- Joe Mondragon: Would you like a punch in the mouth?
- Nancy Mondragon: Go ahead. I'll hit you so hard, they'll arrest you in El Paso for speeding.
- Herbie Platt: This looks good - what is it?
- Amarante Cordova: Lizard tail tea.
- Herbie Platt: [sniffing it] Ohhh - been in the family for generations, I bet.
- Amarante Cordova: No; I found it on the highway this morning.
- Joe Mondragon: You beat Luis Armijo by two votes.
- Sheriff Bernabe Montoya: That's because Domingo and Gusdorf were out of town.
- Joe Mondragon: So you would have won by four.
- Sheriff Bernabe Montoya: Hell, no, man - those guys vote six, seven times apiece.
- Nick Rael: Hey, what are you doing? You can't buy bullets with foodstamps, grandpa!
- Amarante Cordova: It is the same as money.
- Amarante Cordova: Mmm! Oh, if you sleep with your bed pointed west, you're just asking for stomach trouble. The scorpions will make nests in your shoes if you leave them there. And be sure not to lean too far back on the seat in the outhouse... or let your testicles swing up under the wood. Black widows.
- Mayor Sammy Cantu: Nobody told me. That doesn't mean nobody told nobody. Maybe somebody told somebody. But nobody told me.
- Ruby Archuleta: I thought you were supposed to be some big, progressive lawyer.
- Charlie Bloom: Big? Big? Never. No. But my clients couldn't pay, so I guess, uh, progressive.
- Charlie Bloom: I am Joe Mondragon's lawyer. And he has certain rights with which I'm sure you are familiar. And if you go after him and shoot him down like a dog, or even manhandle him in the least little bit, I'll hang you by your balls, even if I have to go to the Supreme Court to do it!
- Coyote Angel: I don't think your boy knows what he's in for.
- Amarante Cordova: Nobody would do *anything*, if they knew what they were in for.
- Coyote Angel: Maybe so - but the bogeyman just came to town.
- Amarante Cordova: I thought you were going to help. When are you going to do something?
- Coyote Angel: I don't do things; I give advice.
- Amarante Cordova: You have some advice?
- Coyote Angel: You're gonna need a big sacrifice here.
- Coyote Angel: Idiots! Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. What a start for a revolution, eh, viejo?
- Amarante Cordova: Milagro will wake up. You'll see. The people will fight Devine.
- Jerry G: I know this town. These are my people.
- Horsethief Shorty: Jerry, your own people would like to see you strung up by your nuts. You're a forest service cop; I'm surprised that that fat little green truck of yours doesn't blow up every morning when you get in it and step on the gas.
- Ruby Archuleta: Would you at least go to the meeting? How could it hurt you?
- Charlie Bloom: I don't know yet. Probably in a way that I'm overlooking right now.
- Kyril Montana: Who is El Brazo Onofre?
- Sheriff Bernabe Montoya: That's Onofre Martinez's arm. He lost it in an accident some time ago, and nobody ever found it. People around here think it leads a life if its own.
- Horsethief Shorty: Yeah - something turns up missing in Milagro, and people feel El Brazo stole it. Young girls returning home at night from their date without their underwear usually blame him.
- Horsethief Shorty: Be a shame for it to end like that; gettin' kinda interested in what happens next.
- [first lines]
- Amarante Cordova: [in the early morning, the Coyote Angel appears out of a whirlwind, and dances along a road, laughing and playing a concertina as he enters town and passes Amarante Cordova's meager farm; Cordova awakens, pulls himself out of bed and shuffles to the mirror] Thank you, God, for letting me have another day.
- Nancy Mondragon: How could you keep this from me, Joe?
- Joe Mondragon: I didn't wanna worry you.
- Nancy Mondragon: Good, good! My husband wants to get himself shot without giving his wife a chance to worry?
- Joe Mondragon: It's my beanfield, Nancy!
- Nancy Mondragon: It's not your water!
- Ruby Archuleta: I knew Jose Mondragon couldn't go through his entire life without attempting at least one great thing.
- Joe Mondragon: I'm gonna plant that beanfield, Nancy.
- Nancy Mondragon: Good. The children and I'll decorate your tombstone with beans instead of flowers.
- Jerry G: Nobody's gonna go off half-cocked just because Joe Mondragon gets arrested. I know this town. These are my people.
- Horsethief Shorty: Jerry, your own people would like to see you strung up by your nuts.
- Herbie Platt: I'm not lookin' for a handout here. I'm gonna work. I'm planning on working! You know, I wanna help out. Maybe - teach?
- Mayor Sammy Cantu: Look, if we don't know it already, chances are, we're not interested in learnin' it.
- Herbie Platt: Well, what am I supposed to do?
- Mayor Sammy Cantu: Join the army.
- Emerson Capps: He's irrigating parcel 14-77, which is - right here. It's in the middle of what's going to be the 13th fairway. That's the only piece of property on the west side we don't own.
- Ladd Devine: Then why don't you go tell him to stop, Bernie?
- Sheriff Bernabe Montoya: Because he'll tell me to go sit on a chile and go right on irrigating.
- Sheriff Bernabe Montoya: So you're not gonna stop.
- Joe Mondragon: I'll stop when I think I'm doing the wrong thing.
- Herbie Platt: What was that little statue I saw out there on the altar?
- Amarante Cordova: Ah. Saint Jude. He's the patron saint of desperate causes. Pulled me through six operations. I would be long dead except for him.
- Herbie Platt: Really? How did he do that?
- Amarante Cordova: He's a saint.
- Herbie Platt: Yeah, I know. But, I know, but, what, I mean...
- Amarante Cordova: No, no, no, no. You have to put out for him a nice meal. Some tamales, some salsa. Maybe a little beer. And then you talk to him and ask him for help.
- Charlie Bloom: Your taxes are gonna go sky high. And it is doubtful - very, very doubtful - that any of you will be holding the new, higher-paying jobs. Unless, of course, you happen to be a golf pro.
- Joe Mondragon: I head the crew. You supply the plumbing. And do you know for what price? Fourteen dollars an hour! That's three months' work guaranteed.
- Ruby Archuleta: Just a bribe, Jose.
- Ladd Devine: That's pretty good thinkin' for an old mule.
- Horsethief Shorty: Well, if you pay 'em, they ain't gonna slit your throat.
- Horsethief Shorty: Son of a gun. Sure got some huevos on him.
- Flossie Devine: Huevos?
- Ladd Devine: Eggs.
- Flossie Devine: Eggs?
- Horsethief Shorty: You know, balls.
- Flossie Devine: [laughs] Huevos. I like that. That's cute.
- Joe Mondragon: You know what I could do with $14.00 an hour? I could pay off the refrigerator, that stupid TV.
- Ruby Archuleta: In return, you give up the beanfield, right?
- Joe Mondragon: What beanfield? I'll make more in one day than on all those beans.
- Ladd Devine: That goddamn beanfield! I should've come down hard on it right at the start. I thought I was really doin' somethin' good for this town.
- Flossie Devine: You were, honey. I just don't know if the world really needs another golf course.
- Emerson Capps: Back off, old man! This beanfield business has gone far enough!
- Amarante Cordova: You get down or I'll blow a hole in your chest big enough for an owl to nest in.