Jojo Rabbit Best Quotes – ‘They call me a scared rabbit.’

Rosie: [visits Elsa in the attic] You have to be quiet. He heard noises up here. If I have to choose between you and my son, then I… I won’t know where to send you. Do you hear me? He can’t know. If he knows, then they know.

Rosie: [referring to Jojo] You don’t know him. He’s a fanatic. It took him three weeks to get over the fact that his grandfather was not blond. I know he’s in there somewhere. A little boy who loves to play, and he runs stupid because he’s scared of thunder, and thinks he invented chocolate cake. In the end that’s all you have. Hope. That your only remaining child is not just another ghost.
Elsa: Perhaps we’re all ghosts now, and we just don’t know it.
Rosie: Perhaps. You’ve lived more life perhaps than most.
Elsa: I haven’t lived at all.
Rosie: You’re being challenged. Let’s say you can’t live, that you won’t live. If that comes true, then they win.
Elsa: They’ve been winning so far.
Rosie: They’ll never win. That’s the power you have. As long as there’s someone alive somewhere, then they lose. They didn’t get you yesterday, or today, and tomorrow, the same. Hey, tomorrow must be the same.

Captain Klenzendorf: Hey. If it isn’t Herr Hand Grenade himself. How’s the leg, kid?
Jojo: It’s pretty much healed. It only eighty percent hurts now. What are you guys doing?
Captain Klenzendorf: I’m being made to teach the HJ boys water warfare training. You know, in case they ever need to go to battle in a swimming pool.

Jojo: Okay. Here’s the situation. If I tell on you, you will be in big trouble, and I don’t think you want that. But then you’ll tell on me and my mother, and we’ll be in trouble, which I don’t want. And if you tell my mother I know, then she’ll kick you out, which you don’t want. And if I tell my mother I know, then you’ll cut off my N**i head. Which I also don’t want. So it’s a Mexican stalemate.
Elsa: Just a normal stalemate.

Jojo: I have certain conditions for allowing you to stay.
Elsa: Conditions?
Jojo: Yes. Tell me everything about the Jewish race.
Elsa: Okay. We’re like you, but human.
Jojo: Please take this seriously. Think of this as an exposé. I want to know all your secrets.

Jojo: Kindly refrain from sitting on my sister’s bed.
Elsa: Why? She doesn’t need it.
Jojo: You know nothing of my sister.
Elsa: Nina and I were friends. I remember you. Such a funny little boy.

Jojo: Start telling me about your kind.
Elsa: Obviously we are demons who love money. Right?
Jojo: Obviously. Everyone knows that.
Elsa: But what people don’t know, is that we’re also allergic to food. Cheese, bread, meat. If we eat that stuff, we’ll collapse instantly. So, if you’re thinking of ending my life, that’s the fastest way. Also, biscuits.
Jojo: [starts to write all this down] Biscuits. Very funny.

Jojo: Anyway, there’s not enough food for you, so I don’t know what you’re going to do.
Elsa: Your mother managed to find me some bread. She’s kind. She treats me like a person.
Jojo: But you’re not. Not a proper person.
Elsa: Are you?

Rosie: How was your day, Johannes?
Jojo: Oh, you know, just wandered around being a deformed kid with nothing to live for.
Rosie: You’re not deformed.
Jojo: My face looks like a goddamned street map, woman. I wouldn’t expect you to understand. If my father were here, he’d get it.
Rosie: Well, he’s not.
Jojo: I know. And instead, I’m stuck with you!
Rosie: You want your dad, hey?
Jojo: Yeah, I do.
Rosie: Yeah?
Jojo: Yeah.
Rosie: Yeah?
Jojo: Yeah.
Rosie: Yeah?
Jojo: Yeah!
Rosie: Fine!
Rosie: [puts on a uniform jacket, puts some ash on her face to resemble a stubble] Don’t you ever talk to your goddamn mother like that!

Rosie: [pretending to be Jojo’s father] Jojo, I know you miss me, but I’m out there trying to make a difference in the world. Rosie: And while I’m gone, I need you to take care of my Rosie. Can you do that?
Jojo: Yes, dad.
Rosie: Thanks.

Elsa: Why are you hanging around with me? Don’t you have any friends?
Jojo: Of course. Yorki.
Elsa: Yorki?
Jojo: Amongst others. But you don’t have anyone.
Elsa: I have Nathan.
Jojo: Nathan? Who the hell is that?
Elsa: My fiancé, I have him.
Jojo: Where is he?
Elsa: Fighting in the resistance.

Elsa: [referring to Nathan] He’s coming to rescue me, and then we’ll go live in Paris.
Jojo: You’d turn your back on Germany forever?
Elsa: It turned on me first.
Jojo: Well, we don’t need you. You and your stupid bridegroom can shut up, and go live in damn cheese-stale-baguette-land.
Elsa: You’re mad just because you don’t have a girlfriend.
Jojo: I’m way too busy for a girlfriend.
Elsa: You will in time. You’ll think of nothing else. You’ll meet someone, spend your days dreaming of the moment you can hold them in your arms again. That stuff.
Jojo: Ridiculous.

Jojo: [after she gives him her drawing] I said draw where Jews live. This is just a stupid picture of my head.
Elsa: Yeah. That’s where we live.

Jojo: [referring to the letter he’d forged] I have something to tell you. I came across an old letter from Nathan, your fiancé, addressed to you.
Elsa: What the hell are you talking about?
Jojo: I’ll just read it. “Dear Elsa, this is hard for me to say, but I don’t want to marry you anymore. I found a new woman, and we laugh a lot and do the tongue kiss. It’s like my favorite poet, Rilke says, “We need, in love, to practice only this, letting each other go.” So goodbye. I’m sorry about letting you go. From Nathan, your ex-fiancé. PS, I’m not really in the resistance. I was lying. I’m unemployed and quite fat now.”
[Elsa gets up and quietly goes into her hiding place in the attic]

Jojo: [feeling guilty after making Elsa upset, he writes another fake letter] Don’t open the door, but I actually forgot, there’s a second letter. “Dear, Elsa, I just wanted to let you know that I don’t want to breakup with you now. I changed my mind, because I don’t want you to kill yourself over me. Which a couple of girls have done in the past, and it’s pretty stressful. I need you to stay alive. Thank God you’re being taken care of by that kid, who I must say, is a remarkable young man beyond his years, and great too. And let’s still get married sometime, even though I am truly unemployed and have nothing going on for me. Yours, Nathan.”

Elsa: Hey, if you find anymore of those letters, will you let me know?
Jojo: Sure. Okay. Bye.

Rosie: This lake used to be full of lovers, with dancing, and singing, romance.
Jojo: There’s no time for romance. We’re at war.
Rosie: There’s always time for romance.

Rosie: Someday you’ll meet someone special.
Jojo: Why does everyone keep telling me that?
Rosie: Who else tells you this?
Jojo: Everyone. Anyway, it’s a stupid idea.
Rosie: You’re stupid. Love is the strongest thing in the world.
Jojo: I think you’ll find that metal is the strongest thing in the world, followed closely by dynamite, and then muscles. Besides, I wouldn’t even know it if I saw it.
Rosie: Surprise, surprise, your shoelaces are undone again.
Rosie: [goes over to tie up his shoelaces] Oh, Jojo, you know when it happens. You feel it, it’s a pain.
Jojo: In my heart, I bet.
Rosie: In your tummy, like you’re full of butterflies.
Jojo: Yuk.
Rosie: Yeah, yuk. Come on. Get a move on.
Rosie: [helps Jojo stand, but he stumbles over and falls] Woh.
Jojo: [looks to see Rosie has tied his shoelaces together] Hey!
Rosie: [playfully] What’s wrong with you? I’m worried about you, man. Are you drunk? Again?

Rosie: You’re growing up too fast. Ten year-olds shouldn’t be celebrating wars, talking politics. You should be climbing trees, and then falling out of those trees.
Jojo: But the F**hrer says, when we win, it is us, young boys who will rule the world.
Rosie: [blows a raspberry dismissing his comment] The R**ch is dying. You’re going to lose the war, and then what are you going to do? Hm? Life is a gift. We must celebrate it. We have to dance, to show God we are grateful to be alive.
Jojo: [Rosie does a little dance as Jojo watches] Well, I won’t dance. Dancing is for people who don’t have a job.
Rosie: Dancing is for people who are free. It’s an escape from all this.
Jojo: [grabs his bike and starts to ride off] Well, you’re free to dance your way home.
Rosie: Alright. Oh, no, you don’t. No one can stop me.
[she follows him on her bike]

Jojo: [to Elsa] No news from Nathan today, I’m afraid. He’s probably doing something amazing, and reading a book or growing a beard.

Elsa: Some of us stayed in the caves though and have no bodies.
Jojo: But you are lobsters or something?
Elsa: [draws him a fairy like creature] I’ll draw them for you. It’d be better with color.
Jojo: Where are the horns?
Elsa: Over there.
Jojo: Where’s yours?
Elsa: I’m too young. They grow when you’re age twenty-one. These days we live among normal people, but often we takeover a house and hang from the ceiling when we sleep, like bats. Oh, and another thing is, we can read each other’s minds.
Jojo: Everyone’s minds? Not German minds.
Elsa: No. There’s are too thick for us to penetrate.

Elsa: Like birds, our true language sounds like singing. And we’re also attracted to shiny things, crystals, glass, and gold.
Jojo: [writes in his notebook] “Attracted to shiny things.” But also ugly things. Jews love ugliness. That’s another thing we learned in school. You love them, yes?
[he then catches a glimpse of his own reflection in the mirror]

Adolf: [referring to Elsa] Hi. You two seem to be getting on well.
Jojo: I was just making sure she was still alive.
Adolf: What do you care?
Jojo: I don’t. I just don’t want a dead person in my house. How would you like it?
Adolf: I’d love it. More dead people in my house, please.

Adolf: [referring to Elsa] All the time you two are spending together, it’s making me feel very uncomfortable.
Jojo: You suggested it in the first place.
Adolf: Did I?
Jojo: Yes.
Adolf: Oh, yeah, I did.
Jojo: Besides, it’s for the book.
Adolf: God, you’re right. I’m sorry. Did I make it weird? A little weird now, isn’t it? It shouldn’t be weird between us. None of this should be weird.
Jojo: It’s fine. I’m just tired. I’m going to bed.

Adolf: Hey, what do you think about this uniform? I’m not sure about the hips on the pants. Should I make it bigger?
Jojo: You look great.
Adolf: Thank you.

Jojo: Adolf?
Adolf: Hm?
Jojo: Do you think I’m ugly?
Adolf: Yes.

Elsa: [Rosie is visiting her in the attic, referring to Jojo] Is he asleep?
Rosie: Hm. He’s different. He suspects something. He thinks Nina’s ghost is up here. You remind me of her a little. I would love to have seen her grow into a woman. But I’ll have to watch you instead now.
Elsa: I don’t know anything about being a woman. Is that what it is? You do things like drink wine?
Rosie: Sure. You drink champagne if you’re happy. Champagne if you’re sad. You drive a car. You gamble if you want. Own diamonds. Learn how to fire a gun. You travel to Morocco. Take up lovers, and make them suffer. You look a tiger in the eye. And trust without fear. That’s what it is to be a woman.
Elsa: How do you do that? How do you know you can trust someone?
Rosie: You trust them. Goodnight.
Elsa: And those other things, you do that stuff? You know, go to Morocco, and the rest?
Rosie: No. I never looked a tiger in the eye.

Captain Klenzendorf: Finkel, I meant we need dogs for when a city is attacked, not actual German shepherds.
Captain Klenzendorf: [we see a bunch of men in shepherds clothes] Get them out of here. Get them out of here! Now! Now! Now! I’m sorry for yelling at you.
Finkel: I feel so stupid.
Captain Klenzendorf: No, no. it’s a silly name for a dog.

Captain Klenzendorf: [to Jojo] When I was your age, I had an imaginary friend called Connie. I used to wet my bed when I was asleep. It got me in so much trouble.

Jojo: You’re a soldier now?
Yorki: At your service.
Jojo: But you’re only eleven.
Yorki: I know.
Jojo: May I?
Yorki: Yeah, sure.
Jojo: [touches Yorki’s uniform sleeve] It’s like paper.
Yorki: Hm, that’s what I thought at first too, but it’s “paper like”. It’s the lightest material invented by a top scientist.
Jojo: Well, I’m impressed.

Elsa: [after Jojo gives her some drawing pencils] I could draw you again.
Jojo: No one wants to see pictures of cr**ples.
Elsa: You’re hardly a cr**ple. Besides, true artists don’t see that stuff.
Blind artists, you mean. It’s fine. I’ll just accept I’ll be one of those guys who never gets to kiss a girl.
Elsa: You’ll be kissed, Jojo. Do you want me to kiss you?
Jojo: Okay. Two things. Thing number one, it’s illegal for N**is and Jews to hang out like we do, let along kiss. Thing number two, it’d just be a sympathy kiss, which doesn’t count.

Elsa: You’re not a N**i, Jojo. You’re a ten year-old kid, who likes dressing up in a funny uniform and wants to be part of a club. But you are not one of them.
Jojo: Okay. Let’s just agree to disagree. Alright?

Captain Deertz:  [to Jojo] I wish more of our young boys had your blind fanaticism.

Captain Deertz: [as Elsa is pretending to be Nina, Jojo’s dead sister] I didn’t know you had a sister, Johannes.
Elsa: Sometimes he’d prefer that I was dead. Isn’t that right, little Frankenstein?
Captain Deertz: Now, now, there’s no need to attack his hideous physical deformity. It’s just a war wound.

Jojo: [after Deertz and his men leave] Elsa, you fooled them.
Elsa: It’s seven.
Jojo: What?
Elsa: [shows him Nina’s papers] She was born on the seventh. Not the first.
Jojo: [referring to Klenzendorf who had covered up Elsa’s mistake] He was helping us.
Elsa: They’ll be back. They’ll figure out she’s dead, then I’ll be dead.
Jojo: Nobody really knows Nina died. You could be her. I’ll tell mama everything when she gets home, that I know you, and that we’re friends.

Adolf: Man, that was a complete bust. Mind explaining that?
Jojo: She’s not, she doesn’t seem like a bad person.

Adolf: [to Jojo, referring to his friendship with Elsa] To put it plainly, get your s**t together and sort out your priorities. You’re ten, Jojo, start acting like it.

Jojo: [Elsa tries comfort him after he finds Rosie hanged in the town square] Did you know?
Elsa: She didn’t tell me much. Only that she worked with her friends, and your father was somehow involved from afar.
Jojo: No, he’s fighting in the war.
Elsa: She said he’ll be home as soon as the war is over. She didn’t want to tell you anything for obvious reasons.
Jojo: Because she hated me, because I’m a N**i. I’m the enemy.
Elsa: She just didn’t want you to know anything that could get you into trouble.
Jojo: But now I am nothing. No one.

Elsa: [to Jojo] The last time I saw my parents it was at the station. They were put on a train. I ran, slowly found my way back to the city. A friend of my father’s hid me, and another friend, some friends of friends. Then your mother took me in. And so far, I’m still here. My parents went to a place they can’t come back from.

Jojo: What’s the first thing you’ll do when you’re free?
Elsa: Dance.

Yorki: [they embrace each other] Jojo! Oh, I’ve missed you. I’m sorry about your mama. I cried for ages when I heard what happened.

 Jojo: [after the allied forces have captured the Germans soldiers] Captain K.
Captain Klenzendorf: Hey, kid. Look at all this commotion, huh?
Jojo: What’s happening?
Captain Klenzendorf: Hysteria, my friend. We’ve come to the end. The party is over. Are you scared? Don’t be scared. Look at me. I’m sorry about Rosie. She was a good person. An actual good person. Okay?
Captain Klenzendorf: [Jojo nods and hugs him as he sobs] Hey, it’s okay, kid.

Captain Klenzendorf: I’ve been meaning to tell you, I think your book is really great. Yeah, I’m sorry for laughing at it. Very creative. Come here, let’s take a look at you. You look good. You’re okay, kid. Now, go home and look after that sister of yours. Okay?
Captain Klenzendorf: [Jojo nods, then he takes Jojo’s jacket off him and pushes him aside] Get away! Get away, Jew! Get away!
[he saves Jojo as the allied soldiers remove Jojo and take Klenzendorf to be executed]

Jojo: [after finding Yorki alive sitting in the street] Nothing makes sense anymore.
Yorki: Yeah, I know. It’s definitely not a good time to be a N**i.

Elsa: [Jojo runs home and speaks to Elsa through the wall] What’s going on out there?
Jojo: Out where?
Elsa: Outside? Tell me. Jojo, what’s going on? Is it safe to come out? Jojo, is it safe? Can I leave?
Jojo: No. You can’t leave.
Elsa: Why?
Jojo: You have to stay here.
Elsa: Who with?
Jojo: With me.
Elsa: Jojo, who won the war?
Jojo: We did. Germany won the war. I’m sorry.

Jojo: [reads another letter he’s written from Nathan to Elsa] “Dear Elsa, I know it’s hard for you at the moment, and I know you feel like giving up, but you have to carry on. Me and your good friend Jojo, have devised a plan for you to escape. So please listen to him. He’s going to help you get out of there. And then you can come live in Paris. And don’t worry about Jojo, he’ll be okay. See you in Paris. Nathan.”
Elsa: He’s dead.
Jojo: Pardon?
Elsa: Nathan. He died the first year. Tuberculosis.
Jojo: [awkwardly, referring to the letters] Well, that’s weird. He wrote these.

Elsa: Thank you, Jojo. You’ve been so good to me.
Jojo: Well, the thing is, I love you. I know you think of me as a younger brother, which is fine. And you’re too old anyway, but… It’s quite hot in here.
Elsa: I love you too.
Jojo: As a younger brother.
Elsa: As a younger brother.

Jojo: Look, me and fake Nathan have found a way for you to escape. Maybe you can trust a younger brother?
Elsa: Maybe.
Jojo: Okay then. Get your things together. We’re leaving.

Jojo: [looking at himself in the mirror] Jojo Betzler. Ten and a half years-old. Today, just do what you can.

Adolf: Where in the s**t do you think you’re going? Huh?
Jojo: Out.
Adolf: Out? Oh, no, you’re not. No, we’re going to stay in here, and you’re going to tell me exactly what’s going on with you and that thing in the attic.
Jojo: That thing is a girl.
Adolf: You’re in love with her, aren’t you?
Jojo: Yes.
Adolf: Admit it!
Jojo: I just said yes!
Adolf: I knew it!

Adolf: H*il me, for old time’s sake? H*il me, little man.
Jojo: No.
Adolf: H*il me.
Jojo: No!
Adolf: Just a little h*il, please?
Jojo: F*** off, Hitler!
[Jojo kicks him out of the window]

Elsa: [as they are about the leave the house] Is it dangerous out there?
Jojo: [smiling] Extremely.
Jojo: [as they step out of the house, Elsa realizes the Allies have won] We made it.
Jojo: [Elsa slaps him] Probably deserved that. What do we do now?
[they slowly start dancing]

[before credits] “Let everything happen to you. Beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” – Rainer Maria Rilke