Celebrate ‘The Breakfast Club’s’ 40th Anniversary With The Most Memorable Quotes From The Film

John Hughes may have ruled the ’80s with his coming-of-age films and rom coms, but few compare to The Breakfast Club.

This particular zeitgeist has stood the test of time, showing what it was like to live during a very specific time period while also reaching out across the decades, making teens feel seen and heard no matter when they were born.

This year, even though The Breakfast Club turns 40, it still remains relevant and is one of the most referenced films of its time, inspiring filmmakers and media with its themes and easily quotable dialogue—and, most importantly, it’s refusal to completely put anyone in a box.

Here are the most memorable quotes from The Breakfast Club that still hold up 40 years later:

1.

Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall): You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That’s the way we saw each other at 7:00 this morning. We were brainwashed.

2.

Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez): Speak for yourself.

John Bender (Judd Nelson): Do you think I speak for you? I don’t even know your language.

3.

Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez): We’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that’s all.

4.

Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez): What do you need a fake I.D. for?

Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall): So I can vote.

5.

John Bender (Judd Nelson): Screws fall out all the time. The world is an imperfect place.

6.

Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason): You’re not fooling anyone, Bender. The next screw that falls out will be you.

7.

John Bender (Judd Nelson): Eat my shorts.

Richard: What was that?

Bender: Eat. My. Shorts.

Richard: You just bought yourself another Saturday.

Bender: Ooh, I’m crushed.

Richard: You just bought one more.

Beder: Well, I’m free the Saturday after that. Beyond that, I’m going to have to check my calendar.

8.

Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy):  You have problems.

Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez): Oh, I have problems?

Allison: You do everything everyone tells you to do, and that is a problem.

Andrew: Okay, fine, but I didn’t dump my purse out on the couch and invite everyone into my problems.

9.

Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy): It’s kind of a double-edged sword, isn’t it?

Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald): A what?

Allison: Well, if you say you haven’t, you’re a prude. If you say you have, you’re a slut. It’s a trap. You want to but you can’t, and when you do, you wish you didn’t, right?

10.

John Bender (Judd Nelson): Hey, how come Andrew gets to get up? If he gets up, we’ll all get up. It’ll be anarchy.

11.

Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason): What if your home… what if your family… what if your dope was on fire?

John Bender (Judd Nelson): Impossible, sir. It’s in Johnson’s underwear.

12.

Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez): So, what’s wrong? What is it? Is it bad? Real bad? Parents?

Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy): Yeah.

Andrew: What did they do to you?

Allison: They ignore me.

Andrew: Yeah.

13.

John Bender (Judd Nelson): What do you care what I think, anyway? I don’t even count, right? I could disappear forever and it wouldn’t make any difference. I might as well not even exist at this school, remember? And you don’t like me anyway.

Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald): You know, I have just as, many feelings as you do and it hurts so much when someone steps all over them.

14.

Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez): My God, are we gonna be like our parents?

Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald): Not me. Ever.

Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy): It’s unavoidable. It just happens.

15.

Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy): When you grow up, your heart dies.

John Bender (Judd Nelson): So? Who cares?

Allison: I care.

16.

Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy): Why are you being so nice to me?

Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald): Because you’re letting me.

17.

Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall): Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us – in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain…

Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez): And an athlete.

Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy): And a basket case.

Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald): A princess.

John Bender (Judd Nelson): And a criminal.

Brian: Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.