- Jeff: You can never help anything, can you? You're like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another.
- Joe: I often wondered what happened to him. Then one day I'm breezing through here, and there's his name up on a sign.
- Marney - Diner Owner: It's a small world.
- Joe: Yeah. Or a big sign.
- Jeff: I never saw her in the daytime. We seemed to live by night. What was left of the day went away like a pack of cigarettes you smoked. I didn't know where she lived. I never followed her. All I ever had to go on was a place and time to see her again. I don't know what we were waiting for. Maybe we thought the world would end.
- Jeff: I sell gasoline, I make a small profit. With that I buy groceries. The grocer makes a profit. We call it earning a living. You may have heard of it somewhere.
- Eels: All women are wonders, because they reduce all men to the obvious.
- Meta Carson: So do martinis.
- Marney - Diner Owner: Two things I can smell inside a hundred feet: a burnin' hamburger and a romance.
- Jim: You got a customer.
- Marney - Diner Owner: [to Joe] What'll ya have?
- Joe: [not bothering to take the cigarette out of his mouth] Coffee.
- Marney - Diner Owner: Nothing else?
- Joe: Cream.
- Whit: You're gonna take the rap and play along. You're gonna make every exact move I tell you. If you don't, I'll kill you. And I'll promise you one thing: it won't be quick. I'll break you first. You won't be able to answer a telephone or open a door without thinking, 'This is it.' And it when it comes, it still won't be quick. And it won't be pretty. You can take your choice.
- Jeff: I could go down to the cliff and look at the sea like a good tourist. But, it's no good if there isn't somebody you can turn to and say, "Nice view there." It's the same with the churches, the relics, the moonlight or a Cuba Libre.
- Meta Carson: You are an idiot.
- Jeff: So's he.
- Meta Carson: You think so?
- Jeff: Why not? He's in love with you.
- Meta Carson: I was expecting you.
- Jeff: Well... I wasn't expecting you.
- Meta Carson: Should I take that as a compliment?
- Joe: Newspaper guys. Wise guys! Who do they think they're kidding? So, he shot himself cleaning a cap pistol. So, I shot the ace of spades out of a sleeve during a gin game. A guy can't even get shot in his own apartment by a dame without the whole town starting to buzz like a, like a...
- Whit: Like you? Smoke a cigarette, Joe.
- Jeff: [voice-over] Near the Plaza was a little cafe called La Mar Azul, next to a movie house. I sat there in the afternoons and drank beer. I used to sit there half asleep with a beer in the darkness, only the music from the movie next door kept jarring me awake. And then I saw her - coming out of the sun. And I knew why Whit didn't care about that 40 grand.
- Kathie: You don't know Whit. He won't forget.
- Jeff: Everybody forgets.
- Kathie: Not Whit.
- Jeff: So we'll send him a postcard every Christmas.
- Kathie: Jeff, I'm glad you're not afraid of him.
- Jeff: I've been afraid of half the things I ever did.
- Kathie: And this time?
- Jeff: I'm only afraid you might not go.
- Kathie: Don't be. I'll be there tomorrow.
- Jeff: I like surprises. When I was a kid, we were so busted that if we got anything at all for Christmas it was a big surprise.
- Jeff: If you'll drop this Junior League patter we may get the conversation down where it belongs.
- Meta Carson: You worried about something?
- Jeff: I don't know. Should I be?
- Meta Carson: Not if you do what you're told.
- Jeff: That's why I'm here. I do what I'm told. People trust me. Whit even trusts me twice. Do you?
- Meta Carson: Just as far as I have to.
- Jeff: [voice-over] I went to Pablo's that night. I knew I'd go every night until she showed up and I knew she knew it.