"Holy shit, Texas! Only steers and queers come from Texas, private Cowboy!"
Sgt. Hartman screams this to Cowboy during the recruits' introduction to boot camp. His insults are geared towards dehumanizing and humiliating the recruit in order to get him to follow his orders.
"But always remember this: Marines die. That's what we're here for."
Hartman says this to the recruits upon their graduation from boot camp. He's saying that their lives are a part of something much bigger. Their lives only matter so much as they are willing to sacrifice them for whatever cause the Marines see fit to thrust them into.
"Easy—just don't lead 'em so much. Ain't war hell?"
Joker asks the gunman if he's killed any women and children to which he replies that he has. He states the quote to Joker when asks "how" he can do it; the joke of his response is that it's easy to kill them—you just don't shoot as far ahead of them, since women and children run more slowly. The quote emphasizes the callousness, as well as the harsh gallows humor, that the war generates in the soliders.
"John Wayne, is that you?"
Joker repeats this line a couple times over the course of the film, in a John Wayne voice. The line is meant to parody the hyper-masculine bravado of the men around him, especially Hartman and Animal Mother.
"I can hack it."
These are Cowboy's last words, which he says just before he dies in Joker's arms. The line echoes Hartman's early declaration that his intent is to weed out "non-hackers," and also the primal fear that all the men have of being viewed as less than capable or manly.
"God has a hard-on for the Marines."
Hartman says this line as part of the speech he delivers to the men on Christmas Day. He attempts to convey to them that, in becoming cold-blooded killers, the Marines will soon assume godlike powers, in that they can be destroyers.
"Where's the shit?"
This is the first thing Joker says upon landing in Phu Bai, as he tries to find a squad that is entangled in serious combat. He winds up with the Lusthog Squad, where he finds his old friend Cowboy.
"We're jolly green giants roaming the earth—with guns."
Crazy Earl delivers this line as he explains to the men that they will soon miss being a part of the Marine Corps, because they will no longer be able to kill indiscriminately. The statement reflects Crazy Earl's belief that the men are lucky, as opposed to unfortunate.
"You are nothing but unorganized, grab-asstic pieces of amphibian shit!"
Hartman says this in his opening tirade to the new recruits, trying to emphasize the sub-human condition that the men will occupy in boot camp until they are "born again hard" at the end as Marines.
"You people have not given Private Pyle the proper motivation!"
Hartman screams this at the platoon after finding a jelly donut in Pyle's locker. Although the line seems vague, Hartman intends for the platoon to haze Pyle with a vicious beating in order to "motivate" him.
