6 standout Easy Rider quotes from Peter Fonda
Peter Fonda, aka Captain America, may be gone, but his memory lives on through these iconic lines from one of motorcycling's most iconic movies…American actor Peter Fonda, who played 'Wyatt' (aka 'Captain America') in the 1969 counterculture movie Easy Rider, died late last week aged 79, but he leaves a rich legacy that will live on not just for today's motorcyclists but future generations of riders to come.
If you've never seen Easy Rider – and if you ride bike, why the hell not? – it charts the trans-America run of Fonda and friend Dennis Hopper (Billy), as they ride their choppers from LA to New Orleans to make the Louisiana capital's famed Mardi Gras parade.
Funding the cross-country trip from the proceeds of a major drug deal, the two hippies embark on a journey that ends up being as much spiritual as it is literal, searching for the 'real' America while challenging the established social restraints of the time.
Along the way they pick up Jack Nicholson (George), a wayward small-town lawyer with a taste for strong liquor, who with his new friends discovers the best and worst aspects of the counterculture that was rising to prominence at the time.
As someone who thinks deeply about the future of America and how American society could evolve, Wyatt delivered a smorgasbord of memorable lines in Easy Rider. Here are six of what we think are the best – let us know if you think we've missed some other pearlers.
1. "Yeah, I'm hip about time. But I just gotta go."
When the leader of the hippy commune passes Wyatt and Billy a tab of LSD, and suggests the time might be right to quarter the tab with their two female friends and take it.
2. "They're gonna make it. Dig, man. They're gonna make it."
Wyatt to Billy on the chances of the hippy commune surviving, after watching its members sowing crops in the arid, dusty ground.
3. "Yeah, well, I'm just getting my thing together."
Wyatt to Billy, after smoking a joint and discussing the mysteries of the universe when camped out under a desert night sky.
4. "No, I mean it. You've got a nice place. It's not every man that can live off the land, you know. You do your own thing in your own time. You should be proud."
Wyatt to a welcoming rancher, who gives Wyatt a place to fix his bike's flat tyre and invites him and Billy to lunch with his wife and family.
5. 'Dude' means a nice guy, you know? 'Dude' means a regular sort of person."
Wyatt describing the finer points of hippy slang to George, after he, George and Billy end up in a small-town goal together - George for being drunk and disorderly the night before, Wyatt and Billy for 'parading without a permit', after they join in a local parade on their choppers.
5. "I never wanted to be anybody else."
Wyatt to a hitchhiker, while camping in the desert. The hitchhiker, another hippy, says he'd like to try being Porky Pig… Yes, a joint was involved here, too…
6. "You know Billy, we blew it."
Wyatt to Billy, after Billy remarks on their new-found wealth following the drug deal.
Related reading:
10 must-watch motorcycle movies
Easy Rider star Dennis Hopper passes away
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