“- Nancy Kendricks: Alex is a writer.
- Mrs. Connelly: Oh, a writer. I always thought of that as more of a hobby than a real job. I suppose I'm forgetting about Joyce.
- Alex Rose: Joyce. James Joyce. Of course. Wonderful writer.
- Mrs. Connelly: He died drunk and penniless.”
Drew Barrymore - Nancy Kendricks
Eileen Essell - Mrs. Connelly
Ben Stiller - Alex Rose

“Don't you know the finest things in the world have been written on an empty stomach.”
Lloyd Gough - Morino

“Rich people and theorists - who are usually rich people - think of poverty in the negative, as the lack of riches - as disease might be called the lack of health.”

Robert Greig - Sullivan's Butler

“Poverty is not the lack of anything, but a positive plague, virulent in itself, contagious as cholera, with filth, criminality, vice and despair as only a few of its symptoms. It is to be stayed away from, even for purposes of study.”

Robert Greig - Sullivan's Butler

“- John L. Sullivan: I'm going out on the road to find out what it's like to be poor and needy and then I'm going to make a picture about it.
- Sullivan's Butler: If you'll permit me to say so, sir, the subject is not an interesting one. The poor know all about poverty and only the morbid rich would find the topic glamorous.”
Joel McCrea - John L. Sullivan
Robert Greig - Sullivan's Butler