- Harry Patterson: Are you washing again?
- Mudgin: Oh, hello, Harry. Kinda covets a man to scoop up some sea water that's full of the sins of the world, and put soap in it.
- Harry Patterson: You got sin on the brain.
- Mudgin: Well, it's be hard to explain to you, Harry, but a man sure feels dirty after he's been in port and done the things I done.
- Harry Patterson: Why didn't you keep that kid on the farm?
- Old Ramon Estado: The sea is a good school also, is it not?
- Harry Patterson: Oh, yes, swell, grandpa. We turn out some awful smart seagulls and sharks.
- Redhead in Frisco Bar: [after kissing Harry and getting no reaction] What's the matter with handsome tonight?
- Gus: I don't know. He don't like blondes and he don't like brunettes.
- Redhead in Frisco Bar: [to Harry] Well, why don't you settle for me then, big boy?
- Harry Patterson: You're a nice redhead. But, I'm lookin' for a dame with green hair and purple eyes.
- Harry Patterson: Where's Lucille? Don't she work here anymore?
- Clerk: No. She had tough luck. She fell down the stairs the other night and broke her leg. I got her address here some place. Do you want it?
- Harry Patterson: Not with a broken leg, I don't!
- Mudgin: Look it, Harry. "Reading maketh a full man," it says.
- Harry Patterson: Full of what? Full of sap from the tree of knowledge. And what grows on trees? Dried prunes. And what do you get from sap and prunes?
- Emily Sears: Are you having a good time?
- Harry Patterson: Rotten.
- Emily Sears: This is no fun.
- Harry Patterson: No, it isn't. Kidding you gets me nothin', sister.
- Emily Sears: What do you want?
- Harry Patterson: Yeah, what do I want. That's it.
- Emily Sears: What's it?
- Harry Patterson: Just - it.
- Emily Sears: Can I go now?
- Harry Patterson: Sure. You can go.
- Harry Patterson: That's what I'm lookin' for. It's it, ain't it?
- Emily Sears: It's it, ain't it. Some word, "it." In the dictionary it breaks all records for usage. A personal pronoun of the third person. A neuter gender. Used as a substitute for a noun. Or, representing something possessing sex when sex is not particularized or considered. Or, to refer to some matter not definitely conceived. Or, as the grammatical subject of a clause, such as, "It is believed he is dead." "He is dead is he is generally believed" - you can't smoke in here!
- Harry Patterson: [sees Helen walking into the library] Oh, boy, how you don't fit in here!
- Helen Melohn: [to Emily] A friend of yours?
- Emily Sears: No!
- Helen Melohn: Why don't I fit in here?
- Harry Patterson: In this graveyard? Why, you're a lark. There's a song in your eyes and they're lit with livin'.
- Helen Melohn: Mister!
- Harry Patterson: Everybody dyin' on the vine and - wham-bo - in comes the grapes!
- Emily Sears: Shh!
- Harry Patterson: Shh! Shh!
- Harry Patterson: Are you gonna help her?
- Helen Melohn: Yes.
- Harry Patterson: Do you want me to help you so you can help her?
- Harry Patterson: Did you girls ever take a bath?
- Helen Melohn: Huh?
- Harry Patterson: I mean, did you ever notice how the water runs out of the bathtub? How the water goes down the drain?
- Helen Melohn: No, I never did. I get right out of the bathtub. I don't like feeling wet.
- Harry Patterson: I thought maybe you might have sat there thinkin' once!
- Helen Melohn: Oh, no. I can't dry myself fast enough. But, Emily sits there. Till the water's all gone.
- Harry Patterson: Oh!
- [gives Emily the once over]
- Harry Patterson: Is that so?
- Harry Patterson: Hi ya, boys. How ya doin'? I got a spare tomato for ya boys. This is Emily. Shake hands with Emily.
- Emily Sears: Hi ya, Gus! Hello! How are ya, good lookin'? Great little kidder, isn't he. I'm all warmed up and ready to take off. Any of you guys wanna buzz field?
- Gus, Limo, Model T: Sure!
- Emily Sears: Big boys go first. Open up the throttle, big boy. I fly on high octane!
- [dances with Gus]
- Emily Sears: If any of you want to share the ride, just cut in.
- Harry Patterson: You know what I oughta do? I oughta go up there and take that dame apart. She's the freshest dame I've ever met!
- Helen Melohn: Oh! Who's gonna take a bath?
- Harry Patterson: Nah, no. No bath, honey. A scientific experiment. Come here. Bend over.
- Harry Patterson: Let me have a look at the back of your neck.
- Helen Melohn: Is this a booby trap or something?
- Harry Patterson: A good crack on the jaw, 'd do you good.
- Emily Sears: If that would do it, I'd love it! I'd love to look up to a man; but, I don't think you hit hard enough!
- Emily Sears: I'd rather he'd hit me, than listen to him. Words come out of his mouth, you think you're gonna hear something and you get hit with feathers!
- Harry Patterson: The sea sounds like it. She does the talking, you do the listening. She sings out there. She's full of bands. And if I picked on you to talk to, it's because of the ocean in your eyes, that done it. I never saw it in no eyes before. And I'll call it a day too.
- Emily Sears: I'm high - and I haven't had a drop to drink. Are you high?
- Harry Patterson: Yeah. I'm blowin' about a force 9 gale.
- Emily Sears: Oh, you're not a gale, you're a tornado!
- Harry Patterson: Well, you're not exactly a low pressure area yourself.
- Harry Patterson: We're runnin' out of gas!
- Emily Sears: Oh, we've been running on gas, pal?
- Harry Patterson: Yeah and we're slowed down to 60.
- Emily Sears: Well, now that we've slowed down, couldn't you drive with one hand?
- Harry Patterson: Sure!
- Emily Sears: Thanks, sailor.
- Emily Sears: When I feel poetic, I feel poetic. Did you ever hear of Elizabeth Barrett Browning?
- Harry Patterson: Sure! Songs From the Portuguese.
- Emily Sears: Why, Harry!
- Harry Patterson: I heard it on a quiz program.
- Helen Melohn: Oh, Harry!
- [kiss]
- Helen Melohn: Oh, I love you for her loving ya. I'm in love with both of you. I'm in love with both of you! I don't know if I've ever loved anybody as much as I love the two of you.
- Helen Melohn: It's none of my business, but, you know, sailors are kinda crazy and I'd nip that bird right in the bud and tell him what's what! All that talk I gave him about the prize he won, he knows it, does he. Yes, he does. Him, if he was mine I'd stick an anchor on him before 10 o'clock this morning!
- Emily Sears: [to Mudgin] You can start here. There's some excellent studies. There's one by a surgeon in the British Navy and this one by an American colonel, "Facts on Combat Fatigue."
- Harry Patterson: Combat Fatigue? Sounds good.
- Emily Sears: Yes, the strain of war, you know, sometimes causes psychoneurosis.
- Harry Patterson: Psychoneurosis? That sounds pretty good too!
- Emily Sears: I don't want to settle down. Not a niggles worth.
- Harry Patterson: Oh, you agree with me that marriage is a bunk, huh? There ain't nothin' between a man and a tomata - a woman.
- Emily Sears: I'm no more like Helen, no more like her than, than, the girl on your arm.
- [referring to Harry's tattoo]
- Harry Patterson: Hey, you ain't jealous of her, are you?
- Emily Sears: No dear!
- Harry Patterson: Could be a little, pal. Especially a girl a guy carries around with him. I wouldn't like a guy painted on you starring at me, neither.
- Emily Sears: Wouldn't you, Harry?
- Harry Patterson: No, I wouldn't. Hey, how about this - suppose I stick you on the other arm?
- Emily Sears: Ha-ha-ha! No, thank you, darling.
- Helen Melohn: Em, are you packin' to go away with him these last few days?
- Emily Sears: Nope! We parted. Gay as two larks! Now, if you're sorry for me, you'll be sorry.
- Mudgin: You never left her, she left you, God bless her. But, you're never gonna be rid of her, not Miss Emily, with her laughter and her sweet craziness! She'll tear your heart out! You stumbled onto a queen. And queen's get into men's blood. And dirty tramps from the sea can't take it!
- Mudgin: Miss Emily, Harry, I saw her. I saw her from the lookout. She was standin' right here, by the number one lifeboat. She didn't look scared or sorrowful or nothin'. Brave and beautiful, she was! Gay-like, she smiled and thrown her shoes in the ocean.
- Harry Patterson: I'm spittin' cotton. Hey, Nick, champagne! I want to get the bad taste of this mud scow outta my mouth.
- Harry Patterson: No children! No gardens! The only flower that grows in a garden is familiarity and they say it breeds contempt!
- Old Ramon Estado: It is mad, no doubt, but peaceful. And it should be a little violent to be peaceful. Oh, my wife and I live familiarly as two old shoes; yet, we live in conflict. We live to make each other laugh and the children are our audience. We are greater strangers than the day we met. And that's, my friend, familiarity breeds beauty.
- Harry Patterson: You fall in love with a dame and she wants to plant trees in your heart - to shade a potato patch that she'll water with your blood.
- Emily Sears: I've been wondering what it'd be like to see you again.
- Harry Patterson: How is it?
- Emily Sears: Oh, it's - just - gay!
- Harry Patterson: What's that mean?
- Emily Sears: It doesn't hurt. And not to be hurt, hurts more.