Men should weep

• Lily (talking about maggie): ''Livin in a slum an slavin efter a useless man an his greeting weans'.'
• Edie: ''Ive nae breaks.''
• Edie: ''Ma, I'm hungry ma''
• Maggie: ''Money disnae stretch''
• Maggie: ''someday we'll have a wireless son.''
• Granny: ''Maggie aye bought a bit bacon wi ma pension''
• Lily suggests that john should be ashamed of himself for giving maggie 'all the weans,'


  Maggie defends john: 'He's a man and Im a wumman we're flesh and blood'
• Lily: 'If john wid gie hassle a shake…'


  Maggie: 'you leave john alane! He does his best for us.'
• When alec and Isa's hoose fell down, john had no sympathy:


  Mrs Wilson: 'My thae men! Nae word o sympathy! Theyre right hard nuts.'
• John


  'Tae hell wi this jessie business every time im oot o a job. I'm no turning masel into a skivvy! I'm a man!'
• Isa to Alec after he comforts his mum

  'Mammy's big tumphy! G'on ye big lump o dough'
• Maggie thinks Lily's life is awful

  'Servin dirty hulkin brutes of men in a coocaddens pub.'
• Maggie telling john about jenny

  'She's wanting tae leave hame.'
• Jenny not wanting the life her mother has


  'The kitchen's aye a pig-sty… There's never only decent food an if there wis ye'd hae nae appetite for it… an sleeping aside a snoring aul wife. Naw I've had enough. Im gonna live am ain life.'
• Isa on her husband alec


  'He'll dae whit I tell him, that's mair than you can say. I can twist him roon a little finger
• Maggie on her relationship with John

  'It's because things have aye been right atween you an me that I can struggle on.'
• Jenny about leaving home

  'There's better places than this. Kist because I wis born here disnae mean I've got tae bide here.'
• Granny: ''Goad bless Lloyd George! Him that gied us wur pension books.''
• Maggie: '' I dinna ken whit they dirty rotten buggers in parliament are daein wi ma money, but they're daein something.''
• Maggie to john after he's been 'looking for work all day'


  'Aye i've seen yous men looking for work haudin up the street corners, ca'in doon the government - telling the world whit you'd daae if you wis rinnin the country.'
• Maggie (talking about granny)


  'I wish you could pit yersel tae bed. Ye're as muvh bother an another wean.'
• Granny: ''I'm jist an aul nuisance takin up room.''
• Mrs Wilson: '' old folks is an awfu problem.''
• Granny: '' It's awfu tae be aul an kicked about frae yin house tae the ither.''
• Lily talking about alec - The violence


  'ye mind yon tempers? Mind the time he just missed me wi the bried knife?'
• 'John takes Jenny by the shoulders and shakes her' - stage directions
• 'John hits her across the face' - stage directions John hitting Jenny.
• Trouble that alec had got into in the past


  'The polis… and the court… and yon probation officer.'
• Lily to Alec about Isa


  'If I wis you, Alec I'd wallop that impudent wife o yours till she wis black an blue.'
• Alec after Isa has been flirting with another man

  'I'll kill ye! I wull! I'll kill ye!'