- John McGinnis: Notice how he gets right to the point? That's unusual for a Navajo.
- [to Emma about Joe]
- Joe Leaphorn: One night, when I was a kid, my Father took me outta bed and took me to the car. We drove to town, parked in front of some building. He didn't say why, he just said "watch." Turns out it was a bar. So, all night I watched them stumble out, men I knew and respected. I watched them fall to the sidewalk. If I had just one wish, it would be to get rid of booze. No more scotch, no more whiskey, gin, vodka. Nothing that would make a man beat his friend with a hammer.
- Hosteen Nakai: When you were a boy, you broke a bowl and ran away from my sister's house. You cried and begged me to let you stay.
- Jim Chee: This is different.
- Hosteen Nakai: Is it? I sent you home, not to be punished but to make a new bowl.
- Jim Chee: I don't know how.
- Hosteen Nakai: You don't know why.
- Janet Pete: I'm worried about your friend.
- Joe Leaphorn: Who's that?
- Janet Pete: How many do you have?
- Joe Leaphorn: The few and the proud!
- Joe Leaphorn: Nothing happens by chance.
- Janet Pete: That's not very Navajo.
- Joe Leaphorn: No, that's me.
- Jim Chee: You wouldn't know it, but you sound like a Navajo.
- Odell Redd: Yah-tee, Odell Redd. South Carolina Redds, Charleston Clan.
- Joe Leaphorn: You need a wife.
- Jim Chee: Well, if you're offering Emma, I accept.
- Joe Leaphorn: No, to keep you sane.
- Jim Chee: You could've just called to tell me that.
- Jim Chee: Hey, Slim. What? Now what would I do with a wife? You're right, what would she do with me?
- [to his cat]
- Emma Leaphorn: It's all about perspective, honey.
- Joe Leaphorn: What?
- Emma Leaphorn: You look at the world one way and it's filled with hatred, right? You look at it another, the same world's filled with love, passion. Same worlds, it's only the perspective that's changed.
- Janet Pete: Mr. Pinto, your family wants you home.
- Ashie Pinto: You're Navajo. You know "hozho?"
- Janet Pete: It means "order."
- Ashie Pinto: "Harmony." The balance of all things. It's lost to me because of what I did. Do you think your law can give it back?
- John McGinnis: First thing he says is "coyote." Tagert's a coyote. That's about as strong as a Navajo gets, ain't it?
- Odell Redd: Tagert thought Ashie could help him prove Butch
- [Cassidy]
- Odell Redd: died somewhere on the rez. And if he died there, then maybe his bones are still there. And if he could come up with those lovely, famous bones...
- Jim Chee: Then Tagert is famous too.
- Odell Redd: Famous and rich. At least as rich as historians ever get. Chee, it's all bullshit. Pinto claimed to know where Sitting Bull was buried, Geronimo too. Hell, for a bottle of whiskey, that old Indian would tell you where to find Amelia Earhart.