Nothing can make a movie quite so enduring as a few memorable quotes - from witty one-liners to epic monologues. We've sifted through classics old and new to choose our top ten of all time...

"You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

Charlie Croker, The Italian Job

Classic crime caper The Italian Job has become a veritable British institution, not least for its eternal residency in the holiday TV schedules. From the squadron of Mini Coopers chasing through Turin's sewers to the final (literal) cliffhanger, nothing quite sticks in the mind so much as Michael Caine's loveable rogue Charlie Croker exclaiming "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!", as his explosives expert blows a van to smithereens.

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning"

Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, Apocalpyse Now

Perhaps more than any other moment in Francis Ford Coppola's fascinating Vietnam epic, Robert Duvall's unsettling fondness for napalm captures the sheer madness of war, the savagery disguised behind a wall of uniforms, lieutenants and mission objectives. This little napalm nugget has wormed its way deep into the public consciousness, and was voted part of the best speech in cinema history in a 2004 survey.

"May the force be with you"

Various characters, Star Wars

Very possibly the world's most oft-repeated movie quote, and hence an enduring fragment of movie folklore which will probably still be repeated when we've colonised Mars and invented working lightsabers. It may just be a nerdy way of saying "break a leg", but the mythology surrounding "the force" is regarded by many as key to the series' success, bringing a spiritual dimension to George Lucas's fairytale story of good versus evil.

"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here"

Travis Bickle, Taxi Driver

A defining role for a young Robert De Niro, who played obsessive loner Travis Bickle with an unnervingly convincing intensity. This is the moment, of course, when he rehearses his menacing bad boy patter in front of the mirror, psyched up and tooled up for the tragic rampage of violence which concludes the movie. Most remarkably, De Niro is said to have completely ad-libbed the scene, doubtless not anticipating that almost 30 years later it would still be one of the most quoted, spoofed and impersonated in cinematic history.

"I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti"

Hannibal Lecter, The Silence Of The Lambs

From the sublime to the ridiculous, as Anthony Hopkins' chilling description of haute cuisine cannibalism somehow becomes a whole lot less menacing when your friends start repeating it down the pub through a mouthful of foaming lager. Nevertheless, such vividly blood-curdling lines - not to mention some Oscar-winning performances from the leads and eminently memorable imagery - have made Mr Lecter Hollywood's best-loved psychopath.