Thomas Alden Quotes in Fly Away Home (1996)

[first lines]

Thomas Alden: Amy? It's your dad.

Amy Alden: Dad?

Thomas Alden: I came down from Canada. I've come to take you home.

Amy Alden: Where's Mom?

Thomas Alden: Um...

Amy Alden: Mum died, didn't she?

Amy Alden: Mama to Papa. That was so cool!

Thomas Alden: Yeah, great. I just made a criminal out of my own daughter. Now we'll both do time behind bars.

Amy Alden: Dad, stop being so dramatic.

Thomas Alden: Now, look, this is just the beginning, Amy. We've got to make 120 nautical miles by sundown, fly across Lake Ontario, cross an international boundary without a permit carrying stolen goods, without filing a flight plan, without any official approval, four days behind schedule. We're on the edge, my dear.

[watching Amy lead the geese around]

Thomas Alden: It's amazing, isn't it, how they, uh, follow her around like that?

DNR Officer: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, uh, called imprinting. The first living thing a goose sees when it's born, it automatically assume is its mother.

Thomas Alden: Huh.

DNR Officer: They'll follow her anywhere.

Susan Barnes: [about the plan to fly south with the geese] This will never work!

Thomas Alden: [confused] But I thought you liked the geese.

Susan Barnes: [shouts] I *DO* LIKE THE GEESE!

David Alden: With this baby you could fly over the Empire State Building.

Thomas Alden: Or end up as a big pound of ground round. One of the two.