Tim Hazelton: [He's just returned to San Francisco after a long time away at sea] You look like someone they forgot to bury.
Frank Medlin: They didn't forget - I just wasn't there when they came around.

Ned Elliott: Unhappiness ain't so bad. It makes happiness all the keener.

Frank Medlin: [Asking the City Editor for a raise] I'm a married man with responsibilities, and all I'm asking you for is enough money to live like a human being.
City Editor: You can't come around here complaining about "hard times" when you smell like a saloon most of the time!
Frank Medlin: Ha! You're a fine one to preach! Why, you've had your nose in a whiskey bottle so long it looks like an old cork!
City Editor: I've had enough out of you, Medlin. You're fired!
Frank Medlin: [Slightly taken aback] Fired?... That's fine. I'll go get myself a decent job, now. Merry Christmas!

Frank Medlin: [He's just arrived home drunk] You know what happened to me today? A very funny thing. I was asleep in a nice, comfortable gutter. I mean, there were no rents to pay, no novels to write, no nothing... But all of a sudden I remembered that I was a man of responsibilities. Ha ha! A man of responsibilities - that's me!

Frank Medlin: [In his goodbye note] Dear Louise - Our love is dying a tawdry death - my fault - so at midnight I ship out for a new horizon. Good-bye. - Frank

Frank Medlin: You know, sometimes a man goes from wanting too much, to wanting nothing. He ought to do it gradually, or he gets all mixed up.

Louise Elliott Medlin: Frank, I can't have you running off life this.
Frank Medlin: If you really love me, come with me to San Francisco tonight. Will you?
Louise Elliott Medlin: Yes.