Moby Dick (1998)

Ted Levine: Starbuck

Quotes 

• Captain Ahab : Aye, harpoons do like stuck in him like so many corkscrews. Aye, his spout is big, like Nantucket wheat. Aye, by death and devils, the white whale is Moby-Dick, if Moby-Dick you see!

  Starbuck : Captain Ahab, was it not Moby-Dick that cut off thy leg?

  Captain Ahab : Aye, Mr. Starbuck. Aye, my hearties all. It was Moby-Dick that dismantled me, that reaped off my leg like a mower a blade of grass and left me with this dead stump I stand on. For forever and a day I shall chase that white whale.

• Captain Ahab : Why the long face, Mr. Starbuck? Have you no game for Moby-Dick?

  Starbuck : Aye, I have game for his crooked jaw. I have game for the jaws of death, if that's part of the business we came for. Sir, I am here to hunt whale, not my commander's vengeance. How many barrels of oil will your vengeance yeild, I ask you?

  Captain Ahab : If money be the measure of everything we do, let me tell ye my vengeance will fetch a great premium here!

  Starbuck : What do you wish of me, Captain Ahab?

  Captain Ahab : Help me to strike a fin. Surely no impossible task for you, the best lancer of all Nantucket. Surely you, of all this crew, will not hold back.

• Starbuck : Time and tide flow wide, sir. Moby-Dick has the whole round watery world to swim in.

  Captain Ahab : I know his latitudes. I know his driftings, every sea-shelled ground and volcano bay.

  Starbuck : Here lies Nantucket, where our wives and children will be waiting, carrying wee babes up the hill to catch first glimpse of these sails. Your wife and son will be among them, captain, and we must not disappoint them. I am no crusader after perils. My course is set to return safely home with a full hold. 'Tis the object of our endeavour.

  Captain Ahab : Mr. Starbuck, until this be done, my boy's face is to me as the palm of my hand, an unfeatured blank.

• Starbuck : 'Tis madness to be such enraged. To seek vengeance on a dumb animal is blasphemous!

• Captain Ahab : So you crossed his wake again?

  Capt. Boomer : Aye. Twice.

  Captain Ahab : But you could not fast him?

  Capt. Boomer : Why would I want him? Isn't one limb enough? My wants a profitable home. No thank you, sir. No more white whales for me. He's best left alone.

  Captain Ahab : Aye, but he'll be hunted nonetheless! What's best left alone, Captain, isn't always least to fight. When did you last see him?

  Capt. Boomer : Upon my soul, sir, your blood's at boiling point!

  Captain Ahab : Which way was he headed?

  Capt. Boomer : Good God! East, I think!

  Captain Ahab : East! Mr. Starbuck, prepare to set sail! We've wasted enough to time. Good day to you, Captain!

  Capt. Boomer : What the devil is wrong with him? Has he lost his senses?

  Starbuck : My apologies, Captain Boomer. No offense meant, I'm sure, sir. 'Tis the pain in his stump.

  Capt. Boomer : The man's mad!

• Starbuck : Sir, I must request that you put your foreign boys to work. Them sitting idle is affecting the morale. Did you not hear me, Captain?

  Captain Ahab : They are not here as shipkeepers, Mr. Starbuck, or for any other purpose. They are here to find and slay the white whale.

• Starbuck : What about the boy, sir?

  Captain Ahab : Boy? What boy?

  Starbuck : Pip, sir. He's lost at sea.

  Captain Ahab : The tamborine boy? What the devil was he doing in your boat, Mr. Starbuck?

  Starbuck : He stowed away, sir, where he wasn't supposed to be. He's a kind-hearted, jolly little boy, sir. I'm afraid we've lost him.

  Queequeg : Me go find Pip! If Pip be dead, it be bad magic!

• Starbuck : May God forgive you, Ahab, may God forgive you...