- Michael Steadman: What is this?
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: Aunt Libby's hope chest.
- Michael Steadman: She really did hate you.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: Is this Elliot's private reserve of chocolate syrup?
- Nancy Krieger Weston: Surprised he didn't take it with him. Did he have a tantrum in your kitchen this morning?
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: The tantrum was about the lack of donuts.
- Nancy Krieger Weston: Yeah, well, at least I got him off of Twinkies for breakfast and Ring Dings for lunch. Is he trashing your place?
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: He's not exactly housebroken, is he?
- Nancy Krieger Weston: No. Once I saw him put sugar in Kool-Aid.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: No.
- Nancy Krieger Weston: Yeah. At least you don't have to deal with that anymore.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: I bet you were really sexy when you were 15 and all frustrated. You probably still want to be like that.
- Michael Steadman: Fast cars, absolutely. Always. Girls? I don't know. I always thought that you had to want girls. You know, only wimps settled down.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: Yeah, first it's Gary, now it's Elliot. And then...
- Michael Steadman: But, Hope, Hope, Hope, I don't think that anymore. Okay, sometimes I think it, but I don't believe it anymore.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: I mean, we have this life, and-and I imagine you loving it as much as I do. I mean, am I kidding myself?
- Michael Steadman: No. You're not. I am not gonna leave you.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: 'Til your mid-life crisis begins.
- Michael Steadman: Oh, we have plenty of time until then.
- Michael Steadman: So, do you, like, hate Elliot, or what?
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: Oh, Janey, no. Give me that stick. There. You play with the ball. Good girl. Yeah. No, I don't hate Elliot.
- Michael Steadman: You just find him totally reprehensible and without redeeming social value because he had the audacity to have his marriage fail.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: I don't think his marriage failed. I think he failed. I think he had a perfectly flawed, regular, difficult marriage like everybody else, and he couldn't handle it. And I just... don't understand men.
- Michael Steadman: Uh-oh.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: I mean, it's not like he's the first one who's ever done it.
- Michael Steadman: Hope, my father is my father. Elliot is Elliot. I'm not either of them.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: You're not gonna leave me for your tennis teacher?
- Michael Steadman: Sorry, I'm not gonna leave you at all. You're just gonna have to find something else to worry about.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: But you have fantasies.
- Michael Steadman: Who doesn't?
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: I know. Fast cars and fast girls. I mean, it's like men are permanently 15.
- Elliot Weston: Boy, this is weird, me asking you how my kids are.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: I, um, took Ethan for ice cream; banana bubble gum.
- Michael Steadman: Why didn't you take me?
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: Your father didn't walk out on you until you were 19.
- Melissa Steadman: What is this?
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: My Aunt Libby's hope chest, and I hope it experiences spontaneous combustion.
- Melissa Steadman: Oh, no, it's great.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: Really?
- Melissa Steadman: Oh, yeah. It's the kind of thing...
- [sitting on top of it]
- Melissa Steadman: I mean, no one would ever buy this. It could only be inherited. It feels like family and home.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: You want it?
- Melissa Steadman: God, no.
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: Elliot, please sit down.
- Elliot Weston: No, that's okay. I never sit down when I eat breakfast. Go ahead. Do you have any donuts?
- Hope Murdoch Steadman: [offering a box] Have an English muffin.
- Elliot Weston: Oh, good.
- Michael Steadman: [watching him take a bite] I think you're supposed to toast it.
- Elliot Weston: These things aren't very sweet, are they?