- Allison: [after she has vocalised a list of his attributes] Mr Paladin, back in Louisiana, I'm considered a pretty good judge of horseflesh. I'd say the standards are not very much different.
- Paladin: Well, there is considerable difference between the Western Mustang and the pampered gelding that pass for horses in your part of the country.
- Allison: I hadn't noticed.
- Paladin: And the gardens like a picture in the book. None of it's real, is it? Your father and his friends making ridiculous rules and games about killing. You making a sport out of love, trying to pretend it's all so sad, so tragic. In killing or in making love, I don't pretend.