- Nana Carlova: [after Tsarakov has cunningly expelled her from the Ballet Russe] But, where will I go?
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: Well, I hate to advise people, my dear, but it seems to me that you have the best chance of success possibly by placing yourself somewhere where only youth and beauty are necessary.
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: I will create my own being: that boy! That boy will be my counterpart, he shall be what I should have been... I will mold him, I will pour into him my genius, my soul. In him all my dreams, all my ambitions will be fulfilled -- the greatest dancer of all time!
- Count Robert Renaud: [reading Le Vie Parisienne on the train] Haha, this one is good. Listen to this one Nana. It was their wedding night. The timid bride knelt by her bedside saying her prayers. The groom waited patiently beside her. At last, she said And now I lay me down to sleep. And the groom said, Oh yeah?
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: It's incredible. It's unbelievable... that there should be any human being living who is such a stupid ass.
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: My dear count, an artist must have his relaxation. He must be inspired by many beautiful women.
- Count Robert Renaud: Suppose he falls in love with one of those beautiful women?
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: Oh, for a man like you, there is nothing wrong with it. For an artist, it is fatal. He must have his whole soul, his whole being, in his art. Nothing else.
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: [to Count Renaud,] If you'd seen him ten years ago, you'd say it was a miracle. Just a disjointed little bag of bones... Nothing to recommend him at all, but his mad ambition to dance.
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: [Pointing to Fedor Ivanoff, on the stage] I made that magnificent specimen you see there, just as surely as God made this world.
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: [to Fedor] How many times have I told you never to place any woman too high? It always saves so much fuss when... things grow stale.
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: You know, I can think of nothing more revolting, than a human being licking envelopes.
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: [to Sergei] Ah, my poor friend. You know it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good.
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: Is it impossible for you to forget that I once took advantage of your propinquity?
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: There isn't a woman alive who wouldn't deceive and hurt the man who loved her. Nor the man she loves, for a price.
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: [inebriated] You know, I've been thinking about you a lot lately, Karimsky, and I'm going to raise your salary. From now on, you get 87.50 a month... And another thing I want to tell you. That suit... you know that suit you wear in the daytime, every day, all the time? It isn't becoming to you, Karimsky. You look like a wet string-bean in it. You get another suit, I pay for it.
- Nana Carlova: How can we forget Tsarakov?
- Fedor Ivanoff: Sometimes I almost think I could admire him... for the very power that should make me despise him. Like some ignorant savage before a hideous god. Wanting to run, but staying to worship. With his face in the mud.
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: [urging Nana to abandon her love for Fedor and run off with Count Renaud] Listen to me. I am willing to purge my soul. To sacrifice every element of decency and truth, and push them in the mud. To show the world this boy's genius. You, who love him so... What are *you* willing to do, huh?
- Fedor Ivanoff: [refusing to get ready to go on the stage for the final act] I know now. You've always tried to keep us apart. That's why she left me in Paris. You made her. You forced her to leave me. I was crazy to ever give her up. I was crazy to trust you all this time. I was weak. But I'm not weak any longer. I tell you I'm not going on. I'm through.
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: [getting very angry] Now listen to me. For fifteen years I've devoted my entire life to you. I've poured my soul, my brain, into you. I've sacrificed everything in the world. *Everything*. Do you hear? For your career. I've lied... I've cheated... I've crushed... I've even crushed myself. So that you should appear greater than I. I thought I'd given you strength enough to rise above everything. You haven't risen, you've fallen. You're not strong. You're weak. But all of me is in you still. All the strength I've poured into that weak soul. So you can't fail me now. If you fail me now, I'll kill you. I'll kill you. Now, get on your clothes for the next act. Don't you understand? It's the climax of our great career and all our work! You young fool! You can be a flame that will dazzle the world. Come on.
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: The applause is deafening. Hmm.
- Karimsky: Applause? I don't hear any. I've been having a little trouble with my ears lately, though. I took some pills for it, but they didn't work very well.
- Vladimar Ivan Tsarakov: Ah, probably you didn't put them in the right place. Use your imagination.