Quantcast
The Compass  /  Office Culture  /  Glengarry Glen Ross Quotes – Put That Coffee Down!

Glengarry Glen Ross Quotes – Put That Coffee Down!

glengarry glen ross quotes

Glengarry Glen Ross Quotes

Are you missing the life lessons in the Glengarry Glen Ross quotes like “always be closing” and “coffee’s for closers” you’ve been hearing—and using—for years?


You’ve probably quoted it— even if you’ve never seen the movie.

You hear echoes of this speech all the time. Lines from the speech like “coffee’s for closers” have become every bit a part of our culture as famous lines from other movies like “make him an offer he can’t refuse.” The latter is from The Godfather, the highest grossing movie of all-time for years after it’s release, a movie that millions of people worldwide have seen, and that influenced a whole slew of box office and television hits.

“Coffee’s for closers” is a line from Glengarry Glen Ross, a movie that might best be described as a “cult classic” and that, despite critical acclaim, lost money. How could one scene from such a relatively small movie make such a big dent in culture? The answer is simple: IT’S AMAZING!

It’s amazing because the scene sets a lot of the movie’s action in motion, tells us about the characters and includes a bone-chilling speech delivered by Alec Baldwin with the fervor of the best fire and brimstone preacher. That’s what makes it so enduringly quotable. But before you throw a “you see this watch?…” or a “third prize is you’re fired” or any other Glengarry Glen Ross quotes out there in jest, take a deeper look at this masterwork (and subscribe to The Compass for more important advice). For all its funny, workplace-inappropriate and downright abusive content, the speech is chock full of life lessons.


“Coffee’s for closers”

If there is one iconic line from this movie, this is it. Of all the Glengarry Glen Ross quotes, this is the one that gets the most attention. Humiliating Jack Lemmon’s character by denying him the right to drink the company coffee in front of the rest of the team is the ultimate power move, but using this approach on yourself can work wonders.

The technique is simple: set micro-goals, with small rewards. If you love coffee and you’ve got a task in front of you, pick off a segment of the task and deny yourself coffee until you accomplish it. The urge to get to that coffee break can be just the push you need to knock out more tasks and be more productive everyday.


The leads are weak?“You’re weak!”

After the salesmen are threatened with being fired, Jack Lemmon’s character makes an attempt to push back, claiming that the sales leads they have are weak. Baldwin’s character is having none of this and again goes on the attack, stomping out any fight left in Lemmon’s character.

This quote is simply a rephrasing of an old saw, a carpenter never blames his tools. Granted, the rephrasing is mean-spirited, but the point is the same. When your inner voice starts to complain about not having the best tools for the job, remembering this line can light the fire of ingenuity under your ass so that you find a solution. After all, you may be right. You may be understaffed, under-equipped or under-resourced in some other way, but unless you have a feasible solution to the problem, complaining about it makes you sound…well…weak.


“Always be closing.”

This line probably gets so much play as a punchline it’s hard to remember that it was once an actual piece of advice. Hackneyed as the line is, it encapsulates a great lesson in being single-minded. The Baldwin character’s point is that everything you do should be in service of some overarching goal. A salesman’s mission may be to sell, so he looks at every conversation as progressing towards a sale. But what if you have a personal mission?

Let’s say your goal was to become a better public speaker. Then “always be presenting” can give you a new outlook. When you’re speaking to a cashier at the drugstore, you’re practicing enunciation, when you’re relating a story about your commute to your co-workers, you’re working on using your hands to convey information. No matter what you’re doing, reminding yourself to always be improving is always a good idea.


“You see this watch?
This watch cost more than your car.”

Throughout the speech Ed Harris’ character keeps pressing him to explain who he is, but Baldwin’s character never gives a straight answer. When asked why he’s there to talk to them, Baldwin responds with this line about the watch and telling Harris’ character how much money he made in sales last year.

While judging yourself on your possessions or how much money you make is nothing to shoot for, the underlying statement Baldwin’s character is making here is you are what you do. His answers to Harris’ character’s basic question, who are you?, may seem evasive, but, in fact, they are the answers that are most consistent with his character. He doesn’t see himself as a noun but as a verb. Try thinking of yourself as a verb for a day and you’ll see how impactful this is on what you choose to do. Let’s say your goal is to get fit. Most guys would express this as wanting to go from out of shape to being in shape. And most guys don’t do jackshit about it, it’s a wish. But if you subscribe to the philosophy that you are what you do and you really want to get fit, then choosing working out over vegging out is a pretty straightforward decision. By thinking of yourself as your actions, you constantly hold yourself accountable to your own goals.

Glengarry Glen Ross Quotes Motivating You?


By now you’ve gotten a sense of how one of the most vicious tirades in cinematic history contains great insight and inspiration (and is damn entertaining as vicious tirades go). These are just our top choices. What about you? Tell us which lines resonate with you from this scene and why in the comments below.


Like What You See? There's More.

We'll send you style advice and intel for the modern man.


13 thoughts on “Glengarry Glen Ross Quotes – Put That Coffee Down!”

  1. Geovanny says:

    Love your line “By thinking of yourself as your actions, you constantly hold yourself accountable to your own goals.” Totally agree & I shared this with my team.

  2. Ricky Roma says:

    If you enjoyed this article, as I did, you may enjoy this podcast: The Glengarry Glen Ross Minute. A minute by minute look at this iconic film.
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/glengarry-glen-ross-minute/id1196045352

  3. Will says:

    I know I’m late to this party but I had to comment. Glengarry Glen Ross is a fabulous movie. Superbly acted and tightly scripted.

    But you guys have totally misinterpreted Baldwin’s scene. It, like the rest of the movie, is part satire, part denouncement of hollow corporate culture.

    Baldwin is strutting around like a buffoon, yelling at run-down salesmen in a run-down company that’s trying to make them sell garbage real estate.

    Any sensible person would have laughed in Baldwin’s face when he prattled that ridiculous line about his watch. It’s the defeat in Ed Harris’s face, as he just sits there and takes it like a schmuck, that fills the scene with power and pathos.

    We laugh and cringe at Baldwin’s dumb litany nonsense. We’re twisted by the salesmen’s inability to call it out.

    We’re shouting at the screen, telling Lemon to walk past Baldwin, wink at him, take a long sip of that coffee, drop it in Spacey’s trash can and walk out. But he can’t.

    We certainly aren’t meant to watch Baldwin and say ‘hey yeah! That’s right!’

    1. Black Lapel says:

      Agreed on the ridiculousness of Alec Baldwin’s character. We’re not condoning the character’s worldview. Of course, the Baldwin character is off his rocker and we aren’t suggesting that you should take the speech, word-for-word, as guidance. Rather, our intent is to pluck out the insights and learn from it.

      If we learn anything from great writing, it’s that well-crafted villains/antagonists have kernels of truth/good intentions at the heart of their motivations that may have been twisted but are still there. Above is an attempt to see through the bluster and explore what could be there. That being said, we respect your right to take the whole scene as pure entertainment because…well…it’s entertaining, in a perverse sort of way.

  4. Matthew says:

    The concept of thinking of yourself as a verb and not a noun is really interesting! Definitely going to try it.

    1. Black Lapel says:

      Good on you, Matty Ice. It’ll definitely change your outlook.

  5. Derek says:

    No doubt one of the most quotable movies of all time. I still have some steak knives from a past job…

    You guys should do a post on Boiler Room!

    1. Black Lapel says:

      Steak knives! What, no Cadillac?

      We’ve got a few more modern classic movies to profile here so keep your eye our for Boiler Room and more.

  6. @JakeShelll says:

    See my latest tweet @jakeshell

    1. Black Lapel says:

      That’s serious devotion, Jake! Fantastic, we’ll look for you on the road next time we’re in VA.

    2. Black Lapel says:

      To those who missed it, here’s Jake’s photo.

  7. Edwin Lee says:

    The other day, I actually just talking about “coffee’s for closers” to my friend because she was trying to snack while we were discussing business. It was noisy and distracting, so pulled this quote on her, but she had no idea what I was talking about. Now I can share this with them, so it’s perfect timing haha.

    1. Black Lapel says:

      LOL. Glad we’ve got your back E$!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.