Zorba the Greek (1964)

Anthony Quinn: Alexis Zorba

Photos 

Quotes 

• Basil : I don't want any trouble.

  Alexis Zorba : Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.

• Alexis Zorba : On a deaf man's door, you can knock forever!

• Alexis Zorba : Damn it boss, I like you too much not to say it. You've got everthing except one thing: madness! A man needs a little madness, or else...

  Basil : Or else?

  Alexis Zorba : ...he never dares cut the rope and be free.

• Alexis Zorba : You think too much.That is your trouble.Clever people and grocers, they weigh everything.

• Alexis Zorba : Why do the young die? Why does anybody die?

  Basil : I don't know.

  Alexis Zorba : What's the use of all your damn books if they can't answer that?

  Basil : They tell me about the agony of men who can't answer questions like yours.

  Alexis Zorba : I spit on this agony!

• Alexis Zorba : God has a very big heart but there is one sin he will not forgive

  [slaps table] 

  Alexis Zorba : if a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go. I know because a very wise old Turk told me.

• Alexis Zorba : Am I not a man? And is a man not stupid? I'm a man, so I married. Wife, children, house, everything. The full catastrophe.

• Alexis Zorba : If a woman sleeps alone, it puts a shame on all men.

• Alexis Zorba : All right, we go outside where God can see us better.

• Alexis Zorba : What kind of man are you, don't you even like dolphins?

• Alexis Zorba : How can I not love them? Poor weak creatures... and they take so little, a man's hand on their breast, and they give you all they got.

• Alexis Zorba : Hey boss, did you ever see a more splendiferous crash?

• Alexis Zorba : Silly old bitch. She's not alone, she's with Suleiman Pasha having a hell of a time.

• Alexis Zorba : There will be no funeral. She was a Frank, she crossed herself with four fingers. The priest will not bury her like everybody else.

• Alexis Zorba : No more fooling around, not in this place. We'll pull our pants up and make a pile of money.

• Alexis Zorba : The lamb, it will burn!

• Basil : I don't believe you give a damn about your country.

  Alexis Zorba : Don't you talk to me like that!

  Alexis Zorba : [pulls open his shirt, shows Basil wound scars on his bare front]  Look here, here and here! Nothing on the back! I have done things for my country that would make your hair stand. I have killed. Destroyed villages. Raped women. And why? Because they were Turks! or Bulgarians! That's the rotten damned fool I was. Now I look at a man - any man - and I say, he is good, he is bad. What do I care if he's Greek or Turk? As I get older, I swear by the bread I eat, I even stop asking that. Good or bad? What is the difference? They all end up the same way... food for worms!

  [laughs] 

• Alexis Zorba : Those damn cats!

• Alexis Zorba : [speaking to Basil]  Do you know how old I am? Ah, never mind, that's a secret. But I... have got to go fast. You know, they.. they say that age kills the fire inside of a man. That he hears death coming. He opens the door, says, "Come in. Give me rest." That is a pack of God damned lies. I've got enough fight in me to.. to devour the world! So... I fight!