- Anna Silver: [sings] I wash the dishes, Fix coffee with cream, I'm so busy, Have no time to dream. I work all day, In this cheap little place, Flowers on the table, Curtains of lace. Young lovers come here holding hands, Wide-eyed, hopeful, They make no demands. They bring in the sun, My life they enchant, A bed built for two, Is all they want. I can't forget how happy they seem, Joy on their faces, Smiles that beam, When I think of them in that sad little room, It chases away my workaday gloom, Faces that shine, Like rays of the sun, So bright that it hurts, So bright that it hurts...
- Ida: Have you heard from your mother? Do you write to her?
- Heinrich Schneider: Yes. Her letters are always the same and I reply that everything's fine. Someone who saw her in Brussels said she had backaches and she was very tired. She's also taken up smoking in her old age, but otherwise she's fine.
- Ida: I got a letter from her a month ago. She's like a sister to me. She said she thought of you a lot.
- Heinrich Schneider: Yes. I think about her too. Did you come here to talk about my mother?
- Ida: Sometimes I don't understand. The world's topsy-turvy. Women used to pray to find a husband, afraid they wouldn't be good enough for anyone; but, now? It'll all end badly, very badly.
- Daniel: I think I should try to fix things, a better life and all that. But if you ask what a better life would be, I can't even imagine it.
- Daniel: You know, I think things will keep getting worse that the price of milk and honey, the price of happiness, will get so high that something will happen. It can't go on like this. I'm always telling myself that.
- Heinrich Schneider: You meet a woman and go to her place. You think something wonderful's going to happen. You get your hopes up and then suddenly she says, "Get dressed." And you're alone once again. Is life always like that?
- Heinrich Schneider: We could go for weeks lying side by side without feeling any desire, but it didn't matter. And often when I'd turn around to go to sleep she'd nestle up against me. It was so peaceful to melt into her, her smell, her flesh. And if she fell asleep first and turned her back on me, then I'd nestle against her and feel her round buttocks in the hollow of my stomach.
- Heinrich Schneider: You're going to leave me all alone. You shouldn't have come. Yes, you should have.
- La mère d'Anna: How are things in Germany these days?
- Anna Silver: Germany? There are curtains everywhere and tulips on every table. And as a friend of mine says, it's full of Germans.
- Anna Silver: I travel all over, you know, showing my films. I meet all kinds of people. I often end up all alone at night in my hotel room. So sometimes I bring someone back with me. But it's always sad and a bit silly, actually.
- Anna Silver: She came to see me at my hotel because she liked the film. We went out for a drink. She told me about herself and I told her about myself. The bar was closing, so we went to another one. We kept talking and then that bar closed too. We looked for another one. Everything seemed closed. The city was deserted. We didn't want to say good-bye. So she came up to my room. We were tired. We lay down on the bed and kept talking. We happened to brush against each other. Then we kissed. I don't know how it happened. I felt sort of nauseous. I felt sick. It was too much. I was confused. But we kept on kissing. And then it all became very easy. I let myself go. It felt good. I never imagined it could be like that with a woman. I had no idea. We stayed together all night.
- Daniel: I almost quit three times this week. It's like tilting at windmills. And for what? You're born, you eat, you drink, you screw when you can, you die.
- Anna Silver: You're an important man.
- Daniel: Important? We can't affect what happens. We're just carried along by the current.
- Daniel: What's lovelier than music, than a woman's voice? Where does a woman's voice come from? Will you sing for me?
- Anna Silver: I sing off-key.
- Daniel: In a moment we'll make love and then you'll be off again tomorrow. And I'll be left wanting you more than ever.