- Krystyna: [Speaking to the young man, comparing him with her husband] You're just like him... only half his age, and twice as dumb.
- Krystyna: Six to a room. You want to sleep, they play cards. You want to study, they dim the lights. Canteen lunches, cheap smokes. Kissing in the alley, fingers so cold you can't unbutton her blouse. Did I leave anything out?
- Krystyna: [singing] Say no more, no more, Don't look that way, let me go, We're out of words, and moons, and stars, There's no tenderness in us, Don't lie anymore, don't beg, You know there's nothing left, Though life is empty, you don't need me, Joy has faded and our love's gone sour...
- Krystyna: You're just like him - only half his age and twice as dumb.
- Young Man: What do you know about life? Just cafes, yachts and cars. Bet you've got a four-room apartment.
- Krystyna: I suppose you live four students to a room.
- Young Man: Six, actually.
- Krystyna: I've been through it myself. So has he. You're no better than him. He was just like you. And you want to be like him. And you will be, if you've got the guts.
- Andrzej: When I was an apprentice helmsman, we had a bosun - Krystyna, what was his name? The guy with the willow. He'd say: see that willow? It was an oak. If the bosun says it's a willow, it's a willow. "To the willow, quick march!"
- Young Boy: Shit. Excuse me. So much water in there.
- Andrzej: We'd sit on that willow maybe an hour at a time.
- Young Boy: On that oak.
- Andrzej: Willow, for us. And he made us go "cuckoo".
- Young Boy: Made you do what?
- Andrzej: Make a cuckoo sound. Like the bird.
- Young Boy: And you cuckooed.
- Andrzej: He wasn't all that smart but he turned us into men.
- Young Man: [reciting a poem] Night. The oil in my lamp is low, Mosquitoes whine about me, That handful of stars above, Mother, are they you? Are you the white sail on the lake, Or the waves that lap the shore? Have you strewn my pages with stardust?