- Sam the Lion: You boys can get on out of here, I don't want to have no more to do with you. Scarin' a poor, unfortunate creature like Billy just so's you could have a few laughs - I've been around that trashy behavior all my life, I'm gettin' tired of puttin' up with it. Now you can stay out of this pool hall, out of my cafe, and my picture show too - I don't want no more of your business.
- Sam the Lion: If she was here I'd probably be just as crazy now as I was then in about 5 minutes. Ain't that ridiculous?... Naw, it ain't really. 'Cause being crazy about a woman like her is always the right thing to do. Being an old decrepit bag of bones, that's what's ridiculous. Gettin' old.
- Jacy Farrow: Well you married Daddy when he was poor and he got rich, didn't he?
- Lois Farrow: Scared your daddy into getting rich, beautiful.
- Jacy Farrow: Well if Daddy could do it, Duane could too.
- Lois Farrow: Not married to you. You're not scary enough.
- Sam the Lion: [to Genevieve] What are you grinnin' about? Chicken fry me a steak and try to use meat this time!
- Lois Farrow: I guess if it wasn't for Sam, I'd have missed it, whatever it is. I'd have been one of them amity types that thinks that playin' bridge is about the best thing that life has to offer.
- Jacy Farrow: [to Lester Marlow] Thank God, I'm glad I weren't on fire - I would've burned to death before you got one button undone.
- [first lines]
- Radio announcer: President Truman'll be here tomorrow, so all you folks in Dallas turn out, chuh hear? This is Cowboy Rhythms on KTRN, Wichita Falls, here's Hank Williams' big hit tune, "Cold Cold Heart".
- Sam the Lion: You ain't ever gonna amount to nothing. Already spent a dime this morning, ain't even had a decent breakfast. Gimme the chalk. Why don't you comb you hair Sonny, it sticks up, look like you smelled'm wolf. I'm surprised you had the nerve to show up this morning after that stomping y'all took last night.
- Sonny Crawford: It coulda been worse.
- Sam the Lion: Whadya say?
- Sonny Crawford: It could have been worse.
- Sam the Lion: Yeah. You can say that about nearly everything, I guess.
- [Telephone Conversation]
- Abilene: Hello.
- Lois Farrow: Abilene, you asleep?
- Abilene: No.
- Lois Farrow: You like company?
- Abilene: Well, I thought I'd drive out, see how my well was coming.
- Lois Farrow: Drill hard. You're better at oil wells anyway.
- Charlene Duggs: [In a snit over breaking up] Now don't go tellin' all the boys how hot I was.
- Sonny Crawford: [Sadly] You wasn't that hot.
- Lois Farrow: You slept with him?
- Jacy Farrow: Mama!
- Lois Farrow: Go to the doctor sometime and arrange something so that you don't have to worry about babies. You do have to be careful of that, you know.
- Jacy Farrow: But, Mama, it's a sin isn't it? Unless you're married? You know I wouldn't do that.
- Lois Farrow: Don't be so mealy-mouthed! I thought if you slept with him a few times you might find out that there isn't anything magic about him.
- Lois Farrow: Just remember, beautiful, everything gets old if you do it often enough. So if you want to find out about monotony real quick, marry Duane.
- Sam the Lion: I just come out here to get a little scenery. Too pretty a day to spend in town. You wouldn't believe how this country's changed. First time I seen it, there wasn't a mesquite tree on it. Or, a prickly pear neither. I used to own this land, you know. First time I watered a horse at this tank was more than 40 years ago. I reckon the reason why I always drag you out here is probably l'm as sentimental as the next feller when it comes to old times. Old times. I brought a young lady swimming out here once - more than 20 years ago. It was after my wife had lost her mind. And my boys was dead. Me and this young lady was pretty wild, I guess. In pretty deep. We used to come out here on horseback and go swimmin' without no bathin' suits. One day she wanted to swim the horses across this tank. Kind of a crazy thing to do, but we done it anyway. She bet me a silver dollar she could beat me across. She did. This old horse I was riding didn't want to take the water. But she was always looking for somethin' to do like that. Somethin' wild. I bet she's still got that silver dollar.
- Sam the Lion: You see? This is what I get for bettin' on my own home town ballteam. I ought'a have better sense.
- Abilene: Wouldn't hurt to have a better home town.
- Ruth Popper: Y'see? You shouldn't have come here. I'm around that corner now. You've ruined it and it's lost completely. Just your needing me won't make it come back.
- Coach Popper: Run, you little pissants, run! Tough it out! Tough it out. You gotta be men like the rest of us. None of you pretty enough to be women. Here, Joe Bob. Quit flappin' your arms. You look like a goddamn goose. Even for a preacher's boy you ought to be in shape. What kind of female you ever gonna get? Come here. Tough it out! Run, you little pissants. All right, off the court. If y'all didn't jack off so damn much, maybe you could stay in shape.
- Jacy Farrow: You married Daddy when he was poor and he got rich, didn't he?
- Lois Farrow: I scared your daddy into gettin' rich, beautiful.
- Jacy Farrow: Well, if Daddy could do it, Duane could too.
- Lois Farrow: Not married to you. You're not scary enough.
- Sonny Crawford: How come you've stayed with the coach? You don't like him much.
- Ruth Popper: I wasn't brought up to leave my husband.
- Genevieve: One thing I know for sure. A person can't sneeze in this town without somebody offering them a handkerchief.
- Jacy Farrow: [to Duane, as they're leaving motel room after having sex] Oh, quit prissing. I don't think you done it right, anyway.
- Sonny Crawford: [to the unsympathetic crowd around Billy's body] He was sweeping you sons of bitches, he was sweeping!
- [Telephone Conversation]
- Duane Jackson: Hi Jacy, it's Duane.
- Jacy Farrow: What's on your feeble mind Duane?
- Jacy Farrow: [Duane is having trouble "performing" with Jacy in a motel room] Just go on and do it! Oh! What's the matter with you?
- Duane Jackson: I don't know, I don't know... something's happened.
- Jacy Farrow: Well, get off me a minute, for goodness sakes, you might fall down and mash me.
- [He does]
- Duane Jackson: Well, I don't know what happened.
- Jacy Farrow: [furious] It was Mexico! No tellin' *what* you got down there... I just hate you! I don't know why I ever went with you!
- Duane Jackson: I don't know what happened.
- Jacy Farrow: [exasperated] Well, put your clothes on, you think I wanna sit around here lookin' at you naked? I might've known you couldn't do it. Now I'll never get to not be a virgin. What'll we tell everybody? The whole class knows! I just want to cry! You're about the meanest boy I ever saw! My mama was dead right about you.
- Duane Jackson: Well, I don't know what happened.
- Jacy Farrow: Don't go out there! We haven't had time to do it. They'd know! I don't want one soul to know. You'd better not tell one soul!
- [picks up her clothes]
- Jacy Farrow: You just pretend it was *wonderful*!
- Duane Jackson: Well, I'm sorry, I don't know what happened.
- Jacy Farrow: Oh! If you say that one more time, I'll *bite* you!
- Bobby Sheen: Nice. You a virgin?
- Jacy Farrow: Guess I am.
- Bobby Sheen: Too bad.
- Jacy Farrow: I don't want to be, though.
- Bobby Sheen: I don't blame you. Come see me when you're not.
- Sam the Lion: Her and her husband was young and miserable with one another - like so many young married folks are. I thought they'd change with some age; but, it didn't turn out that way.
- Sonny Crawford: Is being married always so miserable?
- Sam the Lion: No. Not really. About 80 percent of the time, I guess.
- Sonny Crawford: Sure weren't out of Texas very long.
- Lois Farrow: Well, Oklahoma's not much of an improvement.
- Lois Farrow: Hey, there. Hi.
- [long kiss on the lips with Abilene]
- Lois Farrow: Merry Christmas.
- Abilene: This here is Jackie Lee French. Jackie Lee, this is Lois Farrow, my boss's wife.
- Lois Farrow: Hi Jackie.
- Jackie Lee French: [to Abilene] What do you mean, kissing her like that?
- [to Lois]
- Jackie Lee French: I ought to slap your face.
- Lois Farrow: Well, why don't you just kiss my ass?
- Sonny Crawford: Say, I hear Duane joined the Army.
- Genevieve: Good place for him too.
- Sonny Crawford: Oh, he was just holding that bottle. He didn't mean to hit me with it.
- Genevieve: That boy always had meaness in him. Of course, Jacy's just the kind of girl that brings out the meaness in a man. She's just like her grandmother. Oh, I hadn't ought to talk about them, anyhow. We was all good friends once. Dan roughnecked with Gene Farrow. He and Lois, they used to live in this little one-room place over the newspaper office. Lois couldn't afford a flour sack, much less a mink. I've always had a soft spot for her, though. Yeah, I wondered a lot of times what would've happened if Dan made the strikes that Gene made. They offered that rig to him first. Dan Morgan never took a chance in his life.
- Sonny Crawford: Don't you wish y'all had made it?
- Genevieve: Sure, I wish we made it.
- Sonny Crawford: You wasn't no livelier than me.
- Charlene Duggs: That's 'cause you ain't good-lookin' enough. You ain't even got a ducktail.
- Jacy Farrow: I don't want to leave. Why can't I stay and just go to college in Wichita Falls?
- Lois Farrow: Because. Everything is - flat and empty here. And nothin' to do!
- Annie Annie Martin: You want to join the club?
- Jacy Farrow: Sure.
- Annie Annie Martin: Well, you got to get undressed out there on the diving board.
- Bobby Sheen: Where everybody gets to watch.
- Annie Annie Martin: We all do it the first time.
- Bobby Sheen: That's the rule.
- Jacy Farrow: I wish I could go to the pool hall. I've always wanted to! It's terrible, the things girls aren't allowed to do.
- Lois Farrow: I guess Ruth Popper's got about as good a setup as anyone.
- Jacy Farrow: Ruth Popper?
- Lois Farrow: Why, sure! I think Sonny's reasonably good-looking.
- Jacy Farrow: Sonny?
- Lois Farrow: And he's young.
- Jacy Farrow: And Ruth Popper?
- Lois Farrow: Oh, don't you know about that? Well, It's been going on about six months now! I thought you kids knew everything.
- Jacy Farrow: Oh, it's silliest thing I ever heard of. She's 40 years old.
- Lois Farrow: So am I, honey. It's kind of an itchy age. You want an orange?
- Jacy Farrow: I don't believe it. Sonny's *always* wanted to go with me.
- Sonny Crawford: She's not your girl anymore.
- Duane Jackson: She is my girl! I don't care if we did break up.
- Sonny Crawford, Duane Jackson, Jacy Farrow: [singing] Whether in defeat or victory, We will always be true, Anarene High School we love you, And we'll fight for you!
- Genevieve: That boy's always had meanness in him. Jacy's the kind of girl that brings out the meanness in a man.
- Jacy Farrow: I called you before.
- Sonny Crawford: You did?
- Jacy Farrow: Mmm-hmm. I felt lonesome. Thought you might want to drive around awhile.
- Coach Popper: Now, listen. See if we can't stretch that goddamn thing a little. You know a man never ought to cheat, unlessin' it's for a good cause.
- Sonny Crawford: I thought you might want to go to the picture show? Miss Mosey's havin' to close it. Tonight's the last night.
- Ruth Popper: [to Sonny] What am I doing apologizing to you? Why am I ALWAYS apologizing to you, you little bastard? Three months I've been apologizing to you without you even being here! I haven't done anything wrong. Why can't I quit apologizing? You the one ought to be sorry! I wouldn't still be in my bathrobe if it hadn't been for you. I'd have my clothes on hours ago. You're the one made me quit caring if I got dressed or not! I guess just because your friend got killed, you want me to forget what you did and make it all right? I'm not sorry for you. You'd have left Billy too, just like you left me. I bet you left him plenty of nights, whenever Jacy whistled. I wouldn't treat a dog that way. I guess you thought I was so old and ugly, you didn't owe me any explanation. You didn't need to be careful of me. There wasn't anything I could do about you and her, why should you be careful of me? You didn't love me. Look at me. Can't you even look at me?
- [long pause, as Sonny slowly turns to look at Ruth, blankly]
- Ruth Popper: See? Shouldn't have come here. I'm around that corner now. You've ruined it. It's lost completely. Just your needing me won't make it come back.