Diane: You know, it took a great deal of courage for Norman to do what he did. I admire and envy him. He has heeded Thoreau who admonished us that, quote, "Life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify."
Coach: Why didn't he just say one 'simplify'?

Coach: Norm, do you want to hear a crazy, hopeless dream? I wanted to play baseball and maybe coach a little, you know. And then afterwards tend a bar in a nice place. And look what happened to me.
Sam: Coach, that's exactly what happened to you.
Coach: Oh, yeah. No wonder I'm such a happy guy.
Sam: Good try, Coach, good try.

Sam: Norm, has any of this helped you?
Norm: [o.s.] Yeah, I'm doing a jig in here, Sam. Go away!
Cliff: All right, Sammy, clear the decks. It's up to me. Normie, it's your best buddy.
Norm: [o.s.] Go away, Frank.
Cliff: Even in pain he can make us smile. Norm? You know it's Cliffie. And l, too, once had a dream, Norm. No, more than a dream, really. It was an all-consuming passion. I wanted to be a trapeze artist.
Sam: Trapeze artist? Like in a circus?
Cliff: No, like in your finer restaurants, Sam. When I was a lad I went to see the movie Trapeze with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.
Coach: No kidding, Cliffie. Did you sit between them?
Cliff: I must have seen it 20 times. I always imagined myself up there with them, high above the center ring. The spotlight shines upon me, sweat glistens from my body. Below me, the women's eyes glaze over with lust, the men grind their teeth with envy. I lunge at the bar with almost an insane daring. Flying through the air completing, one, two, three, oh, my God, four somersaults. The first quadruple in the history of the big top, Norm! But, I became a postal carrier and the rest is history. No, Norm, having a dream isn't stupid. It's not having them that's stupid.
Carla: What's stupid is the picture of you in one of those outfits. [all laugh]