The Running Man Quotes
"In the year 2025, the best men don't run for President. They run for their lives..."
"No more block midwife with dirty hands and whiskey breath. All the modern equipment. I'm going to see to it."
"The streets were ghostly, silent. If you went out, you took the pneumo bus or you carried a gas cylinder."
"The literacy of Games applicants was notoriously low."
"I want to work and support my family. I have pride. Do you have pride, Doctor?"
"We're dangerous characters. Public enemies. They're gonna rub us out."
"Maybe I'll get a chance to push a few creeps out a high window before McCone's boys get me."
"I think we're getting the big-money assignments. The ones where they do more than just land you in the hospital with a stroke or put out an eye or cut off an arm or two. The ones where they kill you. Prime time, baby."
"With the world the way it is, I sometimes think we must have been off our trolley."
"You'll appear live Tuesday night. Subsequent programs will be a patch-up of tapes, films, and live tricasts when possible."
"The rules are simplicity themselves. You-or your surviving family-will win one hundred New Dollars for each hour you remain free."
"Just one," Richards said, leaning forward. "How would you like to be the one out there, on the run?"
"Spare me the cheap snatch," Richards said. "I'm married."
"Inside you will find ten percent of your advance salary-not in New Dollars, I should caution you, but in Games Certificates redeemable for dollars."
"Yes, Mr. Richards," one of the cops said. "The bourbon you asked for will be—"
"Tell him the extra fifty cents is his usurer's fee."
"You'll bring me written receipts from my wife and from Grady, won't you?"
"Books. You know. Read. Words. Movable press."
"I'm gonna be glued to my Free-Vee with a beer in each hand."
"Thanks, Charlie," he said to the empty room. "I needed that."
"He spent most of Monday on the tiny glassed-in terrace that opened off the bedroom."
"Behind them, Laughlin was being ragged by Bobby Thompson to the audience's satisfaction."
"Put your ID in the slot between the guard booth and the door," Burns said.
"Stay low," Killian repeated, and then Richards was alone.
"A cop was standing by its frontage on Nixon Memorial Park, but he did not look at Richards as he stepped out."
"You bastards! If you want to see somebody die so bad, why don't you kill each other?"
"I expect to go the whole thirty," Richards said coolly. "I don't think you've got anybody who can take me."
"Make-up next, Mr. Richards. Then the lighting runs."
"Fine performance, Mr. Richards. Fine! God, I wish I could give you a bonus."
"He left Moue's at ten past midnight, twelve hundred New Dollars lighter."
"The receptionist popped promptly out of her foxhole as Richards walked through and handed him an envelope."
"He went to earth in the Brant Hotel, a so-so establishment on the East Side."
"Richards suddenly gave them the finger-both fingers."
"Grab a recording of my brain waves, you bastard. They're on record."
"That's what I like about you, Richards. You think big."
"The elevator opened directly onto the street."
"The trick had popped effortlessly into his mind as he had stood by the window, watching them gather in their offhand, sinister way."
"The huge oil tank which serviced the Y was built into the adjoining wall. Perhaps it would blow. Richards thought it would."
"A rat, perhaps sensing what was to come, ran across his foot and into the darkness."
"A small tendril of blue smoke curled out of the slot in the panel."
"The storm drain was constructed of vented steel."
"Claustrophobia suddenly filled his mouth with flannel."
"Richards let his knees relax, and he slid downward like a boy shooting the chutes."
"Sweat rolled down his face, mixing with the black streaks of ordure already there, making him look, in the waxing and waning glow of the reflected fire, like an Indian painted for war."
"The air was hot, full of the slick taste of oil, uncomfortable to breathe."
"Lobsterlike, Richards humped backwards on his knees and forearms."
"A rat dog-paddled past him, pausing to look up briefly with glittering eyes."
"The light was surprising because it had seemed that he had been walking in the sewers for hours piled upon hours."
"The devil peered around in an ecstasy of apprehension."
"I'm eight in March," the boy said angrily. "My sister Lassie's got cancer," he added. "She screams a lot."
"The boy's eyes widened. 'Jesus, there's meat in it!'"
"He sat down stolidly on the third rung of the ladder to wait for dark."
"Richards stood by the ladder, looking up, dumbfounded by the light."
"Behold the man! He has been paid his blood money-but the man who lives by violence shall die by it. And let every man's hand be raised against Benjamin Richards!"
"A terrible sense of urgency filled him now, and yet he waited until the spill was flaming a foot high."
"The taste of the claustrophobia became huge, gagging."
"A man can't stick around and watch his wife earning supper on her back."
"If a man can't do any more than pimp for the woman he married, Richards judged, he might as well walk out of a high window."
"The world was what it was, and Ben Richards moved through it like a thin scythe, asking for nothing, looking for work."
"Violence did not work. The world was what it was."
"There's crazy dudes running the roads these days. That's what my dad says."
"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."
"The best laid plans of mice and men."
"You can't kill hostages unless no one is watching. Those are the rules of the game."
"In the streets, you can buy Dynacore every two blocks if you've got cash on the line."
"They know I'm getting set to screw them. They don't know how."
"The world insisted on going in and out. High, atonal music jangled in his ears."
"The crowd cheered happily and then fell silent, waiting for the next act."
"The streets were black with people. They hung over roof ledges and sat on balconies and verandahs."
"There's been trouble on the road already. If the troopers and the Hunters turn all their guns on us, something nasty might happen."
"The press looked uneasy too. But, of course, there was the psychic pressure of those five hundred million watchers to be considered."
"I understand the Nielsen rating on the program jumped twelve points."
"Of course, we almost had you during that Portland interlude. Bad luck."
"But this last play has been simply brilliant. I salute you."
"The woman broke. We used Sodium Pentothal on her. Old, but reliable."
"Human life has a certain sacred quality. The government-our government-realizes this. We are humane."
"You make it sound like two pounds of fatty hamburger cooking in the pan."
"I can scare you worse. I could threaten to take away your nose filter."