From gunslinger one-liners to angry cop retorts, Clint Eastwood’s characters have plenty of memorable lines that are still being quoted decades later.
- Clint Eastwood’s characters are known for their iconic and memorable quotes, showcasing his ability to deliver powerful and profound lines.
- Eastwood has worked with renowned screenwriters, such as John Milius and William Goldman, who have provided him with great one-liners and impassioned speeches.
- From his roles as vigilante cop Harry Callahan to vengeful bounty hunter “The Man with No Name,” Eastwood’s quotes have become fan-favorites and are often synonymous with his beloved characters.
From gunslinging one-liners to angry cop retorts, Clint Eastwood’s characters have plenty of memorable quotes that are still iconic decades later. Eastwood is a seasoned Hollywood legend with dozens of classic films under his belt, both as a leading man and as a sharp-eyed director. Throughout his career, Eastwood has played such unforgettable roles as vigilante cop Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry series and vengeful bounty hunter “The Man with No Name” in the Dollars trilogy. These antihero characters are full of quotable lines.
In his Oscar-nominated career as an actor, Eastwood has spoken the words of such renowned screenwriters as John Milius, Paul Haggis, and William Goldman. Their scripts have given him plenty of great one-liners and impassioned speeches to work with, and he’s nailed every on-camera delivery to create some fan-favorite quotes. From Walt Kowalski’s quippy grumblings in Gran Torino to William Munny’s grizzled monologues about the many regrets from his gunfighting days in Unforgiven, there are a ton of classic quotes from Eastwood’s beloved characters.
25, “Every Gun Makes Its Own Tune” (The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly)
Eastwood’s Man with No Name is a man of few words in the Dollars trilogy. But, much like Silent Bob, when he does have something to say, it’s usually pretty profound. The line, “Every gun makes its own tune,” from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is indicative of the poetic dialogue that Sergio Leone included to match the operatic feel of his classic spaghetti westerns.
24, “Mo Cuishle Means ‘My Darling, My Blood'” (Million Dollar Baby)
Throughout Million Dollar Baby, Eastwood’s rough-around-the-edges boxing trainer Frankie Dunn uses the Gaelic phrase “mo cuishle.” When he finally translates the phrase for his young ward, Maggie Fitzgerald, it confirms how he really feels about her: “My darling, my blood.” He cared for her like a daughter.
23, “A Good Man Always Knows His Limitations” (Magnum Force)
Harry Callahan came back with a vengeance – and a new batch of one-liners – when he returned in his first sequel, Magnum Force. Harry was first introduced as a cop who would stop at nothing to take down the bad guy, but in Magnum Force, he says, “A good man always knows his limitations.”
22, “When A Man’s Got Money In His Pocket, He Begins To Appreciate Peace” (A Fistful Of Dollars)
Leone remade Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo in a blood-soaked American Western setting in his seminal masterpiece A Fistful of Dollars. Like Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars is a brutal portrayal of gang warfare that hits the gangs where it hurts: their money. As the Man with No Name points out, when people have money, they have a reason to fear outlaws.
21, “So Is Being In A Gang, Dips***!” (Gran Torino)
Eastwood’s grumpy war veteran Walt Kowalski refuses to take any guff in Gran Torino, even when he’s threatened by a local street gang. When a gangster tells the chain-smoking Walt that tobacco is bad for his health, Walt quips back, “So is being in a gang, dips***!”
20, “With All Due Respect, Sir, You’re Beginning To Bore The Hell Out Of Me” (Heartbreak Ridge)
In Heartbreak Ridge, Eastwood pl ays a maverick U.S. Marine near retirement who’s tasked with getting a platoon of undisciplined Marines ready for the invasion of Grenada. The great irony of this character is that, while he wants his underlings to respect his leadership, he has very little respect for his own superiors (despite prefacing his insults “with all due respect
19, “Alive Or Dead? It’s Your Choice” (For A Few Dollars More)
All the most badass bounty hunters give their bounties a choice between being captured dead or alive. The Man with No Name offers his bounty this choice in For a Few Dollars More. “Alive or dead? It’s your choice,” is comparable in badassness to the Mandalorian’s classic line, “I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold.”
18, “Girlie, Tough Ain’t Enough” (Million Dollar Baby)
Frankie sums up the entire premise of Million Dollar Baby in four words. He doesn’t think Maggie can fight, just because she’s a woman. When she argues that she’s tough, Frankie tells her, “Girlie, tough ain’t enough.” His derogatory use of “girlie” ties into the sexist prejudice that Frankie has against female fighters, setting up a whole different kind of fight for Maggie to fight (on top of the boxing matches).
17, “We All Have It Coming, Kid” (Unforgiven)
One of the many complex themes that Unforgiven deals with is the relentlessness and inevitability of death. The movie is all about the morality of killing and whether or not a killing can be justified. As William Munny points out, however it happens, death is coming for everyone.
16, “If You Want A Guarantee, Buy A Toaster” (The Rookie)
With Eastwood playing an aging tough-as-nails cop, The Rookie is widely regarded to be an unofficial Dirty Harry movie. Sergeant Nick Pulovski certainly shares Harry’s knack for delivering one-liners like, “If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.”
15, “Sometimes The Dead Can Be More Useful Than The Living” (A Fistful Of Dollars)
Leone established his penchant for weaving thought-provoking dialogue into his blood-drenched westerns with lines like this in A Fistful of Dollars. The Man with No Name is quick on the draw, but he’s also quick to philosophize his own grisly business.
14, “I’m Coming Down There In Five Minutes And You Better Have Those Files Open, You Pencil-Pushing Son Of A B****!” (The Enforcer)
Harry was more rounded as a character than ever in his third outing, The Enforcer
13, “Dying Ain’t Much Of A Living, Boy” (The Outlaw Josey Wales)
When a bounty hunter tries to bring in Eastwood’s titular outlaw in The Outlaw Josey Wales, he tells Wales that “a man’s got to do something for a living.” Knowing that the bounty hunter doesn’t stand a chance against him, Wales morbidly jokes, “Dying ain’t much of a living, boy.”
12, “It’s A Hell Of A Thing, Killin’ A Man” (Unforgiven)
Unforgiven isn’t a traditional black-and-white western about good triumphing over evil. It’s a bleak, contemplative meditation on the ethics of killing. William Munny, a notorious killer, is contrasted with the Schofield Kid, a naive young gun who dreams of being a notorious killer (but finds that killing a man is “a hell of a thing”).
11, “Everybody Wants Results, But Nobody Wants To Do What They Have To Do To Get Them Done” (Dirty Harry)
Harry sums up his ethos perfectly in this line from the first Dirty Harry movie. With the Scorpio Killer running rampant in San Francisco, Harry is more than happy to bend the law to bring him to justice. As he faces red tape at every turn, Harry points out that everyone on the force wants results, but he’s the only one willing to do the dirty work to get those results.
10, “‘Bout Time This Town Had A New Sheriff.” (High Plains Drifter)
Eastwood plays his usual gunslinging antihero who saves a town from corruption in High Plains Drifter. But this one has a Satanic twist as Eastwood’s character is implied to be the Devil, who arrives to deliver the townspeople to the fires of Hell. The “new sheriff” in question is Lucifer himself.
9, “Get Off My Lawn” (Gran Torino)
Walt from Gran Torino encapsulates the gruff, grumpy demeanor of Eastwood’s late-career roles. Walt’s disdain for the crime in his neighborhood and general indifference to other people are summed up in the oft-quoted line, “Get off my lawn.” In four words, audiences know everything they need to know about the character.
8, “I’m Not Okay. I’m Sick, I’m Tired, And I’m Armed, Too, So Be Careful.” (In The Line Of Fire)
Eastwood plays the biggest badass in the Secret Service in his political thriller In the Line of Fire. He has even more of a personal vendetta against would-be presidential assassin Mitch Leary than the U.S. president he’s trying to assassinate.
7, “I’m Here To Kill You, Little Bill” (Unforgiven)
William Munny confronts Little Bill with a haunting monologue in the subversive finale of Unforgiven: “I’ve killed women and children. I’ve killed just about everything that walks or crawls at one time or another. And I’m here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned.” Munny makes no attempt to pretend he’s a good guy. He doesn’t kill Bill for the good of the town; he does it to avenge his friend.
6, “This Is My Fighter” (Million Dollar Baby)
When Frankie says, “This is my fighter,” in Million Dollar Baby, it’s a simple answer to a simple question. But it has a deeper significance, because it shows Frankie getting behind Maggie’s boxing career and fully supporting her as his personal ward.
5, “Get Three Coffins Ready… My Mistake, Four Coffins” (A Fistful Of Dollars)
When the Man with No Name confronts the bad guys in A Fistful of Dollars, he’s so confident in his gunfighting talents that he tells them to “get three coffins ready.” When a fourth bad guy rears his head, he corrects himself: “My mistake… four coffins.” Eastwood’s cool delivery sells the badassness of this line.
4, “Go Ahead, Make My Day” (Sudden Impact)
The most iconic Dirty Harry quote outside of the original movie is Harry’s line, “Go ahead, make my day,” from Sudden Impact. In true western movie fashion, the gun-toting vigilante cop goads his target into picking up their own gun and giving him a reason to pull the trigger.
3, “Ever Notice How You Come Across Somebody Once In A While You Shouldn’t Have F***ed With? That’s Me” (Gran Torino)
Walt from Gran Torino is one of Eastwood’s most badass characters. It doesn’t matter how many gangsters threaten him, he refuses to back down. In one of the movie’s best lines, Walt tells the gangsters that he’s the person that people realize they “shouldn’t have f***ed with.”
2, “There’s Two Kinds Of People, My Friend: Those With Loaded Guns And Those Who Dig. You Dig.” (The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly)
The Man with No Name is at his coldest in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. He’s only “The Good” by virtue of how deplorable “The Bad” and “The Ugly” are. When Blondie, “The Good,” and Tuco, “The Ugly,” finally locate the hidden stash of gold, Blondie forces Tuco to do all the digging at gunpoint.
1, “Well, Do Ya, Punk?” (Dirty Harry)
Easily the most iconic quote of Clint Eastwood’s career – and maybe the most iconic in film history – is when the titular cop in Dirty Harry taunts a perp. He holds the perp at gunpoint and waxes lyrical about how many bullets might be left in the chamber and boils it down to a single badass question: “You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?” This line perfectly sums up Harry’s hard-edged personality.