Le quai des brumes

Le peintre:
I painted flowers, women and children. It's like I painted the crime right into them. I'd see crime in a rose.

Quart Vittel:
What could be simpler than a tree?

Le peintre:
A tree. But when I paint one, it sets everyone on edge. It's because there's someone or something hidden behind that tree. I can't help painting what's hidden behind things. To me a swimmer is already a drowned man.

Le peintre:
You have to be an idiot to go on living with such discontent, such anxiety.

Le peintre:
Some people go fishing or hunting or go to war. Others commit crimes of passion. Some commit suicide. You have to kill someone.

Quart Vittel:
That's life.

Zabel:
Funny how blood stains clothes but washes off hands so easily. Ever notice how doctors and surgeons have such clean, white hands? Even though their pretty hands wallow in blood the whole blessed day.

Jean:
T'as d'beaux yeux, tu sais.

Nelly:
Embrassez-moi.

Le peintre:
Do you love life?

Jean:
What?

Le peintre:
You love life?

Jean:
It has its moments.

Jean:
Ever see a woman in love with a soldier? She loves him when he parades in step with the music. But when he shows up alone, you should see the look on her face! I don't even know why I'm tellin' ya' this. A man and a woman can't get along. They don't talk the same. They don't use the same vocabulary.

Nelly:
Maybe so, but they can love each other.

Jean:
Oh? Have you ever loved someone?

Nelly:
Not really.

Jean:
So?