Rhapsody in Blue

George Gershwin:
It's only with my music that I can prove my right to live. I must write!

Oscar Levant:
I've got a date with my insomnia.

George Gershwin:
I don't want to be just a concert pianist. I want to use the piano as a stepping stone!

Oscar Levant:
If I had your talent, I'd be a pretty obnoxious fella. What do you call yourself?

George Gershwin:
George Gershwin, it's my real name.

Oscar Levant:
Mine's Oscar Levant. I'm thinking of changing it.

Max Dreyfus:
[referring to "Porgy and Bess", which has just opened] You've made opera entertaining.

Julie Adams:
What if this show is a flop?

George Gershwin:
We'll do others. I haven't got time for flops.

Oscar Levant:
Tell me, if you had it to do all over again, would you still fall in love with yourself?

Christine Gilbert:
You can make up songs, George, but you can't make up lif.

Max Dreyfus:
George, you can give America a voice.

Dreyfus receptionist:
You're fresh!

Oscar Levant:
Unfortunately you're not.

Max Dreyfus:
[occurs at about 1:49:45, after success 'Of Thee I Sing', George wants to write an opera, pushing people to continue working at 4 a.m] Well, George, what is it you're trying to forget?

George Gershwin:
Forget?

Max Dreyfus:
Don't tell me you've turned yourself into a dynamo just for the fun of grinding out one hit after another. Success is coming out of your ears. Why don't you relax and just be a human being again?

George Gershwin:
I don't know what you're talking about.

Max Dreyfus:
I'm talking about you. I can see a boy way down in those streets who dreamed himself a long way from the ground he started on. Came up like an elevator. Now he's looking for new buttons to push. Seems to have an idea that happiness is vertical. And the last stop is heaven.