Field of Dreams (1989)

James Earl Jones: Terence Mann

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Quotes 

• Terence Mann : Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

• Ray Kinsella : So what do you want?

  Terence Mann : I want them to stop looking to me for answers, begging me to speak again, write again, be a leader. I want them to start thinking for themselves. I want my privacy.

  Ray Kinsella : No, I mean, what do you WANT?

  [Gestures to the concession stand they're in front of] 

  Terence Mann : Oh. Dog and a beer.

• Terence Mann : I'm going to beat you with a crowbar until you leave.

  Ray Kinsella : You can't do that.

  Terence Mann : There are rules here? No, there are no rules here.

  [advances with crowbar] 

  Ray Kinsella : You're a pacifist!

  Terence Mann : [stops]  Shit.

• Ray Kinsella : By the time I was ten, playing baseball got to be like eating vegetables or taking out the garbage. So when I was 14, I started to refuse. Could you believe that? An American boy refusing to play catch with his father.

  Terence Mann : Why 14?

  Ray Kinsella : That's when I read "The Boat Rocker" by Terence Mann.

  Terence Mann : [rolling his eyes]  Oh, God.

  Ray Kinsella : Never played catch with him again.

  Terence Mann : You see? That's the sort of crap people are always trying to lay on me. It's not my fault you wouldn't play catch with your father.

• Terence Mann : Ray, there was a reason they chose me, just as there was a reason they chose you and this field.

  Ray Kinsella : Why?

  Terence Mann : I gave an interview.

  Ray Kinsella : What interview? What are you talking about?

  Terence Mann : The one about Ebbets Field. The one that charged you up and sent you all the way out to Boston to find me.

  Ray Kinsella : You lied to me.

  Terence Mann : Well, you were kidnapping me at the time, you big jerk!

  Ray Kinsella : Well, you lied to me!

  Terence Mann : You said your finger was a gun!

  Ray Kinsella : That's a good point.

  Terence Mann : Ray. Ray. Listen to me, Ray. Listen to me. There is something out there, Ray, and if I have the courage to go through with this, what a story it'll make: "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa".

• Ray Kinsella : Don't you miss being involved?

  Terence Mann : I was the East Coast distributor of "involved." I ate it, drank it, and breathed it... Then they killed Martin, Bobby, and they elected Tricky Dick twice, and people like you must think I'm miserable because I'm not involved anymore. Well, I've got news for you. I spent all my misery years ago. I have no more pain for anything. I gave at the office.

• Ray Kinsella : [being rushed out of Mann's loft]  You've changed - you know that?

  Terence Mann : Yes - I suppose I have! How about this: "Peace, love, *dope*"? Now get the *hell* out of here!

• Ray Kinsella : My name's Ray Kinsella. You used my father's name in one of your stories: John Kinsella.

  Terence Mann : You're seeing a whole team of psychiatrists, aren't you?

• Terence Mann : Oh, my God.

  Ray Kinsella : What?

  Terence Mann : You're from the sixties.

  Ray Kinsella : [bashfully]  Well, yeah, actually...

  Terence Mann : [spraying at Ray with a insecticide sprayer]  Out! Back to the sixties! Back! There's no place for you here in the future! Get back while you still can!

• Terence Mann : I wish I had your passion, Ray... Misdirected though it might be, it is still a passion. I used to feel that way about things, but...

• Chisolm Newspaper Publisher : [Reading Doc Graham's obituary]  ... and there were times when children could not afford eyeglasses, or milk, or clothing. Yet no child was ever denied of these essentials, because in the background, there was always Dr. Graham. Without any fanfare or publicity, the glasses, or the milk, or the ticket to the ballgame found their way into the child's pocket.

  Terence Mann : You wrote that?

  Chisolm Newspaper Publisher : The day he died.

  Terence Mann : You're a good writer.

  Chisolm Newspaper Publisher : [pats shoulder]  So are you.

• [Terence Mann is about to call his concerned father about his "disappearance"] 

  Terence Mann : [chuckling to himself in disbelief]  What do I tell him?

• Terence Mann : Tell me about his wife.

  Third Man in Bar : Alicia. She moved to South Carolina after Doc passed. She passed a couple years later. She always wore blue. The shopkeepers in town would stock blue hats... because they knew if Doc walked by, he'd buy one. When they cleaned out his office... they found boxes of blue hats... that he never got around to give her. I'll bet you didn't know that.

  Terence Mann : No, I didn't.