The Breakfast Club Identity Quotes

How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from The Breakfast Club.

Quote #7

ANDREW: Um, I'm here today... because uh, because my coach and my father don't want me to blow my ride. See I get treated differently because uh, Coach thinks I'm a winner. So does my old man. I'm not a winner because I wanna be one... I'm a winner because I got strength and speed. Kinda like a racehorse. That's about how involved I am in what's happening to me.

Andrew's not being dishonest, but he's also not telling the whole truth. That's how his father and his coach really do view him. Yet Allison wants him to tell her why he's really here, which he (at this point) refuses to do. The story about how he taped a kid's buttocks together is a little too embarrassing and repulsively bullying to trot out right now. He'll have to do it, tearfully, later.

Quote #8

CLAIRE: You know why guys like you knock everything?

BENDER: Oh, this should be stunning.

CLAIRE: It's 'cause you're afraid.

BENDER: Oh, God! You richies are so smart; that's exactly why I'm not heavy in activities!

What does Claire think Bender's afraid of? Maybe she thinks he's afraid of failing, afraid of engaging with life on a serious level and not having it work out. Bender probably doesn't see it that way: To him, his behavior makes total sense, and it's what he needs to do to cope with the abuse he suffers from his dad.

Quote #9

CLAIRE: You're a big coward.

BRIAN: I'm in the math club.

CLAIRE: See, you're afraid that they won't take you. You don't belong, so you just have to dump all over it.

BENDER: Well, it wouldn't have anything to do with you activities people being assholes, now would it?

CLAIRE: Well you wouldn't know; you don't even know any of us.

BENDER: Well, I don't know any lepers, either, but I'm not gonna run out and join one of their f***ing clubs.

Claire assumes that she knows Bender's deal—which gets him to rise to the bait and stereotype her and insult her and Brian and other people who do school activities. He compares them all to lepers, which is clearly unfair. But he's just judging Claire because he's being judged. It's an equal and opposite reaction.