Quotes

Dialogue

Jacob Anderson: They come closer everyday, pa. Charlie Anderson: They on our land? Jacob Anderson: No, sir. Charlie Anderson: Well, then, it doesn't concern us.

Dialogue

Sam: I'd be eternally grateful if you'd permit me to call upon you this evening. Jennie Anderson: Eternally is a long time, Sam. Sam: Not when one carries a memory of you, Miss Jennie.

Dialogue

Charlie Anderson: What about you, James? You ever think you might like to own a slave? James Anderson: Well, I guess I never thought about it, Pa. Charlie Anderson: Well, think about it! Think about it! If you had money would you go out and buy a slave? James Anderson: No sir, I wouldn't. Charlie Anderson: Why not? James Anderson: Well, if I can't do my own work with my own hands it'd never get done.

Dialogue

Lt. Johnson: When are you going to take this war seriously, Anderson? Charlie Anderson: Now let me tell you something, Johnson, before you get on my wrong side. My corn I take seriously, because it's mine. And my potatoes and tomatoes and my fence I take note of because they're mine. But this war is not mine and I don't take note of it.

Dialogue

Charlie Anderson: I've got five hundred acres of good, rich dirt, here, and as long as the rains come and the sun shines, it'll grow anything I have a mind to plant. And we pulled every stump, and we cleared every field, and we done it ourselves without the sweat of one slave. Lt. Johnson: So? Charlie Anderson: "So"!? So, can you give me one good reason why I should send my family, that took me a lifetime to raise, down that road like a bunch of damn fools to do somebody else's fighting? Lt. Johnson: Virginia needs all of her sons, Mr. Anderson. Charlie Anderson: That might be so, Johnson, but these are my sons! They don't belong to the state. When they were babies, I never saw the state coming around with a spare tit! We never asked anything of the state, and never expected anything. We do our own living and thanks to no man for the right. But seeing as how you're so worried about it, I'll tell ya: If any of my boys thinks this war's right, and wants to join in, he's free to do it. Yo

Dialogue

Boy Anderson: What's confiscate mean, pa? Charlie Anderson: Steal!

Dialogue

Charlie Anderson: It's no easy job, Sam, to take care of a woman. Sam: No, sir. Charlie Anderson: They expect things they never ask for. And when they don't get them, they ask you why. Sometimes they don't ask... and just go ahead and punish you for not doing something you didn't know you were supposed to do in the first place.

Dialogue

Charlie Anderson: Do you like her? Sam: Well, I just said I... Charlie Anderson: No, no. You just said you loved her. There's some difference between lovin' and likin'. When I married Jennie's mother, I-I didn't love her - I liked her... I liked her a lot. I liked Martha for at least three years after we were married and then one day it just dawned on me I loved her. I still do... still do. You see, Sam, when you love a woman without likin' her, the night can be long and cold, and contempt comes up with the sun.

Dialogue

Mrs. Ann Anderson: Here's something else you must remember: husbands like to be alone once in a while. Jennie Anderson: Why? Mrs. Ann Anderson: You never know why, but I can always tell when James wants to be alone. A mood comes over him. I can always see it in his eyes before it gets there. I don't know where the mood comes from or why, but that's when I leave him alone. It seems sometimes things get so fickle in a man that he comes to feel that everything is closing in on him - and that's when he wants to be left alone. You understand, don't you? Jennie Anderson: No!

Dialogue

Sam: [who has just learned he's being called to service] I'll hav'ta leave ya; you know that, don't you? Do you understand? Jennie: Do you?

Dialogue

Jennie: Yes, I'm a woman, but I don't see anybody here that I can't outrun, outride, and outshoot. I'll unstrap for you, papa, and unhook, and I'll even sit here and watch you ride out of sight. Charlie Anderson: And then what? Jennie: And then I'll follow. Charlie Anderson: That's what I thought.