Roots (1977 miniseries) Quotes

Roots is a Historical period drama that first aired in 1977 on American Broadcasting Company. Roots completed its run in 1977.

Roots lasted 8 (re-edited to 6 for video) episodes. It features Stan Margulies as producer, Gerald Fried as theme composer, and Stevan Larner, ASC as head of cinematography.

Roots is recorded in English and originally aired in United States. Each episode of Roots is 70 minutes long. Roots is produced by Wolper Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Television. Spinoffs for this show include Roots: The Next Generations.

The cast includes: John Amos as Kunta Kinti, Louis Gossett Jr. as Fiddler, Moses Gunn as Kintango, Maya Angelou as Boy, Georg Stanford Brown as Tom Harvey, Lloyd Bridges as Evan Brent, and Paul Shenar as John Carrington.

Roots Quotes

John Amos as Kunta Kinti

• (John Amos) "I'm a Mandinka warrior."
• (Louis Gossett Jr.) "Horse. I hear tell that you ain't a horse at all. I hear tell that you think you a mighty crow. I hear tell that you fly from here 'bouts all the way to Annapolis and back again. Now horse -- you look mighty like a horse to me. And you sure SMELLS mighty like a horse. So I'm saying to you, that you -- is -- a horse. What you think you is don't matter a damn bit."

• (John Amos) "What Christmas, Fiddlah?"
• (Louis Gossett Jr.) "Christmas is when White folk give each other stuff don't neither of em need."

• (John Amos) "What's snow, Fiddler?"
• (Louis Gossett Jr.) "Never you mind, boy, never you mind. Let's get on back to home. I got enough trouble teaching you the difference between manure and massa. 'Course there ain't all that much difference when you gets right down to it."

Paul Shenar as John Carrington

• (Paul Shenar) "Uh, did you have a good voyage, Captain?"
• (Captain Thomas Davies) "My First Officer is dead, ten seaman and the ship's boy -- more than a third of my crew."

Moses Gunn as Kintango

• (Moses Gunn) "Who can tell me if there was a tribal war, and the men of Mandinka had the enemy surrounded on three sides, what should be the next thing done?"
• (Maya Angelou) "The men of the Mandinka will enclose the circle and surround the enemy."
• (Moses Gunn) "No, the goal of war is not to kill. The goal of war is to win. By surrounding the enemy, you would force him only to fight more desperately. If you surround him on three sides and leave him an escape route, he will leave your land and there will less blood spilled on both sides. For a warrior of the Mandinka, courage is not enough."
• (John Amos) "But sir, won't an enemy who escapes alive fight you again?"
• (Moses Gunn) "It is impossible to kill an enemy. You may end a man's life, but his son becomes your new enemy. A warrior respects another warrior, even he is his enemy. A warrior kills only to protect his family, or to keep from becoming a slave. We believe not in death, but in life, and there is no object more valuable than a man's life. The way of the Mandinka is not easy, but it is best."

Georg Stanford Brown as Tom Harvey

• (Georg Stanford Brown) "Listen to me, Jimmy Brent. Listen to me. And take this message with you to Hell. The last hands to touch you in this Earth -- was my BLACK hands."

Lloyd Bridges as Evan Brent

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