Quoting Dialogue From Raising Arizona in Novel

Dear Rich: I'm self-publishing my novel and I'm trying to track down Circle Films for permission to use four lines from "Raising Arizona." (I did get permission from the Cather Foundation to quote "My Antonia.")  The problem is, I can't even find a website for Circle Films. 
You might be able to find Circle Films information by signing on for an imdb.com PRO subscription which offers contact information for producers and studios (the first month is free). Alternatively, you might try contacting producer Ben Barenholtz who apparently was the owner of Circle Films.
Why bother? After reviewing your use -- two characters talking about the film and quoting four lines of dialogue -- we don't believe permission is required. Yours is a classic example of fair use because you are using a small amount of copyrighted material for a limited and “transformative” purpose, something that authors who comment on pop culture (for example Elmore Leonard -- scroll down to "Spark") commonly do. Alternatively, you've taken so little from the movie it might qualify as a de minimis taking -- one that is so trivial that it shouldn't matter.

Can Band T-Shirt Feature Movie Quote

Dear Rich: I am in a band and we want to use a movie quote -- "They always grow louder when they're about to feed on human flesh" -- from The Princess Bride. The quote comes from a scene where a character is warning another of the presence of "the shrieking eels." The idea for the shirt would be to have the name of the band on the front with a custom drawing of two eels (not taken from the movie), and the quote would go on the back. Is this violating copyright laws? No, assuming your band is not named "Princess Bride" your t-shirts should not cause any copyright or trademark problems. It's true that in some cases, a movie company may go after someone who uses a quote on merchandise (as one studio did with "E.T. Phone Home") but we don't think this will occur here because of the obscurity of the quote (it didn't make into the film's memorable quote list) and because you don't reference the Princess Bride title. By the way, we've written about using movie quotes on t-shirts in a previous entry.

Using Movie Quotes on T-Shirts

Dear Rich: I read your blog advice about the "No Soup for You" question and you stated that short phrases can't be covered by copyright. So just so I am clear, if I create t-shirts using famous phrases from movies and TV shows, I don't have to worry about a copyright infringement, as long as I don't place an image on the shirt that is connected to the movie or TV show - is that correct? That's kind of close. You probably don't need to worry about copyright claims (although some movie quotes have been protected under copyright). When it comes to merchandise and short phrases we're more concerned about trademark issues (as per our follow-up question about Seinfeld). And as Dear Rich readers know, our real concern is whether the movie company will see your work or care. If we were a betting blog, we'd bet that you'll be fine with your shirts (sans any other movie references).