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Alvin Straight: You don't think about getting old when you're young... you shouldn't.
Steve: Must be something good about gettin' old?
Alvin Straight: Well I can't imagine anything good about being blind and lame at the same time but, still at my age I've seen about all that life has to dish out. I know to separate the wheat from the chaff, and let the small stuff fall away.
Rat: That's cool, man. So, uh, what's the worst part about being old, Alvin?
Alvin Straight: Well, the worst part of being old is rememberin' when you was young.
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Sig: What do you need that grabber for, Alvin?
Alvin: Grabbin'.
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Dorothy: What's the number for 911?
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Alvin: I'd give each one of 'em a stick and, one for each one of 'em, then I'd say, 'You break that.' Course they could real easy. Then I'd say, 'Tie them sticks in a bundle and try to break that.' Course they couldn't. Then I'd say, "That bundle... that's family."
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Alvin Straight: There's no one knows your life better than a brother that's near your age. He knows who you are and what you are better than anyone on earth. My brother and I said some unforgivable things the last time we met, but, I'm trying to put that behind me... and this trip is a hard swallow of my pride. I just hope I'm not too late... a brother's a brother.
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Alvin Straight: Anger, vanity, you mix that together with liquor, you've got two brothers that haven't spoken in ten years. Ah, whatever it was that made me and Lyle so mad... don't matter anymore. I want to make peace, I want to sit with him, look up at the stars... like we used to do, so long ago.
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Alvin Straight: I haven't had a drink in a lotta years, but now I'm gonna have me a cold beer.
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Alvin Straight: I want to thank you for your kindness to a stranger.
Danny Riordan, Clermont Resident: It's been a genuine pleasure having you here, Alvin. Write to us some time.
Alvin Straight: I will.
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Pete: He'll never make it past the Grotto.
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[last lines]
Lyle Straight, Alvin's Brother: Did you ride that thing all the way out here to see me?
Alvin Straight: I did, Lyle.
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[first lines]
Dorothy: Hi Rose.
Rose 'Rosie' Straight: Hi Dorothy.
Alvin Straight: [can be heard collapsing inside his house]
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Danny Riordan, Clermont Resident: Well, you know, Alvin, there's a lot of hills bigger than Clairmont's between here and Zion. Even if you get that mower running again, it might still break down.
Alvin Straight: Well, you're a kind man talking to a stubborn man.
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Alvin Straight: The worst part of being old is remembering when you was young.
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Alvin Straight: You hungry?
Crystal: Waddaya got?
Alvin Straight: Wieners.
Crystal: Wieners?
Alvin Straight: Wieners. Wanna try one?
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Alvin Straight: Well, they may be mad. I don't think they're mad enough to want to lose you, or your little problem.
Crystal: I don't know about that.
Alvin Straight: Well, of course, neither do I, but a warm bed and a roof sounds a mite better than eating a hot dog on a stick with an old geezer that's travelling on a lawnmower.
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Alvin Straight: Can I help you, lady?
Deer Woman: No, you can't help me. No one can help me. I've tried driving with my lights on, I've tried sounding my horn, I scream out the window, I-I roll the window down and bang on the side of the door and play Public Enemy real loud! I have prayed to St. Francis of Assisi, St. Christopher too-what the heck! I've tried everything a person can do, and still, every week, I plow into at least one deer! I have hit thirteen deer in seven weeks driving down this road, mister! And I have to drive down this road! Every day, forty miles back and forth to work! I have to drive to work, and I have to drive home!
[she looks at the open fields around her]
Deer Woman: ...Where do they come from?
[she kneels down and checks the deer's pulse]
Deer Woman: He's dead.
[she walks back towards her car]
Deer Woman: And I love deer!
[she gets in her car and drives off]
The Straight Story Quotes
Extended Reading
