LBJ (2016)

Richard Jenkins: Senator Richard Russell

Quotes 

• Lyndon B. Johnson : [walking right up to his face]  We've been talking about this forever, and we never say a damn thing.

  Senator Richard Russell : Well-a, What? What do you wanna say? That you're gonna turn your back on me? That you don't care about everything I've done for you? That you're willing to betray me?

  Lyndon B. Johnson : That you're a racist.

• Senator Richard Russell : Voluntary integration is one thing, but don't you think that I, as an American citizen, shouldn't be forced to eat a hamburger next to someone in a restaurant I don't wanna bump elbows with?

  Lyndon B. Johnson : Dick, I think it is unconscionable that you, as an American citizen, should ever be forced to eat a hamburger.

• Senator Richard Russell : [leaning in]  So you're telling me she's your equal?

  Lyndon B. Johnson : That woman spends more time in this house than anyone except Lady Bird. She is family.

  Senator Richard Russell : I don't know how I missed the resemblance. Look, what I'm talking about here is freedom. I'm talking about the preservation of a way of life. A way of life that you and I both grew up with. There's nothing wrong with that.

  Lyndon B. Johnson : Then why are we whispering?

• Senator Richard Russell : Those Harvard boys not gonna tell us how to run the state of Georgia.

  Lyndon B. Johnson : Of course not. But the Kennedys did get elected by appealing to the colored man. Now, if we play this right, we're gonna have those nigras voting Democrat the next 200 years.

• Lyndon B. Johnson : I'm sure we can all sit down and come to an agreement that we can all live with.

  Senator Richard Russell : It seems like every time we do that, I'm the only one giving something up. And I'm about running out of things that I can live without.

  Lyndon B. Johnson : Dick, you didn't have to give up your billion-dollar airplane, did you? I'm not saying lay down and die, but this train is leaving the station. So you can stand there and watch it roll on by, or you can hop on it with me and try to slow the damn thing down.