- Annie Camden: [to Simon] You can't just hang out with your brother who's in college and "pick up chicks"!
- Simon Camden: Why not?
- Annie Camden: Because your mother won't let you!
- Mary Camden: [to Eric as he's feeding Sam and David] Where's Mom?
- Rev. Eric Camden: I am perfectly capable of feeding my own sons. I do it all the time! I have fed my children for over twenty one years now. True, for many of them, your mom cooked most of those meals while I was out earning the money to pay for those meals, but from time to time, I have fed one of my offspring or all of my offspring, just as I am doing now without the aid of Mom!
- Mary Camden: I'm just looking for Mom because she asked me to pick up some soap for her.
- Rev. Eric Camden: Oh. She's upstairs.
- Frankie: It just seems so unfair. You make one little mistake, you know?
- Mary Camden: Yeah, I know. I made a big mistake once, too. I got arrested last year for trashing the school gym.
- Frankie: [laughs] Arrested? You?
- Mary Camden: Yeah. I'm still on probation.
- Frankie: Oh, so that's why you don't drink or smoke or anything.
- Mary Camden: Yeah, kind of... but also because I feel so out of control, anyway, like I couldn't get my life back on track even if I wanted to. Not that I want to... I mean, it's not so bad, but it's just...
- Frankie: Existing. Just existing. I know what you mean. Every time I make an effort to do something, it just feels like there's so much resistance... and I give up before I even start trying.
- Frankie: [on the phone with Mary] Hey, what if you and I both decided to sign up for college together next semester?
- Johnny: [smirks in the background] Be sure to apply for that scholarship!
- Mary Camden: Are you serious?
- Frankie: Sure, I'm serious. I don't know what I want to do, either, but I know I don't want to wait tables for the rest of my life.
- Mary Camden: [to Frankie] Is that... Is that pot?
- Frankie: Yeah. I just need it to loosen up. This whole mother and wife gig really sucks.
- Mary Camden: [to Eric about Frankie and Johnny] They are good people. They're both working and they're trying to raise this kid, and it's really hard...
- Rev. Eric Camden: So hard that they have to smoke pot?
- Mary Camden: Dad, please. They really are my friends. Frankie is my friend! She asked me to bring over those college brochures tonight so we could look over them and make a plan to go back to school.
- Rev. Eric Camden: And did you?
- Mary Camden: [pause] No.
- Rev. Eric Camden: Because she was too stoned? Mary, who are you and what are you doing with these people?
- Mary Camden: [to Eric about Frankie and Johnny] If you're not going to help them, I'll help them.
- Rev. Eric Camden: How? You don't have a job, you don't have any money. You have to help yourself before you can help anyone else!
- Frankie: [on the phone with Mary] Hey, your dad got us out. Thanks so much for getting him to help us.
- Mary Camden: You know, I was kind of surprised you called him.
- Frankie: Yeah, well, I didn't know who else to call. After I got pregnant, my mom told me never to call her again if I got into trouble. Of course, your dad made me promise to talk to her and to a counselor, and whatever... but at least I didn't have to call her from jail, you know?
- [pause]
- Frankie: You are really lucky to have parents who are always there for you.
- Annie Camden: We all had a bad night.
- [other conversation]
- Annie Camden: Not entirely serious, no. Ruthie saw something that she shoudn't have. A private moment between your father and me.
- Matt Camden: She saw you guys, uh...
- Simon Camden: Having S E X.
- Annie Camden: Yes.
- Matt Camden: Well it was bound to happen sooner or later.
- Annie Camden: O, it wasn't. It's never happened before!
- Simon Camden: Never happened before?
- Matt Camden: We've all seen you. I've seen you, Mary's seen you, Lucy's seen you, even Simon has seen you. Did you do that thing where you said you were gonna check on one of the kids and then Dad said he's gonna go check on you? That usually throws up a red flag and we all steer clear, but Ruthie didn't know the signal!
- Annie Camden: Well, how did the rest of you know the signal?
- Matt Camden: It's kind of an obvious signal.
- Annie Camden: No, it isn't!
- Matt Camden: Yes it is.
- Annie Camden: Go to bed.
- Matt Camden: I don't live here.
- Annie Camden: Go to bed, anyway.
- Simon Camden: [teasingly] You know, you're never too old or too cool to do what your mother tells you.
- Lucy Camden: Did you know Ruthie's keeping a diary?
- Annie Camden: Not now Luce.
- Lucy Camden: Okay, not now, but you may want to get to it before Monday when she hands it in to her teacher.
- Rev. Eric Camden: Luce, the diary's going to have to wait.
- Lucy Camden: Fine. If you don't care she saw you having sex, why should I?
- [Parents get up and race for the stairs]
- Annie Camden: So, I'm just going to take this page from your diary, and tommorrow, you can write something about your own life.
- Ruthie Camden: Okay.
- Annie Camden: Ruthie, it really isn't funny.
- Ruthie Camden: Oh, believe me, it's plenty funny! I always thought it was so serious, because you always have this serious face when you talk about sex, but, it was funny!
- Annie Camden: It's also very... private, and very intimate, and while it's perfectly natural for a man and a woman; a married man and a married woman to... make love to each other, it's not meant for anyone else to watch.
- Ruthie Camden: I didn't mean to, and believe me, I'll do everything I can to make sure I never see anything like that again!