- Nancy: [after Chu Chu tells her about his letter from the President about getting his citizenship] Ramirez, today you drive a tractor, tomorrow you'll sweat your ears off in some stinking fish cannery. Next week you'll be breaking your back in asparagus, spinach and grapes. And you think you're a citizen First Class? Citizen of what? What you are is a sap, and all you've got is the papers to prove it.
- Mrs. Ansel Ames: People are always writing books about people, it's a waste of time. Nobody knows anything about anybody. They don't even know about themselves...
- Chu Chu Ramirez: It's big trouble with most people. They study themselves like it was the only subject.
- Mrs. Ansel Ames: What other subject is there?
- Chu Chu Ramirez: [chuckles] It's a big world...
- Mrs. Ansel Ames: The world never interested me much. JUST the little hunk I'm standing on. You're standing on it with me. It used to be Ames...
- Chu Chu Ramirez: Why he not stand there now?
- Mrs. Ansel Ames: He says I pushed him off. I think he jumped.
- Nancy: My father was a drunken bum with ten acres and a statewide thirst. By the time I was 12 all he had left was the thirst. That's what he left me in his will, a thirst.
- Ansel Ames: [about Ramirez] Oh, I kinda hate to lose him, though. He's done a pretty good job for a Mexican.
- Nancy: [to Ramirez] I can't stand this car, I can't stand advice, and I can't stand you. Oh, also I can't stand myself.
- Ansel Ames: [after confronting Ramirez with a shotgun and Ramirez has left] No Mex is pushing me around.
- Mrs. Ansel Ames: Oh, sure, that shotgun makes you real hard to push.
- Ansel Ames: I don't need no gun with him.
- Mrs. Ansel Ames: Then why are you still pointing it at him?
- Ansel Ames: You know, maybe I'm pointing in the wrong direction.
- Mrs. Ansel Ames: Could be. Why don't you try sticking it in your mouth?
- Ansel Ames: Oh, you miserable...
- Mrs. Ansel Ames: [laughs] .