Quotes from the Movie Bad Day at Black Rock

I wanna know everything he does, Pete. Phone calls, mail...In the meantime, I'll crowd him a little, see if he's got any iron in his blood.

Hector David

These rooms here is for us cowboys...when I'm in town. And I'm in town, as any fool can see.

Hector David

You want to register a complaint, boy? To register a complaint, you've got to have evidence, boy. You got evidence?

Hector David

Send a wire to Nick Gandi in Los Angeles. Tell him to find out everything he can about John J. Macreedy...Tell him I want to know fast. Don't get too nervous too fast, Hector...you're as jumpy as a stall horse...And while you wait I'll talk to him.

Reno Smith

You're not Sheriff any more. You're so pathetic you just lost a job.

Reno Smith

I was just wondering what all you people are worrying about...Not that I have the slightest idea...I hold no truck with silence. I've got nothing to hide...It's just that you worry about the stranger only if you look at him from a certain aspect. From my perspective, I look upon him with the innocence of a fresh-laid egg.

Doc T.R. Velie Jr.

You might be a potential customer...Everybody is - I get 'em comin' and goin'.

Doc T.R. Velie Jr.

First, I sell 'em a piece of land. Do you think they farm it? They do not. They dig for gold. They rip off the topsoil of ten winding hills, then sprint in here all fog-heaved with excitement, lugging nuggets - big, bright, and shiny. Is it gold? It is not. Do they quit? They do not. Then they decide to farm, farm in a country so dry that you have to prime a man before he can spit. Before you can say 'Fat Sam,' they're stalled, stranded, and starving. They become weevil-brained and buttsprung. So - I bury 'em. But why bore you with my triumphs?

Doc T.R. Velie Jr.

Well, you got at least till dark. They'd be afraid to see each other's faces.

Doc T.R. Velie Jr.

Four years ago, something terrible happened here. We did nothing about it. Nothing! The whole town fell into a sort of settled melancholy, and all the people in it closed their eyes, and held their tongues, and failed the test with a whimper. And now something terrible's going to happen again. And, in a way, we're lucky because we've been given a second chance.

Doc T.R. Velie Jr.

Nobody told me the train was stopping...It's the first time the Streamliner has stopped here in four years.

Mr. Hastings

You're mighty quick to kill - and he's not an animal.

Pete Wirth

I might as well be dead. Yeah, I told him everything...I'm asking you because I need your help. You'd be saving two lives, Liz: Macreedy's and mine, if that means anything to you.

Pete Wirth

Well, if it's not Macreedy, the world's champion roadhog...You ought to be more careful, man - all that one-arm driving...It's a threat to life and limb...You could get yourself killed that way, nosin' all over the countryside.

Coley Trimble