Casablanca Quotes (1942)
[denying an official of the German National Bank entrance to the casino]
Rick: Your cash is good at the bar.
Banker: What? Do you know who I am?
Rick: I do. You’re lucky the bar’s open to you.
Ugarte: Heh, you know, watching you just now with the Deutsche Bank, one would think you’ve been doing this all your life.
Rick: Oh, what makes you think I haven’t?
Ugarte: Oh, n-n-n-nothing, but when you first came to Casablanca, I thought…
Rick: You thought what?
Ugarte: Hm, what right do I have to think, huh?
Berger: We read five times that you were killed, in five different places.
Victor Laszlo: As you can see, it was true every single time.
Captain Renault: In 1935, you ran guns to Ethiopia. In 1936, you fought in Spain, on the Loyalist side.
Rick: I got well paid for it on both occasions.
Captain Renault: The winning side would have paid you much better.
Annina: Monsieur Rick, what kind of a man is Captain Renault?
Rick: Oh, he’s just like any other man, only more so.
Ilsa: I wasn’t sure you were the same. Let’s see, the last time we met…
Rick: Was La Belle Aurore.
Ilsa: How nice, you remembered. But of course, that was the day the Germans marched into Paris.
Rick: Not an easy day to forget.
Ilsa: No.
Rick: I remember every detail. The Germans wore gray, you wore blue.
Ilsa: Rick, I have to talk to you.
Rick: [Rick is drunk] Uh-huh. I saved my first drink to have with you. Here.
[passes her a drink]
Ilsa: No. No, Rick, not tonight.
Rick: *Especially* tonight.
Ilsa: Please…
[he pours a drink]
Rick: Why did you have to come to Casablanca? There are other places.
Ilsa: I wouldn’t have come if I’d known that you were here. Believe me Rick, it’s true I didn’t know…
Rick: It’s funny about your voice, how it hasn’t changed. I can still hear it. “Richard, dear, I’ll go with you anyplace. We’ll get on a train together and never stop – ”
Ilsa: Don’t, Rick! I can understand how you feel.
Rick: [scoffs] You understand how I feel. How long was it we had, honey?
Ilsa: [on the verge of tears] I didn’t count the days.
Rick: Well, I did. Every one of ‘em. Mostly I remember the last one. The wild finish. A guy standing on a station platform in the rain with a comical look in his face because his insides have been kicked out.
Ilsa: Can I tell you a story, Rick?
Rick: Has it got a wild finish?
Ilsa: I don’t know the finish yet.
Rick: Well, go on. Tell it – maybe one will come to you as you go along.
Ilsa: It’s about a girl who had just come to Paris from her home in Oslo. At the house of some friends, she met a man about whom she’d heard her whole life. A very great and courageous man. He opened up for her a whole beautiful world full of knowledge and thoughts and ideals. Everything she knew or ever became was because of him. And she looked up to him and worshiped him… with a feeling she supposed was love.
Rick: [bitterly] Yes, it’s very pretty. I heard a story once – as a matter of fact, I’ve heard a lot of stories in my time. They went along with the sound of a tinny piano playing in the parlor downstairs. “Mister, I met a man once when I was a kid,” it always began.
[laughs]
Rick: Well, I guess neither one of our stories is very funny. Tell me, who was it you left me for? Was it Lazlo, or were there others in between or… aren’t you the kind that tells?
[Ilsa tearfully and silently leaves. Rick's face falls in his hands sadly, knowing that he's said all the wrong things]
Senor Ferrari: As the leader of all illegal activities in Casablanca, I am an influential and respected man.
[about Rick]
Major Strasser: You give him credit for too much cleverness. My impression was that he’s just another blundering American.
Captain Renault: We musn’t underestimate American blundering. I was with them when they blundered into Berlin in 1918.
Major Strasser: Are you one of those people who cannot imagine the Germans in their beloved Paris?
Rick: It’s not particularly my beloved Paris.
Heinz: Can you imagine us in London?
Rick: When you get there, ask me!
Captain Renault: Hmmh! Diplomatist!
Major Strasser: How about New York?
Rick: Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.
[Ugarte sells exit visas]
Ugarte: You despise me, don’t you?
Rick: If I gave you any thought I probably would.
Ugarte: Rick, think of all the poor devils who can’t meet Renault’s price. I get it for them for half. Is that so… parasitic?
Rick: I don’t mind a parasite. I object to a cut-rate one.
[Annina is contemplating Renault's offer of exit visas for sex]
Annina: Oh, monsieur, you are a man. If someone loved you very much, so that your happiness was the only thing that she wanted in the world, but she did a bad thing to make certain of it, could you forgive her?
Rick: Nobody ever loved me that much.
Annina: And he never knew, and the girl kept this bad thing locked in her heart? That would be all right, wouldn’t it?
Rick: You want my advice?
Annina: Oh, yes, please.
Rick: Go back to Bulgaria.
Captain Renault: Hello Rick.
Rick: Hello Louis.
Captain Renault: How extravagant you are, throwing away women like that. Someday they may be scarce. You know, now I think I shall pay a call on Yvonne. Maybe get her on the rebound. Hmm?
Rick: When it comes to women, you’re a true democrat.
Rick: I stick my neck out for nobody.
Victor Laszlo: I know a good deal more about you than you suspect. I know, for instance, that you’re in love with a woman. It is perhaps a strange circumstance that we both should be in love with the same woman. The first evening I came to this café, I knew there was something between you and Ilsa. Since no one is to blame, I – I demand no explanation. I ask only one thing. You won’t give me the letters of transit: all right, but I want my wife to be safe. I ask you as a favor, to use the letters to take her away from Casablanca.
Rick: You love her that much?
Victor Laszlo: Apparently you think of me only as the leader of a cause. Well, I’m also a human being. Yes, I love her that much.
Rick: I’m sorry for asking. I forgot we said no questions.
Ilsa: Well, only one answer can take care of all our questions.
[She approaches his lips for a kiss]
Captain Renault: Ricky, I’m going to miss you. Apparently you’re the only one in Casablanca with less scruples than I.
Captain Renault: My dear Ricky, you overestimate the influence of the Gestapo. I don’t interfere with them and they don’t interfere with me. In Casablanca I am master of my fate! I am…
Police Officer: Major Strasser is here, sir!
Rick: You were saying?
Captain Renault: Excuse me.
Rick: You know what I want to hear.
Sam: [lying] No, I don’t.
Rick: You played it for her, you can play it for me!
Sam: [lying] Well, I don’t think I can remember…
Rick: If she can stand it, I can! Play it!
Rick: Who are you really, and what were you before? What did you do and what did you think, huh?
Ilsa: We said no questions.
Rick: …Here’s looking at you, kid.
Rick: [looking over his own dossier which has been shown to him by Major Strasser] Are my eyes really brown?
Captain Renault: [after Rick pulls a gun on him] Have you lost your mind?
Rick: I have. Sit down!
Captain Renault: Put that gun down!
Rick: I don’t want to shoot you, but I will if you take one more step!
Captain Renault: [With amusement] Under the circumstances I will sit down.
[after observing the gambling tables at Rick's]
Customer: Are you sure this place is honest?
Carl: Honest? As honest as the day is long!
Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!
Ilsa: I love you so much. I hate war so much.
Ilsa: Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time.
Captain Renault: Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects.
Rick: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I’ve done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you’re getting on that plane with Victor where you belong.
Ilsa: But, Richard, no, I… I…
Rick: Now, you’ve got to listen to me! You have any idea what you’d have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we’d both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn’t that true, Louie?
Captain Renault: I’m afraid Major Strasser would insist.
Ilsa: You’re saying this only to make me go.
Rick: I’m saying it because it’s true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You’re part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
Ilsa: But what about us?
Rick: We’ll always have Paris. We didn’t have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you.
Rick: And you never will. But I’ve got a job to do, too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of. Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that. Now, now… Here’s looking at you kid.
Captain Renault: Oh no, Emil, please. A bottle of your best champagne, and put it on my bill.
Emil: Very well, sir.
Victor Laszlo: Captain, please…
Captain Renault: Oh, please, monsieur. It is a little game we play. They put it on the bill, I tear up the bill. It is very convenient.
Ilsa: Who is Rick?
Captain Renault: Mamoiselle, you are in Rick’s! And Rick is…
Ilsa: Who is he?
Captain Renault: Well, Rick is the kind of man that… well, if I were a woman, and I were not around, I should be in love with Rick. But what a fool I am talking to a beautiful woman about another man.
Ilsa: Thank you for the coffee, monsieur. I shall miss that when I leave Casablanca.
Senor Ferrari: It was gracious of you to share it with me.
Captain Renault: [seeing a uniformed French officer talking heatedly to an Italian officer] If he ever gets a word in, it’ll be a major Italian victory.
Rick: I don’t like disturbances in my place.
[to the German officer]
Rick: Either lay off politics, or get out.
Captain Renault: I was informed you were the most beautiful woman ever to visit Casablanca. That was a gross understatement.
Captain Renault: I’ve often speculated why you don’t return to America. Did you abscond with the church funds? Run off with a senator’s wife? I like to think you killed a man. It’s the Romantic in me.
Rick: It was a combination of all three.
Ugarte: Too bad about those two German couriers, wasn’t it?
Rick: They got a lucky break. Yesterday they were just two German clerks. Today they’re the “Honored Dead”.
Ugarte: You are a very cynical person, Rick, if you’ll forgive me for saying so.
Rick: [shortly] I forgive you.
Yvonne: [Yvonne is drunk] Give me another.
Rick: Sascha, she’s had enough.
Yvonne: Don’t listen to him, Sascha. Fill it up!
Sascha: Yvonne, I loff you, but he pays me.
Rick: If it’s December 1941 in Casablanca, what time is it in New York?
Sam: What? My watch stopped.
Rick: I’d bet they’re asleep in New York. I’d bet they’re asleep all over America.
Captain Renault: [to Rick regarding Ilsa] She was asking about you earlier in a way that made me very jealous…
[Rick has just allowed Jan and Annina Brandel to win at roulette in order to get money for their exit visas]
Sascha: [kissing Rick on both cheeks] You have done a beautiful thing!
Rick: Get outta here, you crazy Russian!
Mr. Leuchtag: Come sit down. Have a brandy with us.
Mrs. Leuchtag: To celebrate our leaving for America tomorrow.
Carl: Oh, thank you very much. I thought you would ask me, so I brought the good brandy. And – a third glass!
Mrs. Leuchtag: At last the day is came!
Mr. Leuchtag: Mareichtag and I are speaking nothing but English now.
Mrs. Leuchtag: So we should feel at home when we get to America.
Carl: Very nice idea, mm-hmm.
Mr. Leuchtag: [toasting] To America!
Mrs. Leuchtag: To America!
Carl: To America!
Mr. Leuchtag: Liebchen – sweetnessheart, what watch?
Mrs. Leuchtag: Ten watch.
Mr. Leuchtag: Such much?
Carl: Hm. You will get along beautiful in America, mm-hmm.
Woman: What makes saloonkeepers so snobbish?
Banker: Perhaps if you told him I ran the second largest banking house in Amsterdam.
Carl: Second largest? That wouldn’t impress Rick. The leading banker in Amsterdam is now the pastry chef in our kitchen.
Banker: We have something to look forward to.
Ugarte: You know, Rick, I have many a friend in Casablanca, but somehow, just because you despise me, you are the only one I trust.
Captain Renault: Carl, see that Major Strasser gets a good table, one close to the ladies.
Carl: I have already given him the best, knowing he is German and would take it anyway.
Captain Renault: Rick, there are many exit visas sold in this café, but we know that you’ve never sold one. That is the reason we permit you to remain open.
Rick: Oh? I thought it was because I let you win at roulette.
Captain Renault: That is another reason.
Ilsa: Play it once, Sam. For old times’ sake.
Sam: [lying] I don’t know what you mean, Miss Ilsa.
Ilsa: Play it, Sam. Play “As Time Goes By.”
Sam: [lying] Oh, I can’t remember it, Miss Ilsa. I’m a little rusty on it.
Ilsa: I’ll hum it for you. Da-dy-da-dy-da-dum, da-dy-da-dee-da-dum…
[Sam begins playing]
Ilsa: Sing it, Sam.
Sam: [singing] You must remember this / A kiss is still a kiss / A sigh is just a sigh / The fundamental things apply / As time goes by. / And when two lovers woo, / They still say, “I love you” / On that you can rely / No matter what the future brings-…
Rick: [rushing up] Sam, I thought I told you never to play-…
[Sees Ilsa. Sam closes the piano and rolls it away]
Rick: Tell me, who was it you left me for? Was it Laszlo, or were there others in between? Or – aren’t you the kind that tells?
Captain Renault: [to Ilsa] I was informed that you were the most beautiful woman ever to visit Casablanca. That was a gross understatement.
Ilsa: [genuinely pleased] You’re very kind.
Rick: Don’t you sometimes wonder if it’s worth all this? I mean what you’re fighting for.
Victor Laszlo: You might as well question why we breathe. If we stop breathing, we’ll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die.
Rick: Well, what of it? It’ll be out of its misery.
Victor Laszlo: You know how you sound, Mr. Blaine? Like a man who’s trying to convince himself of something he doesn’t believe in his heart.
Ilsa: A franc for your thoughts.
Rick: In America they’d bring only a penny, and, huh, I guess that’s about all they’re worth.
Ilsa: Well, I’m willing to be overcharged. Tell me.
Rick: Well, I was wondering…
Ilsa: Yes?
Rick: Why I’m so lucky. Why I should find you waiting for me to come along.
Ilsa: Why there is no other man in my life?
Rick: Uh-huh.
Ilsa: That’s easy: there was. And he’s dead.
Email This Post
The correct last part of the Leichtag quotes is:
Mr. Leuchtag: Such watch?
Carl: Hm. You will get along beautifully in America, mm-hmm.
The funniest part of the conversation with the Leuchtags is that it is frequently used word for word in beginning courses in German. It turns around the fact that “uhr” in German means both “watch”, and is what German’s use when we English speakers would say “O’Clock”. English: “10 O’Clock”, and German “10 Uhr”. or… “Is that your watch?” versus “Ist das sein uhr?”