Hooper: You know those eight guys in the fantail launch out there? Well, none of 'em are gonna make it out of the harbor alive.
Quint: Hooper! Stop playing with yourself Hooper!
Chief Martin Brody: You're gonna need a bigger boat.
Brody: That's some bad hat, Harry.
Brody: "Slow ahead." I can go slow ahead. Come on down here and chum some of this shit.
Quint: When I was a little boy every little squirt wanted to be a harpooner or a sword fisherman. What you got here? A portable shower or a monkey cage?
Hooper: Anti-shark cage.
Quint: Anti-shark cage... You go inside the cage? [Hooper nods.] Cage goes in the water? [Hooper nods.] You go in the water? [Hooper nods.] Shark's in the water? [Hooper nods.] Our shark? [Hooper nods.]
Quint: [he sarcastically sings.] Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu you ladies of Spain. For we've received orders for to sail back to Boston. And so nevermore shall we see you again. [Quint laughs and Hooper nods.].
Chief Martin Brody: Smile, you son of a bitch.
Hooper: I'm not going to waste my time arguing with a man who's lining up to be a hot lunch.
Ellen Brody: What am I going to tell the kids?
Brody: Tell them I'm going fishing.
Quint: Y'all know me, know how I earn a living. I'll catch this bird for you, but it ain't going to be easy. Bad fish! Not like gong down to the pond and chasing bluegills or tommy-cods. This shark swallow you whole! Little shaking, little tenderizing, down you go. Now we've got to do it quick. That'll bring back the tourists and will put all your businesses on a paying basis. But it's not going to be pleasant! I value my neck a lot more than three thousand bucks, Chief. I'll find him for three, but I'll catch him and kill him for ten. Now you've got to make up your minds. Want to stay alive, then ante up! You want to play it cheap? Be on welfare the whole winter. I don't want no volunteers, I don't want no mates, there's too many captains on this island. Ten thousand dollars for me by myself. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.
Quint: Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. Was coming back from the island of Tinian Del Lady, just delivered the bomb, the Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about half an hour. Tiger, thirteen-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail. But we didn't know. Our bomb mission had been so secret. No distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light Chief, sharks come cruising. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, kind of like old squares in a battle, like you see on a calendar, like the Battle of Waterloo, and the idea was shark come to the nearest man and he starts pounding, hollering and screaming, sometimes the shark would go away, sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you, right into your eyes.
Mrs. Kintner: I just found out that a girl got killed here last week and you knew it! You knew there was a shark out there. You knew it was dangerous but you let people go swimming anyway! You knew all those things, but still my boy is dead now and there's nothing you can do about it. My boy is dead. I wanted you to know that.
Chosen answer: As mentioned in the movie, the posion was in the needle and the shark's hide was too tough for the needle to penetrate. Hooper had to go in the water so that he could get the needle into the shark's mouth, where the flesh was less tough.
Kevin Howard