Fences (2016)

Stephen McKinley Henderson: Jim Bono

Photos 

Quotes 

• Bono : Some people build fences to keep people out, and other people build fences to keep people in.

• Bono : You got more stories than the devil got sinners.

  Troy : Oh, hell, I done seen him too. Done talked to the devil.

• Bono : Just moving on through. Searching out the New Land.That's what the old folks used to call it. See a fella moving around from place to place, woman to woman, they call it, Searching out the New Land.

• Troy : [around 12:15 Troy talking about Death]  ... and me and him

  [Death] 

  Troy : commenced to wrestling... we wrestled for

  [calculating with his fingers] 

  Troy : ... carry the 6... three days and three nights

  Bono : [laughing hysterically] 

  Rose : [cracking up laughing] 

  Troy : [still telling story holding bottle of gin in his left hand as Bono and Rose still laughing] 

• Troy : Now you tell me who you ever heard of gonna pull their own teeth with a pair of rusty pliers?

  Bono : They're old folks. My granddaddy used to pull his teeth with pliers. They ain't had no dentists for colored folk back then.

  Troy : Well, get clean pliers. You understand? Clean pliers.

• Bono : Your daddy got a promotion on the rubbish. He gonna be the first colored driver. Ain't got to do nothin' but sit up there and read the paper, like them white fellas.

  Lyons : Hey, Pop, if you knew how to read, you'd be all right.

  Bono : Nah, nah. You mean if the nigger knew how to drive, he'd be all right.Been fighting with them people about driving and ain't even got a license.

• Troy : [building a fence in their yard]  What does she want to keep out? She doesn't have anything that others want.

  Bono : Some build fences to keep people out. Others, to keep us in it. Rose wants to keep everyone together. She loves you.

• Bono : I didn't know if I was gonna be in one place long enough to fix on 'em right as their daddy. I figured I was going searching, too.

• Bono : I don't know about that Indian part, but she damn sure big and healthy. Woman wear some big stockings.

  [Troy laughs] 

  Bono : Got them crazy big 'ol legs and hips *wide* as a Mississippi river.

• Bono : They walk out their front door and take off down one road or another and just keep on walkin'. Just keep on walking till they come to something else. Ain't you never heard of nobody having the walking blues? Now, that's what you call it when you just take off like that.

• [first lines] 

  Bono : [riding their garbage truck job]  Troy, you oughta stop that lyin'.

  Troy : I ain't lyin'. The nigger had a watermelon this big. Talkin' about "What watermelon, Mr. Rand?" I liked to fell out... "What watermelon, Mr. Rand?" And it's sittin' there bigger than life.

  Bono : What Mr. Rand said?

  Troy : He said nuthin'. He figured the nigger too dumb to know he carryin' a watermelon, he wouldn't get no sense out of 'im. Trying to hide that great big watermelon under his coat. Afraid to let the white man see him carry it on.