Vin Quotes in The Magnificent Seven (1960)

[Calvera has just captured the Seven]

Calvera: What I don't understand is why a man like you took the job in the first place, hmm? Why, huh?

Chris: I wonder myself.

Calvera: No, come on, come on, tell me why.

Vin: It's like a fellow I once knew in El Paso. One day, he just took all his clothes off and jumped in a mess of cactus. I asked him that same question, "Why?"

Calvera: And?

Vin: He said, "It seemed to be a good idea at the time."

Chris: You forget one thing. We took a contract.

Vin: It's sure not the kind any court would enforce.

Chris: That's just the kind you've got to keep.

Chico: Villages like this they make up a song about every big thing that happens. Sing them for years.

Chris Adams: You think it's worth it?

Chico: Don't you?

Chris Adams: It's only a matter of knowing how to shoot a gun. Nothing big about that.

Chico: Hey. How can you talk like this? Your gun has got you everything you have. Isn't that true? Hmm? Well, isn't that true?

Vin: Yeah, sure. Everything. After awhile you can call bartenders and faro dealers by their first name - maybe two hundred of 'em! Rented rooms you live in - five hundred! Meals you eat in hash houses - a thousand! Home - none! Wife - none! Kids... none! Prospects - zero. Suppose I left anything out?

Chris Adams: Yeah. Places you're tied down to - none. People with a hold on you - none. Men you step aside for - none.

Lee: Insults swallowed - none. Enemies - none.

Chris Adams: No enemies?

Lee: Alive.

Chico: Well. This is the kind of arithmetic I like.

Chris Adams: Yeah. So did I at your age.

Vin: We deal in lead friend.

Old Man: You worry about yourself. Are you ready for him?

[refers to Calvera]

Old Man: What if he comes now, huh?

Vin: Reminds me of that fellow back home that fell off a ten story building.

Chris: What about him?

Vin: Well, as he was falling people on each floor kept hearing him say, "So far, so good." Tch... So far, so good!

Vin: You know the first time I took a job as a hired gun, fellow told me, "Vin, you can't afford to care." There's your problem.

Chris: One thing I don't need is somebody telling me my problem.

Vin: Like I said before, that's your problem. You got involved in this village and the people in it.

Chris: Do you ever get tired of hearing yourself talk?

Vin: The reason I understand your problem so well is that I walked in the same trap myself. Yeah. First day we got here, I started thinking: Maybe I could put my gun away, settle down, get a little land, raise some cattle. Things that these people know about me be to my credit - wouldn't work against me. I just didn't want you to think you were the only sucker in town.

Vin: Twenty dollars? You must be living in style.

Lee: Yes... I have the most stylish corner of the filthy storeroom out back. That and one plate of beans. Ten dollars a day.

Vin: What're you gonna do when Calvera comes?

Old Man: At my age, a little excitement is welcome. Don't worry. Why would he kill me? Bullets cost money.

Hilario: The feeling I felt in my chest this morning, when I saw Calvera run away from us, that's a feeling worth dying for. Have you ever felt something like that?

Vin: Not for a long, long time. I envy you.

Vin: It took me a long, long time to learn my elbow from a hot rock. Right now, I belong back in that border town sleeping on white sheets.

[as Chris, Vin and Chico are about to leave the village]

Old Man: You could a-stay, you know. They wouldn't be sorry to have you a-stay.

Vin: They won't be sorry to see us go, either.

Old Man: Yes. The fighting is over. Your work is done. For them, each season has its tasks. If there were a season for gratitude, they'd show it more.

Vin: We didn't get any more than we expected, old man.

Old Man: Only the farmers have won. They remain forever. They are like the land itself. You helped rid them of Calvera, the way a strong wind helps rid them of locusts. You're like the wind - blowing over the land and... passing on. Vaya con dios.

Chris: Adios.

Vin: [Chris is driving the hearse up to Boot Hill; Vin is riding shotgun] Never rode shotgun on a hearse before.

[Chris and Vin were just shot at, hitting the tip of Chris' cigar]

Vin: You elected?

Chris: Na. I got nominated real good.

Vin: Rojas is makin' room for you in his home.

Old Man: Rojas? His conversation would bore me to death!

Vin: Yeah, well,

[sits on the wooden chair]

Vin: maybe somebody else, huh?

Old Man: hey are all farmers. Farmers talk of nothing but fertiliser and women. I've never shared their enthusiasm for fertiliser. As for women, I became indifferent when I was 83. I am staying here.

Vin: We heard you got that Salinas thing cleaned up in five weeks.

O'Reilly: They paid me $800 for that one.

Vin: And Johnson County in four weeks.

O'Reilly: They paid me $500 for that one.

Vin: You cost a lot.

O'Reilly: [proudly] Yeah, I cost a lot.

Chris: The pay is $20.

[Chris and Vin turn and walk away]

O'Reilly: [Calling after them] $20? Right now, that's a lot.

Vin: You know - I've been in some towns where the girls weren't all that pretty. In fact I've been in some towns where they're downright ugly. But it's the first time I've been in a town where there are no girls at all, 'cept little ones. You know if we're not careful we could have quite a social life here.

[Chris is driving the hearse up to Boot Hill; Vin is riding shotgun]

Chris: We'll get there.

Vin: It's not getting up there that bothers me. It's staying up there that I mind.

Chris: You heard of anything?

Vin: Just shooing some flies away from a Mexican village, but I can't find out what it pays.

Chris: Twenty dollars.

Vin: A week?

Vin: Six weeks.

Vin: Oh, that's ridiculous. Have you heard of anything?

Chris: Yeah. Shooing away some flies from a Mexican village. Theirs.

Vin: That wouldn't even pay for my bullets.

Villager: We understand. You could make much more in a grocery store. And it would be good, steady work.

Chris: [Sarcastically] Yeah.

Vin: How many you got?

Chris: [Puts up one finger. Vin reluctantly puts up two]

[as they ride to the village, Chico is following them]

Vin: Riding out there in all that dust and heat... what a chucklehead.

Chris: Yep. Not smart like us.

Vin: Yep.

Vin: All I'm saying is that sometimes you bend with the breeze, or you break.

Vin: I heard you were riding shotgun for the Overland Stage.

Chris: I was. My doctor told me to quit. For my health.

Vin: Why?

Chris: Too much lead in the air.

Vin: I came after you so that you'd know there was a price on your head.

Chris: How much?

Vin: Five hundred.

Chris: Dollars?

Vin: Pesos.

Vin: I wish I knew for sure.

Chris: Knew what?

Vin: Whether I'm here because Chico is a friend of mine, or if I'm just on the prod for a fight like Frank. Killing can get inside you.

Chris: And you think that's happening to you?

Vin: Why else would I be here? Sure Chico is a friend of mine. But, hell, I don't even know his last name.

Chris: Neither do I.

Vin: Don't it make you wonder?

Chris: No.

Vin: How the hell come, Chris?

Chris: Because in all the years I made my way with a gun, I never once shot a man just to see him fall. If that time ever comes, I'll throw my guns in a water bucket and walk away. So will you.

[last lines]

Chris: Well I'll be damned.

Vin: I doubt that. I doubt that very much.

Chris: He wants to know if we're going after them tonight or in the morning.

Vin: It's a big country and finding them could take a long time.

Chris: Hell, I haven't been going anywhere for ten years... and neither have you.

Vin: Ain't it the truth.

Chris: [In Spanish to Manuel] Stay here and cover us from the bell tower.

Vin: Ain't you going to take him with us?

Chris: He'll cover us from the bell tower.

Vin: We'll need all the help we can get.

Chris: Nah he stay's behind.

Vin: For luck?

Chris: [Smiles, remembering Harry Luck] For Luck!

[the six men ride away leaving Manuel. With Elmer Bernstein's triumphant music]

Vin: You know, I hate your mother! Your mother's got four tits - four tits, and THREE assholes! I hate that beeeootcchhh! She's a 28-stone, sumo wrestler, with four tits and three assholes, AND a pompom the size of Blackwall Tunnel!

Escort Officer 2: Shut it, all right? Just shut it!

Vin: Get down on your knees, boy! And lick the smoke off my shoes!

Jon: Since when are you all high and mighty?

Vin: I'm not high and mighty. I'm too high to be high and mighty.

Vin: Do you have any idea how much those drugs cost?

Amy: There'll be other drugs, Vincent.

Vin: I know... but, I really liked those ones.

Jon: She's probably scared.

Vin: Oh god, of *what*? I never threatened her!

Jon: ...You sometimes present a threatening appearance.

Vin: Dude... we have been going together for three years.

Jon: So what?

Vin: So... I mean, you'd think she would be used to it by now.

Vin: She thinks I have violet tendencies.

Jon: Oh, boy.

Vin: Jon, I never touched her.

Jon: I never said you did.

Vin: well, she thinks I have, uh, "unresolved issues, which occasionally manifest themselves in potentially violet ways."

Jon: [... ] Women these days have no reason to hang around potentially violet guys. It's not an attractive quality anymore. Too many guys out there with "resolved" violet tendencies.

Vin: Oh, so I'm out of fashion?

Jon: You don't like my work?

Vin: I like it like I like a shot of whiskey first thing in the morning: it's good for about 10 minutes and then I want my coffee.