- Booth Pennock: You know, Trumbo, if ever you grow up, you'll learn that a woman is like a poker game. What you take in one hand you drop in the next.
- Johnny Trumbo: I'm sorry, Gramps, it looks like I'll be holding you back.
- Michael Fabian: I'm in no hurry. The earth and the sun and the sky will still be there when we get there, Johnny.
- Johnny Trumbo: Yeah, but not the gold, Gramps, not the gold.
- Lily Bishop: You may think you're pretty high and mighty, Trumbo. But let me tell you this... if I live long enough, and I will, I'm going to pull you down off that fancy horse of yours and shove your face in the muck - so help me!
- Johnny Trumbo: No court would try you, Captain, because no one would hold that a black was a man. He was an animal which you beat and chained, and all he had to offer up against you was a prayer.
- Pharaoh Coffin: Bilge, Mr. Trumbo, bilge. Most men love the chains they wear. They need a master the way they need their mothers. I've heard such talk from pulpits, "the meek shall inherit the earth." No, Mr. Trumbo, the earth belongs to the men who make the law, and the law belongs to the men who can lay it down.
- Lily Bishop: He was a gambler. He played the Mississippi boats. He always used to say, 'It's your cheat who's most afraid of being cheated.' You better stay on your horse after this, Trumbo. It makes you look more important than you really are. Another thing my father told me: 'Always leave a man burying money.'