10 Best 'Pulp Fiction' Quotes, Ranked (2024)

Given Pulp Fiction is one of the best movies of the 1990s, and has one of the greatest screenplays ever written, it’s no surprise to anyone that it contains tons of amazing dialogue. Really, that seems to be what people like most about the film, whether characters are monologuing, swearing/yelling at each other, or dropping snappy one-liners that entered pop culture straight away and have remained there for three decades now.

It was a film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, but it should be noted that he had a co-writer for Pulp Fiction, too, meaning some of the thanks for the great screenplay also has to go to the underappreciated Roger Avary. Some of the film’s best lines are ranked below, though two apologies in advance are in order. The first is that, sorry, not every line can be included here; there are too many good ones. And, secondly, sorry about the censoring of profanity. Things have to be kept PG around here, and Pulp Fiction is anything but PG in its uncensored glory.

Pulp Fiction

R

Crime

Drama

Thriller

Where to Watch

• stream
• rent
• buy

*Availability in US

The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

Release Date

September 10, 1994

Director

Quentin Tarantino

Cast

John Travolta , Samuel L. Jackson , Tim Roth , Amanda Plummer , Eric Stoltz , Bruce Willis

Runtime

154

10 “They call it a Royale with cheese.”

Vincent Vega

Pulp Fiction contains several different storylines that sometimes intersect in unexpected ways, with the unpredictability of the whole film further exemplified by the fact events take place in non-chronological order. Oh, and many of the characters aren’t very smart, have bad luck, and are willing to talk about menial things, even if they're doing something most people wouldn’t call menial, like driving to a destination where someone might end up getting killed.

But that’s just life for Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield, who are shown in one of the film’s earliest scenes conversing about all sorts of things on their way to retrieve a briefcase with something important purportedly in it. Part of this conversation involves the differences in fast food in Paris, with Vincent explaining that, due to the metric system, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese is instead called “a Royale with cheese.”

9 “Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead.”

Butch Coolidge

Bruce Willis has one of the most prominent roles in Pulp Fiction, with his storyline revolving around what happens when he double-crosses Marsellus Wallace, the man Jules and Vincent were shown working for earlier in the film. Fleeing the area with his girlfriend, Fabienne, post-double-crossing, he realizes he forgot something important to him, and then risks a great deal to travel back into the danger zone (Tom Cruise would be proud) to get it back.

This kicks off a whole misadventure that represents Pulp Fiction at its darkest. Importantly, Willis’s Butch Coolidge survives, and is able to leave after sort of mending things with Marsellus (he still has to leave L.A., though). But hey, at least he also scores a chopper (not a motorcycle) from the whole bizarre ordeal. It’s a vehicle that used to belong to a reprehensible man named Zed, but no longer, with Butch explaining why to Fabienne in his memorable final line of the movie.

8 “You’re gonna go out there and say, ‘Good night, I’ve had a very lovely evening’… walk out the door, go home, jerk off, and that’s all you’re gonna do.”

Vincent Vega

Vincent is the character with the most screen time in Pulp Fiction, even if it’s arguably Marsellus Wallace who’s the most “central” character. Each of the main storylines revolves around characters either helping Marsellus or getting on his bad side, with Vincent also playing a role in each of them, including the part of Pulp Fiction where Marsellus’s wife, Mia, wants a night on the town while Marsellus is away, and Vincent’s asked to take her out.

John Travolta shines in making Vincent a loser, and while the character’s dopiness is conveyed in many ways, it’s never as succinct as when Vincent is talking to himself in a bathroom mirror. It’s funny, but turns tense when Mia finds Vincent’s heroin in his coat pocket, mistakes it for cocaine, and then overdoses, which naturally sets off a further chaotic series of events. It’s definitely not the only time in the movie that something dramatic happens while Vincent is in a bathroom.

7 “Say 'what' again. Say 'what' again, I dare you, I double dare you motherf**ker, say what one more goddamn time!”

Jules Winnfield

Even if Samuel L. Jackson has less screen time than John Travolta, Jackson dominates every scene he’s in. When Jackson’s in the film, it’s easy to become convinced that his character, Jules Winnfield, is basically Pulp Fiction’s central one. Additionally, he gets a large number of the film’s most iconic lines, which are memorably profane and also exceptionally well-delivered by Jackson at his biggest and loudest.

But Jules is also an interesting character with an underrated arc, and he gets more contemplative as his story nears its end. However, before that end, he’s wild and intimidating, and the whole “Say ‘what’ again” exchange is one of the best moments he has. It happens following the Royale with Cheese conversation, and within maybe the most quotable scene in the movie. The “Ezekiel 25:17” monologue is also found here, but more on that (and the way it’s revisited at the film’s conclusion) later.

6 “You hear me talking, hillbilly boy? I ain't through with you by a damn sight. I'ma get medieval on your ass.”

Marsellus Wallace

As mentioned before, Marsellus Wallace’s presence is felt throughout the film even when he’s not on-screen. Indeed, in the storylines focused on the briefcase and Mia’s night on the town/overdose, Marsellus is seldom seen, only getting considerable screen time during the storyline that involves Butch double-crossing him. It’s personal for Marsellus, after all.

For as intimidating as he can be while off-screen, Marsellus Wallace on screen is a whole other story, thanks to Ving Rhames's stone-cold performance. His retaliation against Zed (you know, the one who’s dead) is fairly violent, concerning what’s seen, and absolutely mortifying, concerning what’s threatened. But Zed had it coming, in many ways, though it’s probably for the best that we don’t actually see Marsellus getting medieval on his ass. Such an act involves a pair of pliers and a blowtorch, too. The latter tool, as it's identified now, isn't exactly a medieval item, but questioning or nitpicking Marsellus Wallace is just asking for trouble, so it’s best to let it slide.

Captain Koons

Christopher Walken has a reputation for stealing scenes and being a highly memorable supporting player in many films, with Pulp Fiction arguably being the best example of him doing so. He plays a man named Captain Koons, who visits Butch while he’s a child, giving him a gold watch that used to belong to Butch’s father, who died while fighting in the Vietnam War.

It’s hard to imagine any other actor pulling off the ridiculous and incredible monologue Walken’s given to recite here, with the whole thing starting solemn and then careening into the absurd when Koons’s story turns to how the watch was “hidden” from enemies while in Vietnam. It’s toilet humor, sure, but it’s funny, Pulp Fiction doesn’t shy away from that kind of humor in other areas (again, Vincent goes to the toilet a lot), and the whole exchange of dialogue also explains why Butch puts himself in such danger to retrieve the watch after screwing over Marsellus.

4 “I do believe Marsellus Wallace, my husband, your boss, told you to take me out and do whatever I wanted. Now I wanna dance, I wanna win. I want that trophy, so dance good.”

Mia Wallace

Before the aforementioned drug overdose, Mia and Vincent actually have a pretty nice night out in one of Pulp Fiction’s breeziest and most iconic scenes (well, just about every scene in this movie is iconic, but whatever). They go to a 1950s-themed restaurant and take place in a dance contest that they apparently win… the word “apparently” being appropriate, because there are theories they might have lost the contest and just stolen the trophy for kicks.

But what’s undeniable is that Mia wants the trophy at any cost, and given she’s connected to Vincent's powerful boss, she can persuade him to take part in the contest in question. Honestly, if Uma Thurman demanded of anyone that she wanted to dance, she wanted to win, and she wanted “that trophy,” could anyone truly say they’d turn her down?

3 “Well, I'm a mushroom-cloud-laying motherf**ker, motherf**ker!”

Jules Winnfield

No one swears as well as Samuel L. Jackson, and in one of Pulp Fiction’s later scenes, he proves himself able to somehow pull off saying “motherf**ker” twice in a row. First, he specifies that he’s a “mushroom-cloud-laying motherf**ker,” and then refers to Vincent as a “motherf**ker” right afterward, to emphasize his point further. And Jackson genuinely makes it work.

Jules is understandably angry, too, given the situation he and Vincent are in involves them having to clean a car in a very short amount of time. Said car is messy because of Vincent’s lack of control over his firearm, and said mess is a huge amount of brains and blood from a now-deceased Marvin, who was in the apartment Jules and Vincent visited. But, luckily, the duo gets their act together and clean things up, with a good deal of help from The Wolf. Speaking of…

2 “That's thirty minutes away. I'll be there in ten.”

Winston Wolfe

The Wolf is a nickname given to Harvey Keitel’s Winston Wolfe, an impeccably cool, calm, and collected fixer who gets Vincent and Jules out of the mess Vincent landed them in. Keitel was basically born to play stylish gangsters and/or criminals, with Winston Wolfe being a trusted associate of Marsellus who’s only sent into situations that require the big guns.

Wolfe is so good at his job that he can travel around the bustling and traffic-heavy Los Angeles with ease, expressing that even though the address Vincent and Jules are at is 10 minutes away, he can still be there in 10. That’s more or less how he’s introduced, though he exits the film with another incredible line that deserves an honorable mention: “Just because you are a character doesn't mean that you have character.”

1 “The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm trying, Ringo. I'm trying real hard to be the shepherd.”

Jules Winnfield

Picking the best quote from Pulp Fiction is tough, but it’s probably one found in the film’s closing sequence, which involves Jules and Vincent (mostly Jules) preventing the robbery of a diner. The best part of this scene involves Jules reflecting on another great quote from earlier in the movie, the aforementioned Ezekiel 25:17 monologue, which he recites with gusto before killing a man.

He admits he’s done so before, but then expresses how he’s come to question both the saying and his criminal ways following an instance of apparent divine intervention (someone trying to shoot Jules and Vincent with every bullet missing). He talks down Pumpkin/Ringo – one of the robbers – without killing him or his partner in crime, all the while expressing his desire to exit a life of crime. And, he does, given he doesn’t play a part in the Butch storyline, which takes place after the suitcase storyline, chronologically. It might all sound like pretentious dialogue on paper, but it’s executed well, coming in the film’s final scene, and delivered perfectly by Samuel L. Jackson.

Rent on Apple TV

NEXT: Giant Monster Movies That Are Pretty Much Perfect