- Le lieutenant Fontaine: Do you believe in luck?
- François Jost: I used to. It didn't work out.
- Le lieutenant Fontaine: Maybe you're the one who blew it.
- Le lieutenant Fontaine: [Narrating, after giving his word to the prison warden that he would not try to escape again] Who were we kidding? He certainly did not believe me. As for myself, I was determined to escape at the first opportunity.
- Le lieutenant Fontaine: [Narrating, as he and other prisoners go back to their cells after a short break outside] Time to empty our slop pails and run a little water over our faces, then back to our cells for the entire day. With nothing to do, no news and in terrible solitude, we were 100 unfortunates awaiting our fate. I had no illusions about my own. If I could only escape, run away...
- Blanchet: Why bother?
- Le lieutenant Fontaine: To fight. To fight the walls, to fight myself, to fight the door. You too, Mr Blanchet, should fight and hope.
- Le lieutenant Fontaine: I had to wait. I was close to my goal, and the smallest error could prove fatal.