(Article is below...)

Barton Fink Quotes

Barton Fink is a television program that first aired in 1970 . Barton Fink ended in 1970.

It features Coen brothers as producer, Carter Burwell in charge of musical score, and Roger Deakins as head of cinematography.

Barton Fink is recorded in English and originally aired in United States. Each episode of Barton Fink is 117 minutes long. Barton Fink is distributed by 20th Century Fox (US).

The cast includes: John Turturro as Barton, John Goodman as Charlie, Richard Portnow as Pete, Tony Shalhoub as Geisler, Christopher Murney as Deutsch, Richard Portnow as Mastrionotti, Michael Lerner as Jack Lipnick, Judy Davis as Audrey Taylor, John Mahoney as W.P. Mayhew, Steve Buscemi as Chet, Tony Shalhoub as Ben Geisler, David Warrilow as Garland, Christopher Murney as Detective Deutsch, Richard Portnow as Detective Mastrionotti, and Michael Lerner as Lipnick.

Barton Fink Quotes

Tony Shalhoub as Geisler

  • (Tony Shalhoub) "Mayhew, some help, the guy's a souse."
  • (John Turturro) "He's a great writer --"
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "A great souse."
  • (John Turturro) "You don't understand --"
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "Souse."
  • (John Turturro) "He's in pain, because he can't write --"
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "Souse. Souse. Can't write? He manages to write his name on the back of his paycheck every week."
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "Wallace Beery. Wrestling picture. What do you need, a roadmap?"
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "Never make Lipnick like you."
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "Tell Lipnick he can kiss my dimpled ass."
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "Mayhew? He's a souse."
  • (John Turturro) "He's a great writer."
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "A great souse."
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "I've got a writer here; Fink; all screwy. Says I'm producing that Wallace Beery wrestling picture; what am I, the god-damn janitor around here?"
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "What Ted Oakam doesn't know you could almost squeeze into the Hollywood Bowl."
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "Okay Fink, let's chow."
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "Think about it, Fink. Writers come and go; we always need Indians."
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "Look, you confused? You need guidance? Talk to another writer."
  • (John Turturro) "Who?"
  • (Tony Shalhoub) "Jesus, throw a rock in here, you'll hit one. And do me a favor, Fink: throw it hard."

John Turturro as Barton

  • (John Turturro) "That son of a bitch. Don't get me wrong, he's a fine writer --"
  • (John Turturro) "Have you read the Bible, Pete?"
  • (Richard Portnow) "Holy Bible?"
  • (John Turturro) "Yeah."
  • (Richard Portnow) "Yeah, I think so. Anyway, I've heard about it."
  • (Beauty) "It's a beautiful day."
  • (John Turturro) "Huh?"
  • (Beauty) "I said it's a beautiful day."
  • (John Turturro) "Yes. It is."
  • (Beauty) "What's in the box?"
  • (John Turturro) "I don't know."
  • (Beauty) "Isn't it yours?"
  • (John Turturro) "I don't know. You're very beautiful. Are you in pictures?"
  • (Beauty) "Don't be silly."
  • (John Turturro) "Shouldn't your first duty be to your gift?"
  • (John Turturro) "I wanna know how many of his books you've written."
  • (John Turturro) "Who cares about the fifth Earl of Bathsdrop and Lady Higgenbottom and -- and -- who killed Nigel Grinchgibbons?"
  • (John Goodman) "I can feel my butt gettin' sore already."
  • (John Turturro) "I'm sorry if I let you down."
  • (Michael Lerner) "You didn't let me down Fink, or even Lou. We don't live or die by what you scribble. You let Ben Geisler down. He liked you, trusted you -- and that's why he's gone, he's fired. That man had a heart as big as the all outdoors and you f***ed him."
  • (John Turturro) "I'm a writer, you monsters. I create. I create for a living. I'm a creator. I am a creator."
  • (John Turturro) "This is my uniform. This is how I serve the common man."
  • (John Turturro) "I gotta tell you, the life of the mind -- There's no roadmap for that territory -- And exploring it can be painful."
  • (John Turturro) "I've always found that writing comes from a great inner pain."

Steve Buscemi as Chet

  • (Steve Buscemi) "Are you a trans or a res?"
  • (John Turturro) "Excuse me?"
  • (Steve Buscemi) "Transient or resident?"
  • (John Turturro) "Oh, I don't know. I'll be here indefinitely."
  • (Steve Buscemi) "Res. That'll be $25.50 a week payable in advance. Checkout time is twelve sharp, but you can forget about that on account of you're a res. Now if you need anything, anything at all, just pick up your personal in-room telephone and talk to me. My name is Chet. Although we do provide privacy for the residential guests, we are also a full-service hotel including complementary shoeshine. My name is Chet."
  • (John Turturro) "Thanks --"
  • (Steve Buscemi) "Welcome to Los Angleeees, Mr. Fink."

John Mahoney as W.P. Mayhew

  • (John Mahoney) "I'm buildin' up a levy one brick at a time --"
  • (John Mahoney) "Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay, gone are my friends from the cotton fields away, gone from the earth to a better land I know, I hear the gentle voices calling, old black Joe. I'm coming I'm coming, oh my head is bending low, I hear the gentle -- the truth my honey is a tart that does not bear scrutiny. Breach my levee at your own peril."
  • (John Mahoney) "Me, well I just like makin' things up."
  • (John Mahoney) "I pays my baby love and she pays me back with pity. The basest coin there is --"
  • (John Mahoney) "If I close my eyes I can almost smell a live oak."
  • (Judy Davis) "That's chicken fat, hun."
  • (John Mahoney) "Well, my olfactory's gone all womanish on me. Lyin' and deceitful."
  • (John Mahoney) "I close my eyes I can almost smell the live oak."
  • (Judy Davis) "That's chicken fat Bill."
  • (John Mahoney) "Well my olfactory's turning womanish on me, lying and deceitful."
  • (John Mahoney) "Mister Fink, they have not invented a genre of picture that Bill Mayhew has not, at one time or other, been invited to essay. Yes, I have taken my stab at the rasslin' form, as I have stabbed at so many others, and with as little success. I gather that you are a freshman here, eager for an upperclassman's counsel. However, just at the moment, I have drinking to do. Why don't you stop by my bungalow, which is number fifteen, later on this afternoon, and we will discuss rasslin' scenarios and other things lit'rary."
  • (John Mahoney) "Honey. Where's my honey?"
  • (John Mahoney) "Did I ever tell you the story of Solomon's Mammy?"

Michael Lerner as Jack Lipnick

  • (Michael Lerner) "We're only interested in one thing, Bart. Can you tell a story? Can you make us laugh? Can you make us cry? Can you make us want to break out in joyous song? Is that more than one thing? Okay."
  • (Michael Lerner) "We don't put Wallace Beery in some fruity movie about suffering; I thought we were together on that."
  • (Michael Lerner) "I run this dump, and I don't know the technical mumbo-jumbo. Why do I run it? Cause I got horse sense goddamit, SHOWMANSHIP. And also I hope Lou told you this, I am bigger and meaner and louder than any other kike in this town. Did you tell him that Lou? And I don't mean my dick is bigger than yours, it's not a sexual thing. You're a writer, you know more about that. Coffee?"
  • (Michael Lerner) "It's supposed to be about big men. In tights. Both physically and mentally."
  • (Michael Lerner) "Look Bart, barring a preference we're going to put you on a wrestling picture, Wallace Beery. I say this because they tell me you know the poetry of the streets, so that would rule out westerns, pirate pictures, screwball, Bible, Roman -- look, I'm not one of those guys who thinks poetic has got to be fruity. We're together on that aren't we? I mean I'm from New York myself, well, Minsk if you want to go all the way back. Which we won't, if you don't mind and I ain't asking. Now people are going to say to you, Wallace Beery, wrestling, it's a B picture. You tell them: BULLs***. We do NOT make B pictures here at Capitol. Let's put a stop to that rumor RIGHT now."
  • (Michael Lerner) "It's the carrot that wags the dog."

Richard Portnow as Detective Mastrionotti

  • (Richard Portnow) "What do you do, Fink?"
  • (John Turturro) "I write."
  • (Christopher Murney) "Oh yeah? What kind of write?"
  • (John Turturro) "Well, as a matter of fact I write for the pictures."
  • (Richard Portnow) "Big f***in' deal."
  • (Christopher Murney) "You want my partner to kiss your ass?"
  • (Richard Portnow) "Would that be good enough for you?"
  • (John Turturro) "No, I; I didn't mean to sound --"
  • (Christopher Murney) "What did you mean?"
  • (John Turturro) "I; I've got respect for; for working guys, like you --"
  • (Richard Portnow) "Jesus. Ain't that a load off."
  • (Richard Portnow) "Fink. That's a Jewish name, isn't it?"
  • (John Turturro) "Yeah."
  • (Richard Portnow) "Yeah, I didn't think this dump was restricted."
  • (Richard Portnow) "Started in Kansas City. Couple of housewives."
  • (Christopher Murney) "Couple days ago we see the same M.O. out in Los Feliz."
  • (Richard Portnow) "Doctor. Ear, nose and throat man."
  • (Christopher Murney) "All of which he's now missin'."
  • (Richard Portnow) "Well, some of his throat was there."
  • (Christopher Murney) "Physician, heal thyself."
  • (Richard Portnow) "Good luck with no f***in' head."
  • (Christopher Murney) "Anyway."

John Goodman as Charlie

  • (John Goodman) "What a day. Felt like I couldn't sell ice water in the Sahara."
  • (John Goodman) "I sure do forget myself sometimes."
  • (John Goodman) "You think I made your life hell? Take a look around this dump. You're just a tourist with a typewriter, Barton, I live here."
  • (John Goodman) "Heil Hitler."
  • (John Goodman) "Look upon me. I'll show you the life of the mind."
  • (John Goodman) "Beery wrestling picture? Could be a pip, could be a pip."
  • (John Goodman) "Yeah -- Ladies do ask for attention. In my experience, they pretend to give it, but it's generally a smokescreen for demanding it back with interest."
  • (John Goodman) "I could tell you some stories --"
  • (John Turturro) "Sure you could and yet many writers do everything in their power to insulate themselves from the common man, from where they live, from where they trade, from where they fight and love and converse and --"
  • (John Turturro) "So naturally their work suffers and regresses into empty formalism and -- well I'm spouting off again, but to put it in your language, the theatre becomes as phony as a three-dollar bill."
  • (John Goodman) "Well I guess that's a tragedy right there."
  • (John Goodman) "Sometimes it gets so hot I want to crawl right out of my skin."
  • (John Goodman) "Listen to me belly achin', like my problems add up to a hill of beans."
  • (John Goodman) "Hell you've got it made writing for the pictures, beating out that competition, and me being patronizing. Is the egg showing, or what?"

Christopher Murney as Detective Deutsch

  • (Christopher Murney) "What else?"
  • (John Turturro) "Trying to think. Nothing, really. He -- he said he liked Jack Oakie pictures."
  • (Richard Portnow) "You know, ordinarily we say anything you might remember could be helpful. But I'll be frank with you, Fink. That is not helpful."
  • (Christopher Murney) "Notice how he's not writing it down?"
  • (Christopher Murney) "All right, forget the heads. Where's Mundt, Fink?"
  • (Richard Portnow) "He teach you how to do it?"
  • (Christopher Murney) "You two have some sick sex thing?"
  • (John Turturro) "Sex? He's a man. We wrestled."
  • (Richard Portnow) "You're a sick f***, Fink."

Judy Davis as Audrey Taylor

(We don't have any quotes for this character)

David Warrilow as Garland

  • (David Warrilow) "The common man will still be here when you get back. Who knows, there may even be one or two of them in Hollywood."
  • (John Turturro) "That's a rationalization, Garland."
  • (David Warrilow) "Barton, it was a joke."

Add or Update Quotes

If you have a quote to add or change and want to let us know, please fill in the form below. Include the time in the film/video if possible so we can find it.




Additional Film and TV Quotes

Raisins (South Park) Quotes | Return to Mayberry Quotes | Addicted to Love (film) Quotes | 8½ Quotes | The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius Quotes | The American Friend Quotes | Hero (2002 film) Quotes | Xanadu (film) Quotes | Baby the Rain Must Fall Quotes | Tomorrow Never Dies Quotes | Have Gun – Will Travel Quotes | 8 Simple Rules Quotes | The Kenny Everett Video Show Quotes | The Score (2001 film) Quotes | Never Mind the Buzzcocks Quotes | The Other (1972 film) Quotes | The Mask of Dimitrios Quotes | Pee-wee's Playhouse Quotes | Clarissa Explains It All Quotes | Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia Quotes | Cool as Ice Quotes | Boys' Night Out (film) Quotes | The Last Unicorn (film) Quotes | Yojimbo (film) Quotes | House Party (film) Quotes |