& Charles Foster Kane:
Rosebud...
& Charles Foster Kane: You’re right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars
next year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I’ll have to close this place in... 60 years.
& Charles Foster Kane: You know, Mr. Bernstein, if I hadn’t been very rich, I might have been a really great man.
Walter Parks Thatcher: Don’t you think you are?
Charles Foster Kane: I think I did pretty well under the circumstances.
Walter Parks Thatcher: What would you like to have been?
Charles Foster Kane: Everything you hate.
& Mr. Bernstein: A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn’t think he’d remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn’t see me at all, but I’ll bet a month hasn’t gone by since that I haven’t thought of that girl.
& Jerry Thompson: He made an awful lot of money...
Mr. Bernstein: Well, it’s no trick to make a lot of money... if what you want to do is make a lot of money.
& Charles Foster Kane: Mr. Carter, here’s a three-column headline in the Chronicle. Why hasn’t the Inquirer a three-column headline?
Herbert Carter: The news wasn’t big enough.
Charles Foster Kane: Mr. Carter, if the headline is big enough, it makes the news big enough.
& Charles Foster Kane: I’ve got it all written out here.
Jedediah Leland: You don’t want to make any promises you don’t want to keep.
Charles Foster Kane: These’ll be kept.
«I’ll provide the people of this city... with a daily paper that will tell all the news honestly. I will also provide...»
Jedediah Leland: That’s two sentences starting with «I.»
Charles Foster Kane: People will know who’s responsible... and they’ll get the truth in the Inquirer, quickly, simply and entertainingly. No special interests will be allowed to interfere with that truth.
«I will also provide them with a fighting and tireless champion of their rights... as citizens and as human beings.» Signed:
«Charles Foster Kane.»
& Mr. Bernstein: There’s a lot of statues in Europe you haven’t bought yet.
Charles Foster Kane: You can’t blame me. They’ve been making statues for some two thousand years, and I’ve only been collecting for five.
& — Oh, mama, here they come! Shoot me while I’m happy.
& Mr. Bernstein: Just old age. It’s the only disease, Mr. Thompson, that you don’t look forward to being cured of.
& Jedediah Leland: I can remember everything. That’s my curse, young man. It’s the greatest curse that’s ever been inflicted on the human race: memory.
& Jedediah Leland: I suppose he had a private sort of greatness, but he kept it to himself.
& Jedediah Leland: He never gave himself away. He never gave anything away. He just left you a tip.
& Jedediah Leland: Heh. He had a generous mind. I don’t suppose anybody ever had so many opinions. But he never believed in anything except Charlie Kane.
& Susan Alexander Kane: I had a toothache, and I don’t know many people.
Charles Foster Kane: I know too many people. I guess we’re both lonely.
& Charles Foster Kane: I made no campaign promises... because, until a few weeks ago, I had no hope of being elected. Now, however, I have something more than a hope. Jim Gettys has something less than a chance. Every straw vote... every independent poll shows that I will be elected. Very well... Now I can afford to make some promises.
The workingman and the slum child... know they can expect my best efforts in their interests. The decent, ordinary citizens know that I’ll do everything in my power... to protect the underprivileged, the underpaid, and the underfed.
& Charles Foster Kane: I’d make my promises now... if I weren’t too busy arranging to keep them.
& Charles Foster Kane: What’s this all about, Emily?
Emily Monroe Norton Kane: It may not be about anything at all. I intend to find out.
Charles Foster Kane: Where are you going?
Emily Monroe Norton Kane: I’m going to «185 West 74th Street.»
& Charles Foster Kane: There’s only one person in the world to decide what I’ll do. And that’s me.
& Jedediah Leland: You remember the workingman? ... You used to write an awful lot about the workingman... He’s turning into something called «organized labor.» You won’t like that one little bit when you find out... it means your workingman expects something as his right, and not your gift. When your precious underprivileged really get together... Oh, boy... That’ll add up to something bigger than your privilege... then I don’t know what you’ll do.
& Jedediah Leland: You don’t care about anything except you. You persuade people that you love them so much that they ought to love you back. Only you want love on your own terms. It’s something to be played your way, according to your rules...
& Charles Foster Kane: A toast to love on my terms... Those are the only terms anybody knows: His own.
& Charles Foster Kane: It’s not your job to give your opinion of Mrs. Kane’s talents. You’re supposed to train her voice, Signor Matiste. Nothing more. Please continue with the lesson.
Matiste: But, Mr. Kane. I’ll be the laughingstock of the musical world. People will think...
Charles Foster Kane: You’re concerned what people will think? Perhaps I can enlighten you a bit. I’m an authority on what people will think. Heh. The newspapers for example. I run several newspapers between here and San Francisco.
& Charles Foster Kane: Susan! Whatever I do, I do because I love you.
Susan Alexander Kane: You don’t love me. You want me to love you.
& Raymond: Rosebud? I’ll tell you about Rosebud... How much is it worth to you? A thousand dollars?..
& Raymond: Like I tell you, the old man acted kind of funny sometimes... but I knew how to handle him...
Jerry Thompson: Need a lot of service?
Raymond: Yeah. But I knew how to handle him.
& Reporter: If you could’ve found out what Rosebud meant, I bet that would’ve explained everything.
Jerry Thompson: No, I don’t think so; no. Mr. Kane was a man who got everything he wanted and then lost it. Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn’t get, or something he lost. Anyway, it wouldn’t have explained anything... I don’t think any word can explain a man’s life. No, I guess Rosebud is just a... piece in a jigsaw puzzle... a missing piece.
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+++ quotes on the IMDb