- [to Merlyn, who's a ghost]
- Caleb Temple: I'm tired of your preaching. Tired of your white dress. And I don't wanna see you no more. So why don't you just go somewhere and decompose?
- Merlyn Temple: Do you know what happens to dogs when they die, Caleb?
- Caleb Temple: What happens to them?
- Merlyn Temple: They get to run free all day long, and at the night times, they get to rest at the feet of their masters.
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: I tell you what, I think that girl's pulling your string.
- Caleb Temple: Well, I don't know what that means.
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: You will.
- Deputy Ben Healy: I'm sick of keepin' secrets, Lucas.
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: Then leave that one alone, Ben. 'Cause the next time you go back there, you'll be stinkin' up the place yourself.
- Caleb Temple: This ain't right.
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: Sure it is, boy. You're doing fine.
- Caleb Temple: No, sir.
- Deputy Ben Healy: What's going on here?
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: Oh, all kinds of fun. Matter of fact... things are just getting good.
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: Some folks would lay all of Trinity's troubles at my doorstep, but hell, you might as well blame a trailer park for attracting lightning bolts and tornadoes.
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: The profession of journalism has about as much integrity as the world's oldest profession; maybe less. At least whores don't kid themselves about their motives.
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: All guilt is relative. Loyalty counts. And never let your conscience be your guide.
- Caleb Temple: I'm not like every little boy. I'm Lucas Buck's son.
- Deputy Ben Healy: I know that...
- Caleb Temple: So when I tell you to do something, you gonna do it, right?
- Deputy Ben Healy: Well, it's a grey gun. A grey gun.
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: A ray gun?
- Deputy Ben Healy: A grey gun, Lucas! It's a grey gun!
- Caleb Temple: You ever read the Bible, Tina? They got the expression in there, "Eye for an eye." Sheriff Buck taught me that.
- Lt. Drey: You always disturb evidence with such impunity, Buck?
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: You always go around barkin' up the wrong tree, Drey?
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: Looks like Marlene did you right. She comes from a long line of backwoods nymphos.
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: You know what a conscience is?
- Caleb Temple: It's like, uh... when you do something wrong and it bothers you?
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: Well. Not me.
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: What about the almighty pursuit of the truth? You kinda chucked that awful fast.
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: Only two roads in this world. And if you're listening to anyone but me, you're on the wrong one.
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: Do you know what a mentor is?
- Caleb Temple: Half-man, half-beast?
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: That's a minotaur.
- Judge: I didn't know you were a gardener, Lucas.
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: I've been known to pull a few weeds.
- Deputy Ben Healy: Why do you think they call them "southern belles"?
- Sheriff Lucas Buck: That's French, Ben. It means "beautiful."
- Deputy Ben Healy: Oh yeah, I knew that. Four-alarm "belles."