- Maggie Jackson: [singing] They call her Hard Hearted Hannah, The vamp of Savannah, The meanest gal in town; Talk of your cold, refrigeratin' mamas, Brother, she's a polar bear's pajamas! To tease 'em, and thrill 'em, to torture and kill 'em, Is her delight, they say, An evening spent with Hannah sittin' on your knees, Is like travelin' through Alaska in your BVDs...
- Ivy Conrad: What are you doing?
- Pete Kelly: Making tea.
- Ivy Conrad: Could I have some?
- Pete Kelly: You won't like it. I'm using water.
- Pete Kelly: [voiceover] Rudy Shulak took over. Rudy got a booze contract out of Joplin and bought some tablecloths. It's been a gin bin ever since.
- Pete Kelly: Did you ever sing before?
- Rose Hopkins: Sometimes in clubs and one time for a road show. That's when I met him. I was singing.
- Pete Kelly: Were you any good?
- Rose Hopkins: Couple of people said I was.
- Rose Hopkins: [singing] Sugar, I call my baby my sugar, I never maybe my sugar, That's why my baby is so confectionary, Funny, I never plead for his money, Cause when I feed him on honey, I get my needs every time, I'd make a million trips to his lips, If I were a bee, Because they are sweeter than any candy to me...
- Maggie Jackson: Up in the still, somebody waitin' for you.
- Pete Kelly: Well, who is it?
- Maggie Jackson: I don't know. A friend, I guess.
- Pete Kelly: Not these days.
- Maggie Jackson: Huh?
- Pete Kelly: If I wanted a friend, I'd have to send to Sears Roebuck.
- Pete Kelly: [voiceover] I knew it was a mistake the minute Rose got out there. She'd had bad crowds before but never like this. They wouldn't pay attention to a naked girl yelling, "Fire."
- Maggie Jackson: [singing] There are sad things, There are bad things, the blues, When they threaten, Just start bettin' you'll lose...
- Ivy Conrad: You don't want to get married Pete; unless you find a girl that looks like a cornet. I'm short three valves. I might as well pack up an move someplace else.
- [first lines]
- New Orleans Funeral Mourner: Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust, If the women don't get you, The whiskey must.
- Pete Kelly: All right, let's do some Scott Joplin. How about "Pineapple," all right, Al?
- Al Gannaway: Yeah, if I can find my fingers.
- Pete Kelly: What have you got in there?
- Cigarette Girl: Milo Violets, Deities, Sweet Caporals. Anything you want. You going by the Plantation later? Bennie Moten's in.
- Pete Kelly: I don't know. Pack some lunch. We'll see.
- Ivy Conrad: Were you ever lonesome?
- Pete Kelly: It shouldn't be any trick for you. Hire a stadium and fill it with people.
- Ivy Conrad: Wouldn't it be wonderful? Except that's when you feel the most lonesome of all, with so many people.
- Pete Kelly: You might try an empty stadium.
- Pete Kelly: If you got tanked up and lost track of the party, go down to the street and start another one but don't bother me. I'm tired.
- Fran McCarg: You're not like the rest of these bums. You don't wanna go through life with cracker crumbs in your bed.
- Rose Hopkins: [singing] He needs me, He doesn't know it, but he needs me, And so no matter where he goes, Though he doesn't care, He knows that I'm there...
- Pete Kelly: He booked us at the Everglade Ballroom over on 10th and Locust... It was dark three nights a week. They had a player piano for three more. Whatever night it was, you could put the whole crowd in a bathtub and still have room to splash around.