Honkytonk Man

Highway Patrolman:
[finds Marlene in the trunk of the car] Get out of there! It's against the law to ride in the trunk in this state. I don't suppose you've got any I.D., either?

Marlene:
Idee? Idee 'bout what?

Red Stovall:
What's a girl like you going to do in Nashville? Have you any money or friends? What are you gonna do, live in the streets?

Marlene:
The Lord will provide.

Red Stovall:
He'd better provide you a way of gettin' there, too.

Whit:
Uncle Red, don't you think you have a problem with your drinking?

Red Stovall:
Only when I can't get it.

Whit:
I mean - don't you think you might need some help with your drinking?

Red Stovall:
No, I do quite well all by myself.

Red Stovall:
Mary was right to go back to her husband. What the hell did I have to offer a kid? Just honky-tonks and flop-houses. That's the life of a country singer, Hoss. Sound good to you?

Whit:
It don't sound too hot when you put it like that, but it sure beats picking cotton and living in a sharecropper's shack.

Henry Axle:
You don't think he should be doing this, do you?

Whit:
Do you? Knowing it might kill him?

Henry Axle:
Want me to level with you, pal? He's going to die anyway, and he knows it. And he knows that this is his last chance.

Whit:
Last chance? For what?

Henry Axle:
To be somebody. Did you ever feel like you wanted to be somebody? If he makes these recordings - who knows?