The Best Phil Burbank Quotes

George: What you said about her boy tonight, Phil. It made her cry.
Phil: She had her ear to the door?
George: She was crying, Phil.
Phil: Well, hell. The boy had to snap out of it and get human. Just pointed it out, is all. She should damn well know.

Peter: How old were you when you met Bronco Henry?
Phil: About the age you are now.
Peter: Was he your best friend?
Phil: Yeah... he was. He was more than that. Once, he saved my life. We were way off up in the hills shooting elk, and the weather turned mean. Bronco kept me alive by... lying body against body in a bedroll. Fell off to sleep that way.
Peter: Naked?

George: I just came over to hear to speak about something.
[pause]
Phil: Come on partner. Open your talker. What is it?
George: His Nibs will be joining us for dinner. And the old gent and the old lady.
Phil: Well sir, ain't we going into society.
[both chuckle]
Phil: [on Rose] She on the "panana" again? Setting your teeth on edge?
George: No. I like to hear Rose play.
Phil: Well, old timer, what is it? What's in the noodle?
George: Well... Phil... I... I just...
Phil: Go on, spit it out.
George: It's just... about His Nibs, the governor.
Phil: Alright.
George: And er... it's not so much about His Nibs... but er, his wife, actually. I was thinking, His Nibs probably wouldn't mind so much. But... his missus might.
Phil: Might what, for dear Christ's sake?
George: Well, it's sort of a hard thing... to say. She might mind if you come to the table without a wash up.
[Phil is too angry to reply]
George: [leaving] Yeah.

Peter: Did Bronco Henry teach you to ride, Phil?
Phil: Yep. He taught me to use my eyes in ways that other people can't. Take that hill over there. Most people look at it and just see a hill. Where Bronco looked at it, what do you suppose he saw?
Peter: A barking dog.
Phil: The hell, you just saw that now?
Peter: No. When I first came here. See, it looks like a dog with its jaw wide open.
Phil: You... you just saw that?
Peter: Yeah.

Phil: You got a sore gut?
George: No.
Phil: It looks it pains you to hit two words together.

George: Rose isn't well, Phil. She's ill.
Phil: Not well? It is high time that bozo and you got next to a few... whatever you call them? Facts! She stashes alcohol all around the place, even drinking in the stinking alley. Look at your face in the mirror! Is it that she could like? Or our money? WAKE! THE HELL UP!
George: [calmly] That's enough, Phil. Well, what is the harm? The hides were only going to be burned.
Phil: [with a pained expression] I needed them. *I* needed them.
George: Well, I apologise.
George: [walks away]
Phil: They were MINE! I needed them!

Phil: Bronco Henry told me that a man was made by patience in the odds against him.

Phil: I didn't get washed up, so I didn't come.
Old: You didn't wash?
The: Oh, he's a ranchman, isn't that right? That's honest dirt.

George: Did you write to the old lady?
Phil: Yeah, I dropped them both a line.
George: Did you say something about Rose?
Phil: Rose. Yeah well, you and I know what the old lady would feel if she thought you were getting mixed up with her. She'd likely have a haemorrhage.
George: The old lady would feel as one Mrs Burbank would for another Mrs Burbank.
Phil: Come again?
George: We were married Sunday. She got rid of her property in Beech.

Jock: How come you don't wear gloves?
Phil: How 'bout 'cause they're not needed... . Castrate fifteen hundred head, then nick your thumb on the last.

[looking at some paper flowers]
Phil: Well, well. Ain't them purrdy? I wonder, what little lady made these?

Phil: Where is the boy?

The: Oh, you're Phil. So, you weren't eaten by a cougar.
Phil: Not yet.

Phil: Pete. Hey, Pete. Peter.
Peter: You want me, Mr. Burbank?
Phil: Well, I don't see any Mr. Burbank here. I'm Phil.
Peter: Yes, Mr. Burbank.
Phil: I guess it's hard for a young'un like you to call an old fella like me just plain Phil, at first. Now come and take a look at this. Have you done any braiding or plaiting yourself, Pete?
Peter: No, I never have, sir.
Phil: Peter, we kind of got off on the wrong foot.
Peter: Did we, sir?
Phil: Forget the Sir stuff. That can happen to people. People who get to be good friends. Well, you know what?
Peter: What? What, Phil?
Phil: Now, you see? You did it. You called me Phil. I'm gonna finish this rope and give it to you and teach you how to use it. Sort of a lonesome place out here, Pete. Unless you get in the swing of things.
Peter: Thank you... Phil.

Rose: Well, brother Phil, we had such a nice trip.
Phil: I'm not your brother. You're a cheap schemer.

George: I was looking for you.
Phil: Well, you found me.
George: Everyone's here. We're just about to eat. They were asking after you.
Phil: Really?
George: Yes, we're counting on your conversation. I wanted to apologise for what I said...
Phil: You two can keep your apologies to yourself, I'm not coming.
George: And what will I say? The Old Lady wants to see you, they've both come a long way.
Phil: Then you tell them the truth. That I stink and I like it!

Peter: Is something wrong, Phil?
Phil: [furious] Wrong? For Christ's sake. Every goddamn hide is gone! Oh, she really put her foot in it this time!
Peter: You think she did it? She sold them?
Phil: Bloody tootin'. Or maybe even gave them away.
Peter: W-why? Why would she do that, Phil? She knew we needed the hides.
Phil: [exploding] Because she was drunk! Pie eyed, she was smashed! I think you'd know from the books your pa left you, that your ma's got... . uhhh what chamacallit alcoholic personality? It comes under the letter A!
Peter: You're not going to say anything to her?
Phil: Say anything? I won't say nothin'. But sure as one good hell brother George is going to.

Phil: [amused, to Rose] You didn't play? Sure did practice a terrible lot. She wouldn't think there was that much difference between a cinema pit and a dinner party.

Phil: [toasting] So, to us brothers, Romulus and Remus, and the wolf who raised us. Bronco Henry. El Lupo.