"...We may have years, we may have hours, but sooner of later, we push up flowers."

"All day long, Manny, I sort through pure sadness. I find evidence, and I piece together stories. But none of my stories end well - they all end here. And the moral of every story is the same: we may have years, we may have hours, but sooner of later, we push up flowers."

Yeah, yeah. I know I've been going a little heavy on the video game quotes recently but goddammit, people just don't give them enough credit! Besides, I've been meaning to put a quote from this particular game for a while. The game in question is Tim Schafer's brilliant film noir masterpiece, Grim Fandango. In this scene, Membrillo is describing his job as a coroner to the main character, Mannuel Calavera.

"What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!"

Richter: Die monster you don't belong in this world!
Dracula: It was not by my hand that I am once again giving flesh... I was called here by humans who wish to pay me tribute.

Richter: Tribute!?! You steal men's souls and make them your slaves!

Dracula: Perhaps the same could be said of all religions.

Richter: Your words are as empty as your soul. Mankind ill need a savior such as you!
Dracula: What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk have at you!

This the most unintentionally funny dialog I've seen! I love this game.

The game is called Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It was developed and published by Konami.

"The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world."

Some of my followers will scoff at this entry but the Half-Life series really is the Citizen Kane of video games in the sense that it created (as well as perfected) a unique kind of storytelling that would be impossible to do in any other medium. In addition to that, writer Marc Laidlaw created some of the best monologues in video game history, certainly better than anything you might have seen in theaters this year. Sure the G-man's voice is pretty campy but he still manages to be genuinely frightening. This isn't the best quote but it's the only one that doesn't contain massive spoilers.