Smart Talks

[first lines]
Jerry Mulligan: This is Paris, and I'm an American who lives here. My name is Jerry Mulligan, and I'm an ex G.I. In 1945 when the army told me to find my own job, I stayed on. And I'll tell you why: I'm a painter, and all my life that's all I've ever wanted to do.

Adam Cook: I'm a concert pianist. That's a pretentious way of saying I'm... unemployed at the moment.

Adam Cook: It's not a pretty face, I grant you, but underneath its flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Henri Baurel: You only find the right one once.
Adam Cook: That many times?

Lise Bouvier: Maybe Paris has a way of making people forget.
Jerry Mulligan: Paris? No. Not this city. It's too real and too beautiful to ever let you forget anything.

Jerry Mulligan: What gets me is, I don't know anything about her. We manage to be together for a few moments and then off she goes. Sometimes we have a wonderful time together and other times it's no fun at all. But I got to be with her.

Jerry Mulligan: Well, uh, with a binding like you've got, people are going to want to know what's in the book.

Jerry Mulligan: Hey, uh, how'd you come by all these worldly possessions? A rich husband or a rich father?
Milo Roberts: Father.

Jerry Mulligan: Civilization has a natural resistance to improving itself.

Jerry Mulligan: I came to Paris to paint, like Utrillo did, and Rouault did, and Lautrec did. I loved what they've created and I thought that, maybe, something could happen to me too. Well, it happened all right, but Paris is not enough for me anymore, because the more beautiful it is, the more it will hurt without you.