Hazel Go away? The whole warren?
Yes, before it's too late!
Hazel 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!
Hazel 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.
Chief Rabbit
Now, Walnut. It is Walnut, isn't it?
Hazel No, sir. Hazel.
Chief Rabbit
Hazel. I knew your mother well. And your friend?
Hazel My brother, sir. Fiver.
Chief Rabbit
Your brother. Now, do tell me how I can help you.
Hazel 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?
Hazel 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.
Hazel [As Hazel and Fiver prepare to leave Sandleford in the night, Blackberry joins them.]
Who's that?
It's me.
Hazel 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.
Hazel Then the sooner we're off, the better.
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.
Hazel That's not good enough. We all got into this together, we'll all get out of it together.
They need to rest, Hazel.
Hazel Something up ahead. [sniffs and sees a bean field nearby]
A warm, friendly burrow, perhaps?
Hazel 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.
Other characters in Watership Down
More John Hurt characters
Winston Smith
Jellon Lamb
Lord Cotys
Oxley
Kane
High Chancellor Adam Sutler
John Merrick
Horned King