We couldn't get along without him. We needed Johnny as much as he needed the gang. And for the same reason.

But Dally, heaters kill people! Ya' kill 'em with switchblades to, don'tcha?

...I knew he would be dead, because Dally Winston wanted to be dead and he always got what he wanted.

I've been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy that wrote it, he meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep that way, it's a good way to be.

Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs. Sometimes I think it's the ones in the middle that are really the lucky stiffs.

They shouldn't hate each other . . . I don't hate the Socs any more . . . they shouldn't hate . . .

I had it then. Soda fought for fun, Steve for hatred, Darry for pride, and Two-Bit for conformity. Why do I fight? I thought, and couldn't think of any real good reason. There isn't any real good reason for fighting except self-defense.