Winter's Bone (2010) - Quotes

The Burden of Family Loyalty

Sonny: Are you wanting to leave us?

Ree: I'd be lost without the weight of you two on my back. I ain't goin anywhere.

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Confrontation Over Accountability and Reputation

Sheriff Baskin: I didn't shoot the other night cuz you were there in the truck. He never backed me down.

Ree: It looked to me like he did.

Sheriff Baskin: Don't you let me hear that's a story gettin around.

Ree: I don't talk much about you, man. Ever.

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Struggles of Loyalty and Shame

Ree: What I really can’t stand is how I feel so ashamed--for Dad.

Teardrop: Well, he loved y’all. That’s where he went weak. Lots of us can be tough, plenty tough enough, and do it for a long stretch, too.

Ree: But snitching.

Teardrop: For lots’n lots of years he wasn’t. He wasn’t, he wasn’t, and then one day he was.

Ree: You always have scared me.

Teardrop: That’s cause you’re smart.

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Uncertainty Surrounds Jessup's Disappearance

Blond Milton: This right here is the last place me or anybody seen Jessup.

Ree: He never blew no lab before.

Blond Milton: I know, but something must have jumped wrong this time.

Ree: He's known for never fucking up labs or cooking bad batches. He's known for knowing what he's doing.

Blond Milton: Well, you cook long enough, this is bound to happen.

Ree: You're sayin dad's up there burnt to a crisp?

Blond Milton: That's what I'm saying.

Ree: [starting to climb out of the truck] I'm going up there for a look.

Blond Milton: [pulling her back] No! That shit's poison. It'll rip the skin off your bones.

Ree: If dad's up there, I'm bringing him home to bury.

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Family Loyalty and Responsibility in Crisis

Teardrop: What Jessup done was against our ways, he knew it. I know it, and I ain’t raised no stink at all about whatever became of him. But she ain’t my brother. She’s about all the close family I got left, so I’ll be collecting her now and carrying her on out of here to home. That suit you, Thump?

Thump Milton: You’re gonna stand for her, are you?

Teardrop: If she does wrong, you can put it on me.

Thump Milton: She’s now yours to answer for.

Teardrop: This is a girl who ain’t gonna tell nobody nothing.

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Seeking Help in Desperation

Megan: What are we ever gonna do with you, baby girl?

Ree: Kill me, I guess.

Megan: That idea has been said already. Got any others?

Ree: Help me. Ain’t nobody said that idea yet, have they?

Megan: I tried to help you some before, and this is what come of it.

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Confrontation Over Absent Family Responsibilities

Satterfield: Look, I don't want to kick your dad's ass, all right? I just want to keep the judge off mine.

Ree: Dad's dead. He didn't show for court cause he's lyin dead somewhere.

Satterfield: When was the last time you saw him?

Ree: A couple weeks.

Satterfield: Who's he running around with? Where they all hanging out?

Ree: He doesn't tell me that stuff, sir.

Satterfield: Now, you know I got the legal right to go in there hunting the man, anyplace I want.

Ree: I know you'd be wasting your time and pissing me off. Jessup Dolly is dead. He’s lying in a crappy grave somewhere or become piles of shit in a hog pen. Maybe he’s been left out plain in the open, but wherever he is, he’s there dead.

Satterfield: And you know this how?

Ree: You must’ve heard what Dolly’s are, ain’t you, mister?

Satterfield: Well, I’ve heard what some are anyhow, and I have bonded a few.

Ree: I’m a Dolly, bred’n buttered, and that’s how I know Dad’s dead.

Satterfield: How old are you?

Ree: Seventeen.

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Blood Ties and Unspoken Truths

Merab: Thump knows you were in the valley, child. With Megan. And at Little Arthur’s. He knows what you want to ask, and he don’t want to hear it.

Ree: And that’s it? He ain’t gonna say nothing to me?

Merab: If you’re listening, child, you got your answer.

Ree: So, I guess come the nut-cutting, blood don’t really mean shit to the big man. Am I understanding that right?

Merab: Don’t you dare. Don’t! I want you to listen to me, child. You need to turn around, and get yourself on home. Don’t you make me come out here and tell you again!

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The Importance of Communication in Crisis

Merab: He ain’t likely to have time for you, child.

Ree: I’ve got to talk to him. If he don’t know, nobody does.

Merab: Nope. Talking just causes witnesses. And he don’t want for any of those.

Ree: I’ll wait.

Merab: You need to get yourself on home.

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Family Ties and Past Conflicts

Merab: You ain’t here for trouble, are you?

Ree: No, ma’am.

Merab: Cause one of my nephews is Buster Leroy, and didn’t he shoot your daddy one time?

Ree: Yes’m, but that ain’t got nothing to do with me. They settled all that theirselves, I think.

Merab: Shooting him likely settled it. What is it you want?

Ree: I got a real bad need to talk with Thump.

Merab: And he ain’t got no need to talk to you.

Ree: But I need to. I really, really got to ma’am. Please!

Ree: Some of our blood at least is the same. Ain’t that s’posed to mean somethin’ - isn’t that what is always said?

Merab: [irritated] Ain’t you got no men could do this?

Ree: No, Ma’am, I don’t.

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Caution Around Powerful Figures

Megan: Don’t tell nobody it was me who told you this, okay? But you’re going to have to go on up the hill and ask for a talk with Thump Milton. Now, I hope he’ll talk with you - he generally won’t.

Ree: That man scares me way more than the rest.

Megan: Well, scared ain’t a bad way to be about him, neither, hon. He’s my own granpaw, and I still make damn sure I never piss him off none.

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Refusal of Offers in Winter's Bone

Little Arthur: You want a line?

Ree: No.

Little Arthur: You wanna blow some smoke?

Ree: No.

Little Arthur: [He waves his hand to dismiss them] Then I guess I got nothing for you. Go on!

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The Complexity of Knowledge and Responsibility

Teardrop: You ought not do that. Don’t go running after Jessup. Show or don’t show that choice is up to the one going to jail, not you.

Ree: You know where he’s at, don’t you?

Teardrop: Where a man’s at ain’t necessarily for you to know neither.

Ree: But you do...

Teardrop: I ain’t seen him.

Ree: Could be running around with Little Arthur and them, you think?

Teardrop: Don’t you ever go down around Little Arthur’s asking them people about shit they ain’t offering to talk about. That’s a real good way to end up et by hogs, or wishing you was.

Ree: We’re all related ain’t we?

Teardrop: Our relations get watered kinda thin between here and Little Arthur’s.

Victoria: You know all those people, Teardrop. You could ask.

Teardrop: Shut up.

Victoria: None of them’s gonna be in a great big hurry to tangle with you.

Teardrop: I said shut up once already with my mouth.

Ree: Jesus, Dad’s your only brother.

Teardrop: You think I forgot that? Hmm? Jessup and me run together for coming on forty years but I don’t know where he’s at, and I ain’t going to go around asking after him neither.