- Vera Donovan: Sometimes, Dolores... sometimes you have to be a high-riding bitch, to survive... Sometimes, being a bitch, is all a woman has to hang onto.
- Vera Donovan: Husbands die every day, Dolores. Why... one is probably dying right now while you're sitting here, weeping... They die, and leave their wives their money... I should know, shouldn't I?... Sometimes they're driving home from their mistress's apartment, and their brakes suddenly fail. An accident, Dolores, can be an unhappy woman's best friend.
- Dolores Claiborne: Now, you listen to me, Mr. Grand High Poobah of Upper Buttcrack, I'm just about half-past give a shit with your fun and games.
- Dolores Claiborne: [to the banker, Mr. Pease] You say you're sorry one more time and I'll kick your butt up so high you'll look like a hunchback.
- Vera Donovan: [while Dolores is crying in front of Vera] I insist that all women who have hysterics in my drawing room call me by my Christian name.
- Const. Frank Stamshaw: Going on a morning walk?
- Dolores Claiborne: No, I'm just packing the get-away boat, so I can make my great escape.
- Joe St. George: What are you talking about, I never touched Selena!
- Dolores Claiborne: Oh yeah? Well then how come you're making a face like the devil just reached down and grabbed those little raisins you call balls?
- Selena St. George: Eighteen years ago, my father drank a bottle of scotch and fell down a well. Detective Mackey didn't think it was an accident, which is... why we're here today.
- Det. John Mackey: And what do you think, Selena?
- Selena St. George: I think I owe you an apology. I called you a son of a bitch. You said you thought we were a lot alike, and you were right. We both spent the past 18 years prosecuting this woman. We came out here- I know I did- believing she was guilty. We forgot this case is about Vera Donovan. Not my father.
- Det. John Mackey: And what if it wasn't an accident?
- Selena St. George: Look. It's been 18 years. I don't know what this has done to you, but let me tell you, it's consumed me. I have lived with this every day of my life. Every day. I was wrong and I won't do it anymore. And if I can say that, my God, can't you?
- Kid on street: [while riding their bicycles] Look... Hey, Miss Claiborne.
- Kid on street: Kill anyone else today?
- Dolores Claiborne: Not just yet. When I change my mind I know exactly where I'm gonna start.
- Dolores Claiborne: If anyone is going to accuse me of killing my husband, go right ahead and call me Dolores!
- Dolores Claiborne: [sobbing] Why? Why'd you do this, Vera?
- Vera Donovan: Because I hate the smell of being old.
- Dolores Claiborne: We're gonna sit down and have ourselves a drink! And after we're done - after *I'm* done, you can run upstairs and take whichever one of them little pills makes you feel the best.
- Selena St. George: That is the last guy in the world you want to make an enemy out of.
- Dolores Claiborne: I ain't makin' one, I'm *keepin'* one.
- Det. John Mackey: I'm sorry, but I think it's for the best if you got yourself some legal representation.
- Dolores Claiborne: You're sorry, are you? Bet the last time you were sorry was when you needed to use the pay toilet and the string on your pet dime broke.
- Dolores Claiborne: Go ahead, Joe! All I ask is that you do it quick, and don't let Selena see the mess when it's over!
- [Whispers]
- Dolores Claiborne: You wanna run me down, go ahead. You can be as mean and hurtful as you want, but this is the last time you will ever hit me! You do it again, one of us is goin' to the boneyard!
- Vera Donovan: [Vera is ringing a bell] Doloooress!...
- Dolores Claiborne: Hell's bells. Look who's up.
- Dolores Claiborne: It was just a bad patch.
- Selena St. George: I had a fucking nervous breakdown, mother!
- Selena St. George: I don't know how to feel about what you did... maybe I never will, Mom. But I know, I know you did it for me.
- Dolores Claiborne: You must have boyfriends. Beautiful girl like you, smart and out in the world... You tellin' me there's nobody?
- Selena St. George: I'm telling you there's a *lot* of nobodies.
- Vera Donovan: I want my china pig!
- Dolores Claiborne: Which one? There's only about two-hundred of 'em.
- Dolores Claiborne: [while Vera is not letting Dolores change her soiled sheets] Vera, are ya gonna sit there and marinate in it? Come on!
- Dolores Claiborne: I got another surprise for you, Joe.
- Joe St. George: What, did someone invent a pill to cure ugly?
- Dolores Claiborne: Hell ain't somethin' you get thrown into overnight. Nope. Real hell comes on you slow and steady as a line of wet winter sheets.
- Const. Frank Stamshaw: Selena, we'd like her to stay at her house for the next few days.
- Dolores Claiborne: If I decide to make my grand escape to South America, I'll be sure to let you know first.
- Selena St. George: [referring to her mother's relationship with Vera Donovan] These two women loved each other!
- Dolores Claiborne: [noticing Vera's Phanny-Pan labeled as police evidence] Jesus crow - you didn't even have the decency to clean up after her! You telling me this is evidence?
- Dolores Claiborne: So you can just go and fuck yourself. That is if you can get that limp old noodle of yours to stand up.
- Dolores Claiborne: [narrating past events] Mildew was grounds for firin'. The sheets now... that was one thing you didn't *ever* want to get wrong. You could have cut off her high-flown snobbish nose and she still would've been able to smell a sheet that had hung outside from one baked in the dryer.
- Vera Donovan: Don't you just love the Bossa Nova? I found them in New York and simply had to have them.
- Selena St. George: [when getting in the car to leave her mother] I'm sorry, Mother... Sometimes being a bitch is the only thing a woman has to hold onto.
- Dolores Claiborne: [to Selena, who is frantically taking pills] How is that going to help?
- Selena St. George: Because in ten minutes, I'm gonna be fine.
- Dolores Claiborne: Selena...
- Selena St. George: *Just give me ten minutes*!