O Brother, Where Art Thou is both Clooney’s finest effort and the best Coen film. Clooney’s performance is worthy of the best actor nomination, as well as Tim Blake Nelson’s portrayal of Delmar, the dimwitted friend. The film is also deserving of a Best Film nod. This film is full of great quotes that we can easily catch up on. What are the O Brother Where Art Thou Quotes? Continue reading to know more about Penn Book.

O Brother, Where Art Thou

“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” is a 2000 American epic musical comedy-drama film, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Set in the rural South during the Great Depression, the film follows three convicts – Ulysses Everett McGill, Pete Hogwallop, and Delmar O’Donnell – as they escape from prison and embark on a journey to retrieve a hidden treasure.

Along the way, they encounter a series of eccentric characters and obstacles, and ultimately discover the true meaning of friendship, love, and redemption. With its quirky humor, beautiful cinematography, and toe-tapping soundtrack, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” has become a beloved classic and a standout among the Coen Brothers’ filmography.

Top Best O Brother, Where Art Thou Quotes

“We’re In A Tight Spot” – Everett McGill

It is common for a line to be repeated in a film many times. This can cause nerves. It may work if the line is fast and accurate. Everett has used this line more than once when Everett is under fire or cornered.

This line is made so funny and quotable by George Clooney’s delivery. It is something he says quickly but also with a calm delivery. This is a saying that was used before the film’s events. This line is repeated many times in the same scene when the boys run from gunfire and are trapped in a barn that’s on fire.

“He’s A Suitor” – Wharvey Gal

Everett spends most of the movie searching for his wife and children. He finally locates them and discovers that his wife has a new man. He tells his daughters that he was killed in a train accident to keep them from learning that he is in prison. Everett’s daughters keep telling Everett that their mother is now a suitor, in a funny repetitive manner, as he talks to them about it.

Comedy is in misery. Everett’s long journey only to find he is too late to make it funny may be comical. But the line the young girl uses adds salt and pepper to Everett’s already sweet story.

“Turned Him Into A Horny Toad” – Delmar O’Donnell

The film’s version of the Sirens of Greek Mythology is a group made up of women who lure men to a lake and give them strange drinks that cause them to go unconscious. Everett and Delmar discover that Pete’s clothes are gone when they arrive at the lake. Tim Blake Nelson plays Delmar. He then notices that Pete has a toad in his clothes and mistakenly believes it to be Pete.

This line is quotable because of Delmar’s shocked reaction and his scream. This line is a classic because of its absurdity. Delmar spends a lot of the movie with Pete, which he believes is Pete. The audience gets some dark humor later on when the toad meets its end.

“Do Not Seek The Treasure” – Pete Hogwallop

Everett, Delmar, and others take a break from all the chaos to see a movie. A chain gang of guards enters the theatre interrupting their brief break. Two escaped convicts plopped down on their seats, trying to hide from being spotted by the line whispered behind them.

They see Pete, and instead of turning him into a toad, they were caught by police and taken back to prison. They ignore this warning, and Delmar decides to tell Pete that he is a toad. Pete ignores this warning and continues to repeat the line. This line is often repeated by fans of the film, especially at movie theatres.

“I’m A Dapper Dan Man” – Everett McGill

Everett is extremely protective of his hair and will only use Dapper Dan. He makes it his mission every time he runs out to find it before using any other hair products. In the years that have followed his arrest, he soon realizes how difficult it is to find hair grease.

Everett says he is a “Dapper Dan Man” and refuses to buy a similar product from the shopkeeper. Although this is one of the more calm scenes, it still features a fan-favorite scene that proves the Coens can make anything memorable.

“What Line Of Work You In, George?” – Delmar O’Donnell

During the chase with George Nelson, he requests that Delmar hand him his “chopper,” which Delmar does. After George handed him his weapon, he asked where he was working. While Delmar has been shown more times than once that he is not the smartest person in the group, this one line pushes the limits.

The fact that the line is ignored adds humor to the joke. There is no sarcastic comment or look, which shows that Delmar is not smart.

“I’m The Paterfamilias” – Everett McGill

Although all three men may not be the best educated, Everett believes he is a genius. He repeats a word most people wouldn’t use, proving his point. He refers to himself as “the paterfamilias” when he wants to convince his daughters and wife that he is truly the head of the family.

He uses a lot of words, but he doesn’t know what they mean. He keeps trying to be as intelligent as possible and continues to use them even though he has no idea what they mean.

“George Nelson Withdrawals” – George Nelson

George leads the boys to a bank and robs it. George believes he’s the greatest bank robber ever, and everyone fears him. He walks into the bank and fires his gun in the air, giving a loud speech of self-appreciation. The bank’s reaction is what makes this line memorable.

Although they are initially scared, they become more confused as he speaks. George overhears a woman whispering that he is Babyface. His loud demeanor suddenly disappears, and he appears almost offended. This is a sign that his loud speech was just an act to make him seem more intimidating than the Babyface he is well-known for.

“R-U-N-N-O-F-T” – Wash Hogwallop

After escaping from prison, Pete’s cousin’s farm is where the boys go to rest. Wash asks Wash where his wife is. He responds by looking at his son, saying that she is “Ru-N-Of-T.” This is comical because he’s not spelling the right word to save his son.

The audience later sees that the boy knows what this means. He saves the men from the barn burning in a car and says that he will “R-U–N-O-F–T.” Although there are many mispronounced words throughout the film, this one seems to be the most popular. It isn’t even spoken.

Other O Brother Where Art Thou Quotes

Pete: Who elected you a leader of this outfit?
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, Pete, I thought the leader should be the one with the capacity for abstract thought, but if that doesn’t seem to be the case, hell, we’ll put it to a vote.

Tommy Johnson: I had to be up at their crossroads last midnight, to sell my soul to the devil
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well ain’t it a small world, spiritually speaking. Pete and Delmar have just been baptized and saved. I guess I’m the only one that remains unaffiliated.

Penny: I’ve spoken my piece and counted to three.
Ulysses Everett McGill: She counted to three. Goddamit! She counted to three. Sonafabitch!

Ulysses Everett McGill: Why are you tellin’ our gals that I was hit by a train?
Penny: Lots of respectable people have been hit by trains. Judge Hoover over in Cookville was hit by a train. What was I gonna tell them, that you got sent to the penal farm and I divorced you from shame?
Ulysses Everett McGill: Uh, I take your point. But it does put me in a damn awkward position, vis-à-vis my progeny.

Ulysses Everett McGill: Ain’t you gonna introduce us, Pete?
Pete: I don’t know their names. I’ve seen ’em first!

Penny: Vermon, he’s got a job. Vermon’s got prospects. He’s bona fide. What are you?

Big Dan Teague: So long, boys. See you in the funny papers.

Ulysses Everett McGill: I detect, like me, you’re endowed with the gift of gab.

Delmar: They… left… his… heart!

Ulysses Everett McGill: I like the smell of my hair treatment; the pleasin’ odor is half the point.

Homer Stokes: These boys desecrated a burnin’ cross!

Delmar: Gopher, Everett?

Wash Hogwallop: Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-N-N-O-F-T.

Ulysses Everett McGill: Me and the old lady are gonna pick up the pieces and retie the knot, mixaphorically speakin’.

Everett Ulysses McGill: I’m a Dapper Dan man!

Homer Stokes: These boys are not white! These boys are not white! Hell, they ain’t even old timey!

Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, you lyin’… unconstant … succubus…
Vernon T. Waldrip: Whoa, whoa, whoa! You can’t swear at my fiancé!
Ulysses Everett McGill: Oh, yeah? Well, you can’t marry my wife!

Penny: The only good thing you ever did for the gals that were hit by that train!

Pete: Do not seek the treasure!

Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, that right there may be the reason you’ve had difficulty findin’ gainful employment. You see, in the mart of competitive commerce…

Delmar: Got a name, do you?

Delmar: You work for the railroad, Grandpa?

Homer Stokes: This band of miscreants, this very evenin’, interfered with a lynch mob in the performance of its duty.

Siren: Damn, two weeks from everywhere.

Homer Stokes: “Is you is, or is you ain’t my constituents?”
Homer Stokes: Is you is, or is you ain’t my constituents?

Homer Stokes: We’re gonna take the broom of reform, and sweep this state clean!
Homer Stokes: We’re gonna take the broom of reform and sweep this state clean!

Ulysses Everett McGill: I’ve seen it first!

George Nelson: What are you lookin’ at, Grandpa?

Pappy O’Daniel: Thank God, your mama died givin’ birth. If she’d have seen you, she’d have died of shame.

Everett Ulysses McGill: Damn! We’re in a tight spot!

Wash Hogwallop: I slaughtered this horse last Tuesday. I’m afraid she’s startin’ to turn
Wash Hogwallop: I slaughtered this horse last Tuesday. I’m afraid she’s startin’ to turn.

Pete: Do not seek the treasure
Pete: Do not seek the treasure.

Delmar: I’m with you fellas
Delmar: I’m with you fellas.

Pete: I seen it first!

George Nelson: What are you looking at Grandpa?

Everett Ulysses McGill: Damn. We’re in a tight spot!

Delmar:(At Pete) We
Delmar:[at Pete] We thought you were a toad!

George Nelson: Hold the applause and drop your draws
George Nelson: Okay, folks, hold the applause and drop your drawers.

Pappy’s Staff: Well, it’s a well-run campaign- midget, broom…

Ulysses Everett McGill: Well ain’t this place a geographical oddity….two weeks from everywhere
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, ain’t this place a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!

Everett Ulysses McGill:(To Penny) I’ll tell you what I am?. I’m the damn paterfamilias, you can’t marry him?.
Everett Ulysses McGill:[to Penny] I’ll tell you what I am? I’m the damn paterfamilias, you can’t marry him?

Penny:(watching Everett and Vermon fight as she talks about Vermon or Everlett) He’s not my husband?.
Penny:[watching Everett and Vermon fight as she talks about Vermon or Everlett] He’s not my husband?

Everett Ulysses McGill:(laughs) baptism! You two are dumber than a bag of hammers!
Everett Ulysses McGill: Baptism! You two are just dumber than a bag of hammers!

Big Dan Teague: And stay out of the Woolworth.

Penny: I can, I am, and I will…
Penny: I can, I am, and I will.

Pete:…eighty-four years old.
Pete: Eighty-four years old.
Delmar: I’ll only be eighty-two!

Everett Ulysses McGill: Well, you lying…unconstant … succubus!
Everett Ulysses McGill: Well, you lying… unconstant … succubus!
Vernon T. Waldrip: Whoa, Whoa, Whoa! You can’t swear at my fiance!
Vernon T. Waldrip: Whoa, whoa, whoa! You can’t swear at my fiance!
Vernon T. Waldrip: Whoa, whoa, whoa! You can’t swear at my fiance
Vernon T. Waldrip: Whoa, whoa, whoa! You can’t swear at my fiance.
Everett Ulysses McGill: Oh, yeah? Well, you can’t marry my wife!

Penny: That ain’t your Daddy, Alvanelle. Your Daddy got hit by a train.
Penny: That ain’t your daddy, Alvinelle. Your daddy was hit by a train.

Everett Ulysses McGill: I don’t want Fop goddamnit, I amï»¿ a Dapper Dan man
Everett Ulysses McGill: I don’t want Fop goddammit, I’m a Dapper Dan man!

Pappy O’Daniel: Thank God your mama died giving birth. If she’d had seen you, she’d have died of shame.

Everett Ulysses McGill: I don’t no FOP Goddammit! I’m a Dapper Dan Man!

Penny: Vernon here’s got a job. Vernon’s got prospects. He’s bona fide. How are you?

Everett Ulysses McGill: Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin’?

Ulysses Everett McGill: Woo! Hot Damn, son I believe you did sell your soul to the devil.
Lund: Woooooooo-wee. Boy, that was a mighty fine a-pickin’ and a-singin’. I’ll tell you what, you come on in here and sign these papers here and I’m a-gonna you ten dollars apiece. Ulysses Everett McGill: Uh, okay sir. But Murt and Aloysius will have to sign Xes as only four of us can write.

Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, it didn’t look like a two-horse town, but try finding a decent hair jelly.

Pappy O’Daniel: Sounded to me like he was harboring a hateful grudge against the Soggy Bottom Boys on account of their rough and rowdy past. Looks like Homer Stokes is the kind of fellow who wants to cast the first stone.
Pappy O’Daniel: Well, I’m with you folks. I’m a forgive-and-forgettin’ Christian, and I say, if their rambunctiousness, and misdemeanor, is behind them…[turns away from the mike, towards Everett]
Pappy O’Daniel: [no-nonsense] It is, ain’t it, boys?
Ulysses Everett McGill: Uh, yes sir, it is.

George Nelson: [after Nelson has robbed the bank] Thank you folks! And remember, Jesus saves, but George Nelson withdraws!
George Nelson: Go fetch the auto voiture, Pete.
Woman In Bank: [whispering] Is that “Babyface” Nelson?
George Nelson: Who said that?
George Nelson: What ignorant, low down, slanderizin, son of a bitch said that?
George Nelson: My name is George Nelson, get me?
Delmar O’Donnell: She didn’t mean nothin by it, George.
George Nelson: [noticeably upset] George Nelson! Not “Babyface”! You remember, and you tell your friends! I’m George Nelson! Born to raise hell!

George Nelson: Cows! I hate cows worse than coppers![fires his Tommy gun at them]Delmar O’Donnell: Oh, George… not the livestock.

Ulysses Everett McGill: So you’re against me now too? Is that how it is boys? The whole world, God almighty, and now you.

Ulysses Everett McGill: Yessir, the South is gonna change. Everything’s gonna be put on electricity and run on a paying basis. Out with old spiritual mumbo-jumbo, the superstition and the backward ways. We’re gonna see a brave new world where they run everyone a wire and hook us all up to the grid. Yessir, a veritable age of reason like they had in France. And not a moment too soon…

Delmar O’Donnell: Hey mister! I don’t mean to be tellin’ tales out of school, but there’s a feller in there that’ll pay you ten dollars if you sing into his can.

Delmar O’Donnell: where’s the happy little tire swing?

Ulysses Everett McGill: I am the only daddy you got! I’m the damn paterfamilias!
Wharvey Gal: But you ain’t bona fide!

Ulysses Everett McGill: Pete’s cousin turned us in for the bounty.
Pete: The hell you say! Wash is kin!
Washington Hogwallop: Sorry, Pete, I know we’re kin, but they got this depression on. I got to do for me and mine.
Pete: I’m gonna kill you, Judas Iscariot Hogwallop!

Ulysses Everett McGill: What’d the devil give you for your soul, Tommy?
Tommy Johnson: Well, he taught me to play this here guitar real good.
Delmar O’Donnell: Oh son, for that you sold your everlasting soul?
Tommy Johnson: Well, I wasn’t usin’ it.

Pete: I’ve always wondered, what’s the devil look like?
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, there are all manner of lesser imps and demons, Pete, but the great Satan himself is red and scaly with a bifurcated tail, and he carries a hay fork.
Tommy Johnson: Oh, no. No, sir. He’s white, as white as you folks, with empty eyes and a big hollow voice. He likes to travel around with a mean old hound. That’s right.

Pappy O’Daniel: And furthermore, by way of endorsing my candidacy, the Soggy Bottom Boys are gonna lead us all in a rousing chorus of “You Are My Sunshine.”[Applause. Pappy turns away from the mike, towards Everett]
Pappy O’Daniel: [no-nonsense] Ain’t you, boys?
Ulysses Everett McGill: Governor, it’s one of our favorites.

Pappy O’Daniel: Son… you’re gonna go far.

Ulysses Everett McGill: Deceitful, two-faced she-woman. Never trust a female Delmar, remember that one simple precept and your time with me will not have been ill-spent.
Delmar O’Donnell: Ok, Everett.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Hit by a train! Truth means nothing to a woman, Delmar. Triumph of the subjective. You ever been with a woman?
Delmar O’Donnell: Well, I… I… I gotta get the family farm back before I can start thinking about that.
Ulysses Everett McGill: That’s right, if then. Believe me Delmar, woman is the most fiendish instrument of torture ever devised to bedevil the days of man.

Washington Hogwallop: Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-N-N-O-F-T.
Ulysses Everett McGill: She musta been lookin’ for answers.
Washington Hogwallop: Possibly. Good riddance as far as I’m concerned. I do miss her cookin’ though.
Delmar O’Donnell: This stew’s awful good.
Washington Hogwallop: [examining his fork] You think so? I slaughtered this horse last Tuesday… I’m afraid she’s startin’ to turn.

Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, I guess hard times flush the chump. Everybody’s lookin’ for answers… Where the hell’s he goin’?[as Delmar runs out to be baptized]Pete: Well, I’ll be a son of a bitch. Delmar’s been saved!

Penny Wharvey McGill: Well, we need that ring.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well that ring is at the bottom of a pretty durn big lake.
Penny Wharvey McGill: Uh-uh.
Ulysses Everett McGill: A 9,000 hectare lake.
Penny Wharvey McGill: I don’t care if it’s 90,000…Ulysses Everett McGill: But honey…Penny Wharvey McGill: that lake was not my doing.

Ulysses Everett McGill: Of course not honey…
Penny Wharvey McGill: I counted to three, honey.
Ulysses Everett McGill: No, wait, honey! Finding one little ring in the middle of all that water is one hell of a heroic task!

Pete: Well I’ll be a sonofabitch. Delmar’s been saved.
Delmar O’Donnell: Well that’s it, boys. I’ve been redeemed. The preacher’s done warshed away all my sins and transgressions. It’s the straight and narrow from here on out, and heaven everlasting’s my reward.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Delmar, what are you talking about? We’ve got bigger fish to fry.
Delmar O’Donnell: The preacher says all my sins is warshed away, including that Piggly Wiggly I knocked over in Yazoo.
Ulysses Everett McGill: I thought you said you was innocent of those charges?
Delmar O’Donnell: Well I was lyin’. And the preacher says that that sin’s been warshed away too. Neither God nor man’s got nothin’ on me now. C’mon in boys, the water is fine.

Delmar O’Donnell: Everett, I never figured you for a paterfamilias.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Oh-ho, yes, I have spread my seed.

Big Dan Teague: Thank you for the conversational hiatus. I generally refrain from speech durin’ gustation. I find it course and vulgar. Where were we?
Delmar O’Donnell: Makin’ money in the service of the Lord.Big Dan Teague: Heh, you don’t say much, friend, but when you do, it’s to the point and I salute you for it!

Pappy O’Daniel: Furthermore, in the second Pappy O’Daniel administration, these boys is gonna be my *brain* trust.Delmar O’Donnell: What’s that mean, Everett?

Pete: Crazy! No one’s ever gonna believe we’re a real band.
Ulysses Everett McGill: No, it’s gonna work. I just gotta get close enough to talk to her. Takin’ off with us has got more future than marryin’ a guy named Waldrip. I’m Goddamned bona fide!
Delmar O’Donnell: Everett, my beard itches.

Junior O’Daniel: We could hire our own midget, even shorter than his.
Pappy O’Daniel: Wouldn’t we look like a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies, bragging on our own midget, doesn’t matter how stumpy.

Ulysses Everett McGill: It ain’t the law!
Sheriff Cooley: The law? The law is a human institution.

Pappy O’Daniel: Moral fibre? I invented moral fibre! Pappy O’Daniel was displaying rectitude and high-mindedness when that egghead you work for was still messing his drawers!

Ulysses Everett McGill: You can’t display a toad in a fine restaurant like this! Why, the good folks here would go right off the feed!
Delmar O’Donnell: I just don’t think it’s right keeping him under wraps like we’s ashamed of him.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, if it is Pete, I am ashamed of him! Way I see it, he got what he deserved, fornicating with some whore of Babylon. These things don’t happen for no reason, Delmar. It’s obviously some kinda judgment on his character.
Delmar O’Donnell: Well, the two of us was fixin’ to fornicate!

Pete: Well hell, it ain’t square one! Ain’t nobody gonna pick up three filthy, unshaved hitch-hikers, and one of them a know-it-all that can’t keep his trap shut.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Pete, the personal rancor reflected in that remark I don’t intend to dignify with comment. But I would like to address your general attitude of hopeless negativism. Consider the lilies of the goddamn field or… hell! Take at look at Delmar here as your paradigm of hope.
Delmar O’Donnell: Yeah, look at me.

Delmar O’Donnell: Can’t you see it, Everett? The sirens did this to Pete. They loved him up and turned him into a… horny toad. Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete. It’s me – Delmar. Everett…Ulysses Everett McGill: Delmar. What the…Delmar O’Donnell: What are we gonna do?
Ulysses Everett McGill: I’m not sure that’s Pete.
Delmar O’Donnell: Of course it’s Pete. Look at him.

Delmar O’Donnell: We ain’t really negroes.

Lund: You boys do niggra songs?

Homer Stokes: Damn disgrace! Made a travesty of the entire evenin’. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to get ahold of those agitators. I mean, whoever heard a such behavior? Even amongst the colored? Or, mulattos, maybe – I suspect some miscegenation in their heritage. How else you goin’ explain it?

Penny Wharvey McGill: I gotta think about the little Wharvey gals! They look to me for answers! Vernon can s’port ’em and buy ’em lessons on the clarinet!

Delmar O’Donnell: We didn’t abandon you, Pete, we just thought you was a toad.
Pete: No, they never did turn me into a toad.
Delmar O’Donnell: Well, that was our mistake then.

George Nelson: Boys! Well, these little men finally caught up with the criminal o’ the century! Looks like the chair for George Nelson. Yup! Gonna electrify me! I’m gonna go off like a Roman candle! Twenty thousand volts chasin’ the rabbit through yours truly! Gonna suck all the power right outa the state! Gonna shoot sparks out the top of my head and lightning from my fingertips!

Pappy O’Daniel: These boys is gonna be my brain trust.

Sheriff Cooley: Sweet summer rain. Like God’s own mercy.

Delmar O’Donnell: We was beat up by a bible salesman and banished from Woolworth’s. I don’t know, Everett, was it the one branch or all of ’em?

Ulysses Everett McGill: Where’s yer Mama?
Wharvey Gal: She’s at the five and dime.
Wharvey Gal: Buyin’ nipples.

Pappy O’Daniel: People think this Stokes got fresh ideas. He’s oh coorant – and we de past!

Delmar O’Donnell: Damn, we gotta skedaddle.

Pappy O’Daniel: You soft headed son of a bitch.

George Nelson: I’m George Nelson, and I’m feeling ten feet tall!

George Nelson: Okay, folks! Hold the applause and drop yer drawers!

The Whites: [singing] Oh, the storm and it’s fury break today, Crushing hope that we cherish so dear, The cloud and storm will, in time, pass away, And the sun again will shine bright and clear
The Whites, The Whites, The Whites: Keep on the sunny side, Always on the sunny side, Keep on the sunny side of life, It will help us ev’ry day, It will brighten all the way, If we’ll keep on the sunny side of life…

Ulysses Everett McGill: Pete, what are you going to do with your share of the treasure?
Pete: Go out west somewhere. Open a fine restaurant. I’m gonna be a mattre d’. Greet all the swells. Go to work everyday in a bowtie, tuxedo. And all the staff will say, “Yes, sah,” “Nah, sah,” and “In a Jiffy, Pete.” And all my meals for free.

Delmar O’Donnell: Pull over, Everett. Let’s give that colored boy a lift.

Delmar O’Donnell: There’s a feller in there that’ll pay you $10 if you sing into his can.
Pappy O’Daniel: I’m not here to make a record, you dumb cracker!

Ulysses Everett McGill: Pretty soon they’ll be nothin’ but feather beds and silk sheets.
Pete: A million dollars.
Ulysses Everett McGill: A million point two.
Delmar O’Donnell: Five hundred thousand each.

Big Dan Teague: I’m gonna propose you a proposition!

Ulysses Everett McGill: The old tactician has got a plan. For the transportation that is, I don’t know how I’m gonna keep my coiffure in order.
Pete: How’s this a plan? How we gonna get a car?
Ulysses Everett McGill: Sell that. I figure it can only have painful association for Wash.
Pete: [reading] “To Washington Bartholomew Hogwallop, from his loving Cora. Amor Fidel… is.”
Ulysses Everett McGill: It was in his bureau. I figure it’ll fetch us enough cash for a good used auto-voiture, and a little left over besides.

Pete: My pa always said “Never trust a Hogwallop!”

Ulysses Everett McGill: I was not hit by a train. Damnit, I am the paterfamilias!

Pete: Since we been followin’ your lead, we ain’t got nothing but trouble.

Interrogator: Talk, you un-Reconstructed whelp of a whore!

Soggy Bottom Customer: Do you have the Soggy Bottom Boys performing “Man of Constant Sorrow”?
Record Store Clerk: No ma’am. We got a new shipment in yesterday. Sorry, but we just can’t keep ’em on our shelves.

Woolworths Customer: Who is that man?
Penny Wharvey McGill: He’s not my husband… Just a drifter, I guess… Just some no-account drifter.

Blind Seer: [sings] Oh, bear me away on your snow white wings to my celestial home

Wharvey Gal: Daddy? He ain’t our daddy.
Ulysses Everett McGill: The hell I ain’t. What’s this Wharvey gals? You’re name’s McGill.
Wharvey Gal: No, sir. Not since you got hit by that train.
Ulysses Everett McGill: What are you talking about? I wasn’t hit by anytrain.
Wharvey Gal: Mama says you was hit by a train.
Wharvey Gal: Blooey!
Wharvey Gal: Nothin’ left.
Wharvey Gal: Just a grease spot on the L&N.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Damn it. I wasn’t hit by any train.
Wharvey Gal: That’s right. Now mama’s got us back to Wharvey.
Wharvey Gal: That’s her maiden name.
Wharvey Gal: You got a maiden name, daddy?
Ulysses Everett McGill: No, darling. Daddy don’t have a maiden name.

Big Dan Teague: Bible sales. Now the trade is not a complicated one. There are but two things to learn. One bein’ where to find a wholesaler – the Word of God in bulk as it were. Two, how to recognize your customer. Who are you dealin’ with? It’s an exercise in psychology, so to speak.

Ulysses Everett McGill: Jesus! Can I count on you people?
Delmar O’Donnell: Sorry, Everett.

Ulysses Everett McGill: I don’t get it, Big Dan.

Woolworths Manager: [to Ulysees after he’s thrown out of the F.W. Woolworth Co. store] And stay out o’ the Woolsworth
Woolworths Manager: !

Homer Stokes: And I say to you that the great state a Mississippi cannot afford four more years a Pappy O’Daniel – four more years a cronyism, nepotism, racialism and service to the Innarests! The choice, she’s a clear ‘un: Pappy O’Daniel, slave a the Innarests; Homer Stokes, servant a the little man! Ain’t that right, little fella?
The Little Man: He ain’t lyin’!

Big Dan Teague: Thank you boys for throwin’ in that fricassee. I’m a man of large appetite, and even with lunch under my belt, I was feelin’ a mite peckish.
Ulysses Everett McGill: It’s our pleasure, Big Dan.

Delmar O’Donnell: Jacking up banks. I can see how a fella’d derive a whole lot of pleasure and satisfaction out of it.

Homer Stokes: And so, we gonna hang us a negro!

Homer Stokes: These boys is not white! These boys is not white! Hell, they ain’t even old timey!

Ulysses Everett McGill: I’m not sure that’s Pete.
Delmar O’Donnell: Of course it’s Pete! Look at him!… We gotta find some kind of wizard to change him back.

Pete: You ruined my life!
Ulysses Everett McGill: I do apologize about that Pete.

Pappy O’Daniel: Holey moley! These boys are a hit!
Junior O’Daniel: But Pappy, they’s integrated!

Sheriff Cooley: Stairway to heaven. We shall all meet by and by.

Man with Bullhorn: All right, boys! It’s the authorities! We got you surrounded! Just come on out and grabbin’ air! And don’t try nothing fancy! Your sityeachin is purty nigh hopeless!

Ulysses Everett McGill: [Upon being startled awake] Mmmm. How’s my hair?

Delmar O’Donnell: Friend? Some of your foldin’ money’s come unstowed.

Homer Stokes: Is you is, or is you ain’t, my constituency?

Ulysses Everett McGill: Why are you telling our gals that I was hit by a train?
Penny Wharvey McGill: Lots of respectable people have been hit by trains. Judge Hobbie over in Cookville was hit by a train. What was I gonna tell them, that you got sent to the penal farm and I divorced you from shame?
Ulysses Everett McGill: Uh, I take your point. But it does put me in a damn awkward position, vis-a-vis my progeny.

Wharvey Gal: Now mama’s got a new beau.
Wharvey Gal: He’s a suitor.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Yeah. I heard about that.
Wharvey Gal: Mama says that he’s bona fide.
Ulysses Everett McGill: He give her a ring?
Wharvey Gal: Yes, sir. A big un.
Wharvey Gal: Gotta gem.
Wharvey Gal: Mama checked it.
Wharvey Gal: It’s bona fide
Wharvey Gal: He’s a suitor.
Ulysses Everett McGill: What’s his name.
Wharvey Gal: Vernon T. Waldrip
Wharvey Gal: Uncle Vernon.
Wharvey Gal: Til tomorrow
Wharvey Gal: Then he’s gonna a be daddy.
Ulysses Everett McGill: I am the only daddy you got. I’m the damn paterfamilias.
Wharvey Gal: But you ain’t bona fide.

Ulysses Everett McGill: [riding past a chain gang, Everett and Delmar see Pete] Pete got a brother?
Delmar O’Donnell: Not that I’m aware.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Heat must be getting to me.

Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, as soon as we get ourselves cleaned up and we get a little smellum in our hair, why, we’re gonna feel 100% better about ourselves and about life in general.

Ulysses Everett McGill: Say, uh, Cousin Wash, I suppose it’d be the acme of foolishness to inquire if you had a hair net.
Washington Hogwallop: Got a bunch in yon bureau, Mrs. Hogwallop’s as a matter of fact
Washington Hogwallop: . Help y’self… I won’t be needin’ ’em.

Pappy O’Daniel: I’ll press your flesh, you dimwitted sumbitch! You don’t tell your pappy how to court the electorate. We ain’t one-at-a-timin’ here. We’re MASS communicating!

Ulysses Everett McGill: Tommy, what you ridin’ there?
Tommy Johnson: Uh… Roll top desk!

Big Dan Teague: You don’t say much my friend, but when you do it’s to the point, and I salute you for it.

Homer Stokes: The color guard is colored! Who made them the color guard?

Delmar O’Donnell: We thought you was a toad!
Pete: What?
Delmar O’Donnell: [leaning in, speaking slower] We thought you was a toad!

Homer Stokes: [as Grand Kleagle at a KKK rally] Brothers! Oh, brothers! We have all gathered here, to preserve our hallowed culture and heritage! We aim to pull evil up by the root, before it chokes out the flower of our culture and heritage! And our women, let’s not forget those ladies, y’all. Looking to us for protection! From darkies, from Jews, from papists, and from all those smart-ass folks say we come descended from monkeys!

Homer Stokes: Those boys desecrated a burning cross!

Ulysses Everett McGill: I am a man of constant sorrow, I’ve seen trouble all my days. I bid farewell to old Kentucky, the place where I was born and raised.
Delmar O’Donnell, Pete: The place where he was born and raised.
Ulysses Everett McGill: For six long years I’ve been in trouble, no pleasure here on Earth I’ve found. For in this world I’m bound to ramble, I have no friends to help me out.
Delmar O’Donnell, Pete: He has no friends to help him out.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Maybe your friends think I’m just a stranger, my face you never will see no more. But there is one promise that is given, I’ll meet you on God’s golden shore.
Delmar O’Donnell, Pete: He’ll meet you on God’s golden shore.

Pappy’s Staff: The reason he’s pullin’ our pants down.
Pappy’s Staff: Gonna paddle a little behind.
Pappy’s Staff: Ain’t gonna paddle it – gonna kick it, real hard.
Pappy’s Staff: No, I believe he’s gonna paddle it.
Pappy’s Staff: I don’t believe that’s a proper characterization.
Pappy’s Staff: Well, that’s how I’d characterize it.
Pappy’s Staff: I believe it’s more of a kickin’ sitcheyation.

Lund: Now, what can I do you for Mr. French?
French: How can I lay a hold of them Soggy Bottom Boys?
Lund: Soggy Bottom? I don’t precisely recollect them.
French: They cut a record in here a few days ago, was an old-timey harmony thing with a guitar accom… accomp…
Lund: Oh here, here, here, I remember them! They was colored fellas, I believe.
French: Uh huh.
Lund: Yessuh, they’re a fine bunch a boys. They sang in the yonder can and skeedadled.
French: Well that record is goin’ through the goddamned roof. They playin’ it as far away as Mobile.
Lund: Naw?
French: Whole damn state’s goin’ apey.
Lund: Well it was a powerful air.
French: Hot damn, we gotta find them boys and sign ’em to a big fat contract. Hells Bells, Mr. Lund, if we don’t the goddamned competition will.
Lund: Ohhhh mercy! Yes we got to beat that competition.

Ulysses Everett McGill: The treasure is still there boys, believe me.
Delmar O’Donnell: But how’d he know about the treasure?
Ulysses Everett McGill: I don’t know Delmar. The blind are reputed to possess sensitivities compensating for their lack of sight, even to the point of developing paranormal psychic powers. Now, clearly seeing into the future would fall into neatly into that category; its not so surprising then that an organism deprived of its earthly vision…
Pete: He said we wouldn’t get get it. He said we wouldn’t get the treasure we seek on account of our ob-stac-les.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well what the hell does he know, he’s just an ignorant old man?

Pete: The Preacher said it absolved us.
Ulysses Everett McGill: For him, not for the law. I’m surprised at you, Pete, I gave you credit for more brains than Delmar.
Delmar O’Donnell: But they was witnesses that seen us redeemed.
Ulysses Everett McGill: That’s not the issue Delmar. Even if that did put you square with the Lord, the State of Mississippi’s a little more hard-nosed.
[laughs]
Ulysses Everett McGill: Baptism! You two are just dumber than a bag of hammers!

Pete: Wait a minute. Who elected you leader of this outfit?
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well Pete, I figured it should be the one with the capacity for abstract thought. But if that ain’t the consensus view, then hell, let’s put it to a vote.
Pete: Suits me. I’m voting for yours truly.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well I’m voting for yours truly too.
[Everett and Pete look at Delmar for the deciding vote]
Delmar O’Donnell: Okay… I’m with you fellas.

Delmar O’Donnell: Can’t you see it, Everett? Them sirens did this to Pete. They loved him up and turned him into a… horny toad. Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete. It’s me – Delmar. Everett…
Ulysses Everett McGill: Delmar. What the…
Delmar O’Donnell: What are we gonna do?
Ulysses Everett McGill: I’m not sure that’s Pete.
Delmar O’Donnell: Of course it’s Pete. Look at him.

Pete: You miserable little snake! You stole from my kin!
Ulysses Everett McGill: Who was fixin’ to betray us.
Pete: You didn’t know that at the time.
Ulysses Everett McGill: So I borrowed it until I did know.
Pete: That don’t make no sense!
Ulysses Everett McGill: Pete, it’s a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart.

Delmar O’Donnell: Care for some gopher?
Ulysses Everett McGill: No thank you, Delmar. A third of a gopher would only arouse my appetite without beddin’ ‘er back down.
Delmar O’Donnell: Oh, you can have the whole thing. Me and Pete already had one apiece. We ran across a whole… gopher village.

Blind Seer: You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains. You will find a fortune, though it will not be the one you seek. But first… first you must travel a long and difficult road, a road fraught with peril. Mm-hmm.
You shall see thangs, wonderful to tell. You shall see a… a cow… on the roof of a cotton house, ha. And, oh, so many startlements.
I cannot tell you how long this road shall be, but fear not the obstacles in your path, for fate has vouchsafed your reward. Though the road may wind, yea, your hearts grow weary, still shall ye follow them, even unto your salvation.

Tommy Johnson: I had to be up at that there crossroads last midnight, to sell my soul to the devil.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, ain’t it a small world, spiritually speaking. Pete and Delmar just been baptized and saved. I guess I’m the only one that remains unaffiliated.

Pomade Vendor: I can get the part from Bristol. It’ll take two weeks, here’s your pomade.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Two weeks? That don’t do me no good.
Pomade Vendor: Nearest Ford auto man’s Bristol.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Hold on, I don’t want this pomade. I want Dapper Dan.
Pomade Vendor: I don’t carry Dapper Dan, I carry Fop.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, I don’t want Fop, goddamn it! I’m a Dapper Dan man!
Pomade Vendor: Watch your language, young feller, this is a public market. Now if you want Dapper Dan, I can order it for you, have it in a couple of weeks.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, ain’t this place a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!

FAQs About O Brother Where Art Thou Quotes

What does the blind man say in O Brother Where Art Thou?

Blind Seer: You are looking for great fortune. Although you will find the fortune you desire, it may not be the one that you are looking for.

What do the characters in O Brother Where Art Thou represent?

Pappy is a king-like figure, and Homer Stokes is an evil villain. The sirens are the dangers of seduction, and Penny is the symbol for jilted women everywhere. O Brother, Where Art Thou! This is a parable. It is an allegory of life and teaches us a lot about ourselves.

What is the theme of O Brother Where Art Thou?

Brotherhood is the main theme of the film. This is why the title O Brother Where Art Thou? Tommy is African American, and the fact that Tommy and his family are willing to do anything for him shows that true brotherhood transcends religion and race, which can often cause people to be divided.

Did George Clooney sing in O Brother Where Art Thou?

George Clooney practiced singing for weeks. But, in the end, Dan Tyminski, a country blues singer, dubbed his voice.

What is R-U-N–O-F–T?

R-U-N–O-F–T is the act of abandoning someone or something, usually abruptly.

Conclusion

O Brother Where Art Thou quotes are often memorable and quotable. This is mainly due to the film’s clever writing and interesting characters. The film tells the story of three escaped convicts who journey across America searching for hidden treasure.

Along the way, they have many adventures and meet various colorful characters. The quotes from the film often reflect the movie’s themes of friendship, loyalty, and determination.

Thank you for reading!

Best O Brother Where Art Thou Quotes by Joel & Ethan Coen [2022]