- Paul Peplow: Poets are stubborn fuckers. I mean, you have to be. There's no danger of dying of encouragement.
- Victor Quinn: I must have drawn the wrong conclusion. Everyone dies after their last meal. That doesn't mean to say they were poisoned.
- Victor Quinn: [of Mozart] All that life-affirming can seem awfully jangly when it hits you at the wrong angle.
- Victor Quinn: People say to me, "You're so lucky. You had faith." But Stalin had faith. Hitler had faith. Would it be wonderful to believe in the virgin birth? I don't think so. Or that trees speak to you? Wouldn't that just mean you were mad? Faith's not valuable, not in itself. It's what you have faith in that matters.