The Doors (film) Quotations

The Doors is a 1991 film about the famous and influential 1960's rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison.

Directed by Oliver Stone. Written by Randall Jahnson and Oliver Stone.

The ultimate story of Sex, Drugs & Rock 'N' Roll Taglines

Jim Morrison

"The movie will begin in five moments," the mindless voice announced. All those unseated will await the next show. We filed slowly, languidly into the hall. The auditorium was vast and silent. As we seated and were darkened, the voice continued, "The program for this evening is not new. You've seen this entertainment through and through. You've seen your birth, your life and death. You might recall all the rest. Did you have a good world when you died? Enough to base a movie on?"

Is everybody in?... Is everybody in?... Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin...

It was the first time I tasted fear. I musta been about four, like a child is just like a flower, his head is floating in the breeze.

The reaction I get now looking back is the soul of the ghosts of those dead Indians -- maybe one or two of them were just running around freaking out and just leaped into my soul -- and they're still there.

We gotta take the planet back, reinvent the gods, make new myths.

[to John] What's a rock and roll band for man, if you can't party all night and do bad things?

The music was new black polished chrome and came over the summer like liquid night.

I like a man who wears his soul on his face.

Hey! I am the Lizard King. I can do anything! Raise your hands if you understand! Alive, any of you alive -- let's take a poll -- how many of you know you're really alive?! [numerous people raise their hands and yell] BULLSHIT! Plastic soldiers in a miniature dirt war! C'mon! How many of you people know you're alive? How many of you people know you're really alive!

When the serpent appears, his head is ten feet long and five feet wide. He has one red eye and one green eye. He's deadly and he's seven miles long. As he moves -- on his scales is written all the history of the world, all people, all actions, all of us our little pictures on the scales, God it's big! -- and it's eating as it moves all the time, devouring, digesting consciousness, power, a monster of energy! We must kiss the snake on the tongue, if it senses our fear, it will eat us instantly. But if we kiss it without fear, the snake will take us through the garden and out the gate. To our freedom -we must ride this snake. To the end of time.

Some of the biggest mistakes in my life have been haircuts.

Where's your will to be weird man?

Actually, I don't really remember being born. It musta happened during one of my blackouts.

Y'all believe what you want to believe, you will anyway... but it does kinda show you what excites people? Fear, pity, horror -- all those good things that count. It's sorta I guess like being on the edge of an orgasm, y'know... that mystery just before you come. When? If? Should I? Will you die for me, eat me, this way, the end...

Maybe I should always fuck my critics.

Hatred is very underestimated emotion.

I drink so I can talk to assholes. This includes me. Let's just say I was testing the bounds of reality -- that's-all -- I was curious... I kinda always preferred to be hated. Like Eric von Stroheim in the movies, the man you love to hate, it's meant to be ironic, courage wants to laugh. Y'know it's a stupid situation.

I go out on a stage and I howl for people. In me they see what they want to see -- some say the Lizard King, whatever that means, or some black-clad leather demon whatever that means... but really I think of myself as a sensitive, intelligent human being but with the soul of a clown which always forces me to blow it at the most crucial moment... a fake hero... a joke the gods played on me... it's okay, I accept the joke... and smile. Death old friend, death and my cock, I can forgive my injuries in the name of wisdom, luxury, romance. Words got me the wound and will get me well. All join now in lament of my cock, a tongue of knowledge in the feathered night. Boys get crazy in the head and suffer. I sacrifice my cock on the altar of silence.

[to Pam] I'm the poet and you're my muse.

[to audience] You're all a buncha fucking slaves!

Well uh, it's designed to wear you down y'know... when that rap sheet says the "United States of America versus You" it takes you down day by day, specially when no one really gives a shit about, y'know, the First Amendment that's on trial here... Nobody says anything about that, it's just uh did you take your pants off y'know, I mean that's not what it's about, it's about freedom, that's what it's about... but who cares, right? Freedom exists in a schoolbook.

I can only open doors, Ma'am. I can't drag people thru 'em. I'm no savior.

Pamela Courson

Take your time, Jim... There's no hurry, I'm all you have to do tonight.

Jim, don't go away! Come dance with me!

You're a poet, not a rock star.

What am I gonna do about these papers? Jim, Jim -- you really need to organize this stuff! You handwriting's just like a little kid! My God look at this. I wonder if William Blake was ever this disorganized.

Robbie Krieger

I get scared thinking of all the choices inside. I could go. I could stay. I can live everywhere. I could die now if I wanted. It's limitless choice... and no one cares.

I'm afraid of my father, I can't be what they want me to be.

[to Jim] You said you love pain man, but you run from it every chance you get.

Well far as I'm concerned, Jim, I made music with Dionysus man. We had some moments on stage like no one will ever fucking know.

Others

Ray Manzarek: [to Jim] Things are about to explode man. You can feel it in the air. Vietnam's right out there. Sides are being chosen. People wanna fight or fuck, love or kill, everything's gonna flame. The planet's screaming for change, Morrison. Make the myths man!

Patricia Kennealy: [to Jim] Come on rock god, fuck me, fuck me good.

Gloria Stavers: [to Jim] You control the audience, like dogs, manipulate them Jim, one picture can control a million people, be anything you want -- growl at them, be ugly, be frightened, be selfish. Be man, woman, whild, animal. Live, die, return again. Anything you want. Everything is permitted. Go on look at yourself, fall in love with yourself. You're your own audience now Jim. They want you. Worship and love and adore you...Jim Morrison, the god of Rock and Cock...

Andy Warhol: [handing Jim a golden telephone] Edie gave this to me and said mmmmm, I could talk to God with this. But I don't really have anything to say. So... mmmm now you can talk to God.

Tom Baker: [to Jim] You're bored, you're not free. You tested all the limits, fame, fucking, money, -- whatcha gonna do now Jimbo? When the music's over, when you're too fat and ugly to get on a stage, whatcha gonna do for act three -- puke on Heaven's door?

Dialogue

Jim: [entering through the window] Hi.

Pam: Wow! Hi...You have a problem with doors?

Jim: Waste of time. I followed you... from the beach...

Pam: Wow! You followed me? Why?

Jim: 'Cause... you're the one. [He kisses her]

Pam: Wow... neat.

Trick: [to Jim, after Jim's film was panned] Hey man whatdya expect, an Oscar?

Bones: You can't quit, you gotta voice. People can't dig cause they don't understand yet.

Jack: If you're an individual, if you're too good, they wanna cut your dick off. Look what happened to Orson Welles.

Trick: You quit now, they'll yank your deferment in no time and they'll get you for Vietnam man. Three more months you graduate.

Bones: Be cool, you never learned fuckin patience Morrison, you want everything at once.

Nick: They didn't get it. So make your films and fuck what they think.

Jim: You know what I think?

Bones: Yeah whadda you think?

Jim: You really want to know what I think?

Bones: Yeah yeah, whatddaya think?

Jim: I think we gotta get really ripped!

Jim: What turns you on?

Pam: I don't know. Experience. Freedom. Love... Now. Peyote's like love. When it's given it's blessed. When it's sold it's damned. I like peyote. I like acid, it's easier to get. I like the spiritual voyage. The first time I did acid I saw God. I did. I had a friend who was Christ. And he was Judas too. I suddenly knew the secret of everything -- that we're all one, the universe is one. And that everything is beautiful.

Jim: Is it? I don't know. I think you're alive by confronting death -- by experiencing pain.

Pam: I think you're alive by recognizing beauty -- seeing truth because when you discover truth you discover what love is... we're all saying the same thing. It's "love me and I'll love you."

Jim: It's only through death that you know life. Jesus, medicine men heal people by sacrificing their own life.

Pam: Do you love death?

Jim: I think life hurts a lot more than death. When you die the pain is over.

Jerry: What shit, "day destroys the night", "crawl back in your brain", "go insane". What do people wanna pay money to hear that shit?

Jim: The greater the suffering, the more terrible the events, the greater the pleasure Jerry. They want it, it's catharsis. Like the ancient Greeks.

Jerry: We're in Los Angeles, punk, how would you know? They like your pants, they're not listenin' to you, what the hell they see in you I...

Jim: But they understand Jerry. All our real desires are unconscious and unseen.

Jerry: You're the weirdest fuckin' guy I ever...

Jim: You love us?

Jerry: I love ya. You got two more shows to do.

Ray: [after being propositioned by a record manager] We'll have a band meeting. The four of us do everything unanimously or we don't do it.

Manager: The musketeers. I'm touched. But lemme tell you something -- loyalty don't pay the bills.

Jim: Jesus Ray, every girl out there wanted to fuck me, I could feel it for the first time!

Ray: Right on stud. But you better watch out for the guys.

John: I think I'm fucked up. I'm not thinking right.

Jim: You're fucked up John. Go with it, confusion is the sound of creation.

John: You should see your eyes right now, you're death. Look at your eyes -- you're crazy man, you look crazy. You scare me.

Jim: No no no John John. God is crazy too. God is part insane as well as sane. Not in control all the time. Dionysus was the God of the wine. He made ecstasy but he also made madness. Madness is all right. That's what you want, isn't it, isn't it?

Ray: I'm in pain man. I want something from the peyote. I feel the universe functioning perfectly but I'm still perfectly locked inside myself. Instead of oneness, I feel total isolation. Aloneness. Fear... pain...Jim, all I feel is pain.

Jim: Pain makes me feel more alive Ray. Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain but they're wrong.

John: I feel lust. I want to fuck everything I can, and I know it will never be enough.

Jim: Pam wants you. You're a good Catholic John, you want it so you can feel guilty about it... Fuck death away John.

Robbie: I feel Fear... so bad I just numb out all my feelings. I'm afraid of my father, I'm afraid of Yahweh... I wish I could play my guitar.

Jim: Maybe you should kill your father Robbie. He tried to kill you. Kill him!

Robbie: I'm so fucking scared.

Jim: But you're alive! It's beautiful! Fear, pain, lust, we've got to know all our feelings before we can come out the other side free men. Don't feel ashamed of yourselves, don't let society destroy your reality. Our freedom's the only thing worth dying for, it's the only thing worth living for!

Jim: I don't mind dying in a plane crash, a smile on my face.

Pam: As compared to what?

Jim: I just don't want to go out slow -- brain tumor, botulism. I want to feel what it's like, cause death is only going to happen to you once.

Ed Sullivan: Look, you boys don't forget to smile now. There's no reason to be so sullen out there...

Jim: Uh well, we're kind of a sullen group, Ed.

Pam: Aren't you doing this for you? Because you're a poet, not a rock star. Ed Sullivan's not a place for you.

Jim: You really know what I am Pam? You know what poetry is? Where is the feast they promised us? Where is the wine -- the new wine -- dying on the vine?

Pam: What are you saying?

Jim: Y'see -- I lied to you. I really love fame.

Pam: Fuck you man I'm outta here.

Jim: Get mad! Yeahhh! Love my girl! Yeah, go fuck the other guys. How many white guys have you fucked Pam? 10, 20? Black guys what? You like Chinese dicks? Mongolian penis? 30?

Pam: How many dogs have you fucked? You don't say no to anybody! Drugs, dogs, uglies, you'd fuck a doorknob with butter on it!

Jim: How could I do that?

Pam: [shouting] You're the first who couldn't make it with me anyway! You're the only limp dick in the lot!

Journalist: What are your songs about Mr. Morrison?

Jim: Uh, love death travel... revolt. We all write the songs, we're interested in anything about disorder, chaos, especially activity which seems to have no meaning...Like This. I think when you make peace with authority, you become authority.

Journalist: Can you define that a little more?

Jim: Yeah you can call us erotic politicians I guess.

Pam: [about Patricia] You actually put your dick in this woman Jim?

Jim: Well I... sometimes yeah.

Pam: I understand... I really do but don't ever think that Jim's gonna love or take care of you. You're one of a hundred you know.

Jim: Hey -- don't you know when to stop!

Pam: Look who's talking.

Patricia: I'd like to think Jim can make up his own mind who he loves and who he doesn't.

Pam: Don't kid yourself sweetheart, Jim's crazy but he's not that crazy. He loves me.

Ray: [about Pam] I never knew what you saw in that nightmare chick man.

Jim: Well she is kinda flakey -- like me. I mean she's just so vulnerable about everything. It makes me sad man. But she's always kinda believed in something about me y'know -- her little picture of me as the unsung poet -- and it's a fantasy I kinda dig y'know, 'stead of the one I live.

Ray: I don't know man, I don't wanna sound like your old man but you're only 27, you're living like you gotta get it all in, you gotta slow down man, you did it, you broke through to the other side.

Jim: We didn't break thru Ray, we just pushed things a little. When you really break through, there's nothing left. No music, no Doors, no God, nothing -- only a will to power.

Ray: I don't believe that. You were an American prince, man -- with overbred genes -- [Jim laughs] No! What could've been Jim? You could've been President. [Jim laughs] No man! What could've been Jim? We stood here on this beach on the edge of the Pacific that crazy summer day in '65 -- and we knew, you and I, we knew we were at the edge of the mind. we were there, man. One planet, one globe, one mind. Consciousness, we raised it, we were there.

Taglines

The ultimate story of Sex, Drugs & Rock 'N' Roll

"There are things known and things unknown and in between are The Doors." -- Jim Morrison

The ceremony is about to begin.

Cast

Val Kilmer - Jim Morrison
Kyle MacLachlan - Ray Manzarek
Meg Ryan - Pamela Courson
Kevin Dillon - John Densmore
Frank Whaley - Robby Krieger
Kathleen Quinlan - Patricia Kennealy
Michael Wincott - Paul Rothchild
Michael Madsen - Tom Baker
Dennis Burkley - Dog
Billy Idol - Cat
Crispin Glover - Andy Warhol

Quoternity