Citizen Kane Quotes

Charles Foster Kane: Rosebud.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Bernstein: [to Leland] Mr. Kane is finishing the review you started - he's writing a bad notice. I guess that'll show you.

Movie: Citizen Kane
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.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Charles Foster Kane: Read the cable.
Bernstein: Girls delightful in Cuba. Stop. Could send you prose poems about scenery, but don't feel right spending your money. Stop. There is no war in Cuba, signed Wheeler. Any answer?
Charles Foster Kane: Yes. Dear Wheeler: you provide the prose poems. I'll provide the war.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Charles Foster Kane: I always gagged on the silver spoon.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Charles Foster Kane: Are we going to declare war on Spain, or are we not?
Jed Leland: The Inquirer already has.
Charles Foster Kane: [jokingly] You long-faced, overdressed anarchist!
Jed Leland: I am NOT overdressed!
Charles Foster Kane: You are too! Mr. Bernstein, look at his necktie!

Movie: Citizen Kane
Susan: Love! You don't love anybody! Me or anybody else! You want to be loved - that's all you want! I'm Charles Foster Kane. Whatever you want - just name it and it's yours! Only love me! Don't expect me to love you

Movie: Citizen Kane
[ first lines ]
Charles Foster Kane : Rosebud...

Movie: Citizen Kane
Female reporter : If you could've found out what Rosebud meant, I bet that would've explained everything.
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.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Charles Foster Kane : You know, Mr. Bernstein, if I hadn't been very rich, I might have been a really great man.
Thatcher : Don't you think you are?
Charles Foster Kane : I think I did pretty well under the circumstances.
Thatcher : What would you like to have been?
Charles Foster Kane : Everything you hate.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Charles Foster Kane : Hello Jedediah.
Leland : Hello, Charlie. I didn't know we were speaking...
Charles Foster Kane : Sure, we're speaking, Jedediah: you're fired.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Charles Foster Kane : I always gagged on the silver spoon.

Movie: Citizen Kane
[ Quoting from Kane's letter ]
Walter Parks Thatcher : I think it would be fun to run a newspaper.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Bernstein : Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Switzerland... he was thrown out of a lot of colleges.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Emily : Really Charles, people will think-...
Charles Foster Kane : - -what I tell them to think.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Bernstein : President's niece, huh? Before Mr. Kane's through with her, she'll be a president's wife.

Movie: Citizen Kane
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.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Bernstein : We never lost as much as we made.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Charles Foster Kane : The news goes on for 24 hours a day.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Charles Foster Kane : We have no secrets from our readers. Mr. Thatcher is one of our most devoted readers, Mr. Bernstein. He knows what's wrong with every issue since I've taken charge.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Jedediah Leland : You still eating?
Charles Foster Kane : I'm still hungry.

Movie: Citizen Kane
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.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Leland : Bernstein, am I a stuffed shirt? Am I a horse-faced hypocrite? Am I a New England school marm?
Bernstein : Yes. If you thought I'd answer you any differently than what Mr. Kane tells you...

Movie: Citizen Kane
Reporter : Mr. Kane, how did you find business conditions in Europe?
Charles Foster Kane : How did I find business conditions in Europe? With great difficulty.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Charles Foster Kane : I run a couple of newspapers. What do you do?

Movie: Citizen Kane
Charles Foster Kane : This gentleman was saying...
Boss Jim Gettys : I am not a gentleman. I don't even know what a gentleman is.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Charles Foster Kane : Don't believe everything you hear on the radio.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Bernstein : Old age. It's the only disease, Mr. Thompson, that you don't look forward to being cured of.

Movie: Citizen Kane
Thompson : He made an awful lot of money.
Bernstein : Well, it's no trick to make a lot of money... if what you want to do is make a lot of money.

Movie: Citizen Kane
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.

Movie: Citizen Kane