When a man is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he takes custody of his misanthropic teenage son, for whom quality time means getting high, engaging in small-time prostitution, and avoiding his father.

George: You know the great thing, though, is that change can be so constant you don't even feel the difference until there is one. It can be so slow that you don't even notice that your life is better or worse, until it is. Or it can just blow you away, make you something different in an instant. It happened to me.
George: Do I still Love you? Absolutely. There is not a doubt in my mind. Through all my mind, my ego... I was always faithful in my Love for you. That I made you doubt it, that is the great mistake of a Life full of mistakes. The truth doesn't set us free, Robin. I can tell you I Love you as many times as you can stand to hear it and all that does, the only thing, is remind us... that Love is not enough. Not even close.
Sam: Whats wrong with your back? Do you have to have surgery on it or what? Because those pills you are taking are for a lot of pain. And you seem to be going though them pretty quick, that's all
George: Your not still taking any,are you?
Sam: No. But i count them. In a sock isn't exactly new,you know.
George: I'm having a problem with cancer.
Sam: I don't know what that means. What kind of problem?
George: The kind where there isn't any answer.
Sam: I still don't know what it means.
George: Sam I wanted us to... You know ,spend a few months together. Here. Sometimes things happen for a reason. Something bad to force something good.
Sam: So your dying. And you told mom today.
Sam: fuck you, ok fuck you.
Sam: You knew you were dying from the start?
George: We're all dying from the start. I just got pushed to the head of the line.
Sam: But you lied to me.
George: I would've lied to myself if i thought I'd believe it.
Sam: so this whole thing... this whole summer, having me here,was for your sake. You selfish fuck. Having me here trying to get me to like you.
George: No,Sam I wasn't trying to get you to like me. I was trying to get you to love me.
Sam: Well,congratulations... Because you fucking pulled it off.
Sam: You knew you were dying from the start?
George: We're all dying from the start. I just got moved to the head of the line.
George: My dad used to play this game... I never really understood what it was until after he was gone...
Sam: I was holding for somebody else; it wasn't even mine!
George: THE GAME was to make me smaller than he was. Smaller. Always smaller. No matter what! He could be almost invisible as a human being, but... I still had to be smaller. So that i-if I got good grades in school, then I was a pussy for not playing football, or-or if I... cut my hair for him, it was never short enough. Or if I shaved my head then I looked like a psycho. I never won the game, never! And if he couldn't... make me smaller with words...
Sam: ...I'll have to pay him back.
George: Sam... I won't ever hit you. Ever. I don't want you smaller. I want you to be happy and you're not. Not here with me, not home with your mother, not alone, not anywhere. You're what I was most of my life, Sam. I see it in your eyes, in your sleep, in your answer to everything! You're barely alive!
Sam: [whispers] I'm not even listening.
Sam: I've been using since I was 12! You're also unbelievably stupid, you know that? You didn't give a shit about anything I did up until now!
George: Well, I'll apologize for everything but today! Today I give a shit!
George: You're the most beautiful woman I have ever known.
Robin: What?
George: Not just physically. Even your anger's perfect.
Sam: I think there has to be a door between where you cook and where you crap. Even in the bush - tribal people, you know, they have a place for both. Probably it's like a law. God! It's probably in the Bible. It's at least a building code violation.
Sam: Do you have any idea what its like to jack off in an armoire?
George: I put a gun to my father's head once. Ever think like that? He was passed out. Had just been yelling at my mom over nothing. Under-cooked meat. I went to my room, I held the barrel right up to his ear, and then I chickened out again. Of course it was a BB gun but still it would have hurt like hell.
George: It's not my back that's killing me.
George: Sam, if you were a house, this is where you would want to be built. On rock, facing the sea, listening.
George: Take that thumbtack out of your chin.
Sam: Why?
George: It bugs me!
Sam: You snore at night. That really bugs me. Can I take you out?
Sam: So this whole thing, this whole Summer having me here was for your sake. You selfish fuck! Having me here trying to get me to like you?
George: No, Sam, I wasn't trying to get you to like me. I was trying to get you to love me.
Sam: Well, congratulations... 'cause you fucking pulled it off!
Robin: What kind of mother can't stand her own son?
Sam: I like how it feels to not feel.
George: I know the feeling.
George: [to Robin] I can tell you I love you as many times as you can stand to hear it, but all it does is remind us that love is not enough.
Sam: How do you become something you're not?
George: What do you want to become?
Sam: What I'm not.
George: What are you now?
Sam: I'm nothing.
Sam: [whispering] I'm not even listening.
Sam: Why don't you just go and beg some money off my Dad, so you can move into some place decent, with a real kitchen and a real bathroom.
George: I'd rather sell my nuts to a castrati.
George: I've not been touched in years.
Nurse #1: Really? No, I mean... not a friend? Your, your mother, I mean... people have to be touched, everyone gets touched by somebody they love.
George: I know. It's weird, isn't it?
George: I'm having a problem with cancer
Sam: I don't know what that means. What kind of a problem?
George: The kind where there is no answer
Sam: I still don't know what that means
George: I always thought of myself as a house. I was always what I lived in. It didn't need to be big. It didn't even need to be beautiful. It just needed to be mine. I became what I was meant to be. I built myself a life. I built myself a house.
Alyssa: Look, I thought I was helping you.
Sam: It would help me if I could kiss you.
Alyssa: No. Look I thought we were just friends.
Sam: Well, what you think you know doesn't necessarily have much to do with reality. I mean I hope I'm not the first one to tell you this.
George: With every crash of every wave, I hear something now. I never listened before. I'm on the edge of a cliff, listening. Almost finished.
[pause]
George: If you were a house , Sam, this is where you would want to be built: on rock, facing the sea. Listening. Listening.
George: Tell them how you made me fall in love with you.
Robin: I smiled at him.
George: Watch out for the smile boys.
Nurse #1: Can you build a house in four months?
George: I can die trying.
George: I almost saw Catalina!
Colleen: Does it give you some sort of perverse pleasure to expose your... penis in front of my 16-year-old daughter?
George: My... exposure does not face your windows.
Colleen: George, this is the third time.
George: The plumber's due out tomorrow.
Colleen: You will just have to explain that to the police.
George: You were the one neighbor I could tolerate.
[George goes to walk away, then turns back]
George: Colleen! Just how far out that window did you have to stick your head to be able to see my dick?
George: Hindsight. It's like foresight without a future.
Robin: You are inconsiderate and absolutely devoid of emotion.
George: You are the most beautiful woman that I have ever known.
Robin: [Taken aback] What?
George: I don't mean just physically. Even your anger is perfect.
George: I have hated this house from the moment my father put it in my name. Imagine, 29 years of hating what you're living in, hating what you *are*. This is the end of it, Sam. I'm finally building something of my own. Something I can be proud to give you.
Sam: Don't. I don't want it.
George: Fine. You can do what you want with it. All I want you to remember is that we built a house together.
Sam: You didn't build shit. You're just tearing your father down.
George: That's right. It feels good.
Sam: Why can't you all just die and leave me alone?
George: You've worn out your welcome at this house, Sam. This may very well be the worst summer of your life but you've earned it.
[Alyssa has just kissed George]
George: Why did you do that?
Alyssa: When you were dating my mom you seemed like a really good kisser. Oh god, she'd die if she found out.
George: Let's shut up and let her live.
Bryan Burke: How's your wife?
George: Well, uh, when we divorced a decade ago she was very, very angry. Now she's just hostile.
George: [Sternly] Go get in the truck.
Sam: Go fuck yourself!
George: Listen to me... Listen! I want that thing out of your chin, okay? You got nipple rings, navel rings - those come out, too. And there's no makeup at my house. No glue sniffing, no huffing, no pills, no grass. You've worn out your welcome at this house, Sam. This may well be the worst summer of your entire life, but you've earned it. Now go pick up the suitcase, get in the truck, now!
Sam: I'll hate you for the rest of my life.
George: Well, you can't even begin to know how much I hate my father. Think of it as a family tradition!
Robin: Oh, I dreamed about your house last night.
George: Finished or unfinished?
Robin: It was perfect George. Amazing
George: Didn't you once dream that you could lick people well?
Adam Kimball: Can I hate you too?
George: I always thought of myself as a house. I was always what I lived in. It didn't need to be big; it didn't need to be beautiful; it just needed to be mine. I became what I was meant to be. I built myself a life... I built myself a house.
George: Build this house with me.
Adam Kimball: Sam! We're almost done.
Colleen: I'd be more comfortable if he slept in the guest room.
Alyssa: Well I'd be more comfortable if you hadn't slept with Josh. George would be more comfortable if he wasn't dying.
Robin: I wish you'd talk to him. He needs a man.
Peter Kimball: His father's a man.
Robin: A man he respects.
Peter Kimball: He respects nothing.
Sam: [Sam just then comes into the room] Thanks for talking about me behind my back. It's useful in court.
Sam: Thank you for talking about me behind my back - that'll be useful in court.
George: What would you do if you had three or four months to live?
Nurse #1: Um... I'd eat a lot of red meat?
George: Good for you.
Nurse #1: What would you do?
George: Build a house.
George: You're a great architect, and a miserable human being.
[Proceeds to smash one of his architectural models to bits]
Bryan Burke: [Angrily, holding the shattered model in his hands] You're not even a fucking architect, and you're a miserable human being!
George: You're right. You win.
[Calmly walks out]