How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from The Breakfast Club.
Quote #1
BRIAN: Um, I was just thinking, I mean. I know it's kind of a weird time, but I was just wondering, um, what is gonna happen to us on Monday? When we're all together again? I mean I consider you guys my friends, I'm not wrong, am I?
ANDREW: No...
BRIAN: So, so on Monday... what happens?
This is the big question. Will Andrew, Claire, and even Bender still be willing to acknowledge friendship with lowly sorts like Brian and Allison? The whole problem is peer pressure—wanting to stay with the clique for security's sake. The movie leaves this question unanswered, but it seems to give hopefulness a stronger basis than it had originally.
Quote #2
CLAIRE: Are we still friends, you mean? If we're friends now, that is?
BRIAN: Yeah...
CLAIRE: Do you want the truth?
BRIAN: Yeah, I want the truth...
CLAIRE: I don't think so.
ALLISON: Well, do you mean all of us, or just John?
CLAIRE: With all of you...
ANDREW: That's a real nice attitude, Claire!
CLAIRE: Oh, be honest, Andy... if Brian came walking up to you in the hall on Monday, what would you do? I mean picture this, you're there with all the sports. I know exactly what you'd do, you'd say hi to him and when he left you'd cut him all up so your friends wouldn't think you really liked him!
ANDREW: No way!
Claire answers Brian's question by claiming that they probably won't still be friends. She cynically thinks that the peer pressure will just be too much—she and Andrew won't be able to resist it. Interestingly, Brian's physics club friends apparently won't put any pressure on him to disavow any kind of friendship with Claire and Andrew. The need to ostracize so-called nerds and weirdos is a virus particular to Claire's and Andrew's cliques.
Quote #3
BENDER: You are a b****!
CLAIRE: Why? 'Cause I'm telling the truth, that makes me a b****?
BENDER: No! 'Cause you know how s***ty that is to do to someone! And you don't got the balls to stand up to your friends and tell 'em that you're gonna like who you want to like!
Even though Bender was calling Brian a dork and a dweeb earlier, now he hotly contests the idea that he wouldn't want to hang out with Brian around his friends. Even though he's a bad boy, he sees himself as being more tolerant than Claire and Andrew. Maybe because he's technically lower down the scale of social status than them, he actually does feel more empathetic to someone like Brian.
Quote #4
CLAIRE: Okay, what about you, you hypocrite! Why don't you take Allison to one of your heavy metal vomit parties? Or take Brian out to the parking lot at lunch to get high? What about Andy for that matter, what about me? What would your friends say if we were walking down the hall together? They'd laugh their asses off and you'd probably tell them you were doing it with me so they'd forgive you for being seen with me.
BENDER: Don't you ever talk about my friends! You don't know any of my friends, you don't look at any of my friends, and you certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to any of my friends so you just stick to the things you know, shopping, nail polish, your father's BMW, and your poor—rich—drunk mother in the Caribbean.
Claire assumes that Bender's friends are intolerant of difference. And maybe she's right? But Bender vigorously disputes her. But is this because Claire's genuinely wrong? Or is it because Bender just wants to prove that he's less exclusive than a Claire in order to win points against her?
Quote #5
BRIAN: Then I assume Allison and I are better people than you guys, huh? Us weirdos... (to Allison) Do you, would you do that to me?
ALLISON: I don't have any friends...
BRIAN: Well if you did?
ALLISON: No... I don't think the kind of friends I'd have would mind...
Interestingly, not having friends has actually made Allison more tolerant. Even though she enjoys the exclusive company of one person—herself—she's not doing this because she thinks she's better than anyone else. She knows what it's like to feel isolated and different so she wouldn't want to force that feeling on anyone else.
Quote #6
BRIAN: I just want to tell, each of you, that I wouldn't do that... I wouldn't and I will not! 'Cause I think that's real s***ty...
CLAIRE: Your friends wouldn't mind because they look up to us...
BRIAN: You're so conceited, Claire. You're so conceited. You're so, like, full of yourself, why are you like that?
Claire's conceited because she assumes that nerds secretly admire athletes and rich people. It's conceited because she's projecting her own self-regard onto other people, assuming that they share it, when, in reality, they don't. It's not that Brian and his friends necessarily dislike people like Claire: More likely, they're indifferent. They have other things to do, and can't waste time hating people who look down on them.
Quote #7
CLAIRE: I'm not saying that to be conceited! I hate it! I hate having to go along with everything my friends say!
BRIAN: Well then why do you do it?
CLAIRE: I don't know, I don't... you don't understand—you don't. You're not friends with the same kind of people that Andy and I are friends with! You know, you just don't understand the pressure that they can put on you!
But Claire claims that she's not conceited—even though what she said was probably incorrect and sort of conceited. She sees herself that way because of peer pressure—her excessive self-regard isn't something she came up with on her own. It's the way her clique needs to view themselves to maintain their dominance in the social hierarchy.