- Title Card: Not all the casualties of war are in the hospital cots. There are wounds of the spirit as lasting as those of the flesh, but less pitied, and little understood. Few know the dark fears brought back from the battlefront.
- Jim: Oh, God! Don't let the fire get me! Don't let the fire get me! Oh, God! Don't let the fire get me! Don't let the fire get me!
- Josie: Don't be so formal, Mac! Just call me Josie. You see, there was three of us, all named Josie, except Clara and her name was Irene.
- MacDougal's Patron: Don't take no backtalk, lady.
- Josie: Advice, is it? That's true charity! Given away what cha need most!
- Josie: I don't need no assistance, thanks! My father was a bouncer in the tenth ward. My mother was a lion tamer with Ringling's. I was raised on raw meat and red pepper. Boo!
- McEwen: If I had my way, I'd make it a flogging offense for a native to so much as lift his eyes in the presence of a white woman.
- Burke's Friend: I say, rather a swine that fellow McEwen.
- Burke: God made him.
- Burke's Friend: What I don't understand is why these black fellows in here, don't take offense of what he's saying?
- Burke: They're not black fellows. That chap that just went out, Kalita, he's a black boy. Those others in there are all half-caste. You see, they're allowed in the bar, but they have to drink by themselves.
- Burke's Friend: That bounder lays on his white supremacy a bit thick. I say, is it because he's touched with the tar brush himself?
- Burke: You've guessed his dark secret. But, as long as he owns the whole of Benga island and holds paper on half the planters here, no one is likely to mention his - mother.
- Burke's Friend: Quite, so.
- Burke: Quite.
- McEwen: Well, how's the little girl?
- Josie: Just as you see me, boyfriend, unspoiled by the world's applause.
- McEwen: Got you a nice little room, eh?
- Josie: Yeah, with a nice little key on the inside of the door.
- McEwen: A pretty kid like you can't afford to be snippy.
- Josie: Oh, can't afford to be anything else.
- Jim: It isn't done amongst gentlemen, is it? Not when ladies are present.
- McEwen: So, you set yourself up to be a gentleman, do you? And by lady, I suppose you mean that little Tabby over there?
- Jim: Pardon me, I hope I misunderstood the words you used in regards to that girl?
- McEwen: No, you didn't, Johnny. T-A-B-B-Y, Tabby! The girl that's trying to make you!
- Jim: Of course you don't know a white lady when you see one, do you? That's the disadvantage of being - a half-caste!
- Jim: Do you know what liquid fire is?
- Josie: Yeah, the Dutchmen used to shoot outta guns.
- Jim: No. Out of pipes, hitched up to tanks they carried on their shoulders. Like water pipes. And the fire came hissing, curling, like water. Twenty, fifty feet. On whatever it touched, it burned. Flesh. On bone. On brains!
- Josie: Geez!
- Jim: I saw them burn. The boys beside me. Just boys, most of them. Crying like children. Calling on God to end them. Wrapped in fire!
- Josie: Oh, don't. Don't!
- Jim: We cried, "God and the Right!" Only, God wasn't with us that time.
- McEwen: I'm glad you're not a coward, Whiskey Johnny. Because, you'll need your courage before I'm through with you. Inch by inch, drop by drop, I'll drain it outta you.
- Josie: This heredity racket is the world's greatest alibi - for geezers who have misplaced their backbone.
- Josie: You don't have to give your name away. I can see you're class, all right.
- Jim: You take a lot for granted, Josie.
- Josie: You can't fool a horse fly. Any beachcomber that's fuzzy about his fingernails and spends his last dime on a safety razor blade, can't talk me into thinkin' his family all lived in one room and took in boarders.
- Josie: Go on, a big timer like you, there must have been some fem? But, you don't have to tell me.
- Jim: I'd like to tell you, Josie. I was going to marry a girl.
- Josie: A really lady?
- Jim: A cousin of mine. Frightfully good looking. She swore she'd help me fight that fear. The fire fear. You understand.
- Josie: Listen, Bozo, you're still kinda shaky. And, no wonder, cuttin' out the hooch like you have. You don't want to go exaggeratin' what I done and gettin' all Jolson about it.
- Jim: I'm a rotter to make love to you, I know. But, Jo, you've been so dear and wonderful. I tell myself I mustn't; but, I just can't help loving you.
- Josie: Now, don't go mixin' up love and gratitude. 'Cause they ain't no more alike than champagne and Ovaltine!