"In the forest, every least thing's important. It's all threaded together. So you can't tell where one thing ends and another begins. If you really look at it, the little insects you can't even see, they play a role as vital as the river. The dead tree is as important as the living one. There must be something for us to learn from that."

"The world needs a hermit in the woods as much as a preacher in the pulpit."

"Joel Edgerton - Robert Grainier"

"Felicity Jones - Gladys Olding Grainier"

"Kerry Condon - Claire Thompson"

"William H. Macy - Arn Peeples"

"Will Patton - the narrator"

"w:Alfred Hsing - Fu Sheng"

"There were once passageways to the old world; strange trails, hidden paths. You'd turn a corner and suddenly find yourself face-to-face with the great mystery, the foundation of all things. And even though that old world is gone now, even though it's been rolled up like a scroll and put somewhere, you can still feel the echo of it."

"Seeing Kate again felt as real as anything else in his life, even as he wondered if it really happened to him. He spent many days and evenings wandering the forests and fields of the region, looking for any sign of her. Though he found none, he spent the rest of his days waiting, so he would be there if she ever came back."

"When Robert Grainier died in his sleep sometime in November of 1968, his life ended as quietly as it had begun. He'd never purchased a firearm or spoken into a telephone. He had no idea who his parents might have been, and he left no heirs behind him. But on that spring day, as he misplaced all sense of up and down, he felt, at last, connected to it all."

"Newness of the experience."

"The world is intricately stitched together, boys. Every thread we pull, we will not know how it affects the design of things."

"We're but children on this earth pulling bolts out of the Ferris wheel, thinking ourselves to be gods."

"My family is everywhere there's a smiling face. Never been somewhere I didn't have some family there."

"Not too many folks I cross paths with more than once in this life. I see it is a blessing when they're brought back around."

"A tree was a friend if you let it alone. But the second the blade bit in, you had yourself a war and the tree was a killer."

"That's where all those myths come from, you know? All those flood stories. All those different religions all over the world. It's just the same story, different slants."

"You just go through what you go through."

"In case you haven't noticed... we're not firemen."

"Hey, smoke jumper... you still alive?"

"Howie Long as Jesse Graves"

"Scott Glenn as Wynt Perkins"

"William Forsythe as Randall Alexander Shaye"

"Suzy Amis as Jennifer"

"Christianne Hirt as Monica"

"Garwin Sanford as Pete"

"Richard Chamberlain – Roger Simmons"

"Leslie Nielsen – Mayor William Dudley"

"James Franciscus – Jimbo"

"Ava Gardner – Maggie Grayson"

"Henry Fonda – Fire Chief Albert Risley"

"Jonathan Welsh – Herman Stover"

"Now you know there's no sure way for us to fight a fire in any place above the seventh floor, but you guys just keep building them as high as you can."

"For what it's worth, Architect, this is one building that I figured wouldn't burn."

"When there's a fire, I outrank everybody here."

"Oh they'll find some dumb son of a bitch to bring them up."

"Now Doug, one piece of scorched wire from a burned-out circuit breaker is hardly conclusive."

"(on the phone with Doug) Doug, I think you're overreacting. Now, I feel sorry for Will Giddings, but he'll be taken care of. But I am not going to concern myself with a fire in a storage room on 81, because it can't possibly affect us up here! Not in this building! Now, have someone call me when the fire department arrives. In the meantime, get in your dinner jacket and come up to join the party, now come on! (hangs up the phone)"

"Did you change any of Doug's electrical specifications?"