- Friedrich Zeitz: We are parted by distance, but also by time. Little by little, the past feels more and more like a foreign country. Your letters are all that I have to keep it alive inside of me.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Somebody once said, I can't remember who, that music can exist without the world but the *world* cannot exist without music.
- Friedrich Zeitz: I believe it was Goethe.
- [last lines]
- Friedrich Zeitz: We walked down this very same path with Otto. You remember?
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Yes. He kept running on ahead and we'd almost lost him for the umpteenth time. I kept calling him to come back. But actually I just wanted to be alone with you. We were strangers then.
- Friedrich Zeitz: As now.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: [responding to his touch] Don't ever leave me again. Don't ever leave me.
- Friedrich Zeitz: I will never ever leave you from now on.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: It took us a long time to get here.
- Karl Hoffmeister: [having a suit fitted] Anyone would think it was made for you. I'll lend you a top hat too.
- Friedrich Zeitz: Is that really necessary, sir?
- Karl Hoffmeister: Indispensable.
- Friedrich Zeitz: In that case, thank you.
- Karl Hoffmeister: No, I thank you for relieving me of these dreary obligations - a Sunday in the country and then an evening in town listening to some fat woman take forever to die.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Herr Zeitz? I'm Frau Hoffmeister.
- Friedrich Zeitz: Herr Hoffmeister's wife?
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Of course. I'm not his mother.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Music means more to me than anything in the world. Except my husband and son of course.
- Karl Hoffmeister: Frau Hoffmeister is a stickler for punctuality, soup is in the plates at 7:30. I abhore soup.
- Karl Hoffmeister: She wouldn't miss the 10 o'clock service if the world was on fire.
- Friedrich Zeitz: Don't you accompany her?
- Karl Hoffmeister: No time for all that humbug. But if you enjoy church don't let me stop you.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Dinner's at 7:30. My husband's a stickler for punctuality, he likes his soup served on the dot.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: So eventually I asked the riding master for a quieter horse. And he says to me: Madam, a horse is like a mirror. It reflects everything you fear or dare to do, so if your horse refuses a fence it is you who are not ready for it.
- Karl Hoffmeister: It sounds like that Viennese doctor that claims he can read your thoughts by listening to your dreams. What's his name again?
- Lotte Hoffmeister: As if you didn't know.
- [to Friedrich]
- Lotte Hoffmeister: And my husband loves to play the village idiot.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Your my husband's assistant and I'm his wife. Let's agree to be frank with each other.
- Anna: So you're top dog now, are you?
- Friedrich Zeitz: Don't be silly.
- Anna: I asked the man on the gate and he said you'd taken over from the boss.
- Friedrich Zeitz: I'm only his private secretary.
- Anna: What about the car?
- Friedrich Zeitz: He lets me use it.
- Anna: What about his wife?
- Friedrich Zeitz: I do like your scent.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Thank you.
- Friedrich Zeitz: What is it?
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Young man, don't you know better than to ask a lady her scent?
- Friedrich Zeitz: No, I'm afraid, I didn't. But if I don't ask how can I find out?
- Friedrich Zeitz: We can't keep doing this.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Doing what?
- Friedrich Zeitz: Lying to each other.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Lying to each other? What on earth are you imagining, Herr Zeitz? Who do you think you are? And what do you think I am?
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Will you still want me? We'll make a - a vow to each other. A promise to love each other. Do you see?
- Lotte Hoffmeister: I can't live without you.
- Friedrich Zeitz: Why didn't you tell me?
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Tell you what? You already knew.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: How I wish this war would end. I don't care whether we win or lose as long as it is over.
- Friedrich Zeitz: I write to you, envying the sheet of paper which will soon be in your hands. Pressed to your breasts, perhaps even to your lips.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: Nothing has changed. Everything's the same.
- Friedrich Zeitz: No, nothing has changed. Except us.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: I haven't forgotten my promise to you.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: The only thing that keeps me alive is the memory of our love. It is for our love that I am in mourning. Your skin, my skin, our union.
- Karl Hoffmeister: I felt such pain. I could see that you loved him more than you ever loved me. He took possession of you and dispossessed me.
- Lotte Hoffmeister: I am frightened, I've got nothing to hold on to. The world of yesterday, the world I knew, is vanishing. And I can't endure the present.