"If you're out with this girl and you're even thinking about getting laid, you're finished. Because women can smell an agenda like shit on a shoe. - Dex"

"You must learn to eliminate your desire. - Dex"

"Both men and women want to have sex. It's natural, except we're on different timetables. Women want to have sex, like, y'know, fifteen minutes after us, so alright, if you hold out for twenty she'll be chasing you for five. - Dex"

"And that takes us to Part III of the Tao of Steve, okay? Alright, after you've eliminated your desire, and after you've been excellent in her presence, then you must retreat. Okay? - Dex"

"Arnold Joseph - Gary Farmer"

"Suzie Song - Irene Bedard"

"Thomas Builds-the-Fire - Evan Adams"

"Victor Joseph - Adam Beach"

"How do we forgive our fathers? maybe in a dream do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often or forever when we were little? maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage or making us nervous because there never seemed to be any rage there at all. Do we forgive our fathers for marrying or not marrying our mothers? For divorcing or not divorcing our mothers? and shall we forgive them for their excess of warmth or coldness? Shall we forgive them for pushing or leaning for shutting doors for speaking through walls or never speaking or being silent? Do we forgive our fathers in our age or in their or in their deaths saying it to them or not saying it? If we forgive our fathers what is left. ("How do we forgive our fathers" by Dick Lourie)"

"All I know is that when your father left, your mother lost you too."

"Geez Victor, I guess the warrior look doesn't work everytime."

"Some days, it's a good day to die. And some days, it's a good day to have breakfast."

"You know, there are some children who really aren't children at all. They're just pillars of flame that burn everything they touch. And there are some children who are just pillars of ash that fall apart when you touch them. Victor and me, we were children of flame and ash."

"Thomas, don't you even know how to be a real Indian? How many times have you seen Dances with Wolves? 100...200 times? (Thomas hangs his head in shame) Oh Jesus, Thomas, you have seen it that many times?"

"You want to look like you just came back from catching a fish? This ain't Dances with Salmon, you know."

"Thomas, you are so full of shit."

"Lester Falls Apart - Leonard George"

"Arlene Joseph - Tantoo Cardinal"

"When I first started going to balls it was all about drag queens who were interested in looking like Las Vegas showgirls, back pieces, tail pieces, feathers, beads and all that. But As the seventies rolled around the things started changing, it started coming down to just wanting to look like a gorgeous movie star like Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor. And now they're went from that to trying to look like models; like Iman and Christie Brinkley and Maud Adams and all those children."

"Shake the dice and steal the rice!"

"Come on now, it is a known fact that a woman do carry an evening bag at dinner time. There's no getting around that! You see it on channel seven, between "All My Children" and "Jeopardy","Another World", "Dallas", and the whole bit. An evening bag is a must! You have to carry something! No lady is sure at night."

"O-P-U-L-E-N-C-E: Opulence! You own everything. Everything is yours."

"Angie Xtravaganza - Herself"

"Willi Ninja - Himself"

"Carmen Xtravaganza - Herself"

"Octavia St. Laurent - Herself"

"Pepper LaBeija — Herself"

"Paris Dupree — Herself"

"Venus Xtravaganza — Herself"

"Anji Xtravaganza — Herself"

"Dorian Corey — Herself"

"Having a ball...wish you were here"

"Freddie Pendavis: To describe, explain mopping... Mopping you... go into a store... and... just look... for, look for whatever you want to see, look for whatever... Mopping's stealing."

"Octavia St. Laurent: I'm not looking for anything. I think all men are dogs. I honestly do. You know, every man starts barking sooner or later."

"One who can hang out with the roughest and the toughest."

"One who can take her baby brother to school."

"You know, the girl you see on the street corner talking about, "Yo man, I saw one of them thangs walking down the street.""

"Sweetheart, with the cigarette. You're giving me a banji effect. This is banji."

"Some of them say that we're sick, we're crazy. And some of them think that we are the most gorgeous, special things on Earth."

"And um, he's taking me out for dinner later this evening, or for cocktails after midnight. I know he'll give me some money just for me to maybe buy some shoes and a nice dress, so that the next time he sees me, he'll see me looking more and more beautiful, the way he wants to see me. But I don't have to go to bed with him, or anything like that. At times they do expect sexual favors, but that is between myself and them, so I don't want to talk about that any further. At most times, 99 percent of the time they don't. 95 percent of the time they don't. I feel like, if you're married? A woman, in the suburbs, a regular woman, if you want your husband to buy a washer and dryer set, I'm sure she'd have to go to bed with him, to give him something he wants, to get what she wants. So, in the long run, it all ends up the same way."

"I don't feel like there's anything mannish about me, except maybe what I might have between me down there, which is my little personal thing, so..."

"Now you wanna talk about reading? Let's talk about reading. What is wrong with you, Pedro, are you going through it? You're going through some kind of psychological change in your life? You went back to being a man? Touch this skin, darling, touch this skin honey, touch all of this skin! Okay? You just can't take it! You're just an overgrown orangutan!"

"When they're undetectable and they can walk out of that ballroom into the sunlight and onto the subway and get home, and still have all their clothes and no blood running off their bodies- those are the femme realness queens... and usually its a category for young queens."

"In real life you can't get a job as an executive unless you have the educational background and the opportunity. Now, the fact that you are not an executive is merely because of the social standing of life. Black people have a hard time getting anywhere and those that do are usually straight. In a ballroom you can be anything you want. You're not really an executive but you're looking like an executive. You're showing the straight world that I can be an executive if I had the opportunity because can look like one, and that is like a fulfillment."

"Shade is I don't tell you you're ugly but I don't have to tell you because you know you're ugly ... and that's shade."

"You get in a smart crack, and everyone laughs and kikis because you've found a flaw and exaggerated it, then you've got a good read going."

"Shade comes from reading. Reading came first."

"I always had hopes of being a big star. But as you get older, you aim a little lower. Everybody wants to make an impression, some mark upon the world. Then you think, you've made a mark on the world if you just get through it, and a few people remember your name. Then you've left a mark. You don't have to bend the whole world. I think it's better to just enjoy it. Pay your dues, and just enjoy it. If you shoot a arrow and it goes real high, hooray for you."

"This is white America. Any other nationality that is not of the white set, knows this and accepts this till the day they die. That is everybody's dream and ambition as a minority - to live and look as well as a white person. It is pictured as being in America. Every media you have; from TV to magazines, to movies, to films... I mean, the biggest thing that minority watches is what? "Dynasty" and "The Colbys". Umm, "All My Children" - the soap operas. Everybody has a million-dollar bracket. When they showing you a commercial from Honey Grahams to Crest, or Lestoil or Pine-sol - everybody's in their own home. The little kids for Fisher Price toys; they're not in no concrete playground. They're riding around the lawn. The pool is in the back. This is white America. And when it comes to the minorities; especially black - we as a people, for the past 400 years - is the greatest example of behavior modification in the history of civilization. We have had everything taken away from us, and yet we have all learned how to survive. That is why, in the ballroom circuit, it is so obvious that if you have captured the great white way of living, or looking, or dressing, or speaking - you is a marvel."

"Merritt Nelson - Jean Coughlin"