- Belle: I was remembering the time we said we'd marry. Does it embarass you so much to talk about it?
- Scott Joplin: Ultimately, you'll see that I was wise not to talk about it.
- Belle: You needn't stop talking altogether, you know. I've been made love to before. I know a lot about love. But it wasn't the same with them as it was with you. With you I felt soft and sorry inside. No matter how much you rejected me, I could stand it. Not anymore.
- John Stark: You were overpowered by the extravagance of sound, the sheer weight of volume. Your music was never meant to compete at that level. It was just never heard.
- Scott Joplin: Well, it will be heard! If volume is what they want, volume is what they'll get!
- John Stark: What are you talking about?
- Scott Joplin: I'm going to write an opera.
- John Stark: An opera?
- Scott Joplin: An opera in ragtime. A ragtime opera.
- John Stark: Why?
- Scott Joplin: Because it is right!
- Man at Audition: Get up from the piano, boy. You're hurting its feelings.
- Scott Joplin: 'I got those old Monday blues, those hang-over Sunday blues... '
- Chauvin: Jelly Roll Morton.
- Scott Joplin: 'If it wasn't for my baby, I'd go crazy from all those wrong things I choose... '
- Chauvin: You'd play that stuff. You'd play that stuff for the girls.
- Scott Joplin: I sure remember him.
- Chauvin: Yeah... 'Let me tell you about that gal of mine, together we seen some very hard times. But a shot of that old gin, my friend, would start us rolling again... '
- Scott Joplin: [singing together] 'I don't mind those Monday blues, homes I got the cure, I can't lose. Playing with my heart driven' forward, made me forget all the blues.'
- Chauvin: 'I don't mind those Monday blues, homes I got the cure, I can't lose. Playing with my heart driven' forward, made me forget all the blues.'