- Elsa Dutton: Nothing had prepared me, no books, no teachers, not even my parents. I heard a thousand stories, but none could describe this place, it must be witnessed, to be understood, and yet I've seen it and understand it even less than before I first cast eyes on this place. Some call it the American dessert, others The Great Plains, but those phrases were invented by professors at universities surrounded by the illusion of order and the fantasy of right and wrong. To know it you must walk it, Bleed into its dirt, drown in its rivers, then its name becomes clear, it is hell, and there are demons everywhere. But if this is hell and I'm in it, then I must be a Demon too and I'm already dead.
- Shea Brennan: What else?
- Thomas: Water.
- Shea Brennan: [addressing immigrants] Do not drink water from the ground. When we camp, we will choose a latrine away from our water source.
- Josef: What is a latrine?
- Shea Brennan: Powder room.
- [Josef is perplexed]
- Shea Brennan: Water closet. Thomas, help me.
- Thomas: Toilette.
- Josef: Aaahh.
- Shea Brennan: What in the hell is a toilette?
- Thomas: It's French for shitter.
- Shea Brennan: When did you learn French?
- Thomas: I don't know French, I just know the French word for shitter.
- Shea Brennan: How do you know the French word for shitter?
- Thomas: [defensively] I used to fuck a girl from France!
- Shea Brennan: Fine. That's all you had to say. Don't have to get angry about it.
- [dealer, with spike maul in hand, approaches Shea]
- Shea Brennan: [draws cocked pistol and points it in the dealer's face and rises] You know what I'm doing here? Looking for a reason. You want to be my reason?
- Dealer: No, I do not.
- Shea Brennan: [emphatically] Then sit the fuck down.
- Thomas: [Thomas walks up, stops 10-15 feet short behind Shea who is sitting in the grass with a cocked pistol barrel pointed up, pressed against his chin] Captain.
- Shea Brennan: Yeah.
- Thomas: We're ready.
- [pauses looking over his shoulder]
- Thomas: You coming?
- Shea Brennan: [voice quavers] I'm thinking about it.
- Thomas: [stoically] Think on it quick. If I'm digging a hole, I'd rather do it before the sun's high.
- Shea Brennan: [sighs, pulls pistol away, resets hammer and holsters pistol] I'm coming.
- [rises and follows Thomas]
- Claire Dutton: [disapproving] James, your children are feral. Absolutely feral.
- James Dutton: Hello, Claire.
- Claire Dutton: Hi.
- James Dutton: Sorry to hear about Henry. He was... a patient man.
- James Dutton: [...] Losing her husband didn't soften her much.
- Margaret Dutton: Hmph. You could soak that woman in buttermilk for a month and not even soften her a bit.
- Elsa Dutton: [internal monologue] All I knew of sex was rumors. Stories traded among friends as we tried to imagine what that word really meant.
- [spies on a couple below her window]
- Elsa Dutton: Now I knew...
- Alley Woman: [from the alley] Woo!
- Elsa Dutton: [...] So much I don't know about life. We learn to read, we learn rules, learn scripture and manners, and how to avoid saying or doing things that make others uncomfortable. All those things seem to be the opposite of life. Seem to strangle it. But now, I'm sleeping on the edge of civilization, and soon we leave the edge behind. Then no rules. Then, only life. What an adventure. What an adventure for all of us...
- James Dutton: What's the rule on firearms in this town?
- Livery Manager: This place'll pick you apart if you ain't got one.
- Shea Brennan: Pretty soon they'll just shoot the horses.
- Thomas: Hosses are probly what they after. Farmers ain't got nuthin' else worth takin'.
- Thomas: They'll shoot the horses anyway, then the farmer.
- Melodi: You can call me her name. You can close your eyes and you can call me her name and you can be with her again.
- Shea Brennan: None of you have firearms?
- Josef: Do we need them?
- Shea Brennan: [laughs] Do you need them?
- Shea Brennan: There's a big oak, bent over like an old woman. Big boulder up against the trunk. Looks like it's cryin' over a grave. We'll meet you there.