- Johnny Barrett: [interior monologue] Right about now is when he's supposed to ask me if I hear voices...
- Dr. L.G. Cristo: Do you hear voices, John?
- Cathy: [Appearing in John's dream] All of the men want me, Johnny. But I want you. And you - you want the Pulitzer Prize.
- Pagliacci: [Feeding John numerous pieces of gum] Come on, John. Chew, chew, chew!... See, if you chew, your jaw muscles, they get tired, see? And then the other muscles, they get the message, and they get tired too, see? And before you know it, you're sleeping. And, when we're asleep, nobody can tell a sane man from an insane man, huh?
- Pagliacci: [Chuckles] Good night, Mr. Barret.
- Johnny Barrett: Good night, Mr. Pagliacci.
- Dr. L.G. Cristo: [to Cathy] John is a catatonic schizophrenic.
- [Pausing, shaking his head]
- Dr. L.G. Cristo: What a tragedy. An insane mute will win the Pulitzer Prize.
- Dr. L.G. Cristo: A man can't tamper with a mind by living in a mental hospital and go through all kinds of tests and expects to come out of it sane.
- Pagliacci: I didn't want my wife to die like Sloan. So I gently sang her to death... Good night, Mr. Barret.
- Dr. J.L. Menkin: Did you ever want your mother?
- Johnny Barrett: [Becoming outraged] What? What did you say? That's a filthy thing to say to me!
- Dr. J.L. Menkin: Please. We're here to help.
- Dr. L.G. Cristo: [to Cathy, in reference to her work as a stripper] Was he ever jealous of the way you revealed your body to other men?
- Wilkes: Don't mind Lloyd. He doesn't mean anything by that chip on his shoulder. It's just his way of fighting everybody because he can't cure the patients.
- Johnny Barrett: Am I the only loony in this ward?
- Wilkes: No, Mr. Barret, your roommates are in the "street." Oh, if you don't mind, we never use words here like "nuts, bugs, screwy, goofy, loony"... We'd like it very much if you didn't use them, either.
- Johnny Barrett: [Sarcastically] I'm sorry - - I'm a "greenhorn inmate."
- Wilkes: [Calmly] You're a patient, not an inmate.
- Cathy: Do you think I like singing in that sewer with a hot light on my navel? I'm doing it because it pays more than shorthand or clerking or typing.
- Cathy: Johnny, you've gotta' be crazy to want to be committed to an insane asylum to solve a murder.
- Cathy: You're on a hopped up, lunatic stage. Get off it! Don't be Moses leading your lunatics to the Pulitzer Prize.
- Johnny Barrett: [Ignoring her completely] Would you care for a cigarette?
- Cathy: You make me sick! Sick at the thought of you playing games with your mind and riding that crazy horse.
- Johnny Barrett: [Screaming, to Dr. Cristo] Doctor, I'm not nuts! I'm here for the paper! I'm a PLANT!
- Dr. L.G. Cristo: [Totally unconcerned] Now, forget all about Sloan, huh? Why don't you keep Pagliacci company? Have him sing "La Boheme" for ya'.
- Johnny Barrett: [Quietly and submissively] Yes, sir.
- Dr. L.G. Cristo: [to John] You're suffering from a form of Dementia Praecox, incident to the age of puberty, characterized by childish behavior, hallucinations, and emotional deterioration.
- Cathy: Mark Twain didn't psychoanalyze Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer. Dickens didn't put Oliver Twist on the couch because he was hungry. Good copy comes out of people, Johnny, not out of a lot explainatory medical terms!
- Lloyd: Trent!
- Trent: Yes, sir.
- Lloyd: A pillow case is missing.
- Trent: I don't have it, sir.
- Lloyd: It's from your bed.
- Trent: I don't have it, sir.
- Lloyd: You want to go back into the hall?
- Trent: I don't have it, sir!
- Wilkes: [Trying to end the argument] Let him keep it.
- Lloyd: Keep out of this, Wilkes!
- Wilkes: Dr. Cristo said not to get him excited.
- Lloyd: You know what that pillow case means.
- Wilkes: [Puts a hand on Trent's shoulder to comfort him] It's all right, Trent. We know you don't have it.
- Trent: Thank you, sir.