Chicago

Roxie: I always wanted to have my name in all the papers. Before I met Amos I used to date this well-to-do ugly bootlegger. He used to like to take me out and show me off. Ugly guys like to do that. Once it said in the paper, "Gangland's Al Capelli seen at Chez Vito with cute blonde chorine." That was me. I clipped it and saved it. You know, all my life I wanted to have my own act. But noooo, no, no, no, it's always no, they always turned me down. One big world full of no! And then Amos came along. Safe, sweet Amos. Who never says no. Ohh. I've never done this before, but you know, it is such a special night and you are such a great audience! And, and, I just really feel like I can talk to you, you know? So forget what you've read in the papers, and forget what you've heard on the radio because, because, because, I'm gonna tell you the truth. Not that the truth really matters, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. In the bed department, Amos was....zero. I mean, when he made love to me, it was like, it was like he was fixing a carborator or something. "I love ya, honey, I love ya!" Anyway, I started fooling around....and then I started screwing around, which is fooling around without dinner. Then I met Fred Casely, who said he could get me into the vaudeville, but that didn't quite work out like I planned. I guess it didn't really work out too great for Fred either. So I gave up with the whole vaudeville idea, 'cause you gotta figure after all these years-- opportunities just pass you by. But it ain't, oh no no no no, but it ain't. And now, if this Flynn guy gets me off, with all this publicity, I got me a world full of YES!

From Here to Eternity

Prewitt: Some of the guys are puttin' me over the jumps 'cause I don't want to fight..yeah, on the boxing team. I don't want to box. I don't even think about it...see, I used to fight, middleweight. And I was pretty good and they know it... I used to work out with this guy Dixie Wells. He's a real good friend of mine. Loved to box. People on the outside had their eye on him. He was gonna come out of the army and go right up to the top. Well, one afternoon, he and i were sparrin' around in the gym, you know, kind of friendly-like. And, he must have been set pretty flat on his feet 'cause I caught him with a, no more'n ordinaryright cross, and uh, he didn't get up. He didn't move. He was in a coma for a week, and uh, finally, he did pull out of it. Only the thing was that he was blind. Well, I went to see him at the hospital a couple of times and finally i just couldn't go back. The last time he and I started talking about fighting, and uh, he started to cry. And seein' tears comin' out of those eyes that couldn't see anything.

Guys & Dolls

Sky Masterson:On the day I left home to make my way in the world, my daddy took me to one side. 'Son,' my daddy says to me, 'I am sorry I am not able to bankroll you to a large start, but not having the necessary lettuce to get you rolling, instead I'm going to stake you to some very valuable advice. One of these days in you travels, a guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the jack of spades jump out of his brand-new deck of cards and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not accept this bet, because as sure as you stand there, you're going to wind up with an ear full of cider.'

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Paul Varjak: You know what's wrong with you, Miss whoever-you-are? You're chicken, you've got no guts. You're afraid to stick out your chin and say, "Okay, life's a fact, people do fall in love, people do belong to each other, because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness." You call yourself a free spirit, a "wild thing," and you're terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.

City Hall

Al Pacino as "Mayor John Pappas"
John:I was warned not to come here. I was warned. They warned me, "don't stand behind that coffin." But why should I heed such a warning, when a heartbeat is silent and a child lies dead? "Don't stand behind" this coffin. That boy was as pure and as innocent as the driven snow. But I musn't stand here, because i hjave not given you what you should have. Until we can walk abroad and recreate ourselves; until we can stroll along the streets like boulevards; congreaget in the parks free from fear, our families mingling, our children laughing, our hearts joined--until that day we have no city. You can label me a failure until that day. The first and perhaps only great mayor was Greek. He was Pericles of Athens, and he lived some 2,500 years ago, and he said, "All things good on this Earth flow into the City, because of the City's greatness." Well, we were great once. Can we not be great again? Now, I put that question to James Bone, and there's only silence. Yet could not something pass from this sweet youth to me? Could he not empower me to find in myself the strength to have knowledge to summon up the courage to accomplish this seemingly insurmountable task of making a city livable? Just livable. There was a palace that was a city. It was a PALACE! It was a PALACE and it CAN BE A PALACE AGAIN! A PALACE, in which there is no king or queen, or dukes or earls, or princes, but subjects all: subjects beholden to each other, to make a better place to live. Is that too much to ask? Are we asking too much for this? Is it beyond our reach? Because if it is, then we are nothing but sheep being herded to the final SLAUGHTERHOUSE! I will not go down, THAT WAY! I choose to FIGHT BACK! I choose to RISE, not fall! I choose to LIVE, not die! And I know, I know that what's within me is also WITHIN YOU. That's why I ask you now to join me. Join me, RISE UP with me, RISE UP on the wings of this slain angel. We'll rebuild on the soul of this little warrior. We will pick up his standard and RAISE it high! Carry it forward until THIS CITY--YOUR CITY--OUR CITY--HIS CITY--IS A PALACE OF GOD! IS A PALACE OF GOD! I am with you, Little James. I am you.