Movie Quotes for All the President’s Men

"Because he was second in command under Mitchell. Why do you think it’s Magruder?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"How much can you tell me about Deep Throat?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I never asked about Watergate. I simply asked what were Hunt’s duties at the White House."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Did you call the White House press office?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"All these checks from Mexico?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Then for the first time the break-in makes sense."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Bob, listen, I think I’ve got something, I don’t know what it is. But somewhere in this world there is a Kenneth H. Dahlberg, and we gotta get to him before the New York Times does, because I think they’ve got the same information."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Where in the government?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Bernstein, are you sure on this story?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"And a year before, Nixon wasn’t slaughtering Muskie, he was running behind Muskie, before Muskie self-destructed."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"What time is it?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"James McCord, security consultant."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"There’s a strange entry in two of the burglars’ address books."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"What was that term you used when you screwed up something?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"No, heh, but it’s touching. Forget the myths the media’s created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I think it’s Magruder because at one time he was the temporary head of the Committee to Re-Elect before Mitchell."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"This is a family newspaper."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"So if the break-in was just one incident in a campaign of sabotage that began a whole year before Watergate…"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"The story is dry. All we’ve got are pieces. We can’t seem to figure out what the puzzle is supposed to look like. John Mitchell resigns as the head of CREEP, and says that he wants to spend more time with his family. I mean, it sounds like bullshit, we don’t exactly believe that…"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Well, it’s not that we’re using nameless sources that bothers me. Or that everything we print, the White House denies. Or that no other papers are reprinting our stuff."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"How much do you need to know?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I don’t want a cookie."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I think it’s Magruder too."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"How come? Did the money originate there?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Well, I – I understand."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"What else did he say? He didn’t say anything? Come on, you’re hedging."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"He really said that about Mrs. Graham?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"You tell your publisher, tell Katie Graham she’s gonna get her tit caught in a big wringer if that’s published."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Woodward, What did you find out? What did he say?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Where’s the goddamn story?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Oh, I can’t tell you that."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Excuse me, what is your name? I’m Bob Woodward, of the Washington Post."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Oh, that’s Woodward’s garage freak; his source in the executive department."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"When we were having drinks."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"All right, give it to me."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Segretti crisscrossed the country, at least a dozen times. And always stayed in cities where there were Democratic primaries."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Well, I’d cut the words her tit and print it."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Bernstein, why don’t you finish one story before trying to get on another?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Gordon Liddy was fired by Mitchell because he wouldn’t talk to the F.B.I."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Facing certain criminal charges that might be brought against some people that are innocent, we just feel that it would be…"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Why did it take you two weeks to tell us this, Sally?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Why do you think it’s Magruder?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I went over there; I talked to them. They said Hunt hadn’t worked there for three months. Then a PR guy said this weird thing to me. He said, I am convinced that neither Mr. Colson nor anyone else at the White House had any knowledge of or participation in this deplorable incident at the Democratic National Committee."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Your names, please, and state your professions."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"The Virginia legislature story?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"What do you mean? Where?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"But you could tell me that."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Debbie, tell them to come in."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"You’ll have to figure that on your own."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"The deputy director of White House communications wrote the Canuck letter. When’d he tell you this?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"When did you say he told you?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"That’s why we’d like to see your husband."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Isn’t that what you expect them to say?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"You let Haldeman slip away."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"It’s a dangerous story for this paper."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"No, no surprise at all."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Look, McGovern’s dropped to nothing, Nixon’s guaranteed the renomination, the Post is stuck with a story no one else wants, it’ll sink the goddamn paper. Everyone says, Get off it Ben and I come on very sage and I say uh Well you’ll see you wait till this bottoms out. But the truth is I can’t figure out WHAT we’ve got."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"One says H.H. at W.H.; the other says Howard Hunt W. House."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I’m not. It still seems thin."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"This isn’t so crazy. This whole thing didn’t start with the bugging of the headquarters."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Do you trust him?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Markham. Mr. Markham, are you here in connection with the Watergate burglary?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Yes, we know that. And if we’re wrong, we’re resigning. Were we wrong?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Is there any place you don’t smoke?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"You’ve done worse than let Haldeman slip away: you’ve got people feeling sorry for him. I didn’t think that was possible. In a conspiracy like this, you build from the outer edges and go step by step. If you shoot too high and miss, everybody feels more secure. You’ve put the investigation back months."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"All non-denial denials. They doubt our ancestry, but they don’t say the story isn’t accurate."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I finished it."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Hunt’s come in from the cold. Supposedly he’s got a lawyer with $25,000 in a brown paper bag."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"If you’re gonna do it, do it right. If you’re gonna hype it, hype it with the facts. I don’t mind what you did. I mind the way you did it."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Ken Clawson told me he wrote the Canuck letter."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Goddammit, when is somebody going to go on the record in this story? You guys are about to write a story that says the former Attorney General, the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in this country, is a crook! Just be sure you’re right."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"No, I have to do this my way. You tell me what you know, and I’ll confirm. I’ll keep you in the right direction if I can, but that’s all. Just…follow the money."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"The money’s the key to whatever this is."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"No, I want to hear her say it. Do you think he said that to impress you, to try to get you to go to bed with him?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Central Intelligence Agency."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Please, listen, now, if you’re going to refer to that alleged conversation with Sally Aiken, you can’t print that it took place in her apartment. I have a wife and a family and a dog and a cat."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Then can we use their names?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Segretti was doing this a year before the bugging."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"How do you think your check got into the bank account of a Watergate burglar?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"The letter that said Muskie was slurring the Canadians."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"The Watergate burglary…it was a Haldeman operation. The whole business was run by Haldeman, the money…everything. It won’t be easy getting at him. He was insulated somehow, you’ll have to find out how. Mitchell started doing covert stuff before anyone else. The list of the people involved is longer than anyone can imagine. It involves the entire U.S. Intelligence Community. FBI…CIA…Justice…it’s incredible. The cover-up had little to do with the Watergate foul-up. It was mainly to protect the covert operations. It leads everywhere. Get out your notebook. There’s more. I think your lives are in danger."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Garage Freak? Jesus, what kind of a crazy fucking story is this? Who did you say?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Well, I doubt it started off as pesos."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Government, uh, recently, uh, retired."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"All these neat, little houses and all these nice, little streets…It’s hard to believe that something’s wrong with some of those little houses."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"This is an honest house."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Well, if you’re conducting that kind of investigation, certainly it comes as no surprise to you that Howard was with the CIA."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Boy, that woman was paranoid! At one point I – I suddenly wondered how high up this thing goes, and her paranoia finally got to me, and I thought what we had was so hot that any minute CBS or NBC were going to come in through the windows and take the story away."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"It’s just profile information, mostly. We know, for example, that he works for Mullen and Company, or did work for Mullen and Company, as a writer. He’s also a novelist; we know that he works in the office of Charles Colson at the White House…"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"It’s really for his benefit."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I can’t do the reporting for my reporters, which means I have to trust them. And I hate trusting anybody. Run that baby."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"He’s on deep background, I call him deep…throat."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Sit down. You know I’m glad you asked me that question. The reason I’m glad you asked me is because if you had asked Simons or Bradlee they woulda said, You know we’re gonna have to fire this schmuck at once because he’s so dumb."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Woodward. Bernstein. You’re both on the story. Now don’t fuck it up."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I was at a party once, and, uh, Liddy put his hand over a candle, and he kept it there. He kept it right in the flame until his flesh was burned. Somebody said, What’s the trick?” And Liddy said “The trick is not minding.”""

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"We’re rat-fuckin’."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll? Half the country never even heard of the word Watergate. Nobody gives a shit. You guys are probably pretty tired, right? Well, you should be. Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up…15 minutes. Then get your asses back in gear. We’re under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing’s riding on this except the, uh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys fuck up again, I’m going to get mad. Goodnight."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Anti-communist? That, sir, is not your average profession."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I’m not here."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Says who?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Deep Throat."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Follow the money."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Now hold it, hold it. We’re about to accuse Haldeman, who only happens to be the second most important man in this country, of conducting a criminal conspiracy from inside the White House. It would be nice if we were right."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I’m, uh, a proper citizen. What I do is proper."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I’ve just been through a terrible ordeal. My neighbor’s wife has been kidnapped!"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I don’t know. You’re implying that I should know. If you print that, our relationship will be terminated."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Sir, we don’t have a relationship!"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I guess I don’t have the taste for the jugular you guys have."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Look, there are two thousand reporters in this town, are there five on Watergate? When did the Washington Post suddenly get the monopoly on wisdom? Why would the Republicans do it? McGovern’s self-destructed just like Humphrey, Muskie, the bunch of them. I don’t believe this story. It doesn’t make sense."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"A wife and a family and a dog and a cat. Right, Ken, right, yeah. Uh, Ken, I don’t want to print that you were in Sally’s apartment…"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I just want to know what you said, in Sally’s apartment."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"You’re both paranoid. She’s afraid of John Mitchell, and you’re afraid of Walter Cronkite."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Look, I’m tired of your chicken shit games! I don’t want hints! I need to know what you know!"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Well, who is Charles Colson?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"The most powerful man in the United States is President Nixon. You’ve heard of him? Charles Colson is special counsel to the President. There’s a cartoon on his wall. The caption reads, When you’ve got ‘em by the balls their hearts and minds will follow.”""

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"I’m just polishing it."

Movie:

Actor:

Character:

"Do you think he said it to impress you, to try to get you to go to bed with him?"

Movie:

Actor:

Character: