"The game was to make me smaller than he was; smaller always smaller. No matter what. He could be almost invisible as a human being, but I still had to be smaller. So if I got good grades in school then I was a pussy for not playing football. If I cut my hair for him it was never short enough, or if I shaved my head then I looked like a psycho. I never won the game, ever. And if he couldn't make me smaller with words..."

"Do I still love you? Absolutely. There is not a doubt in my mind. Through all my mind, my ego... I was always faithful in my love for you. That I made you doubt it, that is the great mistake of a life full of mistakes. The truth doesn't set us free, Robin. I can tell you I love you as many times as you can stand to hear it and all that does, the only thing, is remind us... that love is not enough. Not even close."

"I always thought of myself as a house. I was always what I lived in. It didn't need to be big. It didn't even need to be beautiful. It just needed to be mine. I became what I was meant to be. I built myself a life. I built myself a house."

"You know the great thing, though, is that change can be so constant you don't even feel the difference until there is one. It can be so slow that you don't even notice that your life is better or worse, until it is. Or it can just blow you away, make you something different in an instant. It happened to me."

"I put a gun to my father's head once. Ever think like that? He was passed out. Had just been yelling at my mom over nothing. Under-cooked meat. I went to my room, I held the barrel right up to his ear, and then I chickened out again. Of course it was a BB gun but still it would have hurt like hell."

"Twenty-five years ago, my father crossed a double line. Changed my life, and the life of a little girl forever for that mistake. I just cant's stop thinking about her. With every crash of every wave I hear something now. I never listened before. I'm on the edge of a cliff, listening. Almost finished. If you were a house Sam, this is where you'd want to be build. On rock, facing the sea, listening, listening."

"Dennis Troutman — Boots"

"Joshua Feinman — DuBoyce"

"Glynn Turman — Chief Floyd"

"Lonette McKee — Ella Brashear"

"Carl Lumbly — Mac Brashear"

"Joshua Leonard — Petty Officer Second Class Timothy Douglas Isert"

"David Conrad — Captain Hanks"

"History is made by those who break the rules."

"David Keith — Captain Hartigan"

"Powers Boothe — Captain Pullman"

"Michael Rapaport — Gunner's Mate First Class Snowhill"

"Hal Holbrook — Captain 'Mr. Pappy'"

"Aunjanue Ellis — Jo Brashear"

"Charlize Theron — Gwen Sunday"

"Cuba Gooding, Jr — Boatswain's Mate Second Class/Senior Chief Petty Officer Carl Brashear"

"Robert De Niro — Master Chief Petty Officer Leslie William 'Billy' Sunday"

"You were right, Chief. You and I have nothing in common. I may be some dirt dumb nigger from Podunk, but at least I'm making something of myself. You, you're the same hateful, little man you started out as. Without diving, you're nothing but a lost, broke-down son of a bitch who used to be something."

"You see this pipe? General MacArthur himself smoked this pipe. I served with him in Leyte Gulf. Biggest naval battle in history. Kamikaze ripped into this escort carrier, name of Saint Lo. She went down on a shallow reef, trapping me and six boys in the fire room. Only one way out. (Carl Brashear: Flood the compartment and swim up.) Five decks, cookie. Five fuckin' decks. Locked bulkheads, dead bodies everywhere. You got to have your balls screwed on tight for that swim. We still had intercom. Old MacArthur himself came over that squawk box, "Sunday, you cocky son of a bitch, I bet you can't hold your breath for four minutes and swim out of there." Know what I said back ? "No, Mac, I can't, but I'll bet you your cob pipe I can hold it for five, 'cause that's what it's gonna take, motherfucker.""

"The Navy Diver is not a fighting man, he is a salvage expert. If it is lost underwater, he finds it. If it's sunk, he brings it up. If it's in the way, he moves it. If he's lucky, he will die young, 200 feet beneath the waves, for that is the closest he'll ever get to being a hero. Hell, I don't know why anybody'd want to be a Navy diver."

"[to the new diver school trainees] The men you are watching are going to be Navy divers. You bottom-suckers are not fit to observe them. Avert your eyes!! [trainees look forward] My name is Master Chief Billy Sunday. There was a preacher by the same name who cleaned up Chicago of all the whoring spics, drunken wops, and motherfucking niggers that was making that place unfit for decent white folks to live. The only difference between me and that old preacher is that he worked for God, and I AM GOD!"

"Alex Courtney - Dr. Mika Popovic"

"B.D. Wong - Kico Govantes"

"Stephen Spinella - Brandy Alexander"

"Saul Rubinek - Dr. Jim Curran"

"Lawrence Monoson - Chip"

"Dakin Matthews - Congressman Phil Burton"

"Steve Martin - The Brother"

"Donal Logue - Bobbi Campbell"

"Jack Laufer - Brian McDonough"

"Swoosie Kurtz - Mrs. Johnstone"

"Tchéky Karyo - Dr. Willy Rozenbaum"

"Richard Jenkins - Dr. Marc Conant"