Water for Elephants Quotes

  • Jacob: I don't know if I picked that circus. But something told me that circus picked me.

  • Jacob: Who's the woman who works with the horses?

    Camel: That ain't no woman, that's the boss' wife and she don't talk to nobody and you don't talk to her.

  • August: You do right by me, I'll show you a life most suckers can't even dream of.

  • Jacob: You're a beautiful woman, you deserve a beautiful life. Nothing less.

  • August: As long as we can walk, we play.

  • [first lines]

    Russ: [in the rain] Uh, Excuse me sir. Can we help you? Can we help you with something?

    Old Jacob: Did I miss the Spec?

    Charlie: Uh, yeah, I'm afraid so. The show was this afternoon.

    Old Jacob: Oh.

    Charlie: Did you come with the folks from Green Haven? Why don't we get out of the rain, and we'll call them for you.

    Old Jacob: No, no! I came on my own.

    Russ: It's okay. We're gonna call the home. We're gonna have them come pick you up.

    Old Jacob: I'm telling you, I didn't come with the home! Why don't you take those rings out of your head, and maybe you won't be deaf *and* dumb.

    Russ: [to Charlie] We'll it's alive.

    Old Jacob: I'm sorry kid, I didn't mean that. Your rings look very... pretty.

  • Camel: Come on. I gotcha some work.

    Jacob: With animals?

    Camel: Oh, you betcha...

    Jacob: [now shoveling in a train car with flies buzzing] I've never seen so much manure.

    Wade: They pack 'em in 27 a car.

  • Jacob: [after scarey incident feeding the lion] You think that's funny?

    August: [laughing] Yes, I do.

    Jacob: I could have lost my arm!

    August: No, you couldn't have. He doesn't have any teeth.

  • Marlena: He sold off two dead-beat clowns and a train car so he could buy Lucinda, our lovely fat lady. And Rex.

    August: Rex.

    Marlena: But you kept the coochie girls, didn't you?

    August: No denying they're good revenue. I needed money. So I had to scavenge every dead circus for every act we have.

    Marlena: But you didn't have to buy me, did you?

    August: No. I had to marry you.

    Marlena: That's right.

  • Marlena: I was born a passenger. They found me wrapped in a newspaper under a seat on the Baltimore and Ohio. I was just three days old. I grew up in foster homes. I'd always daydream about who my parents were. When I was five, for an entire year, I pretended my mom was an Appaloosa mare. I did. And that I was a filly, and that I was just dreaming that I was a girl. And that one day I'd wake up, and I'd run home. One thing's for sure, I was a lot safer in those stables than I ever was in those homes. And then the circus came to town.

  • Old Jacob: Work is the best thing for age.

  • [last lines]

    Charlie: We'll get you in the records books. "Oldest man that ever ran away with the circus."

    Old Jacob: I'm not running away, I'm coming home.