Watership Down quotes

View Quote Bigwig: [Mocking Fiver's prophecies] But I'm in a mist! Everything's bad! Oh, I have got a funny feeling in my foot!

View Quote Frith: All the world will be your enemy, Prince With a Thousand Enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you - digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.

View Quote General Woundwort: [after Kehaar attacks him] Get away, you damned white bird!

View Quote General Woundwort: Come back! Come back, you fools! Come back! Come back and fight! Dogs aren't dangerous!

View Quote The Cat: [catching Hazel] Can you run? I think not... I think not...

View Quote Bigwig: [meeting secretly with Kehaar, whispering] Listen carefully.
Kehaar: [none too quietly] YAAAAAAH!
Bigwig: Shhhh!

View Quote Bigwig: Aren't you going to silflay?
Blackavar: I don't silflay at this time, sir.
Chervil: Tell him why you're here, Blackavar.
Blackavar: [Mumbles] I've come here for the Mark to... [Chervil swipes at him to make him speak up, and he does] I... I've come here for the Mark to see me. I... I've been punished for trying to leave the warren. [Chervil glares] The Council were merciful... [Chervil threatens him again, and Blackavar cowers] The Council were merciful.
Chervil: He keeps trying to run away. Captain Campion caught him this time. The Council ripped his ears and says he has to show himself every morning early silflay as an example to the others. If you ask me, he won't last much longer. He'll meet a blacker rabbit than himself one of these nights.
Bigwig: That doe over there...what's her name?
Chervil: Fancy her, do you? She's called Hyzenthlay. But I'd look elsewhere if I were you; she's a troublemaker. The Council's got their eye on her.

View Quote Bigwig: Hazel? It is Hazel, isn't it?
Hazel: It is.
Bigwig: What are you doing here?
Hazel: [Motioning to Fiver] We want to see the chief rabbit, Bigwig.
Bigwig: We? You mean he wants to see him, too?
Hazel: Yes.
Fiver: I must.
Hazel: Look, Bigwig, when have I EVER asked to see the chief rabbit before?
Bigwig: [thinks over, hesitating] Oh, all right. Wait here. [goes into warren, speaks to Chief Rabbit for a moment, comes back up] Come along, then. Though I'll probably get my ears chewed off for this...

View Quote Bigwig: Hyzenthlay.
Hyzenthlay: Sir?
Bigwig: I'd like to talk with you.
Hyzenthlay: I'm in the Mark and under your orders, sir.
Bigwig: Do you remember a pale grey rabbit called Holly you helped escape some while ago?
Hyzenthlay: You've made a mistake, sir.
Bigwig: Listen, Hyzenthlay. Listen carefully. I'm from a warren where life is free. Where you can do is as you wish. I've come to bring you all out of Efrafa.
Hyzenthlay: You might be a spy, sent by the Council.
Bigwig: You know I'm not. Will you join us? And persuade your friends as well, trust me. My friends are not far away.
Hyzenthlay: [Voice is breaking] My courage, my... spirit is so much less than it was.
Bigwig: We can escape Efrafa. Believe me.
Hyzenthlay: Yes... I think I do.

View Quote Bigwig: There's a dog loose in the woods!
Silver: Well, that does it!

View Quote Blackberry: Fiver, there's been some trouble. Hazel's been shot.
Fiver: No.
Blackberry: The Black Rabbit serves Lord Frith, but he does no more than his appointed task.
Fiver: Hazel's not dead.

View Quote Campion: The new officer, sir. He's gone.
General Woundwort: Bigwig?
Campion: He's wounded Chervil, taken a crowd of the Mark with him.
General Woundwort: Embleer Frith! I'll blind him. I'LL BLIND HIM!

View Quote Dandelion: [looking at the countryside from Watership Down] O Frith on the hills! He made it all for us!
Hazel: Frith may have made it, but Fiver found it.

View Quote El-ahrairah: Hazel... Hazel... you know me, don't you?
Hazel: I don't know. [The apparition reveals himself to be El-ahrairah, and Hazel gasps] Yes, my lord. I know you.
El-ahrairah: I've come to ask if you'd like to join my Owsla. We shall be glad to have you, and I know you'd like it. You've been feeling tired, haven't you? If you're ready, we might go along now. [Hazel looks at all the younger rabbits of Watership Down] You needn't worry about them. They'll be all right, and thousands like them. If you come along now, I'll show you what I mean.

View Quote Fiver: [they believe Bigwig to be dead] You pay for it! The food, the warren! But no one must ever ask where anyone was or speak of the wires! The whole placed is snared! Everywhere, every day!
Silver: They left Bigwig to die!
Dandelion: Silver's right!
Silver: Let's drive them out, take their warren and live there ourselves!
Dandelion: Yes!
Blackberry: Back to the warren!
Pipkin: Yes! Yes! Yes, back to the warren!
Fiver: Embleer Frith, you fools! That warren's nothing but a death hole! Yes, let's help ourselves to a roof of bones!
Bigwig: [waking up, still choking] I'll kill them.