The Quotable Star Wars

A KISS IS
STILL A KISS

Stephen Sansweet goes on a search for the ultimate one-liner from the Star Wars Trilogy

"I'd Just as Soon Kiss a Wookiee!" - The Quotable Star Wars
Compiled by Stephen J. Sansweet
published by Del Rey books

There's a real danger reading a book as subjective as Stephen J. Sansweet's "I'd Just As Soon Kiss A Wookiee!" - The Quotable Star Wars. When an author admittedly includes only his favorite quotes, he stands a good chance of leaving out mine - or yours, or any readers. Books such as this one quickly can become an internal comparison war: "how could you leave out this one," and "I can't believe you'd include that one!" Still, this is Star Wars, so any line is likely to be a sweet one for the movies' fans. (That said, most of the quotes, including the title quote, are ones that I would keep in my own compilation of favorites.)

The quotes are categorized into broad, humorously named chapters, such as "It's Not Easy Being Green" (Yoda's chapter); and "The Walking Carpet" (Chewbacca's chapter). "The Proper Princess" includes the ever-popular The Empire Strikes Back passage from Leia to Han: "Why, you stuck-up . . . half-witted . . . scruffy-looking nerf-herder!" My favorite chapter is the aforementioned "The Walking Carpet." It has sayings like "Come here, you big coward!" and "Laugh it up, fuzzball." Unfortunately, nowhere in the book are there any quotes from Chewbacca or R2-D2, whose warbles and roars I've often enjoyed (although, if that were the case, the book would have to be subtitled The Mostly Unintelligible Star Wars).

One thing Sansweet (or his editor) could have arranged better was the organization of multiple-quote passages. Instead of grouping together a chunk of dialogue into a single, fluid passage, he puts each character's line in separate parts. For instance, the conversation in the first Star Wars film between Han and C-3PO about how "...nobody worries about upsetting a droid." is split up into four consecutive quotes that alternate between Han and C-3PO without making it obvious that the quotes were conversational tradeoffs. It makes an otherwise fun passage lose its impact.

In response to the release of the Special Editions, this book also has quotes taken from the Jabba the Hutt scene originally cut from A New Hope, in which Jabba was portrayed by a human instead of the grotesque slug as seen in Return of the Jedi. One quote from Han, while simply sarcastic in the original cut scene, turned out facetious in the Special Edition: "Jabba, you're a wonderful human being."

Something that hadn't really affected me the first time I read this book was how closely some of these quotes can mirror personal experiences. Let's just say that Han's "Don't worry, she'll hold together . . . . You hear me, baby? Hold together!" and Lando's "She's the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy" have new meaning for me after some major car troubles. At least the Falcon never had a problem with actually being able to stop.

All in all, more quotes probably could have been included for the book's $6 price tag, but it is nonetheless a fun read. Looking for a Star Wars quote might be a good excuse to watch all three movies again. However, if you truly don't have time to do that, I'd Just as Soon Kiss a Wookiee! is a good place to start.