AMS quotes

"There's something bigger than the family to him"? Act III

kate

"I do, too, I've got nothing against Joe. But if Chris wants people to put on the hair shirt let him take off his broadcloth. He's driving my husband crazy with that phony idealism of his." Act II

sue

"She is rounding forty, an overweight woman who fears it."

sue

"The greatest men who ever lived believed in the stars! . . . Is it junk to feel that there's a greater power than ourselves? I've studied the stars of his life! I won't argue with you, I'm telling you. Somewhere in this world your brother is alive!" Act II

frank

"....is twenty-six, gentle but despite herself capable of holding fast to what she knows."

ann

"Your father put hundreds of planes in the air. You should be proud." Act I

ann

"He is thirty-two; like his father, solidly built, a listener. A man capable of immense affection and loyalty."

chris

"This is the land of the great big dogs, you don't love a man here, you eat him." Act III

chris

"You can be better! Once and for all you can know there's a universe of people outside and you're responsible to it, and unless you know that you threw away your son because that's why he died." Act III

chris

"....is thirty-two but balding. A pleasant, opinionated man, uncertain of himself, with a tendency toward peevishness when crossed, but always wanting it pleasant and neighborly."

frank

"See, the point is, if November 25th was his favorable day, then it's completely possible he's alive somewhere, because...I mean, it's possible." Act I

frank

".....is Chris's age, but a paler man, now on the edge of his self-restraint. He speaks quietly, as though afraid to find himself screaming."

george

"He'd like to take every man who made money in the war and put him up against a wall." Act II

george

"That's the truth . I believed everything because you did. But today I heard it from his mouth. From his mouth it's altogether different than the record. Anyone who knows him, and knows your father, will believe it from his mouth. Your Dad took everything we have. I can't beat that. But she's one item he's not going to grab. . . . Get your things. Everything they have is covered with blood. You're not the kind of a girl who can live with that. Get your things." Act II

george

"...every man does have a star. The star is one's honesty. And you spend your life groping for it, but once it's out it never lights again...He probably just wanted to be alone to watch his star go out." Act III

jim

"A wry self-controlled man, an easy talker, but with a wisp of sadness that clings even to his self-effacing humor."

jim

"........nearing sixty. A heavy man of stolid mind and build, a businessman these many years, but with the imprint of the machine-shop worker and boss still upon him. When he reads, when he speaks, when he listens, it is with the terrible concentration of the uneducated man for whom there is still wonder in many commonly known things, a man whose judgments must be dredged out of experience and a peasant-like common sense. A man among men."

joe

"...what the hell did I work for? That's only for you, Chris, the whole shootin' match is for you!" Act I

joe

"Chris, a man can't be a Jesus in this world!" Act III

joe

"He understood the way the world was made. He listened to me. To him the world had a forty-foot front, it ended at the building line"? Act III

joe

"I don't know, everybody's gettin' so Goddam educated in this country there'll be nobody to take away the garbage. It's gettin' so the only dumb ones left are the bosses." Act I

joe

"Now you're talking, Bert. Now you're on the ball. First thing you know, I'm liable to make you a detective." Act I

joe

"There's nothin' he could do that I wouldn't forgive. Because he's my son ...I'm his father and he's my son, and if there's something bigger than that I'll put a bullet in my head!" Act III

joe

"Honest to God, it breaks my heart to see what happened to all the children. How we worked and planned for you, and you end up no better than us." Act II

kate

"I meant, except for that flu. Well, it slipped my mind, don't look at me that way. He wanted to go to the shop but he couldn't lift himself off the bed. I thought he had pneumonia." Act III

kate

"She is in her early fifties, a woman of uncontrolled inspirations, and an overwhelming capacity for love."

kate

"There's not a jail here. I want you to stop that jail business." Act I

kate

"Your brother's alive, darling, because if he's dead, your father killed him. Do you understand me now? As long as you live, that boy is alive. God does not let a son be killed by his father. Now you see, don't you? Now you see." Act II

kate

"She is a robust, laughing girl of twenty-seven."

lydia