Breaking Bad Quotes

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Source: Breaking Bad

Speaker: Walter White

"Tread lightly."

If that's true, if you don't know who I am, then maybe your best course is to tread lightly.

Context

This line was spoken by Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) in an episode of Breaking Bad, written by Peter Gould (2008-2013).

At the beginning of Breaking Bad's final season, Walter White is out of the meth business and working on expanding his car wash business with the remaining money. His cancer has come back, and he's just trying to tie up loose ends so his family will be set up after he's gone.

But little does he know that his brother-in-law, DEA agent Hank Schrader, has finally figured out that he is the drug kingpin, Heisenberg. This is all thanks to a copy of Leaves by Grass by Walt Whitman that was in the Whites' bathroom. Walter White is definitely not getting off scot free.

This one-liner is delivered after Walter confronts Hank about the missing poetry book and a GPS tracker on he found on his car. We're betting that no one else has thrown a punch because of Walt Whitman before, but they do as Hank accuses Walter of being Heisenberg.

Like a good little arch-criminal, he neither confirms nor denies, but decides to peace out with this line.

Where you've heard it

You've heard this quote if you get on someone's bad side, and they decide to bust out their inner Heisenberg and tell you back off.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

If you quote this line and can't back it up, you're going to look sillier than Hank Schrader in the first four seasons of Breaking Bad, as he misses obvious clues that his brother-in-law is a drug lord.