- Tim Washington, the Doorman: Most all them folks is starving for something, and it ain't food. They comes in here and eats and dances and hugs themselves up to a woman,and for a while they think they're happy. Then they comes out, and the world is just as cold and empty as it was before. That's real starvin', Mr. Ryan.
- Officer Ryan: Why, Tim, you're a philospher.
- Tim Washington, the Doorman: Am I? You don't say so. That ain't what my wife Mary says. She says I'm just a fool-talkin' old colored man.
- Michael Rand: It seems to me that a mother has to earn her child's love and respect after their birth; not because of it.
- Michael Rand: Have a little drink?
- Ruth Taylor: No thanks. I'm trying to live long enough to see good liquor come back.
- Michael Rand: It seems to me that a mother has to earn her child's love and respect after their birth, not just because of it.
- Mrs. Rand: You're right. I never loved you. I never even wanted you. You're exactly like your father, and I hated him. I only married him for his money and position. From the very beginning I couldn't bear to have him touch me.