60 Sling Blade Quotes From the 1996 Sleeper Hit Movie

These Sling Blade quotes come from several of the characters in the film, including Karl Childers, Doyle Hargraves, and Charles Bushman.

Sling Blade is an American drama that premiered in 1996. The film starred Billy Bob Thornton, who also wrote and directed the movie.

Many people wonder if the movie Sling Blade is based on a true story. The answer is yes and no. The film is not autobiographical, but in an interview with Erik Bauer, Thornton explains, “A lot of the other stories in the movie, the stuff that takes place after the mental institution, are true.

Like the story Karl tells the kid about the little baby — that really happened where I grew up. All those characters are based on people I knew. Each character is a composite of a lot of people I’ve known.”

The movie was set in Arkansas and filmed in Benton, Arkansas. It chronicles the life of a man named Karl Childers. Karl has autism and is released from a psychiatric hospital, where he has lived for years.

When he was 12 years old, he killed his mother and her lover. He believed she was being raped and killed her “attacker.” When he realized she was committing adultery, he killed her as well. So what happens after his release? Keep reading these Sling Blade quotes to find out!

Don’t forget to also check out these arthur morgan quotes from Red Dead Redemption 2’s notorious outlaw.

Angry and passionate Sling Blade quotes from Doyle Hargraves

1. “You can kiss my ass. And if you ever hit me again, you little bastard… I’ll make you sorry your daddy ever squirted your ass out. You hear me?” ― Doyle Hargraves

2. “Everything’s botherin’ me. I’m hurtin’ Linda. I love you.” ― Doyle Hargraves

3. “We don’t got no goddamn band! We don’t need to fucking practice Randy! We don’t need a shit-ass manager neither! You motherfuckers! Y’all is a bunch of losers! I’m the only one sane son of a bitch here! Just get the fuck out of my house now!” ― Doyle Hargraves

4. “I’ll whip the dogshit out of you Vaughan. I will fucking kill you if you talk to me again! Now all of ya, get the fuck out now before I get too mad to turn back!” ― Doyle Hargraves

5. “I hate you, you little prick!” ― Doyle Hargraves

6. “I don’t like homosexuals and she goes out and buddies up with one so I gotta deal with that. I don’t like little wimpy-ass kids or mental retards and she got one of each livin’ with her.” ― Doyle Hargraves

7. “I ain’t saying it’s right, I’m just telling the damn truth. He’ll make me sick. I know it.” ― Doyle Hargraves

8. “See, you don’t want to question the genius, Vaughan. Morris here is a modern-day poet, kinda like in olden times.” ― Doyle Hargraves

9. “What am I supposed to do about supper while you’re out runnin’ around with that fag?” ― Doyle Hargraves

10. “Linda, go get my guitar. It’s out there with that looney toon.” ― Doyle Hargraves

11. “Your buddy Karl here is going. We can’t be no normal family with him living in the garage and comin’ in the damn bedroom at 4:00 in the morning, carryin’ hammers and shit.” ― Doyle Hargraves

12. “Hey is this the kind of retard that drools and rubs sh#t in his hair and all that, ’cause I’m gonna have a hard time eatin’ ’round that kind of thing now. Just like I am with antique furniture and midgets.” ― Doyle Hargraves

13. “Talkin’ back and everything. That kinda makes me horny, Linda.” ― Doyle Hargraves

14. “Now get the fuck out before I get too mad to turn back!” ― Doyle Hargraves

Sling Blade quotes from Karl Childers

15. “I’ve killed Doyle Hargraves with a lawn mower blade. Yes, I’m right sure of it. I hit him two good whacks in the head with it. That second one just plum near cut his head in two.” ― Karl Childers

16. “You ought not killed my little brother, he should’ve had a chance to grow up. He would had fun some time.” ― Karl Childers

17. “We’ll always be friends. You and me made friends right off the bat. Don’t nobody ever change that. I kindly want to put my arm around you, then I’m gonna get up out of here and leave.” ― Karl Childers

18. “The Bible says two men ought not lay together. But I don’t reckon the Good Lord would send anybody like you to Hades.” ― Karl Childers

19. “I learned to read some. I read the Bible quite a bit. I can’t understand all of it, but I reckon I understand a good deal of it.” ― Karl Childers

20. “He lives inside of his own heart. That’s an awful big place to live in.” ― Karl Childers

21. “Reckon what you is wanting to know is what I’m a-doing in here. ‘Reckon the reason I’m in here is ’cause I’ve killed somebody.” ― Karl Childers

22. “You ought not talk that way. You just a boy.” ― Karl Childers

23. “Some folks call it a Sling Blade I call it a Kaiser Blade.” ― Karl Childers

24. “I don’t reckon I got no reason to kill nobody. Mmm.” ― Karl Childers

25. “I don’t think anything bad ought to happen to children. I think the bad stuff should be saved up for the people whose grown up. That’s the way I see it.” ― Karl Childers

26. “Not funny ha-ha, funnyqueer.” ― Karl Childers

Sling Blade quotes about potatoes and mustard

27. “I like gravy on my fries.” ― Karl Childers

28. “Do you have any of them French fried potaters?” ― Karl Childers

29. “I like them French fried potaters.” ― Karl Childers

30. “I was thinkin’, I’m gonna take me some of these taters home with me.” ― Karl Childers

31. “Hmm. I used to come out, one or the other of ’em. Usually my mother, feed me pretty regular, mhm. I know he made enough where I could have mustard and biscuits three or four times a week.” ― Karl Childers

32. “Mustard is good on ‘em to me.” ― Karl Childers

Unsettling Sling Blade quotes from Charles Bushman

33. “Now… On the third day, I washed her. She wasn’t too clean. I got all the right spots. She’s the only one I kept for a certain amount of time, because I got a real short attention span. Now, I can’t say she enjoyed her stay, but that washcloth I put in her mouth and held it there with a big piece of duct tape kept all her complaining to a min… I don’t like people who talk all the time.” ― Charles Bushman

34. “A shovel just makes too goddamned much racket.” ― Charles Bushman

35. “She had on a leather skirt and had a lot of hair on her arms. I like that a lot. That means a big bush.” ― Charles Bushman

36. “You gotta make something explode to really understand it. You gotta examine all those tiny particles while they’re still on fire.” ― Charles Bushman

37. “She was the picture I had in my mind of the perfect woman, so I took it upon myself to take her away from John Leggit Hunter, who did not deserve her. Oh, I don’t know if I mentioned this, but he was a Frenchman who claimed to be an Englishman. It took a lot of strong nylon cord to get her away from him because she was a fighter as well as being a Georgia peach.” ― Charles Bushman

38. “I like to do all the talking. That’s why I think I’m so fond of you, ’cause you just so easygoing, you know.” ― Charles Bushman

39. Charles Bushman: “Although I do sense a little tension in you from time to time. So, you were out in the world, huh? What was it like?”

Karl: “It was too big.”

Charles Bushman: “Not too big in here, is it?”

Sling Blade quotes from Linda and Frank

40. “Frank’s always after a father figure, and Lord knows Doyle ain’t one with his mean ass.” ― Linda Wheatley

41. “Frank doesn’t really see you as a guy-guy.” ― Linda Wheatley

42. “I don’t like potted meat. Daddy used to say they was made out of lips, peckers and intestines.” ― Frank Wheatley

43. “Doyle, you’re awful. You shouldn’t be that way.” ― Linda Wheatley

44. “I’d like to kill that son-of-a-bitch. I hate him.” ― Frank Wheatley

45. “You’re not cripple, get in there and make it yourself.” ― Linda Wheatley

46. “Ever think of killing yourself on purpose like my daddy done?” ― Frank Wheatley

47. “I told you I ain’t got no boy, now why don’t you get on outta here and let me be. You ain’t no kin to me.” ― Frank Wheatley

48. “This is not your house, Doyle. This is my house and I decide who goes and who stays. You got a house, why don’t you get some of your girlfriends and go home to it?” ― Linda Wheatley

49. “Mama’s got a boyfriend now. His name is Doyle Hargraves. He works construction so he makes a pretty good living, but he don’t help Mama out with any money though. He ain’t no good. He’s mean to her. He don’t like me at all.” ― Frank Wheatley

50. “You’re not staying here tonight. Go get sober before you come back, I’m tired of my child seeing this. Now you get your ass straight or I’ll lock your ass out of my life for good.” ― Linda Wheatley

More Sling Blade quotes you want to reminisce on

51. “What y’all doin’ with that lawnmower blade anyway”? ― Doyle Hargraves

52. “You done fixed it? Well I’ll be damned. Scooter told me it couldn’t be fixed. ‘Course Scooter is about as shiftless as one poor son of a b*tch can be. You done fixed it. I’ll just be damned.” ― Bill Cox

53. “That don’t seem right. Seems like you would have kept him and taken care of him if he was your brother.” ― Frank Wheatley

54. “The dots are where I say they are. Melody and tune, that’s your trade, Terence. You’re a tunesmith.” – Morris

55. “Hey Vaughan, I heard you been putting it on ol’ Albert Sellers who works over at the  funeral home.” – Doyle Hargraves

56. “Frankie, I wasn’t talking to you, now was I? I was talking to your Mama. It’s her decision, not yours. If I let it go on, it’s because she said so, not you.” – Doyle Hargraves

57. “Blisters sure can hurt.”– Karl Childers

58. “Coffee makes me nervous when I drink it.”– Karl Childers 

59. “You always seem to be deep in thought. Tell me, what are you thinking right now?” – Vaughan Cunningham

60. “I reckon I’m gonna have to get used to looking at pretty people. Reckon I’m gonna have to get used to them looking at me.” – Karl Childers

Which of these Sling Blade quotes is your favorite?

When Karl is released, he gets a job at a repair shop and strikes up a friendship with Frank and his mom, Linda. Linda is in an abusive relationship with Doyle, and Karl eventually realizes that Frank will either kill Doyle someday and end up just like the man he despises, or Doyle will end up killing Frank and possibly Linda.

If you want to watch this movie, you might want to stop reading here, as this is your official spoiler alert! In order to stop what he sees as the inevitable outcome of Linda and Doyle’s relationship, Karl convinces Linda to stay at someone else’s house for the night. He goes to Linda’s house with a weapon he has made from a lawnmower blade, where he finds Doyle, drunk, inside. He kills him, then calls the police to turn himself in.

He goes back to the state hospital, only this time not as passive as before. He silences a sexual predator who had forced him to listen to stories about his crimes. The movie earned Billy Bob Thornton critical acclaim, with the movie winning the Academy Award for Best Writing and Adapted Screenplay. Thornton was nominated for Best Actor. If you haven’t seen this movie, and you like dark dramas, go ahead and watch this one!

If you are already a fan, share some of your favorite Sling Blade quotes and lines in the comment section below.