- Joey Caruso: This isn't over, nigger.
- Narrator: Oh, he got away with calling me nigger that day, but later in life, he said it at a DMX concert and almost got stomped to death.
- Julius: If you smell smoke, and you think the house is going to catch fire, get your brother and your sister and get out of here. If you smell gas, and you think the house is going to blow up, get your brother and your sister and get out of here. If you smell smoke, and your brother catches on fire, get your sister and get out of here.
- Old Principal: [In flashback] I didn't touch her! I don't know what you're talking about!
- Narrator: [Narrating] Mr Palmer was accused of doing something that we can't tell you about because of the network censors. The school settled the lawsuit out of court, and he's not allowed to teach anymore. If he moves to your neighborhood, you'll get a warning.
- Narrator: When I was 13, my mother convinced my father to move us out of the projects. She always said project is just another word for experiment. In a lab, the government gives rats cheese. In the projects, the government gives people cheese.
- Narrator: Keisha was the girl next door. At 13, I didn't know a lot about sex, but I knew she had something to do with it.
- Chris: [to Tonya] Listen, you wake up Daddy, he's gonna punch me square in the face and if he does that, I'm gonna punch you in the face and then he's gonna kill me and wound up in jail.
- Narrator: You may not think messing up a pair of $40 shoes is such a big deal, but you have to realize my father's car only cost $65!
- Narrator: Greg wasn't my first choice for a friend, but mutual ass-kicking seem to bring people together.
- Tonya: [as Chris is getting home from school after his fight with Caruso] Dad! Dad! Dad!
- Narrator: That girl is trying to get me killed.
- Tonya: Dad! Da...
- [Chris covers her mouth]
- Chris: Girl, you want Daddy to go to jail?
- Drew: I told her to quit.
- Tonya: I have to go to the bathroom!
- Chris: I told you to go at school.
- Tonya: That bathroom is nasty!
- Narrator: My dad went to school during the Civil Rights era. After hoses, tanks and dog bites on your ass, somehow Joey Caruso didn't compare.
- Narrator: My father wasn't the type to say "I love you." He was one of four fathers on the block. "I'll see you in the morning" meant he was coming home. Coming home was his way of saying "I love you."