Pancho Barnes Quotes in The Right Stuff (1983)

Girl at Pancho's: I just noticed that a fancy pilot like Slick over there doesn't have his picture on your wall. What do you have to do to get your picture up there anyway?

Pancho Barnes: You have to die, sweetie.

Pancho Barnes: What are you two rookies gonna have?

Gordon Cooper: Rookies? Now hold on, sis. You are looking at a whole new ballgame here now. In fact, in a couple of years, I bet you're even gonna immortalize us by putting our pictures up there on your wall.

[unwittingly referring to the dead pilot memorial over the bar]

Gordon Cooper: What? I say somethin' wrong here?

Pancho Barnes: I tell you, we got two categories of pilots around here. We got your prime pilots that get all the hot planes, and we got your pud-knockers who dream about getting the hot planes. Now what are you two pud-knockers gonna have? Huh?

Chuck Yeager: [NASA recruiters are talking to test pilots] You need lab rabbits.

Recruiter: Sorry, I didn't get that.

Chuck Yeager: I said you need lab rabbits to curl up in your damn capsule. With its heart going "pitter-patter". And a wire up the kazook. I don't hold with it.

Scott Crossfield: I don't either. You want a pilot to become a balistic missile. And then splash down - possibly get lost at sea.

Pancho Barnes: See, some peckerwood's gotta get the thing up. And some peckerwood's gotta land the son of a bitch. And that "peckerwood" is called a "pilot".

Pancho Barnes: Why Yeager, you old bastard. Don't just stand there like some lonesome god-damn mouse-shit sheepherder. Get your ass over here and have a drink.