Dalton Trumbo quotes

Dalton Trumbo was an American novelist and screenwriter, regarded as one of Hollywood’s most talented writers. His career was heavily affected by the Hollywood blacklist during the era of McCarthyism. He became famous for working under pseudonyms and later for his role in restoring the rights of blacklisted artists. Here are 34 of his quotes:

What's so noble about being dead?

Dalton Trumbo

But if you stay in the game long enough, you've got to lose. And once you've lost there's no way back, no way at all.

Dalton Trumbo

A man doesn't say I will starve myself to death to keep from starving, or that he'd spend all of his money to save money. Why should he be willing to die for the privilege of living?

Dalton Trumbo

If I were dead and buried And I heard your voice, Beneath the sod My heart of dust Would still rejoice.

Dalton Trumbo

One of the disadvantages of being a patrician is that occasionally you're obliged to act like one.

Dalton Trumbo

Now I lay me down to sleep my bomb proof cellar's good and deep but if i'm killed before I wake remember god it's for your sake amen.

Dalton Trumbo

I will, proudly and by preference, do at least one picture a year for King Brothers, and I will try to make it the best picture that I have it in me to do.

Dalton Trumbo

Democracy means that people can say what they want to. All the people.

Dalton Trumbo

Never again to wiggle your toes. What a hell of a thing, what a wonderful, beautiful thing, to wiggle your toes.

Dalton Trumbo

The only kind of love worth having is the kind that goes on living and laughing and fighting and loving.

Dalton Trumbo

The only interesting thing that can happen in a Swiss bedroom is suffocation by feather mattress.

Dalton Trumbo

A good businessman never makes a contract unless he's sure he can carry it through, yet every fool on earth is perfectly willing to sign a marriage contract without considering whether he can live up to it or not.

Dalton Trumbo

I never considered the working class anything other than something to get out of.

Dalton Trumbo

There's a game out there, and the stakes are high. And the guy who runs it figures the averages all day long and all night long. Once in a while he lets you steal a pot. But if you stay in the game long enough, you've got to lose. And once you've lost there's no way back, no way at all.

Dalton Trumbo

I fought fire with oil.

Dalton Trumbo

Pay no attention when they tap you on the shoulder and say come along we've got to fight for liberty, or whatever their word is. There's always a word.

Dalton Trumbo

Remember this well you people who plan for war. Remember this you patriots, you fierce ones, you spawners of hate, you inventors of slogans. Remember this as you have never remembered anything else in your lives. We are men of peace, we are men who work and we want no quarrel.

Dalton Trumbo

I think you're a goddamn fourflusher talking through your hat, and I've already decided that I like the liberty I've got right here. The liberty to walk and see and hear and talk and eat and sleep with my girl. I think I like that liberty better than fighting for a lot of things we won't get and ending up without any liberty at all.

Dalton Trumbo

No sir, anybody who went out and got into the front line trenches to fight for liberty was a goddamn fool and the guy who got him there was a liar.

Dalton Trumbo

Did anybody ever come back from the dead, any single one of the millions who got killed, did any one of them ever come back and say by god I'm glad I'm dead because death is always better than dishonor?

Dalton Trumbo

There's a game out there, and the stakes are high.

Dalton Trumbo

Make no mistake of it, we will live. We will be alive and we will walk and talk and eat and sing and laugh and feel and love and bear our children in tranquillity, in security, in decency, in peace. You plan the wars, you masters of men - plan the wars and point the way and we will point the gun.

Dalton Trumbo