Ole Munch quotes from Fargo

Ole Munch

You say the woman is a woman, a...how do you...housewife. Never do you mention she is, for real, a tiger.

Ole Munch

I live here now.

Ole Munch

The tiger can come out now. To fight a tiger in a cage is not a fair fight. [Munch helps Dorothy out of the hole and hands back her rifle] Now the tiger is free.

Could you take me to a veterinarian?

Ole Munch

What?

You know, like in the movies 'cause they're also a doctor, just for animals.

Dot Lyon

You need to go to the hospital. Burns like that, you're gonna get infected. Maybe even go to the brain.

I need my brain!

Ole Munch

When Munch was a boy, freedom was a potato. It was you didn't get killed today. Freedom from hunger, from the rusty blade. But to free himself, the man ate first so others could not. He killed before he was killed. He wanted nothing more because only kings had the freedom to want. But now everywhere you look, you see kings. Everything they want, they call their own, and if they cannot have it, they say that they are not free. They even pretend their freedom should be free, that it has no cost, but the cost is always death. Life for life. Me or you.

Please. I don't understand. Why are you here? What do you want?

Ole Munch

Pancakes.

Roy Tillman

You don't talk much, I like that.

Ole Munch

A man has only so many words in his lifetime. For us, there are very few left.

Roy Tillman

Plus interest 'cause we got sideways. Now I didn't make your deal, but if I had, I would've been clear: that woman's like a tick. Can't crush her, can't pull her out clean. Suffocation is the key, or fire. If I had a nickel for every time she found the daylight or when I thought I had her buried. Never had a problem before or since breaking a woman, but that one, she's...What'd you call her?

Ole Munch

A tiger.

Roy Tillman

Right. You think you're hunting her, but all the while you're just a mouse and she's playing with her supper. Probably ought to let her be, but...

Ole Munch

When a man digs a grave, he has to fill it. Otherwise, it's just a hole.

Gator Tillman

Happy now, shitbird? You got your money? People are dead, good men, but you're still wandering the earth, breathing the air they should be breathing.

Ole Munch

A boy complains because he thinks the world is unfair. He cries to his mother when the toy breaks or the knee is skinned.

Gator Tillman

Fuck that. You're the one who's gonna be crying.

Ole Munch

A man knows better. The things that happen, happen. Who lives, who dies. You don't yell at the boulder for being a rock.

Gator Tillman

You want the last word? Here it is: I'll see you soon, asshole.

Ole Munch

A rabbit screams because a rabbit is caught. Knows only that it wants to live.

Gator Tillman

Try again in fucking English, bro! [Munch reveals a heated blade] Fuck. Shit! Help! Help! Help! Help!

Ole Munch

An old woman watches young men play a game. She drinks.

Gator Tillman

What?

Ole Munch

She drinks because her own son has spit the nipple from his mouth. She bothers no one.

Gator Tillman

What are you talking-?

Ole Munch

Yet you killed her.

Gator Tillman

I...

Ole Munch

Yes. Eye. Your eyes.

Gator Tillman

No.

Ole Munch

As the Bible says, what is taken must be given. This for that.

Gator Tillman

No...No, wait...

Ole Munch

Shh. Quiet, rabbit.

Ole Munch

A son is unable to comply. He has sold his right to be a man. What disappointment the father must feel.

Roy Tillman

What's going on with his eyes?

Ole Munch

Forfeit. It tells a lot about a man, the words he uses to describe a double cross. We have heard it all. To Welsh. To Gyp. To Jew. As if to steal is a man's lineage, what a man is.

Roy Tillman

What did you do?

Gator Tillman

[crying] I'm sorry. You said to let it go, but I couldn't.

Ole Munch

When a man gives with one hand and takes with the other, he breaks his promise. He must be taught. The hand he steals with must be cleaved from him and returned. Still a hand, but now without function. Here is your hand.

Gator Tillman

Daddy...

Roy Tillman

Quiet.

Gator Tillman

Daddy, I'm scared.

Roy Tillman

I said shut up. If there ever was a point to you, it's gone now.

Ole Munch

We will finish our engagement now.

Dot Lyon

I thought we were done. You said.

Ole Munch

The debt must be paid. A man's flesh was taken. Now a pound is required in return.

Wayne Lyon

[handing Munch a soda] There you go.

Ole Munch

[confused] A man is grateful.

Wayne Lyon

So, are you from, uh, you from around here?

Ole Munch

Across the sea, but here a long time. From the age of the carrier pigeon and the 600 tribes. The Arapaho, the Cree, and the Tonkawa. A man comes, never having seen a mountain. He cannot remember the year of his birth. He is paid to soldier. But one night, he wanders from his post, drawn by the songs of the river.

Wayne Lyon

Well, Scotty's grandfather took us to the Vermillion last year. My dad Wink, well, he's a big fly fisherman. Remember that, hon?

Scotty Lyon

I caught a cold.

Wayne Lyon

Yeah. Yeah, she did. It's kind of funny.

Dot Lyon

[to Munch] Why? Why must debt be paid? I understand keeping a promise, but people always say debt must be paid. Except what if you can't? If you're too poor or you lose your job. Maybe there's a death in the family. Isn't the better thing - the more humane thing - to say the debt should be forgiven? Isn't that who we should be?

Wayne Lyon

Oh, game's on at seven. Probably time to make the biscuits.

Dot Lyon

You know what? You're right. It's not chili without biscuits.

Wayne Lyon

No.

Dot Lyon

How about you two go set the table, huh?

Wayne Lyon

Oh, well, I was thinking chopsticks.

Scotty Lyon

For chili?

Wayne Lyon

Come on.

Dot Lyon

[to Munch] Whatever it is you think you came here for, we're halfway to supper and it's a school night. So either you wash your hands and you help, or we do this another time.

Ole Munch

A man-

Wayne Lyon

Y'know, I was thinking...

Ole Munch

-has a code.

Wayne Lyon

...I might have a beer. What do you think?

Dot Lyon

Let's do it.

Ole Munch

He has a code, and the code-

Scotty Lyon

[tapping Munch] You're in the way.

Ole Munch

[sighs and steps aside] The code is ev-

Wayne Lyon

[handing Munch and Dot beers] Here you go.

Dot Lyon

Thanks, hon.

Wayne Lyon

Yah.

Dot Lyon

Ok, so I'm gonna tell you a little secret. It says to use water, but I use milk. Even better, buttermilk. So, go ahead and measure out a cup.

Scotty Lyon

[pointing at the line on the measuring cup] This one's a cup.

Ole Munch

Thank you.

Dot Lyon

Mmhmm. Pour it in there. [Munch pours in the buttermilk] OK, then, you add just a little honey. I'm assuming he paid you to come here - Roy - and do what you did. Maybe you're feeling sideways about it, 'cause of what it cost you. A partner. An ear. You go ahead, stir. [Munch stirs the batter] You took a job that had a risk to it. You got hurt. You can't be mad at the risk. That'd be like getting mad at the table you stubbed your toe on.

Wayne Lyon

I might have gone over the deep end on the spices.

Dot Lyon

I know you had a mom back there, across the sea. And she loved you. If someone came for her, don't you think she would've done whatever it took to get back to you?

Ole Munch

You say that as if life is a circle, but it's a line. Mother is the start. This is the other side.

Dot Lyon

Well, I don't know what that means. What I'm saying is it's a choice. You made a choice.

Wayne Lyon

Well, personally, I never been across the sea.

Dot Lyon

Nope.

Ole Munch

By long boat, we came. Three dozen men pulling at the oars, the rain so heavy some drown in their seats.

Wayne Lyon

Jeez.

Ole Munch

First in forest, then on grassland. The man's hair grew long. He rode the horse without saddle or reins, and the people of the plains were his people. But then came the cannon and the musket and he was alone once more. For a century he spoke to no one.

Wayne Lyon

Hmm. I don't know if I could go an hour without talking.

Scotty Lyon

Daddy does sales.

Wayne Lyon

Yeah.

Dot Lyon

Daddy likes talking.

Scotty Lyon

A lot.

Wayne Lyon

Yeah. You ever drive a Kia, Mr. Munch? It's like flying a cloud.

Dot Lyon

I think we should see how your biscuits turned out, huh?

Ole Munch

Before the boat, the man lived on the moors and ate fleas from the rats. He was frightened all the time. Then one day, a man comes on a wealthy horse and offers him two coins and a meal. But the food was not food.

Dot Lyon

What was it?

Ole Munch

It was sin. The sins of the rich. Greed, envy, disgust. They were bitter, the sins. But he ate them all for he was starving. From then on, the man does not sleep or grow old. He cannot die. He has no dreams. All that is left...is sin.

Dot Lyon

It feels like that, I know. What they do to us, make us swallow. Like it's our fault. But you want to know the cure? You got to eat something made with love and joy. [Dot hands Munch a biscuit] And be forgiven.