- Harry Brock: Shut up! You ain't gonna be tellin' nobody nothin' pretty soon!
- Billie: DOUBLE NEGATIVE! Right?
- Paul: Right.
- Harry Brock: What's a peninsula?
- Billie: Shhhh.
- Harry Brock: Don't gimme that "shush." You think you're so smart, huh - what's a peninsula?
- Paul: It's a...
- Harry Brock: Not you, her.
- Billie: It's that new medicine...
- Harry Brock: Don't you feel good? You want a aspirin?
- Jim Devery: No, no, I'm fine. In fact, considering I've been dead for sixteen years I'm in remarkable health.
- Harry Brock: How d'ya like that! He could've had a hundred grand. She could've had me. Both wind up with nothin'... Dumb chump!... Crazy broad!
- Jim Devery: [raises a glass as a toast] To all the dumb chumps and all the crazy broads, past, present, and future, who thirst for knowledge and search for truth... who fight for justice and civilize each other... and make it so tough for crooks like you...
- [Harry stares at him angrily]
- Jim Devery: ...*and* me.
- Paul: Harry's a menace.
- Billie: He's not so bad. I seen worse.
- Paul: Has he ever thought of anyone but himself?
- Billie: Who does?
- Paul: Millions of people, Billie. The whole history of the world is a story of a struggle between the selfish and the unselfish.
- Billie: I can hear you.
- Paul: All that's bad around us is bred by selfishness. Sometimes selfishness can even get to be a - a cause, an organized force, even a government. And then it's called fascism. Can you understand that?
- Billie: Sort of.
- Paul: Well, think about it.
- Billie: You're crazy about me, aren't ya?
- Paul: Yes.
- Billie: That's why you're so mad at Harry.
- Paul: Listen, I hate his life, what he does, what he stands for - not him. He just doesn't know any better.
- Billie: I go for you too.
- Billie: All that stuff I've been studying, what Paul's been tellin' me, it just mixed me up. But when you hit me before, it was like everything knocked itself together in my head and made sense. All of the sudden I realized what it means: how some people are always givin', and some takin'. And it's not fair. So, I'm not gonna let ya anymore - or anybody else.
- Harry Brock: Alright, let's get down to it... what'll ya take, Paul?
- Paul: I'll take a drink, please, if I may.
- Harry Brock: Don't get fancy with me! I ain't met a guy yet didn't have his price.
- Paul: I have.
- Harry Brock: I'm talkin' about big numbers!
- Billie: You an' your big numbers, you don' watch out, you'll be wearing one across yer chest!
- Billie: One night I brought home a hundred dollars and gave it to him. You know what he did?... Well, it sure didn't do the plumbing no good.
- Harry Brock: Why, you double-crossin' little...
- Billie: I don't see it like that! If there's a fire and I call the engine, so who am I double-crossin'? The fire?
- Billie: You don't own me. Nobody can own anybody. There's a law that says.
- Harry Brock: What do I care what the law says. If I was scared of the law, I wouldn't be where I am!
- Paul: Who are you to get mad, you big baboon? You ought to be grateful you're allowed to walk around free.
- Harry Brock: You don't know me good enough for that kind of talk.
- Paul: I know ya. A kick in the keister, a crooked play, and your problems are all solved. Bigger problems, bigger kicks. Who's next? The government? The nation?
- Congressman Norval Hedges: I said to Sam only last week this country will soon to have to decide if the people are going to run the government, or the government is going to run the people.
- Harry Brock: I'm top man in my racket. Been in it over 25 years. The same racket.
- Paul: Steel.
- Harry Brock: Junk! Not steel, junk. Now, look, don't butter me up. I'm a junk man. I ain't ashamed to admit it.
- Sanborn: Sorry I missed your arrival, Mr. Brock. Welcome to the Washington Statler. I've been inspecting your wing and...
- Harry Brock: You mean I ain't got a whole floor?
- Sanborn: You've got an entire wing, Mr. Brock! An entire wing.
- Harry Brock: When I say I want the whole floor, I don't want one wing, don't want two wings, I want the whole bird!
- Billie: Drips.
- Harry Brock: What?
- Billie: I said they're drips.
- Harry Brock: Who are you to say?
- Billie: I'm myself, that's who.
- Harry Brock: Well, nobody asked you. Shut up.
- Billie: Pardon me for livin'.
- Billie: Let me ask you. Are you one of these talkers - or would you be interested in a little action?
- Paul: [He looks confused] What?
- Billie: I got a yen for you right off.
- Paul: Well, do you get many?
- Billie: Now and then.
- Paul: What do you do about them?
- Billie: [giggles] Stick around, you'll find out.
- Paul: Alright, I will.
- Billie: And if you want a tip, I'll tell you. Sweet talk me. I like it. Like the "lovely girl" line.
- [Paul looks nervous, stands up and looks around]
- Billie: Don't worry about him. He don't see a thing. He's too dizzy from bein' a big man.
- Paul: Well, this is going to be a little different from what I thought.
- Billie: Do you mind?
- Paul: No.
- Billie: It's only fair. We'll educate each other.
- Paul: Yeah.
- Paul: I want everybody to be smart. I want 'em to be as smart as they can be. A world full of ignorant people is too dangerous to live in.
- Harry Brock: What are you learnin' her about dead people for? All I want you to teach her how to act with live people.
- Harry Brock: You're doin' all right, ain't ya? Somethin' you want you ain't got, maybe?
- Billie: Yeah.
- Harry Brock: What?
- Billie: I want to be like the happy peasant.
- Harry Brock: All right, I'll buy it for you. Now, will you quit crabbin'!
- Billie: That cheap perfume you put on yourself.
- Harry Brock: Cheap? I don't own nothin' cheap, except you!
- Billie: Maybe it's right what you say: I'm still dumb. But I know one thing I never knew before. There's a better kind of life than the one I got.
- Harry Brock: Don't make me split a gut. It's gonna be some fine day when a 100-a-week hick and a dumb broad can stop me.
- Harry Brock: He taught her too much. You know what she called me before... a Fascist. That don't make sense. I was born in Plainfield, New Jersey... she knows that
- Jim Devery: Anyway you've been engaged for seven years, I've never understood why you waited this long.
- Harry Brock: I didn't wanna to be rushed. Look, this way I give her somethin', I'm a swell fella. We get married, she's got it coming, she thinks.
- Harry Brock: She's a good kid; but, to tell you the truth, she's a little on the stupid side. Now, it's not her fault, mind you. I got her out of the chorus. Now, for the chorus she was smart enough. I'm afraid she's gonna be unhappy around this town. Never been around with such kind of people. You know what I mean?
- Paul Verrall: No, I don't.
- Billie: I'm happy. I got everything I want. Two mink coats. Everything. If there's somethin' I want, I ask.
- Harry Brock: Listen, cutie, don't get nervous just 'cause you read a book. You're as dumb as you ever were.
- Harry Brock: I picked you up out of the gutter! I can throw you back! You never had a decent meal until you met me!
- Billie: Yeah, but, I haven't had one with you! You eat terrible! You got no manners! Taking your shoes off all the time, and that's another thing, picking your teeth. You're just not couth!
- Harry Brock: I'm as couth as you are!
- Harry Brock: How can you not wanna marry me?
- Billie: Well, for one thing, you're too dumb. I just got a different kind of life in mind, Harry, entirely. I'm sorry, but you just wouldn't fit in.
- Harry Brock: I don't like the way things are goin' around here, you stewed all the time, and that broad out of line. And some fine congressman you bought me.
- Jim Devery: I think he's cute.
- Harry Brock: Yeah, well, I've got to trade him in. No kiddin'.
- Jim Devery: On what, for instance?
- Harry Brock: For instance, on a senator!