Bonnie and Clyde Quotations

Bonnie and Clyde is a 1967 film about two young lovers who carry out a spree of daring bank robberies in 1930s America, while searching for personal fulfilment.

Directed by Arthur Penn. Written by David Newman, Robert Benton and Robert Towne.

They're young... they're in love... and they kill people.

Bonnie Parker

We rob banks!

Note: ranked #41 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

[to Buck and Clyde] Why don't y'all go back to your own cabin, if you want to play with C.W.

[reading aloud her poem]

You've heard the story of Jesse James

Of how he lived and died

If you're still in need

Of something to read

Here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang

I'm sure you all have read

How they rob and steal

And those who squeal

Are usually found dyin' or dead.

They call them cold-hearted killers

They say they are heartless and mean

But I say this with pride

That I once knew Clyde

When he was honest and upright and clean.

But the laws fooled around

Kept takin' him down

And lockin' him up in a cell

Till he said to me: "I'll never be free

So I'll meet a few of them in Hell."

If a policeman is killed in Dallas

And they have no clue to guide

If they can't find a fiend

They just wipe their slate clean

And hang it on Bonnie and Clyde

If they try to act like citizens

And rent them a nice little flat

About the third night

They're invited to fight

By a sub-guns' rat-a-tat-tat.

Some day, they'll go down together

They'll bury them side by side

To a few, it'll be grief

To the law, a relief

But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.

Clyde Barrow

I don't think he's lost. I think the bank's been offerin' extra reward money for us. I think Frank just figured on some easy pickin's, didn't ya Frank? You're no Texas Ranger. You're hardly doin' your job. You ought to be home protectin' the rights of poor folk, not out chasin' after us!

This here's Miss Bonnie Parker. I'm Clyde Barrow. We rob banks.

[to Bonnie, on her poem] You know what you done there? You told my story, you told my whole story right there, right there. One time, I told you I was gonna make you somebody. That's what you done for me. You made me somebody they're gonna remember.

Hell, you might just be the best damn girl in Texas.

[Clyde has just shot the hat off a bank guard's head] Next time I'll aim a little lower!

Other

Buck Barrow: Hey, you wanna hear a story 'bout this boy? He owned a dairy farm, see. And his ol' Ma, she was kinda sick, you know. And the doctor, he had called him come over, and said, uh, "Uhh listen, your Ma, she's lyin' there, she's just so sick and she's weakly, and uh, uh I want ya to try to persuade her to take a little brandy," you see. Just to pick her spirits up, ya know. And "Ma's a teetotaler," he says. "She wouldn't touch a drop." "Well, I'll tell ya whatcha do, uh," -- the doc -- "I'll tell ya whatcha do, you bring in a fresh quart of milk every day and you put some brandy in it, see. And see. You try that." So he did. And he doctored it all up with the brandy, fresh milk, and he gave it to his Mom. And she drank a little bit of it, you know. So next day, he brought it in again and she drank a little more, you know. And so they went on that way for the third day and just a little more, and the fourth day, she was, you know, took a little bit more - and then finally, one week later, he gave her the milk and she just drank it down. Boy, she swallowed the whole, whole, whole thing, you know. And she called him over and she said, "Son, whatever you do, don't sell that cow!"

Farmer: All I can say is, they did right by me — and I'm bringin' me and a mess of flowers to their funeral.

[Blanche wants a cut of the loot]

Blanche Barrow: Well why not? I earned my share same as everybody. Well, I coulda got killed same as everybody. And I'm wanted by the law same as everybody... I'm a nervous wreck and that's the truth. I have to take sass from Miss Bonnie Parker all the time. I deserve mine.

Dialogue

Clyde: Now you just tell me what was wrong with that car.

C.W. Moss: Dirt.

Clyde: Dirt?

C.W.: Dirt in the fuel line... just blowed it away.

Bonnie: Hey, that ain't ours!

Clyde: Sure it is.

Bonnie: But we come in this one.

Clyde: That don't mean we have to go home in it!

Bonnie: What would you do if some miracle happened and we could walk out of here tomorrow morning and start all over again clean? No record and nobody after us, huh?

Clyde: Well, uh, I guess I'd do it all different. First off, I wouldn't live in the same state where we pull our jobs. We'd live in another state. We'd stay clean there and then when we'd take a bank, we'd go into the other state

Clyde: Alright. Alright. If all you want's a stud service, you get on back to West Dallas and you stay there the rest of your life. You're worth more than that. A lot more than that. You know it and that's why you come along with me. You could find a lover boy on every damn corner in town. It don't make a damn to them whether you're waitin' on tables or pickin' cotton, but it does make a damn to me.

Bonnie: Why?

Clyde: Why? What's you mean, "Why?" Because you're different, that's why. You know, you're like me. You want different things. You got somethin' better than bein' a waitress. You and me travelin' together, we could cut a path clean across this state and Kansas and Missouri and Oklahoma and everybody'd know about it. You listen to me, Miss Bonnie Parker. You listen to me.

[After showing off his shooting skills]

Bonnie: You're good!

Clyde: I ain't good. I'm the best!

Bonnie: [sarcastically] And modest!

Bonnie: I don't have no mama. No family either.

Clyde: Hey, I'm your family.

Bonnie: You know what, when we started out, I thought we was really goin' somewhere. This is it. We're just goin', huh?

Clyde: I love you.

Bonnie's Mother: You know Clyde, I read about you all in the papers, and I just get scared.

Clyde: Now Ms. Parker, don't you believe what you read in all them newspapers. That's the law talkin' there. They want us to look big so they gonna look big when they catch us. And they ain't gonna catch us. 'Cause I'm even better at runnin' than I am at robbin' banks! Shoot, if we'd done half that stuff they said we'd done in that paper, we'd be millionaires by now, wouldn't we? But Ms. Parker, this here's the way we know best how to make money. But we gonna be quittin' all this, as soon as the hard times are over. I can tell ya that. Why just the other night, me and Bonnie were talkin'. And we were talkin' about the time we're gonna settle down and get us a home. And uh, she says to me, she says, "You know, I couldn't bear to live more than three miles from my precious Mother." Now how'd ya like that, Mother Parker?

Bonnie's Mother: I don't believe I would. I surely don't. You try to live three miles from me and you won't live long, honey. You best keep runnin', Clyde Barrow. And you know it. [to Bonnie] Bye, baby.

Cast

Faye Dunaway — Bonnie Parker
Warren Beaty — Clyde Barrow
Michael J. Pollard — C.W. Moss
Gene Hackman — Buck Barrow
Estelle Parsons — Blanche Barrow
Mabel Cavitt — Bonnie's Mother

Quoternity