"[to the audience, a few days after Wendell Newton's death] The other day, I buried one of my best friends. He was the best sax player I ever heard. And they tell me I gotta come up here and entertain you people now. I don't think I'll be able to do that. [walks off the stage]"

"[singing] The dark side is calling now, nothing is real / She'll never know just how I feel / From out of a shadow, she walks like a dream / Makes me feel crazy, makes me feel so mean / Ain't nothing gonna save you from a love that is blind / Slip to the dark side across that line / On the dark side, oh yeah / On the dark side, oh yeah"

"[to Frank] Joann was telling me you write music, thinks that might be good. I can give you a try. What I want is songs that echo. The stuff we're doing now is like somebody's bedsheets. Spread 'em out, soil 'em, ship 'em out to laundry, you know? [Frank nods] But our songs... I want to be able to fold ourselves up in them forever. You understand? That's the most you'll ever get out of me, Wordman, ever."

"You actually believe that you could build a castle out of a bunch of junk. What a crock. [looks at the mirror] Holy shit. What a phony. [smashes the mirror] Here we are, guys. Right where we belong. You got your Edsels,... Norges,... Dumonts... and Eddie Wilson. Together at last, creating our own incredible monument to nothing! [shouts and claps his hands] Here's to nothing, fellas! Here's to nothing!"

"Maggie Foley: "A Season in Hell", a spiritual and confessional autobiography. Arthur Rimbaud was a genius, his writings were a quest. A search for perfection, an attempt to find total freedom. At the age of nineteen, Arthur Rimbaud commited suicide, not of the flesh, but of the mind and the soul. It means he never wrote another word, and disappeared off the face of the earth. He was not seen nor heard from again for nearly twenty years, until he reappeared in a hospital within Marseille on his deathbed."

"Maggie Foley: [On the bridge Eddie wrecked on] The innocence of the 50s was over and so was rock and roll as we knew it. We were entering a new age, an age of confusion, an age of passion, of commitment. Eddie Wilson saw it coming. "Season in Hell" is the total innovation for its time. It was a signal a greatness yet to come. Eddie Wilson was a step ahead of us and I don't think we've caught up with him yet. Eddie's been dead for almost 18 years, but his music is as alive today as the day he recorded it. For me and for everyone who listens to music, Eddie Wilson lives and always will."

"Joann Carlino: There were so many things I wanted to say to him, so many questions I wanted to ask. But Eddie and I, we had a deal, we never talked about the future. We thought the present was so fine, why ruin it by planning ahead? But as Eddie drove off, I knew, I knew it then, it wasn't gonna be any future. In the morning, they told me that Eddie was gone, and they hadn't found his body."

"Tom Berenger - Frank Ridgeway"

"Michael Pare - Eddie Wilson"

"Joe Pantoliano - Doc Robbins"

"Matthew Laurance - Sal Amato"

"Helen Schneider - Joann Carlino"

"David Wilson - Kenny Hopkins"

"Michael "Tunes" Antunes - Wendell Newton"

"Ellen Barkin - Maggie Foley"

"John Stockwell - Keith Livingston"

"There was always one. One guy alone who would see her first. Maybe he was just sitting there eating or walking on the deck. Maybe he was just fixing his pants. He'd look up for a second. A quick glance out to sea and he'd see her. Then he'd just stand there rooted to the spot, his heart racing. And every time, every damn time I swear. He'd turn to us, towards the ship, towards everybody and scream... America!!!"

"Sometimes that is the way you have to do it: you go right back to the beginning."

"You're never really done for, as long as you've got a good story and someone to tell it to."

"I often thought about him during the war; if only 1900 were here, who knows what he'd do, what he'd say. 'Fuck war' he'd say. But somehow, coming from me, it wasn't the same."

"All that city... You just couldn't see an end to it. The end! Please, could you show me where it ends? It was all very fine on that gangway and I was grand, too, in my overcoat. I cut quite a figure and I had no doubts about getting off. Guaranteed. That wasn't a problem. It wasn't what I saw that stopped me, Max. It was what I didn't see. Can you understand that? What I didn't see. In all that sprawling city, there was everything except an end. There was everything. But there wasn't an end. What I couldn't see was where all that came to an end. The end of the world. Take a piano. The keys begin, the keys end. You know there are 88 of them and no-one can tell you differently. They are not infinite, you are infinite. And on those 88 keys the music that you can make is infinite. I like that. That I can live by. But you get me up on that gangway and roll out a keyboard with millions of keys, and that's the truth, there's no end to them, that keyboard is infinite. But if that keyboard is infinite there's no music you can play. You're sitting on the wrong bench. That's God's piano. Christ, did you see the streets? There were thousands of them! How do you choose just one? One woman, one house, one piece of land to call your own, one landscape to look at, one way to die. All that world weighing down on you without you knowing where it ends. Aren't you scared of just breaking apart just thinking about it, the enormity of living in it? I was born on this ship. The world passed me by, but two thousand people at a time. And there were wishes here, but never more than could fit on a ship, between prow and stern. You played out your happiness on a piano that was not infinite. I learned to live that way. Land is a ship too big for me. It's a woman too beautiful. It's a voyage too long. Perfume too strong. It's music I don't know how to make. I can't get off this ship. At best, I can step off my life. After all, it's as though I never existed. You're the exception, Max. You're the only one who knows that I'm here. You're a minority. You'd better get used to it. Forgive me, my friend. But I'm not getting off."

"Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why? I think land people waste a lot of time wondering why?. Winter comes, you wish it was summer. Summer comes, you live in dread of winter. That's why we never tire of travel."

"And fuck jazz, too."

"Fuck the regulations!"

"[after his grand finale on the piano, he lights the cigarette on the strings of the piano, walks to Jelly Roll Morton and says] You smoke it. I don't know how."

"Land? Land is a ship too big for me, it's a woman too beautiful, it's a voyage too long, perfume too strong.... It's music I don't know how to make. I can never get off this ship."

"Christ, did you... did you see the streets, just the streets? There were thousands of them! Then how you do it down there, how do you choose just one... one woman, one house, one piece of land to call your own, one landscape to look at, one way to die...?"

"You rolled out in front of me a keyboard of millions of keys, millions and billions of keys that never end. And that's the truth Max, that they never end. That keyboard is infinite... and if that keyboard is infinite, then on that keyboard there is no music you can play. You're sitting on the wrong bench.... That is God's piano."

"Take piano: keys begin, keys end. You know there are 88 of them. Nobody can tell you any different. They are not infinite. You're infinite.... And on those keys, the music that you can make... is infinite. I like that. That I can live by...."

"It wasn't what I saw that stopped me Max... it was what I didn't see."

"The ultimate story of Sex, Drugs & Rock 'N' Roll"

"Crispin Glover - Andy Warhol"

"Billy Idol - Cat"

"Dennis Burkley - Dog"

"Michael Madsen - Tom Baker"

"Michael Wincott - Paul Rothchild"

"Kathleen Quinlan - Patricia Kennealy"

"Frank Whaley - Robby Krieger"

"Kevin Dillon - John Densmore"

"Meg Ryan - Pamela Courson"