- Frank Rice: Cheer up love, life isn't as bad as all that, and even if it is, there's nothing we can do about it.
- Archie Rice: Jeannie, love. Shall I tell you something? All my life I've been searching for something. A draught Bass you could drink all night without running off every ten minutes, without feeling sick, and all for fourpence. The man who could offer me that would really get my vote.
- Billy Rice: You were a pretty little thing. Not that looks are important - not even for a woman. You don't look at the mantelpiece when you poke the fire.
- Archie Rice: Anyway, you can't get draught Bass in Canada... I went to Canada during the war. Couldn't get draught Bass, not even in Toronto.
- Archie Rice: Did I ever tell you the most moving thing I ever heard?
- Jean Rice: OH, dad...
- Archie Rice: No, no, it's not a gag. It was when I was in Canada. I used to slip over the border sometimes. One night I heard some Negress singing in a bar. If ever I saw any hope or strength in the human race, it was in the face of that old fat Negress getting up to sing about... Jesus, or something like that. I never even liked that kind of music, but to see that old bag singing her heart out to the whole world... And you knew somehow that it didn't matter how much you kicked people, how much you despised them. If they can get up and make a pure, natural noise like that, there's nothing wrong with them. If I'd done one thing as good as that in my whole life, I'd have been all right. I wish to God I was that old bag. I'd stand up and shake my great bosom up and down and lift up my head and make the most beautiful fuss in the world. Dear God, I would. But I'll never do it.