"How can I hate John Wayne upholding [Barry] Goldwater and yet love him tenderly when he sweeps Natalie Wood into his arms in the last reel of The Searchers?"
— Jean-Luc Godard, discussing Wayne's cross-political appeal.
Andrew Sarris: Apropos of nothing at all, I just remembered a funny thing. Hawks was talking about a scene with John Wayne and Angie Dickinson in Rio Bravo. And John Wayne says something very cutting, very full of attitude towards her. And Hawks said, "You know, Wayne can't get away with that. I mean, he can't do that. He can't really project this kind of superior feeling. But Bogart can. Bogart can really insult a woman. He can really, you know, take her apart. But Wayne just — you know, he's too repressed to do that."
Molly Haskell: Well, he's gentler, really.
Andrew Sarris: Yeah, he's much gentler.
Molly Haskell: Yeah. That's what's so ironic. All these liberals just hate John Wayne, and...
Andrew Sarris: And they love Bogart.
Molly Haskell: ...they love Bogie. But Bogie is much more macho and arrogant in every way.
Molly Haskell: Well, he's gentler, really.
Andrew Sarris: Yeah, he's much gentler.
Molly Haskell: Yeah. That's what's so ironic. All these liberals just hate John Wayne, and...
Andrew Sarris: And they love Bogart.
Molly Haskell: ...they love Bogie. But Bogie is much more macho and arrogant in every way.
— Interview with Andrew Sarris and Molly Haksell discussing Hawks and John Wayne's complexity
"Of course, I know who you are. You're my girl. I love you."
— John Wayne's final words to his daughter Aissa
"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."
— Inscription from John Wayne's tombstone
