The Pride of Jesse Hallam

[last lines]

Jesse Hallam:
You want to do what I've been doin' all my life - runnin' away from words? Well, that's up to you, but you got to know... it's a poverty trade. And right here and now you could be diggin' youself a hole in the bottom of a mountain that you're never goin' to climb back up out of. Well, not me - and not my boy. We're goin' to high school and we're goin' to graduate and nobody or nothin's goin' to stop us. We're going to learn to read.

1st Student:
[seeing Jesse and Ms. Gollucci walking together] Old Gollucci Magucci's got a boyfriend!

Sarah June:
Poor guy must be desperate!

Uncle Charley:
[as Jesse and his family are getting ready to leave] You show 'em up there!

Jesse Hallam:
Thanks. If that coal train starts runnin' again, don't come lookin' for me to blacken my hands in the mines.