"What I don't like about you is that you always dodge the issue. You don't face up to things. A shamefaced Christian combined with a shamefaced Don Juan."

"Do you really want my life story? Well, I had a lover and my husband had a mistress. Curiously enough, she was rather your sort: very moral, very Catholic. Not hypocritical, not calculating - very sincere. Yet I hated her like poison."

"Although it's less enforced now, one thing I dislike about the Church is balancing sins against good deeds. Purity of heart is more important."

"As a Christian I say it's evil not to acknowledge what is good."

"There can't be real love unless it's shared. That's why I believe in a certain predestination."

"Religion adds to love, but love adds to religion, also."

"Now I have only one thing left to do: nothing. I don't want any belongings, any memories. No friends, no love. Those are all traps."

"Julie Delpy - Dominique (cameo)"

"Zbigniew Zamachowski - Karol Karol (cameo)"

"Philippe Volter - L'agent immobilier"

"Hélène Vincent - La journaliste"

"Yann Trégouët - Antoine"

"Charlotte Very - Lucille"

"Guillaume - Tonquédec as Serge"

"Florence Pernel - Sandrine"

"Emmanuelle Riva - Madame Vignon, Julie's mother"

"Benoît Régent - Olivier Benôit"

"Juliette Binoche - Julie de Courcy (née Vignon)"

"La copiste: That music is so beautiful. One can't destroy things like that."

"Do you want to tell me something about your husband or your home? Or your children? Or maybe yourself?"

"I'm just fine. I have everything here. I have the TV. You can see the whole world."

"They took everything away. Only the mattress is left."

"I appreciate what you did for me. But you see, I'm like any other woman. I sweat. I cough. I've cavities. You won't miss me. I'm sure you realize that now. Shut the door when you leave."

"[voiceover] Even at my lowest times, I can feel the words bubbling inside of me. And I had to get the words down or be overcome by something worse than death. Words not as precious things but as necessary things. Yet when I begin to doubt my ability to work the word I simply read another writer and then I know that I have nothing to worry about. My contest is only with myself: to do it right, with power and force and delight and gamble."

"Didier Flamand - Pierre"

"Karen Young - Grace"

"Fisher Stevens - Manny"

"Adrienne Shelly - Jerry"

"Marisa Tomei - Laura"

"Lili Taylor - Jan"

"Matt Dillon - Henry Chinaski"

"Bar Patron: Kid, I've probably slept longer than you've lived."

"[voiceover] If you are going to try, go all the way. Otherwise don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs. And Maybe your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery, isolation. Isolation is the gift. All others are a test of your endurance. Of how much you really want to do it. And you'll do it, despite rejection in the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods. And the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is."

"[voiceover] A poem is a city filled with streets and sewers. Filled with saints, heros, beggars, madmen. Filled with banality and booze. Filled with rain and thunder and periods of drought. A poem is a city of war. It's a barbershop filled with cynical drunks. A poem is a city. A poem is a nation. A poem is the world."

"[voiceover] I bought some expensive clothes and a good pair of shoes. The owner of the bike supply house didn't look so powerful anymore. Manny and I took a little longer with our lunches and came back smoking good cigars. The new life didn't sit well with Jan. She was used to her four fucks a day and also used to see me poor and humble."

"[voiceover] That scene in the office stayed with me. Those cigars, the fine clothes. I thought of good steaks, long rides up winding driveways that led to beautiful homes. Ease. Trips to Europe. Fine women."

"[voiceover] As we live we all get caught and torn by various traps. Writing can trap you. Some writers tend to write what has pleased their readers in the past. They hear accolades and believe them. There's only one final judge of writing, and that is the Writer. When he is swayed by the critics, the editors, the publishers, the readers; then he is finished. And, of course, when he is swayed with his fame and his fortune, you can float him down the river with the turds."

"[voiceover] I understood too well that great lovers were always men of leisure. I fucked better as a bum than as a puncher of timeclocks."

"[voiceover] The racetrack crowd is the world brought down to size, life grinding against death and losing. Nobody wins finally, we are just seeking a reprieve, a moment out of the glare."

"All I want to do is get my check and get drunk."

"[voiceover] I decided to clean up the apartment. I thought I must be turning into a fag."