Memorable quotes for
Marathon Man (1976) More at IMDbPro »

Christian Szell: Is it safe?... Is it safe?
Babe: You're talking to me?
Christian Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: Is what safe?
Christian Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: I don't know what you mean. I can't tell you something's safe or not, unless I know specifically what you're talking about.
Christian Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: Tell me what the "it" refers to.
Christian Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: Yes, it's safe, it's very safe, it's so safe you wouldn't believe it.
Christian Szell: Is it safe?
Babe: No. It's not safe, it's... very dangerous, be careful.

---

Babe: Listen, I want you to rob my apartment.
Melendez: [laughs] Why?
Babe: There are some guys out there after me, I got a gun in my desk drawer, and I want you to get me some clothes.
Melendez: What's in there for me, man?
Babe: I got a TV set, I got a hi-fi, you can take it all. Do it.
Melendez: What's the catch?
Babe: The catch is it's dangerous. Please do it.
Melendez: That ain't the catch. It's the fun.

---

Christian Szell: Well, what are you going to do now, shoot me?
Babe: No, I don't think so.
Christian Szell: [referring to the diamonds] Then you're going to take these from me? If I could say a word about that...
Babe: No, you can keep them. You can keep as many as you can swallow.

---

Janeway: Listen, why don't we begin with what happened tonight, hmm? Perhaps you could... you know, give me some of the details.
Babe: I was here, Doc... died, you came.
Janeway: That's it?
Babe: I'm a demon for details.

---

Janeway: My name's Peter Janeway. But you can call me Janey, all of my friends do.
Babe: I'm not your friend.

---

Christian Szell: You're weak. Your father was weak in his way. Your brother in his and now you in yours.

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Old Lady on 47th Street: [recognizing Szell across 47th Street] Szell!... Szell!... Szell!

---

Janeway: In 1945, Szell let it be known around Auschwitz he could provide escape for anybody who could pay the price. He started out with gold naturally, but very quickly worked his way up to diamonds.
Babe: Why did you say "naturally" when you said he started with gold?
Janeway: Szell knocked it out of the Jews' teeth before he burned them. Szell was a dentist.

---

Christian Szell: Thus far I find you rather detestable, may I say that without hurting your feelings?

---

Melendez: Blow it out your ass, motherfucker!

---

[holding up Szell outside the bank]
Babe: It isn't safe.

---

Christian Szell: I envy you your school days. Enjoy them fully. It's the last time in your life no one expects anything of you.

---

[When Elsa leaves the library, Babe hesitates, and then runs after her. He finds her as she is climbing the stairs to her apartment and makes small talk, trying to prolong the conversation. When she keeps walking away, he bursts into an honest confession]
Babe: Look, I'm sorry I stole your book.
Elsa Opel: What?
Babe: I took your book and put it underneath mine. I, I didn't know how to talk to you, I was embarrassed, so I took your book.
Elsa Opel: Aren't you embarrassed now?
Babe: Yeah. I'm, I'm humiliated.
Elsa Opel: So, why do you pursue people who sit at your library table?
Babe: I don't. It's just that... you're pretty.
Elsa Opel: Ohh!
[She smiles and turns to walk away from him for about the seventh time]
Babe: Well, I can't talk about how smart you are; I don't even know you. Anyway, I'm done lying with you.
Elsa Opel: Are you always so incompetent with women?
Babe: Oh, yes. Today's way above average for me.
Elsa Opel: Congratulations.
[She is still smiling as she unlocks her door to leave him]
Elsa Opel: Good night.
Babe: That's too bad. I could make you so happy. I'm smart as a whip; you won't meet another thief like me in the library again. Come on; why don't you say you'll see me, huh?
Elsa Opel: All right. I'll see you again. But it won't come to anything.
Babe: You can't tell.
Elsa Opel: [wistfully] Yes, I can.
[She shuts her door in his face]

---

[toasting each other with a glass of Beaujolais]
Henry David 'Doc' Levy: Cheers.
Babe: Up yours.

---

[the salesman tries to sell a diamond to Szell]
Jewelry Salesman: Tell you what, I know an independent appraiser upstairs, and if he doesn't swear that I'm practically giving this thing away... well, I guess I'll have to find myself a new brother-in-law.

---

[addressing his class]
Professor Biesenthal: Well, you four have the dubious honor of having been picked from over two hundred applicants for this seminar. Well, let me just say this. There's a shortage of natural resources. There's a shortage of breathable air, there's even a shortage of adequate claret. But there is no shortage of historians. We grind you out like link sausages. That's called progress. Manufacturing doctorates is called progress. Well, I say, "Let us hush this cry of progress until ten thousand years have passed." That's a quote. Who said that? Come on, who said that?
[none of the students answer]
Professor Biesenthal: Tennyson! Alfred, Lord Tennyson. My God, but you can't compete on a doctoral level and not know "Locksley Hall" and "Locksley Hall 60 Years Later"! I hope you all flunk. Dismissed.

---

Janeway: I don't think he knows anything. And I think he knows too much.
Christian Szell: You can afford to think what you wish. I can't.

---

[Szell prepares to torture Babe a second time]
Christian Szell: Oh, don't worry. I'm not going into that cavity. That nerve's already dying. A live, freshly-cut nerve is infinitely more sensitive. So I'll just drill into a healthy tooth until I reach the pulp. That is unless, of course, you can tell me that it's safe.

---

Janeway: Szell's brother's been killed in Manhattan. A collision with an oil truck.
Henry David 'Doc' Levy: Oh, boy. Any changes?
Janeway: Only everything.

---

Henry David 'Doc' Levy: [to Babe] Do you ever clean this armpit of a place? How can you live like this?

---

Henry David 'Doc' Levy: [In a fancy restaurant] How could you forget to wear a tie?
Babe: I didn't forget it. Who wears a tie when they eat lunch?
Henry David 'Doc' Levy: [to Elsa] Well, at least his fly is buttoned!

---

Janeway: [Referring to his dead brother] What did he do?
Babe: He was in the oil business.
Janeway: I know exactly how Doc made his living, and the closest he ever came to the oil business was when he filled up at the friendly neighborhood gas station.

---

Janeway: [referring to the Agency] Everything we do cuts both ways!

---

Christian Szell: I was in a state of hysteria, you know.
[referring to the open suitcase filled with diamonds]
Christian Szell: Don't you want to take a closer look than that?
Babe: No!
Christian Szell: You see, uh, in a sense, one becomes more emotional with age. First, after a lifetime of being taken by friends and enemies alike, and then just when you think you have your possessions sure, your health begins to go.
[laughs]
Christian Szell: Of course, that's the ultimate theft!

---

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