Brothers & Sisters

As a follow-up to the recap, here are some memorable lines from the episode “All in the Family.” Did I miss your favorites? Add them in the comments.

Nora: Your story about incest at the White House was not exactly subtle.

Mark: It’s the emotions behind the incidents that matter. What are these people feeling? What is Dora really going through?

Nora: School sucks.

Justin: I don’t know if it’s such a good idea after your little “incident” to be walking around with a pot leaf on your back, Mom.

Nora: What are you saying, that I should take a Bundt cake over there and introduce myself?

Kevin: Did you order Dirty Harry?
Chad: Yeah, I never saw it.
Kevin: Wow, you really are bisexual, aren’t you? Guess we’ll save Singing in the Rain for Palm Springs.

Kevin: Do you do everything your manager says?
Chad: Well, I’m here right now, so I guess not.

Nora: I want you and Rebecca to come over to my house to dinner on Friday.
Holly: That is the worst idea that I have ever heard.

Robert: Just spin it. That’s what I hired you for.
Kitty: No, you hired me because of my cute butt.

Sofia: You work for my dad, right? Can you fix the soda machine?

Kitty: I did reference my butt in front of your eight-year-old.
Robert: Jack loves a good butt reference. And boogers, that’s a big one.

Kitty: And who exactly do you want me to be at this dinner? Do you want me to be your employee-slash-friend who you happen to take for steak 80 miles north of L.A.?

Robert: Wow, you are so much more articulate when you’re talking about politics.

Julia: I gained like eight pounds in the last three weeks. Something’s thriving besides my appetite.
Tommy: Your cleavage?

Tommy: I want to talk to them. See if they want to weigh in.
Julia: They aren’t going to be weighing in when it comes to potty training.

Chad’s manager: You’re very direct. You’re a lawyer. I used to be a lawyer. It’s a god-awful job.

Chad’s manager: I just want to make sure your intentions are honorable.
Kevin: I’m not marrying him, Donald, I’m going to a movie.

Chad’s manager: He comes out of the closet for you, it’s like being with a virgin, he’s yours for life, kid.
Kevin: He’s not coming out of the closet for me.
Chad’s manager: Keep telling yourself that. But if you walk down that red carpet with him, you might as well be walking down the aisle.

Rebecca: You don’t have to go, but I’m kind of psyched to see the house. Justin says it’s totally palatial.

Rebecca: They’re the ones who made us millionaires. How often do I get to meet my benefactors? If they want me to go over there so they can all pet me, it’s the least I can do.

Rebecca: You want to come along so you can protect me like you’ve protected me for the last 20 years? I think I’ve got it from here.

Nora: I’m marinating. The meat, not me.

Kitty: I have been so good about my family dinner attendance. I just think that I’m entitled to a personal day.

Kitty: Normalize it? Like the time that you invited dad’s mistress over and then you outed her in front of everybody? That kind of normal?

Kitty: You are just trying to control an uncontrollable situation.
Nora: I’m not trying to control anything.
Kitty: You are hosting a “meet the illegitimate daughter” dinner!

Sofia: Is she your girlfriend?
Robert: I guess you could call her that. … I would call her that. … Are you okay calling her that? … Not that you have to actually call her…

Kevin: If it comes out they’re courtesy of me I know I’m going to feel this extra pressure to deliver on birthdays, holidays, go to all the games.
Justin: Tommy’s got the games covered. Why don’t you stick to, like, bake sales.

Tommy: Did you bring your DNA kit with you? Are you going to swab her over salad?
Kevin: I could get a stray hair.
Tommy: No, that’s not going to work. You have to get it from the root.
Justin: What are you, Columbo?
Tommy: I watch all the crime shows.
Kevin: I’ll take her water glass into a lab.
Tommy: No, no, it’s not going to work either. The glass will get corrupted.
Justin: Are you both high? You want your DNA test, right here: She’s hot, I feel nothing.

Rebecca: Are you really dating Chad Berry?
Kevin: No, yes, I know him.
Justin: Like Romeo knows Juliet.
Sarah: Like Seigfried knows Roy.
Nora: This whole family loves to kid.

Nora: They are both very polite.

Kevin: Give me the glass.
Justin: You need a time-out, Kevin.
Kevin: Humor me, I’m a lawyer. I like to know the facts.

Sarah: This meal has reached a new level of weirdness.

Kitty: The snap peas are really good.
Sofia: They were better last time.

Sofia: What, did you like Google 10-year-olds?

Rebecca: You guys are wack. I mean, seriously, you just pulled a hair out of my head, oh my god, you are the most insane group of people that I have ever met. And don’t bother with the test. He’s not my dad. He might have been your dad, but he was nothing to me. He’s still nothing.
Nora: Rebecca …
Rebecca: I appreciate this dinner, Mrs. Walker, but I’m not a part of this family. I never will be.
Nora: Rebecca, please, you can be a part of this family regardless how you got here. He may not have been your father in any way you knew, and clearly he wasn’t any kind of husband either. It wasn’t your fault, Rebecca, and it wasn’t your mom’s. It’s his.

Kitty: You can’t tell somebody how to feel or how to react, especially a kid.
Robert: She’s very mature for her age.
Kitty: She’s 10. And I couldn’t stomach having dinner with that Rebecca person, and I’m a grown-up. Lucky for me, my parent couldn’t make me go.

Kitty: You just came on so strong. Nobody likes me that much that fast. And I just can’t help wondering if maybe you’re just looking for a family to stand up with you on the podium.

Sarah: I’m often astounded at your compassion. I just don’t understand why it doesn’t extend to me.

Sarah: I need you to care about me the same way you care about the world.
Nora: Well of course I love you.
Sarah: Then stop punishing me.

Nora: Your father’s dead, and I need someone to be furious with. It’s so hard to tell someone who isn’t around anymore to go to hell.

Rebecca: It was fine, just fine and awful.

Rebecca: We started with the beet salad, and then Kevin pulled my hair.
Holly: He what?
Rebecca: You heard me.
Holly: Like in a playful, brotherly kind of way?
Rebecca: More like a forensic scientist kind of way.

Rebecca: They have their own sibling thing going on, yelling and fighting and talking over each other. It’s completely dysfunctional, like they’re this big crazy clique and I am so clearly not a part of it. … This is how you set it up.
Holly: Don’t say that.
Rebecca: Oh, but it is. You didn’t just deprive me of a father, Mom, you deprived me of an entire family.
Holly: Honey, you have a family. You and me are family.
Rebecca: I could have had so much more. I could have had brothers and sisters all of these years. I could have had this busy chaotic childhood that you fantasize about as a kid. But you didn’t let me.
Holly: I’m sorry. I did my best. I worked with what I had. You don’t know how it was.
Rebecca: I know how it was. It was exactly the way that you wanted it to be.

Tommy: You’re carrying the babies, my brothers supplied the seeds. I’m just this useless bystander.

Tommy: We’re having family. I mean, you saw dinner tonight.
Julia: What have we done?

Kevin: I just came from a dinner that never would have happened if my father had just thought about things first.

Kevin: I know I give out mixed signals.
Chad: Mixed signals? More like multiple personalities.

Kevin: It’s not about you, it’s me.
Chad: That’s the first honest thing you’ve said all night.

Saul: How’s your mother?
Kevin: I don’t know. She works in mysterious ways, Saul.

Kevin: You should call her, I’m sure she could use a big brother right now.
Saul: Yeah. I call her every day, Kevin.

Kevin: That’s water under the bridge. We have a 24-hour-a-day news cycle, Saul, I thought you read the crawl. By the way, you did the right thing. Rebecca was never going to stay hidden. We were nuts. We were just trying to keep it a secret like him. You know, sins of the father.

Saul: Look at us. I’m in my 60s, and we’re like in high school, at a slumber party.
Kevin: Does high school ever end, Uncle Saul?
Saul: No, Kevin, it’s like taxes. We’re doomed to repeat it year after year.
Kevin: Great. On that note, please sign here, or I’ll be late for algebra.

Nora: “What she finally had to admit was that she was angry, no, furious. Anything would set Dora off: a cordless phone that wasn’t fully charged, the cupboard door that refused to stay closed.” … I’m sorry, I’m sorry, this is really stupid. I never had a chance to read it through.
Mark: No, no no no. Keep going.
Nora: “She was even angry at her kids just for being like her, stubborn and human and always refusing to let things go. She was especially angry at how they got in their own way, risking happiness by shutting out the ones they loved the most. Of course, Dora was furious at someone far more difficult to face, someone they had trusted. someone who had loved them and led them and finally betrayed them all. When a husband dies, you’re supposed to be able to mourn your loss, you’re supposed to grieve, but she could not. He had robbed her of that option. So instead, Dora did the only thing she had left to do. She said goodbye.”

_{Photos: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, All in the Family, favorite lines