- Fanny: Why weren't you at the dance last night?
- Marius: Well, I can live without dancing.
- Fanny: I dance practically every dance with Victor. Very good dancer. Very polite and clever too.
- Marius: Victor? Is he that little boy with the large pimples?
- Fanny: Oh the pimples are all gone now.
- Marius: I'm glad to hear it.
- Fanny: They've been replaced by boils.
- Cesar: [strikes a match, holds it up then blows it out] You know, Marius, a woman's honor is like a match... you can only use it once.
- Escartifique: [his crewman is blowing the boat's whistle too long] Enough, idiot! You're using up all the steam!
- Cesar: [Looking at the new expedition preparing to sail out] Some scientists! None of them a day over thirty-five!
- Cesar: [Angry, after Marius has left home, having shipped out on the scientific sailing ship] Does he have to sail for a living? Does Monsieur Panisse sail? Oh, oh no. He's not so stupid! He *makes* sails! Yes... so that the wind... can take away... other people's CHILDREN!
- Marius: What's the difference if I love you or not? I can't marry...
- Fanny: Why? Do you dislike me, then? Do you hate me? Am I something ugly to you?
- Marius: Fanny... I want to go away. I have to. I'm trapped here among people who maybe love me too much. Look at this harbor, these boats. Every man who walks across one of those gangplanks is a freer man than I am. It's driven me almost crazy.
- Marius: Once when I was a little boy, the Admiral and I watched a strange ship come into the harbor. We went aboard and we met an old sailor with a beard like a snowstorm. He told us about the isles beneath the wind... where black trees grow, and when you cut them, they're gold inside. And smell of camphor, and pepper. That's when it happened, this deep, painful wish I have. Whenever I see a boat steaming out of the harbor it makes me dizzy. As though I were falling forward, always to the sea.
- The Admiral: How long do you think you will keep him? He will clean bars... wash bottles... breed children... and grow to hate the woman who tied him to this life.
- Fanny: He will never hate me.
- The Admiral: You wait and see.
- [spits and laughs, departs]
- Marius: Little by little it began. At night in my hammock I started thinking about you. I saw you standing by your shellfish stall in your little straw hat. I could smell the scent of your cheeks.
- Panisse: Dawn's breaking, Cesar. The day and my child are being born at the same time. The beautifulest morning. Cesario will arrive to the sound of bells!
- Cesar: Panisse is his father. Why, when this child came into the world, He weighed eight pounds of his mother flesh. Now he weighs 23. You know what those extra 15 pounds are? Love. Love doesn't weigh very much. It's like cigarette smoke, it takes a lot of love To make 15 pounds. I gave my share, and Fanny, too. But the big weight, the bulk, Panisse gave it.
- Fanny: If it's any comfort to you, remember that there's a woman who thinks about you every night, And would like to lie beside you and fall asleep in the warmth of your body and wake in the morning with your arms around her.
- Marius: [Staring lovingly at the sea, and a sail boat coming into the harbour] I want to be on that ship!
- Cesar: [Talking to his son Marius] You know, sometimes I say that you make my life miserable. It's not true.
- Honorine: You mean, it's not me you want? It's Fanny? Oh! Um, well, she's 40 years younger than you.
- Panisse: Well, yes, but that is not my fault. Oh, I admit, um, I am no spring chicken. But I also admit that, uh, I have 600,000 francs.
- Honorine: My poor Panisse. Nightgowns have *no* pockets. I'm speaking for your own good. Have you ever thought about what sometimes happens when an old man marries a young girl? And you would be worse off than the usual deceived husband, because Fanny will tell you.
- Panisse: But if I don't ask her, she won't have to tell me.
- Cesar: It's annoying, but things will work out. Hey, hey, hey, hey! Don't cry into the rolls. No, they're salty enough.
- Honorine: What's wrong with it?
- Woman #2 at fish market: It's too small!
- Honorine: Well, massaging it won't make it any bigger.