Witness Quotes

Rachel Lapp: Are you enjoying your reading?

John Book: Oh yeah. I'm learning a lot about manure. Very interesting.

[Waking up John Book]

Eli Lapp: 4:30. Time for milking.

[Book is having trouble milking a cow]

Eli Lapp: You never had your hands on a teat before?

John Book: Not one this big.

[a long pause, then Eli Lapp roars with laughter]

Eli Lapp: [John is out of bed and in the barn trying to re-start his car] Book... that you, Book?

John Book: [comes out of car] Yeah.

Eli Lapp: What you doing there?

John Book: Trying to get the car started.

Eli Lapp: You are well enough to do that, you can do work for me.

John Book: Sure... what can I do?

Eli Lapp: Milking, maybe... you know, cows.

John Book: Yeah, I've seen pictures.

Eli Lapp: Good. We start tomorrow.

Rachel Lapp: [Book and Carter are driving around a rough neighborhood looking for a suspect that fits Samuel's description, with Rachel and Samuel in tow] Where are you taking us?

John Book: I'm sorry... we're looking for a suspect in the area, we'd like the kid to take a look at him.

Rachel Lapp: You have no right to keep us here.

John Book: Oh, yes I do. Your son's a material witness to a homicide.

Rachel Lapp: You don't understand. We want nothing to do with your laws.

John Book: Doesn't surprise me. A lot of people I meet are like that.

John Book: [after Samuel and Rachel converse in German] What'd he say?

Rachel Lapp: He asked who you are, your name. I told him we didn't need to know anything about you.

John Book: Book... John Book!

Rachel Lapp: [as she and Samuel are walking through the police station with Book] When can we leave the city?

John Book: We're trying to get this done as quickly as possible, then you can go. But, Samuel's probably gonna have to come back to testify. I'm sorry.

Rachel Lapp: No, you are not, you are glad.

John Book: Huh?

Rachel Lapp: Because now you have a witness.

John Book: Yeah, now I got a witness.

Rachel Lapp: I just don't like the idea of my son spending all this time with a man who carries a gun and goes around whacking people!

John Book: [in disbelief] Whacking?... whacking?

Rachel Lapp: I should tell you this kind of coat doesn't have buttons. See? Hooks and eyes.

John Book: Something wrong with buttons?

Rachel Lapp: Buttons are proud and vain, not plain.

John Book: Got anything against zippers?

Rachel Lapp: Are you making fun of me?

John Book: No.

Rachel Lapp: Like the tourists, staring all the time. Sometimes they come into the yard, it's very rude. They seem to think we're quaint.

John Book: Can't imagine why they'd think that.

John Book: How do I look - I mean, do I look Amish?

Rachel Lapp: [nods] You look plain.

Tourist Lady: [Book is in town with Eli. Eli and the other Amish are trying to avoid the tourists with cameras] Hi! We're just here for the day, would you mind...

John Book: Lady, you take my picture with that thing and I'm gonna rip your brassiere off... and strangle you with it! You got that?

Tourist Lady: [in disbelief, to no one in particular] Did you hear what that Amish just said to me?

Eli Lapp: This gun of the hand is for the taking of human life. We believe it is wrong to take a life. That is only for God. Many times wars have come and people have said to us: you must fight, you must kill, it is the only way to preserve the good. But Samuel, there's never only one way. Remember that. Would you kill another man?

Samuel Lapp: I would only kill the bad man.

Eli Lapp: Only the bad man. I see. And you know these bad men by sight? You are able to look into their hearts and see this badness?

Samuel Lapp: I can see what they do. I have seen it.

Eli Lapp: And having seen you become one of them? Don't you understand? What you take into your hands, you take into your heart. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. Go and finish your chores now.

Samuel Lapp: Yes Grossvater.

[last lines]

Eli Lapp: [to John Book] You be careful out among them English!

Rachel Lapp: You said we'd be safe in Philadelphia!

John Book: Well I was wrong!

Rachel Lapp: He's leaving, isn't he?

Eli Lapp: Tomorrow morning. He'll need his city clothes.

Rachel Lapp: But why? What does he have to go back to?

Eli Lapp: He's going back to his world, where he belongs. He knows it, and you know it, too.

John Book: What happened to Hochleitner?

Rachel Lapp: He went home. He's a friend of the family... he's like a son to Eli.

[Notices John planing a board]

Rachel Lapp: You know carpentry. Can you do anything else?

John Book: Whacking. I'm hell at whacking.

Rachel Lapp: Whacking is not much use on a farm.

Rachel Lapp: Your sister says you don't have a family.

John Book: No, I don't.

Rachel Lapp: She thinks that you ought to get married and have children of your own, instead of trying to be a father to hers.

John Book: Yeah.

Rachel Lapp: Except she thinks you are afraid of the responsibility.

John Book: That's interesting... anything else?

Rachel Lapp: Mm hm... she thinks you like policing because you think you are right about everything and you're the only one who can do anything, and when you drink a lot of beer you say things like 'none of the other police know a crook from a bag of elbows!'. At least I think that's what she said.

Daniel Hochleitner: You are the Yankee they talk about?

John Book: I thought I was the English.

Daniel Hochleitner: Your hole, it is better now?

John Book: Yeah, it's pretty much healed.

Daniel Hochleitner: Good. Then you can go home.

[Book moves to intervene against some locals harassing the Amish]

Eli Lapp: It's not our way.

John Book: It's my way.

John Book: Samuel, the man who was killed tonight was a policeman, and it's my job to find out what happened. I want you to tell me everything you saw when you went into the bathroom.

Samuel Lapp: Um... there were two.

John Book: There were TWO men?

Samuel Lapp: I only saw one.

John Book: [turning to Carter] Does anybody else know about this?

Det. Sgt. Elden Carter: No, no one's had a chance to talk to him.

John Book: What did he look like, the man that you saw?

Samuel Lapp: He was... like him.

[pointing at Carter]

John Book: He was a black man, had black skin?

Samuel Lapp: Ya, but not schtumpig.

John Book: Schtulpig? What's 'schtumpig'?

Rachel Lapp: On a farm, when a pig is born small like that, it's called schtumpig, a runt.

John Book: Oh, so he wasn't a runt. He was a big guy, like me?

[John puts his arm around an embarrassed Carter]

Samuel Lapp: Big guy!

Det. 'Fergie': What you doing, man?

Det. Lt. James McFee: Washing my hands, man!

Daniel Hochleitner: They say you are a carpenter.

John Book: Yeah.

Daniel Hochleitner: Well,we can always use a good one.

Townsman: [Book, dressed in Amish clothes, has just finished severely beating a local youth who was harassing Daniel Hochleitner] Never seen anything like it in all my years!

Daniel Hochleitner: He's from Ohio, my cousin.

Townsman: Well, them Ohio Amish must be... different. Around here, the brethren don't have any of that kinda fight in 'em! Good day to you, Mr. Lapp! This ain't good for the tourist trade, you know! Tell that to your Ohioan friend!

Elaine: [Book has just dropped off Rachel and Samuel at Elaine's] How could you do this to me tonight?

John Book: It's important!

Elaine: [Elaine runs upstairs and gets Rachel and Samuel settled, then runs down to chastise John] I told you I had company!

John Book: Where's Jason and Billy?

Elaine: Upstairs asleep.

John Book: You got a man in the house and the kids are upstairs?

Elaine: That's none of your business! So, keep you holier-than-thou mouth shut! Anyway, they like Fred!

John Book: Oh, now we've got Fred!

Elaine: Who are these vagrants, anyway?

John Book: They're Amish!

Chief Paul Schaeffer: Calling me at home. I can't trace the call. That's smart, John, very smart.

John Book: Lost the meaning, did you, Paul?

Chief Paul Schaeffer: What?

John Book: Isn't that what you used to say about dirty cops? Somewhere along the way they lost the meaning?

Chief Paul Schaeffer: Now don't make this difficult, John. We know where you are. We're about to...

John Book: Oh no, man, you got it wrong. I'm coming to get you!

Chief Paul Schaeffer: [laughs] I like your style, John. I've always liked your style.

John Book: I'm gonna do to you whatever you did to Zenovich. And whatever you did to Carter, I'm gonna fucking do that to you too, asshole.

John Book: [John appears in Amish clothes before going to town with Eli, Rachel laughs, John approaches Rachel] My gun, I need my gun.

[Rachel gets the gun out of the cupboard, John turns to leave]

John Book: The bullets? Not much good without 'em.

Rachel Lapp: Of course.

[Rachel takes an almost empty can of flour and pours the bullets and remaining flour into John's hand]

John Book: Thanks.

[John blows the flour off his hand]

John Book: How do I look, I mean, do I look... Amish?

Rachel Lapp: You look plain.

[Daniel Hochleitner comforts Rachel after her husband's death, then walks by as some funeral guests are chatting]

Amish: Jacob was a good farmer.

Amish: Not a man to buy a horse from. Hochleitner, wasn't it he who sold you the one with the ruptured testicle?

Moses Hochleitner: Said it was a bee sting that made him walk that way!

Daniel Hochleitner: That horse had one good ball. That's all it takes!

[Men laugh]

[Book, having just dropped off Rachel and Samuel back at Lapp's farm, is driving away when he convulses and passes out from loss of blood from an untreated gunshot wound and crashes into a birdhouse. Rachel and Samuel run out to Book]

Rachel Lapp: My God! Why didn't you get to a hospital?

John Book: [struggling] No, no hospital. Gunshot wound, they have to file a report. And if they file a report, they find me. And if they find me, they find the boy.

Mrs. Yoder: Everyone here has an idea about you and the Englishman Book.

Rachel Lapp: [forcing a smile] All of them charitable, I'm sure.

Mrs. Yoder: [straight-faced] Hardly any of them.

[Samuel opens the drawer to John's bedside table and finds his gun]

John Book: DON'T MOVE!...

[Samuel is startled, Book calms down]

John Book: What are you doing?

[sits on bed next to Samuel, says calmly]

John Book: Come here, Samuel... this is a loaded gun. This is very dangerous. Never, ever touch a loaded gun. Here, I'm gonna take the bullets out. Now it's safe. I don't want you to get hurt. I don't mean to yell at you, I just don't want you to get hurt. If you want to handle it, you can handle it... while I'm here.

Samuel Lapp: Okay, John Book.

[Rachel enters the room, John takes the gun from Samuel. Rachel glares at both of them]

Rachel Lapp: Samuel, wait for me downstairs.

[Samuel leaves]

Rachel Lapp: John Book, while you are in this house I insist you respect our ways!

John Book: Right... here, put it somewhere where he won't find it.

[John, Rachel, Eli, and Samuel are sitting down to a hearty breakfast after John's first morning of farm work. Eli dumps food on John's plate]

John Book: No, no...

Eli Lapp: Eat, Book, eat. What's the matter, where is your appetite?

John Book: I'm not used to eating in the middle of the night.

Eli Lapp: Not used to hard work. That's what makes appetite.

John Book: [takes a sip of coffee] Honey, that's great coffee!

John Book: [all pause, puzzled] Uh, it's a joke... from a commercial... on television.

Samuel Lapp: Goodbye, John Book.

John Book: Goodbye, Samuel.