Nicolas Cage credited as playing...
Al Columbato
- Sergeant Al Columbato: Maybe life is shitty. It is shitty. I'll tell you something. I'm not trying to pin life anymore. I don't even fucking understand it. I just want to make it through with some dignity, like everybody else. Of course, if there was any real dignity, there wouldn't be any sex.
- Birdy: Do you like pigeons?
- Sergeant Al Columbato: What's to like?
- Birdy: They fly.
- Sergeant Al Columbato: They fly. So what?
- Birdy: That's enough.
- [about his psychiatrist]
- Sergeant Al Columbato: I don't trust the guy. Everything's too interesting to him.
- Birdy: Last night I flew. I really know what it feels like to fly.
- Sergeant Al Columbato: Oh, you flew? How you flew?
- Birdy: Well, I'm not sure. It's not something you can really take apart. When I fly, it's like in a dream. Only it's not a dream. The thing is, Al, you can't really put it into words. You just kind of have to feel it.
- Sergeant Al Columbato: You're telling me you can fly like a bird?
- Birdy: When I fly, Al... I am a bird.
- Sergeant Al Columbato: This is getting too weird, Birdy. You gotta stop it with this.
- Birdy: I thought if anybody would understand it would be you, Al.
- Sergeant Al Columbato: Well, I don't. I don't even wanna hear about it.
- Birdy: Why?
- Sergeant Al Columbato: Because I'm tired of it! We used to have fun together. Now you are always off by yourself flying around inside your goddamn head! I hope this dream or whatever it is goes away. I think it's bullshit.
- Sergeant Al Columbato: You ain't gonna fly any more than I could, Birdy.
- Birdy: The reason you couldn't fly, Al, is you don't believe you could fly.
- Doctor Weiss: You mean the spitting?
- Sergeant Al Columbato: Yes.
- Doctor Weiss: The army left a bad taste in his mouth.
- Sergeant Al Columbato: Funny, any other war, we would've been heroes. Oh, man! We didn't know what we were getting into with this John Wayne shit.