- Colette Hughes: You know, Eleanor, you are not gravely disabled, you're gravely obnoxious.
- Eleanor Riese: [laughs out loud] That was a good one.
- Colette Hughes: I first met Eleanor Riese as her lawyer, but soon--because Eleanor was Eleanor--Eleanor became my friend. And soon, because Eleanor was Eleanor, she became my protector, my guardian, my worst critic, and my greatest support.
- hospital's lawyer: Tell me, when you were a nurse, you never gave drugs to patients without their informed consent?
- Colette Hughes: No. Never. I always felt it was my primary responsibility to care for the patient, not manage them for my own convenience.
- [last lines]
- Colette Hughes: Sometimes, when I find myself overwhelmed by how much there still is to do, I see those big eyes of hers, and her mischievious grin, and I think she's still looking down at me. And I better sit down and have a 7up. And I hear her say, "Tell me I'm not right. Just tell me I'm not right!"