STERLING: That’s what I figure. I get my money from Wolf . . .  get in one of them white folks’ crap games it be impossible to stop me. I’m gonna get me two or three Cadillacs like you. Get Risa to be my woman and I’ll be alright. That’s all a man need is a pocketful of money, a Cadillac, and a good woman. That’s all he need on the surface. I ain’t gonna talk about that other part of satisfaction. But I got sense enough to know it’s there. I know if you get the surface it don’t mean nothing unless you got the other. I know that, Mr. West. Sometimes I think I’ll just take the woman part. And then sometimes that don’t seem like it’s enough.

WEST: That’s cause you walking around here with a ten-gallon bucket. Somebody put a little cupful in and you get mad cause it’s empty. You can’t go through life carrying a ten-gallon bucket. Get you a little cup. That’s all you need. Get you a little cup and somebody put a little bit in and it’s half full. That ten-gallon bucket ain’t never gonna be full. Carry you a little cup through life and you’ll never be disappointed. I’ll tell you what my daddy told me. I was a young man just finding my way through life. I told him I wanted to find me a woman and go away and get me a ranch and raise horses like my grandaddy. I was still waiting around to find the woman. He told me to get the ranch first and the woman would come. And he was right. I never did get me the ranch, but he was right.

STERLING: That’s what I’m gonna do, Mr. West. You hear that, Risa? Soon as I get my money we going to Vegas and I’m gonna get me enough money to buy us a ranch. You like horses? I ain’t never seen a real horse. I wouldn’t know how to act around one. But if that’s what it takes to get a woman like you I’m willing to do that. What’s the matter? Don’t you wanna go to Vegas with me?

RISA: Go on, Sterling, I don’t feel like playing.
(To WEST:)
Ain’t you got no other kind of metal casket over there? What about one of them copper caskets?

WEST: The government don’t pay but three hundred and fifty dollars, woman! I’m doing him a favor laying him out. How you expect me to meet my expenses? If I laid everybody out in a bronze casket at my expense I’d be out of business.

RISA: I ain’t talking about everybody. I’m talking about Hambone.

WEST: Insurance don’t cost but two dollars a month. I try to tell people that.

STERLING: Hambone dead? Risa . . .  Hambone dead?

RISA: They found him this morning laying across his bed.