Alec Leamas: [to Fiedler] If ever I have to break your neck, I promise to do it with a minimum of force. Now, when do I get my bloody money?


--Richard Burton (as Alec Leamas) in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Alec Leamas: [Yawns]
Peters: Tired?
Alec Leamas: Aren't you?
Peters: No, I didn't have any drink with my supper.
Alec Leamas: I didn't have any supper with my drink.


--Richard Burton (as Alec Leamas) in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Alec Leamas: Before, he was evil and my enemy; now, he is evil and my friend.


--Richard Burton (as Alec Leamas) in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Alec Leamas: I reserve the right to be ignorant. That's the Western way of life.


--Richard Burton (as Alec Leamas) in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Alec Leamas: I'm a man, you fool. Don't you understand? A plain, simple, muddled, fat-headed human being. We have them in the West, you know.


--Richard Burton (as Alec Leamas) in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Alec Leamas: She offered me free love. At the time, that was all I could afford.


--Richard Burton (as Alec Leamas) in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Alec Leamas: What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not! They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me: little men, drunkards, queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong?


--Richard Burton (as Alec Leamas) in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Alexander: [quoting Book 20 of the Iliad] "... thus beneath great-hearted Achilles his whole-hooved horses trampled corpses and shields together, and with blood all the axletree below was sprinkled, for blood-drops from the horses' hooves splashed them, and blood-drops from the tires of the wheels, for the son of Peleus pressed on to win glory, flecking with gore his irresistible hands."


--Richard Burton (as Alexander) in Alexander the Great

Alexander: It is men who endure toil and dare dangers that achieve glorious deeds. And it is a lovely thing to live with courage and to die leaving behind an everlasting renown.


--Richard Burton (as Alexander) in Alexander the Great

Alexander: What's all this about my father?
Olympias: To the sword, the cross, the rack - men who have been his friends for years. Now everyone is his enemy - he accuses everyone of conspiring against him... even me. You'll hear the story, Alexander - you'll hear it from him. But you mustn't believe him, you mustn't... you don't! Do you, Alexander?
Alexander: Why should he accuse you?
Olympias: He wants to get rid of me... he's been wanting to for years. He wants to marry again.
Alexander: Who?
Olympias: Attalus's niece. You be careful of Attalus - you be careful of all of them. She's no fool - she won't let him throw her away like he's done with all the others. She's young...
Alexander: Oh, Mother...!
Olympias: Whatever he asks of you, do. Whatever he says, agree with. For when you're regent...
[she smiles]
Olympias: *when you're regent*... then, *we'll* rule the land.
Alexander: *We*?
[Olympias's face falls]


--Richard Burton (as Alexander) in Alexander the Great