Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

Barry Dennen: Mendel

Quotes 

• Tevye : As Abraham said, "I am a stranger in a strange land... "

  Mendel : Moses said that.

  Tevye : Ah. Well, as King David said, "I am slow of speech, and slow of tongue."

  Mendel : That was also Moses.

  Tevye : For a man who was slow of tongue, he talked a lot.

• Tevye : As the good book says, when a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick.

  Mendel : Where does the book say that?

  Tevye : Well, it doesn't say that exactly, but somewhere there is something about a chicken.

• [Hodel and Perchik begin dancing] 

  Mendel : She's dancing with a man!

  Tevye : I can SEE that she's dancing with a man!

  [pause] 

  Tevye : And I'm going to dance with my wife!

• Tevye : And until your golden day comes, Rev. Perchik, How will you live?

  Perchik : By giving lessons to children, Do you have any children?

  Tevye : I have five daughters.

  Perchik : [Looking to Tevye in disbelief]  Five?

  Tevye : Daughters...

  Perchik : Girls can learn too, girls are people.

  Mendel : A radical!

  Tevye : Oh, go away!

  Perchik : I'd be willing to teach them, open their minds to great thoughts.

  Tevye : Yeah? I'd like them to know the Good Book.