How we cite our quotes: Act.Scene.Line
Quote #1
Lee: Isn't that what they did? Candlelight burning into the night? Cabins and wilderness. (1.1.42)
Lee's talking about how our forefathers must have worked. From the get go, Lee drops an image from the past that seems to be something out of a movie.
Quote #2
Lee: Antiques? Brought everything with her from the old place, huh. (1.2.9-10)
Mom's connection to the past is not unlike Lee's. Her collection seems to tie into some romantic view she has of the past when her family was young. Lee also romanticizes the past, though his romances generally focus on the West.
Quote #3
Lee: Built up? Wiped out is more like it. I don't even hardly recognize it. (1.2.70)
For Lee, whatever existed in the past (or whatever he pictures having existed in the past) will always be better than how things are in the present.
Quote #4
Lee: And you'd pretend you were Geronimo or some damn thing. (1.2.76-77)
This is one of those rare moments when the brothers bond over memories from their childhood.
Quote #5
Lee: You remember that car I used to loan you? (1.2.172)
The brothers reminisce yet again, but this shows that there was a time that Lee helped Austin in some way. He loaned him his car like a good big brother should.
Quote #6
Saul: It has the ring of truth, Austin […]. Something about the real West. (2.6.104-107)
Even Saul gets in on the romanticizing. He has no idea what the real West is or was, but he has a movie version of the past in his mind.
Quote #7
Austin: There's no such thing as the West anymore! (2.6.123)
Austin shoots down Saul's claim, but in that "anymore" Austin admits that he believes there was once a West like the one Lee (and even Saul) talks about.
Quote #8
Austin: Those are fantasies of a long lost boyhood. (2.7.154)
Once again, Austin lays down some truth. With this simple line, he points out that there is no real past. With memory comes romanticizing and fantasy. Even the things Lee thinks he remembers cannot be trusted as ever having really existed.
Quote #9
Austin: And in one of those bars, in one of those bars up and down the highway, he left his doggie bag with his teeth laying in the Chop Suey. (2.7.236-238)
Austin and Lee share a family and they share a past, but they don't share everything. By telling Lee this story, Austin extends his past to his brother. It's now something about their father that they can share in. It's also kind of a funny, horrible story, which is always good on stage.