An uptight English writer traveling to Crete on a matter of business finds his life changed forever when he meets the gregarious Alexis Zorba.

Alexis Zorba: On a deaf man's door, you can knock forever!
Basil: I don't want any trouble.
Alexis Zorba: Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.
Alexis Zorba: Why do the young die? Why does anybody die?
Basil: I don't know.
Alexis Zorba: What's the use of all your damn books if they can't answer that?
Basil: They tell me about the agony of men who can't answer questions like yours.
Alexis Zorba: I spit on this agony!
Alexis Zorba: God has a very big heart but there is one sin he will not forgive
[slaps table]
Alexis Zorba: if a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go. I know because a very wise old Turk told me.
Alexis Zorba: You think too much.That is your trouble.Clever people and grocers, they weigh everything.
Alexis Zorba: If a woman sleeps alone, it puts a shame on all men.
Alexis Zorba: Damn it boss, I like you too much not to say it. You've got everthing except one thing: madness! A man needs a little madness, or else...
Basil: Or else?
Alexis Zorba: ...he never dares cut the rope and be free.
Alexis Zorba: How can I not love them? Poor weak creatures... and they take so little, a man's hand on their breast, and they give you all they got.
Alexis Zorba: What kind of man are you, don't you even like dolphins?
Alexis Zorba: Silly old bitch. She's not alone, she's with Suleiman Pasha having a hell of a time.
Alexis Zorba: Am I not a man? And is a man not stupid? I'm a man, so I married. Wife, children, house, everything. The full catastrophe.
Alexis Zorba: All right, we go outside where God can see us better.
Madame Hortense: I too fought breasts to breasts.
Madame Hortense: You are cruel! Why you abandon me? The whole village is laughing at me. Where is my white satin? Where is my wedding dress?
Alexis Zorba: There will be no funeral. She was a Frank, she crossed herself with four fingers. The priest will not bury her like everybody else.
Alexis Zorba: No more fooling around, not in this place. We'll pull our pants up and make a pile of money.
Alexis Zorba: Hey boss, did you ever see a more splendiferous crash?
Basil: I... couldn't help.
Alexis Zorba: Those damn cats!
Alexis Zorba: The lamb, it will burn!