"Listen up, cocksuckers! Hurry the fuck up. Get your music. "Irene" only. Set one. Rhythm section out first. Tanner, the kit is a fucking tonal catastrophe, get it in tune, all right? Rhythm and soloists, bar 45, we're gonna pick up the tempo there, all right? Bar 106, brass, do not forget we sharp that ninth. Everybody remember, Lincoln Center and its ilk use these competitions to decide who they are interested in and who they are not. And I am not gonna have my reputation in that department tarnished by a bunch of fucking limp-dick, sour-note, flatter-than-their-girlfriends, flexible-tempo dipshits. Got it? One more thing. Eugene, give me that. [Eugene hands Fletcher his music folder] If I ever see another one of these lying around, I swear to fucking God, I will stop being so polite. [to a stagehand who just walked in] Get the fuck out of my sight before I demolish you. [to band] Stage right, in order, now. [to stagehand] I can still fucking see you, Mini-Me!"

"Neiman, you earned the part. Alternates, will you clean the blood off my drum set?"

"Jayson Blair - Travis"

"Either you're deliberately out of tune and sabotaging my band, or you don't know you're out of tune, which, I'm afraid, is even worse."

"Sorry guys, hate to put you through this. If you need to fuckin' take a dump, or get a coffee, whatever - now might be a good time, because we're gonna stay here until I find a drummer who can fucking play in time. I apologize to the musicians. Seriously, take ten, twenty, a fucking hour. [to drummers] You hear me, cocksuckers? You better start shitting me perfect four-hundreds. Connolly, get your fucking ass back on the kit!"

"It's all good, no worries, here we go."

"[playing an audio clip of a trumpet solo for the band] Six years ago, I came across a kid in a practice room working on his scales. He was early second year and he'd started at Shaffer with a lot of hope. Like all you guys. But the truth was, he barely squeaked in to begin with, and, uh... he was really struggling. The faculty were all telling him, "Maybe this isn't for you." But they didn't see what I saw. This scared, skinny kid, cursing himself because he couldn't get his scales right. I saw a drive in him. And I put him in Studio Band. And when he graduated, Marsalis made him third trumpet at Lincoln Center. A year later, he was first. And that's who you're listening to now. His name was Sean Casey. I found out this morning that... Sean... died yesterday... in a car accident. And, uh, I just... I wanted you guys to know he was a beautiful player. I just thought you should know."

"Barker, that is not your boyfriend's dick. Do not come early."

"We've got a squeaker today, people. Neiman. 19 years old. Isn't he cute?"

"And here comes Mister Gay Pride of the Upper West Side himself. Unfortunately, this is not a Bette Midler concert, we will not be serving Cosmopolitans and Baked Alaska, so just play faster than you give fucking hand jobs, will you please? One, two, one, two. [Carl starts drumming, Fletcher stops him] Not even fucking close. [to Ryan] Let's go, with the Irish Mick-fucking-Paddy cracker now. You know, you actually do look quite a bit like a leprechaun. I think I'm gonna start calling you Flannery."

"[after Andrew stops drumming] Is that really the fastest you can play, you worthless Hymie fuck? No wonder mommy ran out on you. Get off the fucking kit."

"Kavita Patil - Sophie"

"Kofi Siriboe - Greg"

"Chris Mulkey - Uncle Frank"

"Michael Cohen - Stagehand Dunellen"

"Henry D. Coleman - Peter T"

"Marilyn Barbarin - Cabaret singer"

"Kaliana Brower - T-Lou"

"Jonshel Alexander - Joy Strong"

"Nicholas Clark - Sticks"

"Jovan Hathaway - The Cook"

"Levy Easterly - Jean Battiste"

"Dwight Henry - Wink"

"Quvenzhané Wallis - Hushpuppy and Narrator"

"Philip Lawrence - Dr. Maloney"

"My only purpose in life is to teach her how to make it."

"I'm your daddy, and it's my job to take care of you, OK?"

"Gina Montana - Miss Bathsheba"

"Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky-dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you."

"They think we're all gonna drown down here. But we ain't going nowhere."

"For the animals that didn't have a dad to put them in a boat, the end of the world already happened."

"Sometimes you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together."

"When it all goes quiet behind my eyes, I see everything that made me lying around in invisible pieces. When I look too hard, it goes away. And when it all goes quiet, I see they are right here. I see that I'm a little piece in a big, big universe. And that makes things right. When I die, the scientists of the future, they're gonna find it all. They gonna know, once there was a Hushpuppy, and she live with her daddy in the Bathtub."

"When daddy kill me I won't be forgotten. I'm recording my story for the scientists in the future. In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know: Once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her daddy in The Bathtub."

"The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece... the entire universe will get busted."

"Lowell Landes - Walrus"

"I hope you die and after you die I'll go to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself."

"I see that I am a little piece of a big, big universe, and that makes it right."

"All the time, everywhere, everything's hearts are beating and squirting, and talking to each other the ways I can't understand. Most of the time they probably be saying: I'm hungry, or I gotta poop. [listening to bird's heartbeat] But sometimes they be talkin' in codes."

"Everybody loses the thing that made them. It's even how it's supposed to be in nature. The brave men stay and watch it happen, they don't run."

"Strong animals know when your hearts are weak."

"Ronald Guttman - Mr. Balint"

"Heather Goldenhersh - Linda"

"Summer Phoenix - Carla Moebius"