- Young Man in Diner #1: I'm 94. I keep away from the doctors.
- Frank Goode: Boy.
- Young Man in Diner #1: I have three children, six grandchildren. They're busy. They're too busy to talk to me. I gotta make an appointment. They got lost some place. They don't need anybody. People changed, life is changed. Today, you shake hands with somebody, you gotta count your fingers to make sure you got five fingers back.
- Rosie: We could just talk to mom.
- Frank Goode: Oh, but you couldn't just talk to me?
- Rosie: Well she was a good listener, you were a good talker.
- Frank Goode: Well so that's good, we made a good team.
- [last lines]
- Frank Goode: If you would ask me I would have to say in all honesty, Everybody's fine. Everybody's fine.
- Amy: I tell you the good news and spare you the bad. Isn't that what mom used to do for you when we were kids?
- Colleen: We got ourselves an epidemic going on out there. You know, people eating too much, drinking too much, killing themselves, basically. Making up excuses all along the way. Because facing up to the truth ain't always easy. Man, people like things easy. That's what they're used to. No one likes to get hurt. No. Nobody likes to get hurt.
- Wine Man: Well, we got wines from all over the world. We got, uh, English wines from France, we got Italian wines from all over Europe.
- Frank Goode: [showing photos of his children to a stranger] A million feet of wire to get them where they are today.
- Art Gallery Girl: He used to say that if it wasn't for his dad he never would have become an artist. He said he would have ended up painting walls, and that dogs pee on walls...
- Frank Goode: ...you lied to me. You didn't wanna be with me.
- Young Robert: The truth is, Dad, there are lots of things that we don't tell you. But that does not mean we want to hurt you. Mom didn't always tell you everything, and you know that.
- [first lines]
- Butcher: You Keeping busy?
- Frank Goode: Yeah, I've been busy.
- Butcher: Busy doin' what?
- Frank Goode: Busy in the garden.
- Butcher: [wryly] In the garden, you know what, you're missing work, that's what, I can see that.
- Frank Goode: No I'm not missing work.
- Butcher: Yeah, you miss the buzz and the jokes and the guys, I know that, don't tell me that's not true.
- Frank Goode: So what am I suppose to do?
- Young David: Act as if nothing's wrong. That's what Mom did. It's best for all of us.
- Frank Goode: [at wife's grave] ... if I could do it all over again, I would ask less of the kids. As long as they were happy, that would be fine with me.
- [sighs]
- Frank Goode: I know I have to stop thinking of them as if they're still children. I can't tell them what to do anymore. They have to find their own way. And... sometimes... you talked to me about things that I should have listened to you more carefully. You presented me with the details of our children's lives, and I, I, I, ignored them. And for that,
- [pause]
- Frank Goode: [shakes head]