I was crazy, you know that, Pony? I was crazy for wanting Johnny to stay out of trouble. If he was smart, like me, he wouldn't be in this mess. If he was smart like me, he wouldn't have ran into that church man. You better wise up Pony. You better wise up man. You get TOUGH like me and you don't get hurt! You watch out for yourself, and nothing can touch you man!
After they see how badly hurt Johnny was by the fire, Dallas gives this emotionally confused monologue about toughness, self-reliance, and dependency. Unable to process his grief, Dallas wonders if Johnny would be better off if he were tougher and if he relied more on himself. Instead of appreciating the sacrifice that came from Johnny's heroic act, Dallas is angry with Johnny for doing a good deed so recklessly. He laments that if Johnny were harder and tougher, like he is, Johnny wouldn't be close to death in a hospital room. This quote shows Dallas' many inner contradictions, and his deep emotionality, which he covers up with a tough guy facade.
I killed him. I killed that boy.
This quote is rather straightforward, and it is what Johnny says to Ponyboy after Ponyboy awakens to find Bob murdered, lying on the ground in his own blood. Johnny is shocked by his own deed, unable to process his own capacity for violence; in their straightforwardness, his words reflect his shocked realization and his inability to explain or understand what he has done. At the same time, he takes full responsibility for his crime.
I hope I never see Dallas Winston again. If I do I'd... probably fall in love with him.
Cherry makes this rather cryptic statement as she gets in the car with Bob after the Greasers' run-in with the Socs after the drive-in movie. Addressing Ponyboy, Cherry suggests that she was attracted to Dallas in spite of having acted shocked and offended by him. In this, we see that Cherry is attracted to tough guys, but has a complicated relationship to her own attraction. While on some level, she doesn't want to see Dallas because she finds him so crass and low-class, Cherry also doesn't want to see him because he is so magnetic to her, because she's afraid she is at risk of falling in love with him.
I gotta cut smoking or I'll never make track next year.
Ponyboy says this after returning to his home from the abandoned church. Looking forward in his life, he wants to do well and join the track team. This quote has a rather humorous dissonance: Ponyboy is only 14 and is looking forward to the school year, yet he is already a heavy smoker who has seen a great deal of violence and lived an unusually mature life. Having returned from a hideaway after his best friend murdered another student, he now wants to focus on the normal concerns of a high school student, like making the track team.
I used to talk about killing myself all the time, man. But I don't wanna die now. It ain't long enough. Sixteen years ain't gonna be long enough. Hell, I wouldn't care so much if there hadn't been so many things I haven't done yet. So many damn things I ain't seen or done. That time when we were in Windrixville was the only time I've ever been away from my neighborhood.
Johnny confides this in Ponyboy from his hospital bed. Having sustained major burns and injuries after the fire, Johnny expresses his desire to live. While he has often been suicidal because of his chaotic and unstable home life, he now insists to Ponyboy that he doesn't feel like he's lived a long enough life. Ponyboy is his primary confidant, and Johnny trusts him enough to make these heartbreaking statements to him. He also alludes to how peaceful and good the two boys' experience in the country was.
Johnny: It's like the mist is what's pretty, ya know? All gold and silver.
Ponyboy: Hmm.
Johnny: Too bad it can't stay like that all the time.
Ponyboy: Nothing gold can stay.
In Windrixville, the two friends stay up and watch the sunrise. As it rises, the light is startlingly beautiful, and the boys share a quiet moment after so much chaos and violence. Johnny notices that the mist is what makes the sunrise so beautiful. In this, we can see the mist as a metaphor for the hardships that the boys have gone through, the shadows on an otherwise sunny life. The hardships, then, are what make life more beautiful. Indeed, in the world of The Outsiders nothing is without its shadow side. Here, Johnny also laments that the sunrise cannot stay for more than a few moments; it's a transient beauty. This prompts Ponyboy to remember the Robert Frost poem that states just that: that "gold"—or, beautiful things—cannot last.
Bob Shelton: You guys know what Greasers are? White trash with long, greasy hair.
Ponyboy: You know what a Soc is?
Bob Shelton: What?
Ponyboy: White trash with Mustangs and madras.
On the playground, when Bob and the other Socs come upon Ponyboy and Johnny, Bob fires this insult at Ponyboy. He calls the Greasers "white trash," a derogatory characterization of their poverty and lack of social graces. Rather than take it, however, Ponyboy fires back, calling Bob and the Socs "white trash." In his comeback, Ponyboy reveals that the only distinguishing characteristic between the two groups is their class status, and the superficial signifiers of wealth. Even though the Socs drive expensive cars and wear nice clothes, they are still, as Ponyboy suggests, "white trash," hardly better than the Greasers whom they love to disparage. It is in this moment that we see the primary class conflict between the gangs articulated explicitly.
Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.
These are Johnny's final words before he dies. He is referring to the conversation they had while watching the sunrise. In the country, Johnny lamented that the gold of the sunrise could not stay, that the sunrise was just a brief moment in a much longer day. He also recognized that Ponyboy is the reason that he even notices the sunrise to begin with, and that without Ponyboy's observational powers, he would never have even looked. Now, on his death bed, he urges Ponyboy to "stay gold," to hold onto the beauty of the moment, and never stop looking for the beauty in the world around him. They are the tragic words of a friend on the brink of death urging his survivor to stay positive and do great things.
It might come as a surprise, but things are rough all over.
In line at the concessions stand at the drive-in movie, Cherry tries to convince Ponyboy that both the Socs and the Greasers have hard times, and that they are connected by their struggle. Cherry sees the violence between the rival gangs as useless and unnecessary, and she tries to reason with Ponyboy, because he seems like the most receptive and intelligent of the Greasers she has met. She urges him that just because the Socs are wealthy, does not mean that their lives are easier.
You're never gonna get me alive!
Dallas yells this at the police as he fires an unloaded gun, at a traffic intersection in town. Having been pursued by the police after trying to rob a convenience store in the wake of Johnny's death, Dallas tempts fate and seeks to elude and confuse his would-be captors. Dallas is intent on remaining free. A crazy man with an unloaded gun, Dallas would rather die at the hands of the police than get taken into custody. This quote reveals just how reckless and desperate Dallas is, and also that he is intent on holding on to his freedom at all costs. Here we see Dallas as a young man who feels betrayed by the world, and as a result, is fatally mistrustful of it.
