How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Apocalypse Now.
Quote #1
WILLARD: "Never get out of the boat." Absolutely goddamn right! Unless you were goin' all the way... Kurtz got off the boat. He split from the whole f***in' program.
Willard seems to be saying that once you've abandoned the plans the army's laid out for you, you're at risk for becoming seriously unhinged. Once you've left the metaphorical boat, you're in the lawless jungle.
Quote #2
KURTZ: I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream; that's my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor...and surviving.
For Kurtz, reality boils down to that raw struggle for survival—it's both his dream and his nightmare. You have to live on the thin edge between life and death. Ugh—once you've imagined that snail, you can't un-imagine it.
Quote #3
LANCE: You know that last tab of acid I was saving? I dropped it.
Here's how one commentator described Lance's drug use: "This may be camouflage more than anything; while sanity would stand out against this background, insanity blends right in" (source).