A River Runs Through It quotes

24 total quotes

"Black Jack's Bar"
"Dear Jessie."
"Double Dating"
"Last-Minute Attempt"
"Letter from Chicago"
"Minister & Fisherman"
"Paul's Fate"

"Return to Graciousness"
"Sending Neal Off"
"The Burns Family"
"Wrong Crowd"
Final scene: "A River Runs Through It"
Main cast
Opening scene: "Start"

View Quote And I knew just as surely, just as clearly, that life is not a work of art, and that the moment could not last.
Older Norman - [narrating]:

View Quote As a Presbyterian, my father believed that man by nature was a damn mess. And that only by picking up God's rhythms, were we able to regain power and beauty. To him, all good things, trout as well as eternal salvation come by Grace. And Grace comes by art. And art does not come easy.
Older Norman - [narrating]:

View Quote As time passes, my father struggled for more to hold on to, asking me again and again: had I told him everything. And I finally said to him, "maybe all I know about Paul is that he was a fine fisherman." "You know more than that," my father said; "he was beautiful." And that was the last time we spoke of my brother's death.

View Quote Dear Jessie,
As the moon lingers a moment over the Bitterroot's, before its descent into the invisible, my mind is filled with song. I find I am humming, softly, not to the music, but to something else, some place else. A place remembered. A field of grass where no one seemed to have been, except the deer, and the memory is strengthened by the feeling of you, dancing in my awkward arms.
Norman
The Bitterroot's are in reference to the Bitterroot Mountains of Western Montana.

View Quote In my family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.
We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in Missoula, Montana.
Where Indians still appeared out of the wilderness to walk the honky tonks and brothels of Front Street.

View Quote It is those we live and love should know who elude us.

View Quote Like many fly fishermen in Western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being of my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.

View Quote Long ago, when I was a young man, my father said to me... "Norman, you like to write stories?" And I said, "Yes, I do." Then he said, "Someday, when you're ready... you might tell our family story. Only then will you understand what happened and why."
We shift to a montage of old photographs, first of young Paul and Norman, then the entire family, and finally of Missoula, Montana: Older Norman - [narrating]:

View Quote The Burns family ran a general store in a one store town and still managed to badly.
They were Methodist, a denomination my father always referred to as Baptist who could read.

View Quote They're both marvelous.
He nodes and snickers, then continues: I'd say Lord has blessed us all today...
He rises and walks away and with his back to them continues: It's just that he has been particularly good to me.
He laughs.

View Quote Actor Role Craig Sheffer Norman Maclean Brad Pitt Paul Maclean Tom Skerritt Reverend Maclean Brenda Blethyn Mrs. Maclean Emily Lloyd Jessie Burns Edie McClurg Mrs. Burns

View Quote After Norman gets his job offer letter from the University of Chicago, he goes into the house to find his father reading aloud in his study. Norman and Reverend John Maclean recite various excerpts strung together from the poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" by William Wordsworth: (Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,)
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."

View Quote After Paul's death, the Reverend John Maclean searches for answers that he seems unable to find in his beliefs: Reverend Maclean: Is there anything else you can tell me?
Norman Maclean: Nearly all the bones in his hand were broken.
The Reverend Maclean rises from the table to leave, digesting what Norman has told him, then pauses and continues: Reverend Maclean: Which hand?
Norman Maclean: His right hand.
After some time has gone by: Older Norman - [narrating]:

View Quote As the film begins, we see the rippling water of a river, and then the hands of an old man tying a fly: Older Norman - [narrating]:

View Quote First we see young Norman and Paul fishing, then older Norman remembering as he fishes alone: Older Norman - [narrating]: