- Quart Vittel: What could be simpler than a tree?
- Le peintre: A tree. But when I paint one, it sets everyone on edge. It's because there's someone or something hidden behind that tree. I can't help painting what's hidden behind things. To me a swimmer is already a drowned man.
- Nelly: Each time the sun rises, we think something new will happen, something fresh. Then the sun goes to bed and so do we. It's sad.
- Le peintre: Some people go fishing or hunting or go to war. Others commit crimes of passion. Some commit suicide. You have to kill someone.
- Quart Vittel: That's life.
- Zabel: Funny how blood stains clothes but washes off hands so easily. Ever notice how doctors and surgeons have such clean, white hands? Even though their pretty hands wallow in blood the whole blessed day.
- Le peintre: I painted flowers, women and children. It's like I painted the crime right into them. I'd see crime in a rose.
- Jean: Ever see a woman in love with a soldier? She loves him when he parades in step with the music. But when he shows up alone, you should see the look on her face! I don't even know why I'm tellin' ya' this. A man and a woman can't get along. They don't talk the same. They don't use the same vocabulary.
- Nelly: Maybe so, but they can love each other.
- Jean: Oh? Have you ever loved someone?
- Nelly: Not really.
- Jean: So?
- Le peintre: I'm going for a swim; the sea is rough and it's foggy.
- Panama: What's that?
- Le peintre: Just telling it like it is: The sea is rough and it's foggy; and that's just fine. I'm no great swimmer, but I have a hunch I'll end up very far out.