- Paul Orman: What did you want to say about guns, Mr. Halloway?
- John Halloway: Ever use 'em?
- Paul Orman: Yes, on the stage.
- Paul Orman: Shoot 'em?
- John Halloway: On the stage.
- John Halloway: Not real bullets?
- Paul Orman: No.
- John Halloway: Just blanks, eh?
- Paul Orman: Yes, only blanks. We actors prefer them.
- Lazar: Mr. Orman, this is the best suit that I have ever made and I know it will bring you good luck. Yes, sir, this is a lucky suit, Mr. Orman, and I guarantee your happiness in it.
- Ethel Halloway: Don't you think you're having too many dear?
- John Halloway: Frankly, no.
- Ethel Halloway: And you're mixing your drinks too. Please, John.
- John Halloway: That's the way I like my drinks - mixed. Keeps me interested in drinking; otherwise, I get bored.
- [to Paul]
- John Halloway: Sure, you won't have one?
- Paul Orman: No, thanks. I have other remedies for boredom.
- John Halloway: I suppose an actor can get along without much truth and honor.
- Paul Orman: Oh, yes. An actor can get along without anything; except, a good play.
- Harry Wilson: [on the phone] Hello? Oh, hello, baby. How are ya? And who are ya?
- Diane: Only the girl you're going to marry! Now, get up darling. You have a luncheon date with me, remember?
- Diane: [continues reading aloud a letter found after rummaging through the pockets of a tail coat at her fiancé's apartment] "Oh, my passionate lion, my ecstasy is almost unbearable. Thank you. Thank you. The mink has just arrived! It is here on the bed beside me. Sleek and warm, like... ."
- [Diane then does a wolf whistle]
- Diane: Don't you roar? Like she says you do?
- George: Oh, that. Yes, naturally, a lion roars.
- Diane: George, will you roar now?
- George: No. I'm not in the mood.
- Diane: Aw, George, come on. Please, just for me!
- George: No. I feel silly.
- Diane: Aw, George.
- [caressing his face]
- Diane: Please.
- George: Well - - eow.
- Diane: That's not a lion. It's a pekingese!
- George: Oh - ROAR! Oh, you're scared now, huh?
- Diane: I'm not scared. I mean - I mean - Aw, now, wait. Just a minute.
- [lifts up a chair and points it's legs to George]
- Diane: Lions can be tamed, too. Go on back! Back! Come on, back. Back! Back, come on! Back! Back! Back! - Back. Down! Down! There, that's a good lion.
- George: Oh, we lions have our gentle moments. A lion shall lie down with a lamb and all that.
- Diane: Brush your lips across my cheek, my dear.
- George: Is that from the letter?
- Diane: Oh, no. Out of my head. I just wanted to hear what it would sound like.
- George: It sounded wonderful. Let's see what this sounds like: I want more than anything in the world to hold you in my arms.
- Diane: Letter?
- George: No, head.
- Diane: There was darkness for a long, long time. And suddenly the light came - and the light was you.
- George: Letter?
- Diane: Head.
- George: Darling, now and from the beginning. Head, Diane.
- Diane: These moments we have - are ours forever.
- George: Letter?
- [Diane shakes her head no]
- George: These moments we have...
- Diane: Head?
- George: Heart.
- [kiss]
- Lazar: [Looking at the brand new tailcoat on the clothes dummy] How do you like it?
- Paul Orman: Fair.
- Lazar: [Enthusiastically] Look at the shoulders! How do you like those lapels?
- Paul Orman: [Admiringly] Beautiful.
- Lazar: Ah, but it'll look better on you, sir.
- Paul Orman: [Referring to the clothes dumm] o. Always looks better on him. He's more relaxed.
- Paul Orman: [the group laughs politely] Luther, a flower.
- Ethel Halloway: Please don't point a gun in the house.
- John Halloway: [Referring to his gun by its pet name] Don't worry. 'The Colonel's' not loaded. I may be a trifle but not 'The Colonel.'
- Joe: [Standing by the bar] You've been around here about five years now, Larry.
- Avery L. 'Larry' Browne: Six!
- Joe: And every day for six years you've been talkin' about goin' uptown... getting on your feet again... away from all this... but you always seem to need one more drink to get yuh nerve up. Maybe if you didn't get it up, some day you might really go.
- Avery L. 'Larry' Browne: [Defensively] You know, I know what I'm doing.
- Joe: Oh, sure you do, sur...
- Avery L. 'Larry' Browne: [Interrupting defensively] I do't want anyone preaching to me.
- Joe: Did I ever tell you not to take it? If you feel the need of another drink, why don't you have it? I'll buy.
- Avery L. 'Larry' Browne: Well, here...
- Joe: Larry, they tell me they got a mighty good cook at the Waldorf. Why don't you go?
- Joe: [Joe lights a cigarette for Larry] Oughta be a nice party. Here's your chance to go uptown again...
- Joe: [Putting his arm around Larry in a hug] ... and I don't mean north of 14th Street - I mean north of yourself.
- Lazar: This suit has been cursed.
- Paul Orman: Cursed?
- Lazar: Yes, you remember, Batali, our cutter?
- Paul Orman: Yes, what about him.
- Lazar: Well, I had to get rid of him on account of this suit.
- Paul Orman: How come?
- Lazar: Well, I had an argument with him about these lapels.
- Paul Orman: Oh, they're perfect.
- Lazar: Aren't they! When Batali left, he was red in the face with rage and he asserted that this suit would bring misfortune to anybody who ever wore it. He cursed it!
- Paul Orman: We part without any further argument. Quietly and calmly. I know everything! You're going with him tomorrow, at nine, on a plane, to Canada, to hunt moose.
- John Halloway: [laughter heard in the background] That's old Charlie Henderson. I must speak to him before he gets too tight.
- Paul Orman: [on the phone with his manager] Pay attention please and no arguments. I want you to close the play. I said close the play! Yes, pack up the theater. I'm leaving tomorrow for six months.
- Ethel Halloway: Paul, close the a hit?
- Paul Orman: Darling, you're worth a thousand hits.
- [kiss]
- Paul Orman: I hope.
- Paul Orman: [to Ethel] Perhaps your husband would prefer talking to me alone.
- John Halloway: Oh, no, no, no. I have no secrets from my wife. She may have from me. You know how women are. There's always half of them missing; but, with men, they're usually in one piece. Full of truth and honor.
- John Halloway: Sorry I missed your show. I understand you get killed in it.
- Paul Orman: Yes, at the end of the last act.
- John Halloway: That's something I could never understand about Ethel. I could never figure out whether she meant something or was just acting it. Kept me guessing for a year! Marriage is no fun when it turns into a guessing contest.
- Paul Orman: You shouldn't have worried about your wife, Mr. Halloway. She may become intoxicated with the wine of romance; but, you - you will always be the morning after.
- Edgar: [answers a ringing phone] Hello. Oh, good morning Miss Diane. Well, yes. Mr. Wilson is - here.
- Diane: [sitting on a chair, in a towel, with her maid drying off her outstretched legs] You don't have to go any farther, Edgar. I know that tone. It means Mr. Wilson is still asleep. Stop mumbling. Just reach over and very firmly press the buzzer. Well, who cares about his head?
- Diane: What time is it? It's 11:25. The day is Tuesday. The month is September. The lark's on the wing. And I've got a date to be married tonight.
- Diane's Maid: Asleep at this time of the day! Mark my words, a groom that sleeps, means a bride that weeps.
- Diane: Well, that's a happy thought for my wedding day.
- Edgar: He'll probably have double vision after he has this.
- Diane: What's that?
- Edgar: Um, a health drink.
- Diane: [takes a sip] Judas! What's in it besides embalming fluid?
- Edgar: Tabasco sauce, spirits of ammonia, red pepper, brandy, and a jigger of milk.
- Diane: I suppose it's the milk that packs the wallop.
- Edgar: I'm sure it is, Miss Diane.
- Diane: I thought you were deem. Yes, that's the word, deem. I thought you stayed home at nights and solved chess problems. You know, maiden free and all that sort of thing. But, now!
- George: Now, you don't think I'm deem?
- Diane: I don't think you're deem. And there isn't any chess. And you certainly haven't any problems!
- Diane: Lions don't have problems. Lions are free and uninhibited! I can see you now, as evening falls, moving silently through the jungle, on your soft paws.
- Diane: I don't write letters. I wish I did. It must be fun to write things like: Strange how you're giving me thoughts I've never had before. How being near you is not like being near anyone else.
- George: That's the best part of the letter.
- Diane: Huh? How knowing you - is different from knowing anyone else in the whole world. Is that right, George?
- George: It's perfect.
- Diane: I'm glad you like it.
- George: Would you like hear what I wrote her?
- Diane: Yes, I'd love to!
- George: Your voice is like a sunrise, like a garden in bloom, like a bird against the sky.
- Diane: Do more, George.
- George: Why don't you be kind and set me free. Or, why don't you be kinder and hold me forever and ever. - You don't mind my quoting that, do you?
- Diane: Oh, no! Of course not. It's wonderful.
- Diane: George, how do people know when they're really in love?
- George: Well, first I guess they find out they like to be together and then they find out they kind of think the same things and, I guess after awhile, they get so they even - say the same things, at the same time.
- Diane: And that's the way you know?
- George: Well, I'm just guessing.
- Diane: Well, your guess would be my guess too.
- Diane, George: It must be wonderful when it happens -
- [look at each other]
- Diane, George: - like that.
- Harry Wilson: I'm sorry, Diane. But, I kinda put George on the spot. You see, his tailcoat really isn't my tailcoat, it's his tailcoat.
- George: No, it's not really my tailcoat, it's Edgar's tailcoat.
- Edgar: It's not really my tailcoat. It's Luther's tailcoat. No, no, it's not Luther's tailcoat, it's Mr. Orman's tailcoat and he's in the hospital.
- Harry Wilson: You see, my tailcoat...
- Diane: Just a minute, I think it's better if nobody explains anything to anybody.
- Cello Player (Laughton sequence): Smith is here.
- Arturo Bellini: What Smith?
- Cello Player (Laughton sequence): Charles Smith, the composer, the man I told you about.
- Arturo Bellini: When?
- Cello Player (Laughton sequence): For the last ten years, you promised to see him tomorrow.
- Arturo Bellini: Well, this is not tomorrow.
- Cello Player (Laughton sequence): But, that was yesterday. That's when you told me tomorrow and that is today.
- Molly (Robinson sequence): I bet you know somebody who's down on their luck.
- Charles Smith: In deed, I do.
- Molly (Robinson sequence): Well, give them that. Will you?
- Charles Smith: Oh, thank you, sir. Oh, it's a tailcoat.
- Molly (Robinson sequence): No, no, no. That's a rabbit's foot.
- Joe: Here's your chance to get up town again. And I don't mean north of 14th Street. I mean north of yourself.
- Joe: Aw, Larry, you've seen enough of gutters and flophouses and handouts. Maybe if you got your feet under a table again, for a spell, ordered a good thick steak, slept in a clean bed, talked your own language; why, you might be right in there punching again.
- Molly (Robinson sequence): I still say you should have gotten a regular shirt.
- Joe: Do you know what they cost? A dollar seventy-five!
- Molly (Robinson sequence): I don't care. Suppose that ridiculous whatchamacallit?
- Mary (Robinson sequence): Dickey, mother.
- Molly (Robinson sequence): Well, suppose it pops out?
- Avery L. 'Larry' Browne: Professor Lyons!
- Professor Lyons: Yes.
- Avery L. 'Larry' Browne: This above all, to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not be false...
- Professor Lyons: Not *then* be false! Not *then*! Are you still trying to rewrite Mr. Shakespeare?
- Avery L. 'Larry' Browne: Not then be false to any man.
- Professor Lyons: Right!
- Professor Lyons: How are you, my boy?
- Avery L. 'Larry' Browne: Fine, sir. And you?
- Professor Lyons: I'm always fine. It comes with having a cast-iron stomach and no ambition.
- Professor Lyons: You know, sometimes, I confess I envy you boys. Then again, I don't know. It's rather fun to sit with the other stick-in-the-muds and watch the parade go by, see you boys beat the drums and blow the big bassoons, while we take all the credit.