"[voiceover] It was actually looking more and more like I might not make it through this little adventure I was having. But I was likin' the chill in my blood, and the freedom of working on my own. There were times in the war when I had felt like this. When life or death where the only two choices. That made it simple. And that was alright by me."

"[voiceover] I'd been thinking about Daphne, too...wondering if she meant what she said about what could have happened between us. But at the moment I was wondering if there was any such thing as a sprained chin. But other than that and a headache, a loose tooth and a kidney that a doctor would need to look at, I felt like five thousand, three hundred dollars. And unless Albright was alive somewhere, that feelin' was gonna last a while."

"[voiceover] It scared me to think about a world that could kill a man like DeWitt Albright. What could a world like that do to me?"

"[voiceover] It occurred to me that Coretta had found out a lot more about what I was up to than I had wanted her to. But I had found out that the rich man's woman had a colored boyfriend. It had cost me a sawbuck to get Coretta to give me that information. Well, let's just say somethin' had cost me ten dollars."

"Albert Hall - Degan Odell"

"Balthazar Getty - Stadler"

"[voiceover] I had moved to Los Angeles right after the war with three hundred dollars and the G.I. Bill... And I liked coming home to a place that was mine. According to President Truman I had that comin' to me 'cause I had fought in 'the good war' against Hitler in Europe. But that didn't mean a damn thing to a lotta white folks, including the foreman on my job. So, here I was out of work needin' thirty-two dollars to pay the mortgage. That was three days pay on my old job—and I had about three days to get it."

"In a world divided by black and white, Easy Rawlins is about to cross the line."

"Nicholas John Renner - Coltrane "Cole" Holland (age 6)"

"Joseph Anderson - Coltrane "Cole" Holland (age 15)"

"Anthony Natale - Coltrane "Cole" Holland (age 28)"

"Alexandra Boyd - Sarah Olmstead"

"Terrence Howard - Louis Russ"

"Damon Whitaker - Bobby Tidd"

"Joanna Gleason - Governor Gertrude Lang"

"Lisa Nicole Carson - Coretta James"

"Jean Louisa Kelly - Rowena Morgan"

"Jay Thomas - Bill Meister"

"Olympia Dukakis - Principal Helen Jacobs"

"William H. Macy - Vice Principal (later Principal) Gene Wolters"

"Glenne Headly - Iris Holland"

"Alicia Witt - Gertrude Lang"

"Richard Dreyfuss - Glenn Holland"

"Beth Maitland - Deaf School Principal"

"Gertrude Lang: [as an adult] Mr. Holland had a profound influence on my life and on a lot of lives I know. But I have a feeling that he considers a great part of his own life misspent. Rumor had it he was always working on this symphony of his. And this was going to make him famous, rich, probably both. But Mr. Holland isn't rich and he isn't famous, at least not outside of our little town. So it might be easy for him to think himself a failure. But he would be wrong, because I think that he's achieved a success far beyond riches and fame. Look around you. There is not a life in this room that you have not touched, and each of us is a better person because of you. We are your symphony Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus. We are the music of your life."

"A symphony of life."

"We are your symphony Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus. We are the music of your life."

"Bill Meister(crying over the grave of Louis Russ, a former student killed in Vietnam): We know too many of these kids!"

"[to Rowena Morgan - after she tells him she'd love to be a singer in New York] ... you have a great talent and if you have the passion, if you have the hunger, then you oughta go to New York and do what you want to do, no matter what anyone tells you."

"A teacher has two jobs; fill young minds with knowledge, yes, but more important, give those minds a compass so that that knowledge doesn't go to waste."

"It's not about the direction you take. It's about the direction you give."

"Iris Holland: Why is everyone else's child more important than yours?"

"Playing music is supposed to be fun. It's about heart, it's about feelings, moving people, and something beautiful, and it's not about notes on a page. I can teach you notes on a page, I can't teach you that other stuff."

"The day they cut the football budget in this state, that will be the end of Western Civilization as we know it!"

"It's almost funny. I got dragged into this gig kicking and screaming, and now it's the only thing I want to do."

"Of all the lives he changed, the one that changed the most was his own."

"You work for 30 years because you think that what you do makes a difference, you think it matters to people, but then you wake up one morning and find out, well no, you've made a little error there, you're expendable. I should be laughing."

"Jernard Burks - Dupree Brouchard"

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."