Casablanca quotes

View Quote Man: Waiting, waiting, waiting. I'll never get out of here. I'll die in Casablanca.

View Quote Strasser: I'm not entirely sure which side you're on.
Renault: I have no conviction, if that's what you mean. I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy.
Strasser: And if it should change?
Renault: Well, surely the Reich doesn't permit that possibility.
Strasser: You are concerned about more than Casablanca. We know that every French province in Africa is honey-combed with traitors waiting for their chance, waiting, perhaps, for a leader.
Renault: A leader - like Laszlo?
Strasser: Uh huh. I have been thinking. It is too dangerous if we let him go. It may be too dangerous if we let him stay.

View Quote Laszlo: You must know it's very important I get out of Casablanca. It's my privilege to be one of the leaders of a great movement. Do you know what I've been doing? Do you know what it means to the work - to the lives of thousands and thousands of people that I be free to reach America and continue my work.
Rick: I'm not interested in politics. The problems of the world are not in my department. I'm a saloon keeper.
Laszlo: My friends in the Underground tell me that you've got quite a record. You ran guns to Ethiopia. You fought against the Fascists in Spain.
Rick: What of it?
Laszlo: Isn't it strange that you always happen to be fighting on the side of the underdog?
Rick: Yes, I found that a very expensive hobby too, but then I never was much of a businessman.
Laszlo: Are you enough of a businessman to appreciate an offer of a hundred thousand francs?
Rick: I appreciate it, but I don't accept it.
Laszlo: I'll raise it to two hundred thousand.
Rick: My friend, you could make it a million francs or three. My answer would still be the same.
Laszlo: There must be some reason why you won't let me have them [the exit visas].
Rick: There is. I suggest that you ask your wife.

View Quote Rick: Why did you have to come to Casablanca? There are other places.
Ilsa: I wouldn't have come if I'd known that you were here. Believe me, Rick. It's true. I didn't know.
Rick: It's funny about your voice how it hasn't changed. I can still hear it: 'Richard dear. I'll go with you anyplace. We'll get on a train together and never stop.'
Ilsa: Please don't. Don't Rick! I can understand how you feel.
Rick: Huh! You understand how I feel. How long was it we had, honey?
Ilsa: I didn't count the days.
Rick: Well I did. Every one of them. Mostly, I remember the last one. The wow finish. A guy standing on a station platform in the rain with a comical look on his face because his insides had been kicked out.

View Quote Renault: It might be a good idea for you to disappear from Casablanca for a while. There's a Free French garrison over at Brazzaville. I could be induced to arrange a passage.
Rick: My letter of transit? I could use a trip. But it doesn't make any difference about our bet. You still owe me ten thousand francs.
Renault: And that ten thousand francs should pay our expenses.
Rick: Our expenses? Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

View Quote Ilsa: A franc for your thoughts.
Rick: In America, they bring only a penny. I guess that's about all they're worth.
Ilsa: But I'm willing to be overcharged. Tell me.
Rick: And I was wondering...
Ilsa: Yes.
Rick: Why I'm so lucky, why I should find you waiting for me to come along?
Ilsa: Why there is no other man in my life?
Rick: Uh, huh.
Ilsa: That's easy. There was. And he's dead.
Rick: I'm sorry for asking. I forgot we said no questions.
Ilsa: Well, only one answer can take care of all our questions. [she kisses him]

View Quote Renault: My dear Ricky, I suspect that under that cynical shell, you're at heart a sentimentalist...Oh, laugh if you will, but I happen to be familiar with your record. Let me point out just two items. In 1935, you ran guns to Ethiopia. In 1936, you fought in Spain on the Loyalists' side.
Rick: And got well paid for it on both occasions.
Renault: The winning side would have paid you much better.
Rick: Maybe.

View Quote Carl: Madame, he never drinks with customers. Never. I have never seen it.
Female companion: What makes saloonkeepers so snobbish?
Gentleman: Perhaps if you told him I ran the second largest banking house in Amsterdam.
Carl: The second largest? That wouldn't interest Rick - the leading banker in Amsterdam is now the pastry chef in our kitchen --
Gentleman: We have something to look forward to.
Carl: -- and his father is the bellboy!

View Quote Rick: [about his bar] It's not for sale.
Ferrari: You haven't heard my offer.
Rick: It's not for sale at any price.
Ferrari: What do you want for Sam?
Rick: I don't buy or sell human beings.
Ferrari: Too bad. That's Casablanca's leading commodity. In refugees alone, we could make a fortune, if you work with me through the black market.
Rick: Suppose you run your business and let me run mine.
Ferrari: Suppose we ask Sam. Maybe he'd like to make a change?
Rick: Suppose we do.
Ferrari: My dear Rick, when will you realize that in this world, today, isolationism is no longer a practical policy?

View Quote Strasser: I strongly suspect that Ugarte left the letters of transit with Mr. Blaine. I would suggest you search the cafe immediately and thoroughly.
Renault: If Rick has the letters, he's much too smart to let you find them there.
Strasser: You give him credit for too much cleverness. My impression was that he's just another blundering American.
Renault: But we mustn't underestimate American blundering. I was with them when they blundered into Berlin in 1918.

View Quote Rick: But it's still a story without an ending. What about now?
Ilsa: Now? I don't know. I know that I'll never have the strength to leave you again.
Rick: And Laszlo?
Ilsa: Oh, you'll help him now, Richard, won't you? You'll see that he gets out? Then he'll have his work, all that he's been living for.
Rick: All except one. He won't have you.
Ilsa: I can't fight it anymore. I ran away from you once. I can't do it again. Oh, I don't know what's right any longer. You have to think for both of us. For all of us.
Rick: All right, I will. Here's looking at you, kid.
Ilsa: I wish I didn't love you so much.

View Quote Renault: I've often speculated why you don't return to America. Did you abscond with the church funds? Did you run off with a Senator's wife? I like to think that you killed a man. It's the romantic in me.
Rick: It's a combination of all three.
Renault: And what in Heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?
Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.
Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.
Rick: I was misinformed.

View Quote Ilsa: Last night, I saw what has happened to you. The Rick I knew in Paris I could tell him, he'd understand. But the one who looked at me with such hatred - I'll be leaving Casablanca soon and we'll never see each other again. We knew very little about each other when we were in love in Paris. If we leave it that way, maybe we'll remember those days and not Casablanca. Not last night.
Rick: Did you run out on me because you couldn't take it? Because you knew what it would be like, hiding out from the police, running away all the time?
Ilsa: You can believe that if you want to.
Rick: Well, I'm not running away any more. I'm settled now, above a saloon, it's true, but...walk up a flight. I'll be expecting you. All the same, someday you'll lie to Laszlo - you'll be there.
Ilsa: No, Rick. No, you see, Victor Laszlo's my husband and was, even when I knew you in Paris.

View Quote Renault: Unoccupied France welcomes you to Casablanca.
Strasser: Thank you, Captain. It's very good to be here.
Renault: You may find the climate of Casablanca a trifle warm, Major.
Strasser: Oh, we Germans must get used to all climates, from Russia to the Sahara. But perhaps you were not referring to the weather.
Renault: What else, my dear Major?

View Quote Major Strasser: [to Ilsa] My dear mademoiselle, perhaps you have already observed that in Casablanca, human life is cheap. Good night, mademoiselle.