The Green Mile quotes

View Quote (Singing) Bar-be-QUE! Me and you! Stinky-pinky, fue-fue-fue! Wen't Billy, Jilly, Hilly or Pa! It was a french-fried cajon named Delacroix! WOO!

View Quote Paul Edgecombe: John… tell me what you want me to do. You want me to take you out o' here? Just let you run away? See how far you could get? John Coffey: Why would you do such a foolish thing?
Paul Edgecombe: On the day of my judgment, when I stand before God, and He asks me why did I… did I kill one of his true… miracles… what am I gonna say? That it was my job? [muttering] It was my job.
John Coffey: You tell God the Father it was a kindness you done.
[Coffey puts his hand on Edgecombe's wrung ones.]
John Coffey: I know you hurtin' and worryin'. I can feel it on you. But you oughta quit on it now. I want it over and done with. I do. I'm tired, boss. Tired of bein' on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. I'm tired of never having me a buddy to be with, to tell me where we's going to, or coming from, or why. Mostly I'm tired of people being ugly to each other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world every day. There's too much of it. It's like pieces of glass in my head all the time. Can you understand?
Paul Edgecombe: Yes, John, I think I can.

View Quote Paul Edgecombe: Men under strain can snap. Hurt themselves and hurt others. That's why our job is talking, not yelling. You'd do better to think of this place like as an intensive care ward of a hospital. Percy Wetmore: I think of it as a bucket of piss to drown rats in. That's all. Anybody doesn't like it… you can kiss my ass.

View Quote [After Coffey brings Mr. Jingles back to life…] Dean Stanton: What did you do?
John Coffey: I helped Del's mouse. He a circus mouse. Gonna live in a mouse city, down in… [struggles with a word]
Brutus "Brutal" Howell: Florida?
[Coffey nods.]
John Coffey: Boss Percy bad. He mean. He step on Del's mouse. I took it back, t'ough.

View Quote [Coffey seizes a suffering Edgecombe for a few moments, then spews a mysterious insect-like cloud, which dissipates.] Paul Edgecombe: What did you just do to me?
John Coffey: I helped it. Didn't I help it? I just took it back, is all. Awful tired now, boss. Dog tired.

View Quote [Edgecomb talks to Warden Moores about sadistic guard Percy.]

View Quote [Feeding a slow but still active Mr. Jingles, Paul tells Elaine about the consequences of John's gift.] Elaine Connelly: He infected you with life?
Old Paul Edgecombe: That's as good a word as any.

View Quote [Paul has the "boys" over for lunch, as he hatches his plan for the warden's terminally-ill wife.] Paul Edgecombe: You all saw what he did to the mouse.
Brutal Howell: I coulda gone the rest o' the day without you bringin' that up.
Dean Stanton: I coulda gone the rest o' the year.
Paul Edgecombe: He did the same thing to me. He put his hands on me… he took my bladder infection away.
Jan Edgecombe: 'S true. When he came home that day, he was…
[She pauses and half-smiles.]
Jan Edgecombe: … all better.
[Paul gives her a sly look.]
Dean Stanton: Aw, wait. You're talkin' about a… authentic healin', a… "praise Jesus" miracle?
Paul Edgecombe: I am.
Jan Edgecombe: [barely suppressing a grin] Ohh, yeah.

View Quote [Percy sees Mr. Jingles alive again. He storms back to Edgecombe and Howell.] Percy Wetmore: You switched 'em. You switched 'em somehow, you bas****.
Brutus "Brutal" Howell: [grinning] I always keep a spare mouse in my wallet for occasions such as this.

View Quote [Percy, staring vacantly, is unresponsive after his final debacle with Wild Bill.] Bill Dodge: Son, can ya hear me?
Sheriff McGee: Speak up if you can hear us.
Bill Dodge: I think this boy's cheese slid off his cracker

View Quote [Repeated line] What happens on the mile stays on the mile. Always has.

View Quote [singing/sobbing] Heaven… I'm in heaven… heaven… [Coffey is entraced watching Astaire and Rogers dancing "Cheek to Cheek" in Top Hat.]

View Quote [Terwilliger out the foolishness of taking convicted murderer Coffey out of prison.] Harry Terwilliger: Now, w-what if he escapes? I'd hate to lose my job or go to… prison… but I'd hate worse to have a dead child on my conscience.
Paul Edgecombe: I don't think that's gonna happen. In fact… I don't think he did it at all. I do not see… God putting a… a gift like that in the hands of a man that'd kill a child.

View Quote [The day after Coffey cures Edgecombe's urinary infection, Edgecombe brings Coffey some cornbread.] Paul Edgecombe: It's from my missus. She wanted to… thank you.
John Coffey: Thank me for what?
Paul Edgecombe: Well, you know. [looks around, then whispers] For helping me.
John Coffey: Helpin' you with what?
Paul Edgecombe: You know.
[Edgecomb looks down and points to his groin.]
John Coffey: Ohhhhh. Was your missus pleased?
Paul Edgecombe: Several times.

View Quote [Warden Moores storms into the room after Delacroix's excrutiatingly long electrocution.] Hal Moores: What in the blue **** was that?!? Jesus Christ! There's puke all over the floor up there… And the smell! I got Van Hay to open both doors, but that smell won't go out for five damn years, that's what I'm bettin'. And that asshole, Wharton, is singing about it! You can hear him up there!
Paul Edgecombe: [calmly] Can he carry a tune, Hal?
[Moores takes the hint and laughs grimly, regaining his composure.]
Hal Moores: Okay, boys, okay. Now, what in the hell happened?
Paul Edgecombe: An execution. A successful one.
Hal Moores: How in the name of Christ can you call that a success?
Paul Edgecombe: Eduard Delacroix is dead.
[Edgecomb looks at Percy.]
Paul Edgecombe: Isn't he.
Hal Moores: Percy? Something to say?
Percy Wetmore: [meekly] I didn't know the sponge was supposed to be wet.
Hal Moores: How many years you spend pissing on a toilet seat before someone told you to put it up?
Paul Edgecombe: [calmly] Percy ****ed up, Hal. Pure and simple.
Hal Moores: That your official position?
Paul Edgecombe: Don't you think it should be? He's puttin' in for a transfer request to Briar Ridge tomorrow. Movin' on to bigger and better things. Isn't that right, Percy?
Percy Wetmore: Yeah. Yeah.
Wild Bill: [singing off-camera] Bar-be-QUE!