- Biondo: It's like killing. The first time one may feel remorse be induced to vomit, even have insomnia. But by the third time, one sleeps peacefully. By the fifth time, one eats a sandwich. Actually, it gets exciting, there is a stimulus. They are just the same for you.
- Helmut Wallenberg: You must be able to compromise all the way. You have to humble yourself, in order to be reborn.
- Kitty Kellermann: Wallenberg, you haven't learned a thing from the Roman Empire. In order to conquer the World one must be able to laugh, sing. Unless you have no intent to close the brothel, only to open a singing school.
- Hans Reiter: Man belongs to mankind. Not to a country, to a race or a religion. My conscience is clear.
- Margherita: [voiceover] He constantly made love to me. Which is only right for a soldier preparing to return to the front.
- Helmut Wallenberg: All of them have just one goal: power! There are no ideals, no belief system! You are the one who has illusions, Margherita. You, and millions of Germans like you who believed in us. It was a way to put all of you at our feet.
- Margherita: [in bed, after encounter] Will you fight again?
- Hans Reiter: I don't think I'm a good soldier.
- Margherita: When do you leave?
- Hans Reiter: Soon. In ten days.
- Margherita: An eternity for making love.
- Hans Reiter: [in bed] Would you mind if I fell in love with you?
- [she smiles]
- Hans Reiter: Hmm?
- [gestures]
- Hans Reiter: Just a little. Would it seem ridiculous?
- Margherita: Love is a word you can't always say when two people are in bed together.
- Margherita: I don't like anniversaries. I only like drinking champagne with you. Not even with you. I just like the champagne. Too many wishes bring bad luck.
- Helmut Wallenberg: [strong ice-cold German accent] I want you to be in my private dreams.
- Margherita: You need another ghost, like your wife?
- Helmut Wallenberg: It's my wish. But your duty.
- [grabs her, grunts]
- Margherita: You want me to lose my body? My very being?
- Helmut Wallenberg: [with contempt] Would you rather stay as you are now? With your pitiful love affair? My aims are higher.
- [haughtily:]
- Helmut Wallenberg: That's why I am a National Socialist. I have a goal. A hope. And with you, it will be complete,
- [gesturing around him at all the trappings of his success]
- Helmut Wallenberg: What does your pilot's ridiculous love-?
- Margherita: It's not love.
- Helmut Wallenberg: Here. I have a letter from him.
- [offers it, and she comes forward, but then he pulls it away]
- Helmut Wallenberg: I could destroy him.
- [she grabs the letter]
- Kitty Kellermann: You... especially you...
- [tearfully]
- Kitty Kellermann: What need have you to be humiliated by men? You're so beautiful, so gentle. Save yourself. Anything is better than this. Save yourself. Save yourself, Margherita.
- Margherita: [as Wallenberg admires himself in the mirror, full Nazi uniform] Speak to me. Say something.
- [he pushes her away]
- Helmut Wallenberg: You're my creation. I invented you. You're my accomplice.
- Margherita: Do anything you want, anything! God knows when I'll see you again.
- Helmut Wallenberg: [looks up] Very soon.
- Margherita: Wait! I want to make it last as long as possible!
- [sits up as she remembers:]
- Margherita: Your wife!
- Helmut Wallenberg: I've sent her away. Even the servant has the day off.
- Margherita: She's still your wife.
- Helmut Wallenberg: You might be powerful enough to get rid of her.
- Margherita: Kiss me. Please kiss me.
- [gasps]
- Margherita: This house is no place for illusions.
- Helmut Wallenberg: [dangered, gets up] I'm not illusions!
- [storms off into next room, goes on rampage, upsetting chandelier]
- Helmut Wallenberg: Look! My wife's grandfather was a Jew!
- Margherita: [follows him] If they find out, that could be dangerous, even for you.
- Helmut Wallenberg: Not when I have the power I deserve. The power of Himmler!
- Margherita: [kneeling in front of him] You're mad...
- Helmut Wallenberg: I have in my hands the bedroom secrets of everybody in Germany. Ribbentrop, Goebbels, Keitel, Jodl, even Himmler himself. I know the details of every single one of them. Their cocaine intake... their impotence, their perversions, their thieving, their betraying. Their rivalries... Defeatist cowards!
- Margherita: What do your superiors think about it?
- Helmut Wallenberg: They won't have time to think. The original idea wasn't mine... I admit. But I know how I can get rid of them all. At my convenience.
- Margherita: [scoffs] You have illusions about your power.
- Helmut Wallenberg: No, no, no.
- [yanks her up]
- Helmut Wallenberg: Every word is true.
- [takes her by the shoulders, shakes her]
- Helmut Wallenberg: It's true!
- [shakes her violently]
- Helmut Wallenberg: Get that through your head! I don't give a damn about National Socialism! Just as none of our leaders give a damn! It's a means to an end! Power! They have no ideas, no faith! You are the one with illusions, Margherita... you! And the millions of other Germans who believed in us. It's a way to get you all on our side.