Matt Drayton: [to Monsignor Ryan] You're a pontificating old poop!

Matt Drayton: I'll be a son of a bitch.

Matt Drayton: Joanna, this may be the last opportunity I have to tell you to do *anything*, so I telling you, *shut up!*

Matt Drayton: What the hell is it today? Less than 12% of the people in this city are colored people. I can't even have a dish of Oregon Boosenberry without runnin' into one of them.

Matt Drayton: When I had ice cream before, I had a special kind of flavor that I liked very much but I can't remember what it was.
Carhop: I'll bring you the list, sir.
Matt Drayton: Oh no. You - you must know what it is.
Carhop: Daquiri Ice, Honeycomb Candy, Cocoa, Coconut, Jamocha Almond Fudge, Mocha Jamocha, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Cinnamon, Banana Mint...
Matt Drayton: Must've been some other place.

Tillie: All hell done broke loose now!

Tillie: Civil rights is one thing. This here is somethin' else.

Tillie: I don't care to see a member of my own race getting above himself.

John: After all, a lot of people are going to think we are a shocking pair.

John: You listen to me. You say you don't want to tell me how to live my life. So what do you think you've been doing? You tell me what rights I've got or haven't got, and what I owe to you for what you've done for me. Let me tell you something. I owe you nothing! If you carried that bag a million miles, you did what you're supposed to do! Because you brought me into this world. And from that day you owed me everything you could ever do for me like I will owe my son if I ever have another. But you don't own me! You can't tell me when or where I'm out of line, or try to get me to live my life according to your rules. You don't even know what I am, Dad, you don't know who I am. You don't know how I feel, what I think. And if I tried to explain it the rest of your life you will never understand. You are 30 years older than I am. You and your whole lousy generation believes the way it was for you is the way it's got to be. And not until your whole generation has lain down and died will the dead weight of you be off our backs! You understand, you've got to get off my back! Dad... Dad, you're my father. I'm your son. I love you. I always have and I always will. But you think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man. Now, I've got a decision to make, hm? And I've got to make it alone, and I gotta make it in a hurry. So would you go out there and see after my mother?