Breaking Bad Quotes

Context

This famous line is spoken by Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston on Breaking Bad ("Cornered," 2011). 

Here's a tip for you: don't get on Walter White's bad side. And whatever you do, don't insinuate that he's not "the danger." As far as high school biology teachers go, this guy is… scarier than average.

This line is delivered in a scene between Walter and his wife, Skyler. The missus isn't totally in the loop on everything Walt's involved in; all she knows is that it involves drugs, so it's bad news. But as for the violence that Walt's been on both ends of, she's pretty much in the dark.

When she expresses her concern that, one day, somebody's going to come knocking on the White family door with the intent to harm him or his family, he blows a gasket, insisting that, "I am the one who knocks." In other words, if anyone's going to be knocking on doors and harming innocent families, it's going to be him. Hm.

Way to calm the wife's nerves there, Walt.

Where you've heard it

The episode in which this line appeared wasn't really that long ago—2011. But already the line has flooded into our popular culture.

Some people picked up on the "knocking" aspect and went with that. Others decided the best way to parody the now-famous scene would be to insert a pug in place of Bryan Cranston, complete with expert editing tricks. And still others felt it should be set to dubstep.

Guess there's no accounting for taste.

As for when you can use the line yourself… really any time someone's questioning your ability to stay out of trouble.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

While Walt spits out this line in the heat of the moment, and doesn't really pause and give it enough thought for it to be truly pretentious, it is one of those lines that sounds like someone's trying a bit too hard to sound more macho than they really are. It's up there with "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."