Field of Dreams Quotations

Field of Dreams is a 1989 film about an Iowa corn farmer who hears a voice telling him: "If you build it, he will come." He interprets this as an instruction to build a baseball diamond in his fields; after he does, Shoeless Joe Jackson and other dead baseball players emerge from the cornfields to play ball.

Directed by Phil Alden Robinson. Screenplay by Phil Alden Robinson, based upon the book Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella

All his life, Ray Kinsella was searching for his dreams. Then one day, his dreams came looking for him.taglines

The Voice

If you build it, he will come.
- This was ranked #39 of the 100 most memorable American movie quotations of all time in a poll by the American Film Institute.

Ease his pain.

Go the distance.

Ray Kinsella

It's okay, honey. I... I was just talking to the cornfield.

I need all the karma I can get right now.

That's my corn out there! You guys are guests in my corn!

Shoeless Joe Jackson

We got tired of just practicing. We decided to get some more players so we could have real games. I hope you don't mind.

Ty Cobb wanted to play...but none of us could stand the son-of-a-bitch when we were alive, so we told him to stick it!

Hey, rookie — you were good.

Terence Mann

(Opens door)Who the hell are you?
We got a learning disability here?

Oh, my God, you're from the Sixties! [He sprays a flit-gun at Ray Kinsella.] Out! Back to the Sixties! Get back! There's no place for you here in the future! Get back while you still can!

You're seeing a whole team of psychiatrists, aren't you?

Peace, love, dope! Now get the hell out of here!

I'm gonna beat you with a crowbar until you go away.

I was the East Coast distributor of 'involved'. I ate it, drank it, and breathed it. Then they killed Martin, then they killed Bobby, elected Tricky Dick twice, and people like you must think I'm miserable because I'm not involved anymore. Well, I've got news for you. I spent all my misery years ago. I have no more pain for anything. I gave at the office.

Now I know what everybody's purpose here is... except mine.

Ray. People will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. "Of course, we won't mind if you look around", you'll say. "It's only $20 per person". They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. (Ray's brother-in-law/landlord Mark: Ray, when the bank opens in the morning, they'll foreclose.) People will come Ray. (Mark: You're broke, Ray. You sell now, or you'll lose everything.) The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

Dr. Archibald Graham (aka "Moonlight" Graham)

It was like coming this close to your dreams... and then watch them brush past you like strangers in a crowd.

Well, you know I... I never got to bat in the major leagues. I would have liked to have had that chance. Just once. To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn't. That's what I wish for. Chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases — stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag. That's my wish, Ray Kinsella. That's my wish. And is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true?

You know we just don't recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they're happening. Back then I thought, well, there'll be other days. I didn't realize that that was the only day.

This is my most special place in all the world. Once a place touches you like that, the wind never blows so cold again.

If I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes... now that would have been a tragedy.

I'd best be getting home. Alicia will think I've got a girlfriend.

Dialogue

Annie Kinsella: If you build what, who will come?

Ray Kinsella: He didn't say.

Annie Kinsella: I mean, Shoeless Joe...

Ray Kinsella: He's dead. Died in '51. He's dead.

Annie: He's the one they suspended, right?

Ray: Right.

Annie: He's still dead?

Ray: Far as I know.

Shoeless Joe Jackson: Hey, is this heaven?

Ray Kinsella: No, it's Iowa.

Ray Kinsella: Don't we need a catcher?

Shoeless Joe Jackson: Not if you get it near the plate, we don't.

Ray: I bet it's good to be playing again, huh?

Shoeless Joe: Getting thrown out of baseball was like having part of me amputated. I've heard that old men wake up and scratch itchy legs that have been dust for over fifty years. That was me. I'd wake up at night with the smell of the ball park in my nose, the cool of the grass on my feet... The thrill of the grass.

Shoeless Joe: Man, I did love this game. I'd have played for food money. It was the game... The sounds, the smells. Did you ever hold a ball or a glove to your face?

Ray: Yeah.

Shoeless Joe: I used to love travelling on the trains from town to town. The hotels... brass spittoons in the lobbies, brass beds in the rooms. It was the crowd, rising to their feet when the ball was hit deep. Shoot, I'd play for nothing!

Shoeless Joe: What's with the lights?

Ray: Oh, all the stadiums have them now. Even Wrigley Field.

Shoeless Joe: Makes it harder to see the ball.

Ray: Yeah, well, the owners found that more people can attend night games.

Shoeless Joe: [Shakes his head] Owners.

Karin Kinsella: Are you a ghost?

Shoeless Joe Jackson: What do you think?

Karin: You look real to me.

Shoeless Joe: Well, then, I guess I'm real.

Ray Kinsella: The voice is back.

Annie Kinsella: Oh, Lord... you don't have to build a football field now, do you?

Annie Kinsella: Terence Mann was a voice of reason during a time of great madness. He coined the phrase, "Make love, not war". Where others were chanting, "Burn, baby burn", he talked about love, and peace and understanding. I cherished every one of his books, and I dearly wish he had written some more. And I think that if you had experienced even a little bit of the Sixties, you might feel the same way too.

Pro-censorship woman: I experienced the Sixties.

Annie Kinsella: No, I think you had two '50's and moved right on to the '70's.

Annie Kinsella: What if the Voice calls while you're gone?

Ray Kinsella: Take a message.

Ray Kinsella (as he stops Terence Mann from throwing him out again): You've changed, you know that?

Terence Mann: Yes, I suppose I have. How's this? Peace, Love, Dope! Now, get the hell out of here!

Terence Mann: What the hell is that?

Ray Kinsellla: It's a gun. What do you think it is?

Terence Mann: That's your finger.

Ray Kinsella: No, it's not, it's a gun.

Terence Mann: Take it out. Let me see it.

Ray Kinsella: Get out of here! I'm not showing you my gun. [Mann reaches behind a shelf and grabs a crowbar.] Hey, what are you doing?

Terence Mann: I'm gonna beat you with a crowbar until you go away.

Ray Kinsella: You can't do that!

[Mann takes a wild swing; Kinsella falls while dodging it.]

Terence Mann: Oh, there are rules? There are no rules here!

Ray Kinsella: You're a pacifist!

Terence Mann: Shit.

[After the pitcher nearly knocked Archie Graham off the plate.]

Gandil: Hey Knuckles, what'd you throw at the kid for?

Cicotte: He-he winked at me.

Gandil: Don't wink, kid.

[The pitcher throws another ball at Graham's head.]

Graham: Hey ump, how about a warning?

Umpire: Sure. Watch out you don't get killed.

Shoeless Joe Jackson: The last two have been high and tight, so where do you think the next one's gonna be?

Archie Graham: Well, either low and away... or in my ear.

Shoeless Joe: He's not gonna want to load the bases, so look for low and away. But watch out for in your ear.

Terence Mann: I was the East Coast distributor of 'involved'. I ate it, drank it, and breathed it. Then they killed Martin, then they killed Bobby, elected Tricky Dick twice, and people like you must think I'm miserable because I'm not involved anymore. Well, I've got news for you. I spent all my misery years ago. I have no more pain for anything. I gave at the office.

Ray Kinsella: So, what do you want?

Terence Mann: I want them to stop looking to me for answers, begging me to speak again, write again, be a leader. I want them to start thinking for themselves. I want my privacy.

Ray Kinsella: I mean, what do you want? [Gestures toward concession stand.]

Terence Mann: Oh. Dog and a beer.

Ray Kinsella: Two.

Ray Kinsella: By the time I was ten, playing baseball got to be like eating vegetables or taking out the garbage. So when I was fourteen I started refusing. Can you believe that? An American boy refusing to play catch with his father.

Terence Mann: Why fourteeen?

Ray Kinsella: That's when I read "The Boat Rocker", by Terence Mann.

Terence Mann: Oh, God.

Ray Kinsella: Never played catch with him again.

Terence Mann: You see? That's the kind of crap people are always trying to lay on me. It's not my fault you wouldn't play catch with your father!

Terence Mann: So, what was it?

Ray Kinsella: Hmm?

Terence Mann: The "terrible thing" you said to your father. What was it?

Ray Kinsella: I told him I could never respect a man whose hero was a criminal.

Terence Mann: Who was his hero?

Ray Kinsella: Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Terence: He wasn't a criminal. You knew that. [Ray nods.] So why'd you say it?

Ray Kinsella: I was seventeen.

Ray Kinsella: Fifty years ago, for five minutes you came within... y-you came this close. It would kill some men to get so close to their dream and not touch it. God, they'd consider it a tragedy.

Dr. Graham: Son, if I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes... now that would have been a tragedy.

[When Karin Kinsella is injured, Archie "Moonlight" Graham leaves the baseball field; this causes him to become his later self, Dr. Graham.]

Dr. Graham: She'll be all right. She'll be turning handsprings before you know it. (He looks wistfully at ball field.)

Ray Kinsella: You can't go back? You can't go back... oh, God, I'm sorry —

Dr. Graham: It's all right. I'd best be gettin' on home. Alicia will begin to think I've got a girlfriend. [He turns to leave.]

Shoeless Joe Jackson: Hey, rookie! You were good.

Ray Kinsella: You lied to me.

Terence Mann: Well, you were kidnapping me at the time, you big jerk!

Ray: You lied to me!

Terence: Well, you said your finger was a gun!

Ray: That's a good point.

(Shoeless Joe Jackson has asked Terence Mann to come with them to the cornfield, but Ray is upset because he wasn't invited)

Ray Kinsella: I did it all, I listened to the voices, I did what they told me, and not once did I ask what's in it for me.

Shoeless Joe Jackson: What are you saying, Ray?

Ray Kinsella: I'm saying... what's in it for me?

Shoeless Joe Jackson: Is that why you did this? For you? I think you better stay, Ray.

Ray Kinsella: What are you grinning at, you ghost?

Shoeless Joe: "If you build it -" [gestures toward catcher, who is Ray's father, John Kinsella] "- he will come."

Ray : "Ease his pain. Go the distance." It was him!

Shoeless Joe: No, Ray. It was you.

John Kinsella: Is this heaven?

Ray Kinsella: It's — it's Iowa.

John: I could have sworn it was heaven.

Ray: Is there a heaven?

John: Oh, yeah. It's the place where dreams come true.

Ray: Maybe this is heaven.

Ray: "Oh my God....It's my father...My God! I'd only seen him years later when he was worn down by life. Look at him. He's got his whole life in front of him and I'm not even a glint in his eye. What do I say to him?

Annie: "Why don't you introduce him to his granddaughter?"

Ray: Hey, Dad... you wanna have a catch?

John: I'd like that.

Taglines

All his life, Ray Kinsella was searching for his dreams. Then one day, his dreams came looking for him.

If you believe the impossible, the incredible can come true.

Cast

Kevin Costner - Ray Kinsella
Amy Madigan - Annie Kinsella
Gaby Hoffmann - Karin Kinsella
Ray Liotta - Shoeless Joe Jackson
James Earl Jones - Terence Mann (This character was derived from that of J. D. Salinger as portrayed in the story Shoeless Joe.)
Burt Lancaster - Dr. Archibald 'Moonlight' Graham
The Voice - Himself (per end credits)

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