-
Collins: [sung] In truths that she learned, or in times that he cried. In bridges he burned, or the way that she died!
-
[about his parents message on the answering machine]
Mark: There are times when we're dirt broke, hungry, and freezing, and I ask myself, why the hell am I still living here?
[beat]
Mark: And then they call. And I remember.
-
Life Cafe Manager: [Mark, Maureen, Joanne, Mimi, Angel, and Collins walk into the Life Cafe] Oh, no. Please, no. No. Not tonight. Please leave.
Mark: What are you talking about? Why?
Life Cafe Manager: Because you sit here all night and you never order anything.
Mark: That's a lie. Just last week I had a tea.
Life Cafe Manager: You couldn't pay.
Mark: Oh, yeah.
Angel: Tonight we can.
[Holding up money]
Angel: Ka-pow.
-
Mimi: Give in to love or live in fear.
-
All: [sung] No other road / No other way / No day but today
Mimi, Joanne, Maureen: [sung] I can't control / My destiny
Mark, Roger, Collins, Angel, Benjamin Coffin III: [sung] Will I lose my dignity / Will someone care
Mimi, Joanne, Maureen: [sung] I trust my soul / My only goal / Is just to be
Mark, Roger, Collins, Angel, Benjamin Coffin III: [sung] Will I wake tomorrow / From this nightmare
Mimi, Joanne, Maureen: [sung] Without you / The hand gropes
Mark, Roger, Collins, Angel, Benjamin Coffin III: [sung] There's only now / There's only here
Mimi, Joanne, Maureen: [sung] The ear hears / The pulse beats
Mark, Roger, Collins, Angel, Benjamin Coffin III: [sung] Give in to love / Or live in fear
Mimi, Joanne, Maureen: [sung] Life goes on / But I'm gone
Mark, Roger, Collins, Angel, Benjamin Coffin III: [sung] No other path / No other way
Mimi, Joanne, Maureen: [sung] 'Cause I die / Without you / I die without you
Mark, Roger, Collins, Angel, Benjamin Coffin III: [sung] No day but today / No day but today
Mimi, Joanne, Maureen: [sung] I die without you / I die without you
Mark, Roger, Collins, Angel, Benjamin Coffin III: [sung] No day but today / No day but today
Mimi, Joanne, Maureen: [sung] I die without you / I die without you
Mark, Roger, Collins, Angel, Benjamin Coffin III: [sung] No day but today / No day but today
All: [sung] NO DAY BUT TODAY!
-
Mark, Roger: I don't own emotion, I rent.
-
Maureen: You always said how lucky you were that we were all friends. But it was us, baby, who were the lucky ones.
-
Gordon: [sung] I try to open up to what I don't know, because reason says I should have died three years ago...
-
Collins: Merry Christmas bitches!
-
Mark: [sung] We're dying in America at the end of the millennium. We're dying in America to come into our own. And when you're dying in America, at the end of the millennium, you're not alone.
-
Mark: Angel... I hear you, I hear it, I see it-I see it, my film!
Roger: [staggered with Mark] Mimi... I see you, I see it, I hear it-I hear it, my song!
Mark: Alexi, Mark. Call me a hypocrite, I need to finish my own film!
Roger: [staggered with Mark] One song glory... Mimi, your eyes!
Mark: I quit!
Mark, Roger: Dying in America!
-
Mark, Angel, Mimi: Bisexuals, trisexuals, homo sapiens, carcinogens, hallucinocens, men, Pee Wee Herman! German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein, Antoniotti, Bertolucci, Kurosawa, Carmina Burana!
-
Mimi: I should tell I blew the candle out, just to get back in.
Roger Davis: I'd forgotten how to smile, until your candle burned my skin.
-
All: To Dance!
Mimi: [sung] No way to make a living, masochisms, pain, perfection, muscle spasm, chiropractors, short-careers, eating disorders!
-
Collins: In honor of the death of Bohemia, an improtu salon will commence immediately following dinner. Maureen Johnson, back from her spectacular one-night engagement at the eleventh street lot, will sing Native American tribal chants backwards through her vocorder, while accompanying herself on the electric chello, which she ain't never studied.
Roger: And Mark Cohen will preview his new documentary about his inability to hold an erection on high holy days.
Mark: Mimi Marquez, clad only in bubble wrap, will perform her famous lawn chair-handcuff dance to the sound of iced tea being stirred. And Roger will attempt to write a bittersweet, evocative song.
Roger: [picks up a guitar and plays]
Mark: That doesn't remind us of Musetta's Waltz.
Collins: Angel Dumont Schunard will model the latest fall fashions from Paris while accomanying herself on the 10 gallon plastic pickle tub.
Angel: And Collins will recount his exploits as an anarchist, including the tale of his successful reprogramming of the MIT virtural reality equipment to self-destruct as it broadcast the words:
All: Actual reality! Act up! Fight AIDS!
-
Collins: [Mimicking Roger] Uh... Hi.
-
Mark: And who are you two supposed to be?
Collins: Bond, James Bond.
Angel: And Pussy Galore... in person.
-
Mimi: I'm looking for baggage that goes with mine.
-
Roger: How do you start a fire when there's nothing to burn, and it feels like something's stuck in your flue?
Mark: How can you generate heat when you can't feel your feet...
Roger, Mark: And they're turning blue?
Mark: [setting one of his old scripts alight] You light up a mean blaze...
Roger: [adding one of his old posters] With posters...
Mark: And screenplays!
Roger, Mark: How we gonna pay, how we gonna pay, how we gonna pay... last year's rent!
-
Mark: ...and then there was the time he walked up to this group of tourists and they were petrified because A they were obviously lost, and B had probably never spoken to a drag queen before in their lives... and he... she just offered to escort them out of Alphabet City... and then she let them take a picture with her and then she said she'd help 'em find the Circle Line...
-
Joanne: Didn't give an inch, when I gave a mile!
Mark: Come on!
Mimi: I gave a mile!
Roger: Gave a mile to who?
-
Mimi: There's only us, There's only this, Forget regret, Or life is your to miss, No other road, No other way, No day but today.
-
Roger Davis: You were the song all along / and before the song dies... / I should tell you, I should tell you / I have always loved you / you can see it in my eyes / MIMI!
-
Mimi: I was moving towards... this warm, white light. And I swear... Angel was there. And she looked good!
[everyone laughs]
Mimi: She said, "Turn around, girlfriend, and listen to that boy's song."
-
Angel: [sung] And sure as I am here that dog is now in doggie hell!
-
Mimi: [sung] What's the time? Well it's gotta be close to midnight... my body's talkin' to me, it says "Time for danger!"
-
Mimi: [sung] Excuse me, did I do something wrong? I get invited then ignored all night long!
-
Collins: [about Roger] This boy could use some STOLI!
-
Collins: So with a thousand sweet kisses...
Angel: If you're cold and you're lonely.
Collins: ...I'll cover you. With a thousand sweet kisses...
Angel: You've got one nickel only.
Collins: ...I'll cover you.
Angel: With a thousand sweet kisses...
Collins: When you're worn out and tired.
Angel: ...I'll cover you. With a thousand sweet kisses... I'll cover you!
Collins: When your heart has expired!
Collins, Angel: Oh lover, I'll cover you!
-
Collins: I think they meant it when they said you can't buy love. Now I know you can rent it, a new lease you are my love - on life... be my life.
-
Gordon: I'm a New Yorker. Fear's my life.
-
Roger: Cold hands
Mimi: Yours too. Big. Like my father's. Do you wanna dance?
Roger: With you?
Mimi: No - with my father
Roger: I'm Roger
Mimi: They call me... They call me... Mimi
-
Roger: [Sung] I know, this something is... here goes.
Mimi: [Sung] Here goes.
Roger: [Sung] Guess so, it's starting to... who knows?
Mimi: [Sung] Who knows?
Mimi, Roger: [Sung] Who knows where, who goes there? / Who knows... here goes / Trusting desire, starting to learn... / Walking through fire, without a burn / Clinging a shoulder, a leap begins / Stinging and older, asleep on pins / So here... we... go... / Now we...
Roger: [Sung] Oh no.
Mimi: [Sung] I know.
Roger: [Sung] Oh no.
Mimi, Roger: [Sung] Who knows where, who goes there? / Here goes... / Here goes... / Here goes... / Here goes... / Here goes... / Here goes...
[They kiss]
-
Maureen: There will always be women in rubber flirting with me...
-
Maureen: You know what, Miss Ivy League? I can't take much more of this. This obsessive, compulsive, control-freak, paranoia.
Joanne: What?
Maureen: I didn't pierce my nipples 'cause it grossed you out. I didn't stay at the Kink Club last night because you wanted to go home.
Joanne: You were flirting with the woman in rubber.
Maureen: There will always be women in rubber flirting with me! Give me a break!
-
Mark: This is not my bar mitzvah!
-
Collins, Mark, Mimi, Angel: [Sung] I can't control
Roger Davis: [Sung] Control your temper
Collins, Mark, Mimi, Angel: [Sung] My destiny
Roger Davis: [Sung] She doesn't see
Collins, Mark, Mimi, Angel: [Sung] I trust my soul
Roger Davis: [Sung] Who says that there's a soul
Collins, Mark, Mimi, Angel: [Sung] My only goal, is just to be
Roger Davis: Just let me be!
Collins, Mark, Mimi, Angel: [Sung in time with Roger] There's only now, there's only here. Give into love, or live in fear. No other path, no other way. No day but today.
Roger Davis: [Sung] Who do you think you are? Barging in on me and my guitar. Little girl hey, the door is that way.
Mimi: [Sung] No day but today.
Roger Davis: [Sung] The fire's dead anyway.
Collins, Mark, Mimi, Angel: [Sung] No day but today.
Roger Davis: [Sung] Take your powder, take your candle.
Collins, Mark, Mimi, Angel: [Sung] No day but today.
Roger Davis: [Sung] Take your brown eyes, your pretty smile, your silouette.
Collins, Mark, Mimi, Angel: [Sung] No day but today.
Roger Davis: [Sung] Another time, another place, another round, a warm embrace.
Collins, Mark, Mimi, Angel: [Sung] No day but today.
Roger Davis: [Sung] Another dance another way, another chance, another day
Collins, Mark, Mimi, Angel: [Sung] No day but today.
-
Roger Davis, Mark: [On answering machine] Speeeeeeeeeeeak.
[Beep]
-
[Angel discovers Collins, who has been mugged]
Angel: Oh my God, are you okay, honey?
Collins: I'm afraid so.
Angel: They get anything, or...?
Collins: I didn't have any money, but they took my stuff.
[Angel tries to wipe the blood from Collins' forehead]
Collins: No, I'm fine, I'm fine.
Angel: I'm Angel.
Collins: Angel. Friends call me Collins. Tom Collins.
Angel: Come on. Let's get you cleaned up. Sort of have to hurry; I have a life support meeting to go to.
Collins: Life support?
Angel: Yeah. It's for people with AIDS. People like me.
Collins: Me, too.
-
All: To faggots, lezzies, dykes, cross-dressers too!
Maureen: To ME!
Mark: To ME!
All: To you, and you, and you, you, and you! To people living with, living with, living with- not dying from disease!
-
Benjamin Coffin III: [sung] But my investors would rather I handle this quietly
Roger Davis: You can't quietly wipe oput an entire tent city then watch "It's a Wonderful Life" on TV!
-
Mimi: Would you light my candle?
-
Mimi: They call me... they call me... Mimi.
-
Roger Davis: Find one song, one last refrain, glory, from the pretty boy front man... who wasted opportunity... One song - he had the world at his feet - glory, in the eyes of a young girl... a young girl... Find glory beyond the cheap, colored lights, one song before the sun sets - glory on another empty life, time flies... time dies.
-
Joanne: [about Maureen] She cheated...
Mark: She cheated.
Joanne: Maureen cheated...
Mark: Fucking cheated.
Joanne: I'm defeated, I should give up right now.
Mark: Gotta look on the bright side with all of your might...
Joanne: I'd fall for her still, anyhow.
Joanne, Mark: When you're dancing her dance you don't stand a chance. Her grip on romance makes you fall.
Mark: So you think, "Might as well - "
Joanne: Dance a tango to Hell.
Joanne, Mark: At least I'll have tangoed at all.
-
Mark: Actually... I feel great now.
Joanne: I feel lousy.
-
Collins, Mark, Maureen, Mimi, Joanne, Angel, Roger Davis: To people living with, living with, living with... not dying from disease. Let he among us without sin be the first to condem La Vie Boheme.
-
Mark: Where'd you learn to tango?
Joanne: With the French Ambassador's daughter in her dorm room at Miss Porter's. And you?
Mark: With Nanette Himmelfarb, the Rabbi's daughter, at the Scarsdale Jewish Community Center.
-
Joanne: [sung] This is weird.
Mark: [sung] It's weird.
Joanne: [sung] Very weird
Mark: [sung] Fucking weird.
Joanne: [sung] I'm so mad that I don't know what to do. Fighting with microphones, freezing down to my bones, and to top it all off, I'm with you!
Mark: [sung] Feel like going insane? Got a fire in your brain, and you're thinking of drinking gasoline?
Joanne: [sung] As a matter of fact...
Mark: [sung] Honey, I know this act: It's called the Tango: Maureen.
-
Angel: Today for you, tomorrow for me!
Tom: And you should hear her beat.
Mark: You earned this on the street?
Angel: It was my lucky day today on Avenue A when the lady in the limousine drove my way - she said, "Darling, be a dear - haven't slept in a year! I need your help to make my neighbor's yappy dog disappear! This akita - Evita - just won't shut up! I believe if you play nonstop that pup will breathe its very last high-strung breath. I'm certain that cur will bark itself to death!"
-
Maureen: [in a very slinky rubber cat suit on New Year's Eve - talking to Mark's camera] Hii-yah! Whatchu want, huh?
Mark: [Filming her] You can take the girl outta Hicksville, but you can't take the Hicksville outta the girl.
-
Mark: [sung] The opposite of war isn't peace!
Joanne: What is?
Mark: It's creation!
-
Maureen: [sung] Every single day I walk down the street, I hear people say, "Baby, so sweet." Ever since puberty, everybody stares at me. Boys, girls, I can't help it, baby.
-
Mark: I just sold my soul.
Joanne: Yeah, for $3000 a segment!
-
[sung]
Mark: To days of inspiration, playing hookey, making something out of nothing, the need to express, to communicate. To going against the grain, going insane, going mad. To loving tension, no pension, to more than one dimension, to starving for attention, hating convention, hating pretension, not to mention, of course, hating dear old Mom and Dad. To riding your bike midday past the three-piece suits. To fruits, to no absolutes, to "Absolut." To choice, to the "Village Voice," to any passing fad. To being an "Us" for once, instead of a "Them." La vie BohËme.
-
Collins: Ooh, Maureen dumped you?
Mark: Yes, she dumped me. For a lawyer named Joanne.
[choked laughter]
-
Maureen: All you had to do was ask, and I'm yours.
-
Mimi, Angel: [sung] To hand crafted beers made in local breweries, to yoga, to yogurt, to rice and beans and cheese. To leather, to dildoes, to curry vindaloo. To huevos rancheros and Maya Angelou.
Collins, Maureen: [sung] Emotion, devotion to causing a commotion. Creation, vacation...
Mark: [sung] Mucho masturbation.
-
Mark: [throwing music posters into the fire] The music ignites the night with passionate fire!
Roger Davis: [adding Mark's screenplays to the blaze] The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit!
-
Roger Davis: Find the one song before the virus takes hold, glory, like a sunset. One song to redeem this empty life! Time flies, and then no need to endure anymore! Time dies.
-
Collins, Angel: I think they meant it when they said you can't buy love. Now I know you can rent it, a new lease you are my love - on life... be my life.
-
Mimi, Joanne: I'd be happy to die for a taste of what Angel had! Someone to live for, unafraid to say I love you.
-
Mimi: I die without you.
-
Roger Davis: [sung] All your words are nice Mimi but love's not a three-way street.
-
Maureen: [sung] I've gotta get outta here! It's like I'm being tied to the hood of a yellow rental truck being packed in with fertilizer, and fuel oil. Pushed over a cliff by a suicidal Mickey Mouse. I've gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta find a way... to jump over the moon.
-
Roger: [sung, when the dripping candle wax burns Mimi] Oh the wax. It's...
Mimi: Dripping. I like it between my...
Roger: [interrupting] Fingers! I figured. Oh well, goodnight!
-
Joanne: [sung] She cheated!
Mark: [sung] She cheated!
Joanne: [sung] Maureen cheated!
Mark: [sung] Fucking cheated!
-
Joanne: Take me for what I am!
Maureen: A control freak!
Joanne: Who I was meant to be!
Maureen: A snob yet over attentive!
Joanne: and if you give a damn!
Maureen: A loveable droll geek!
Joanne: Take me baby or leave me!
Maureen: And anal retentive!
-
Mimi: [sung] Where all the scars from the "nevers" and "maybes" die!
-
Mark: [sung] To love attention, no pension, to more than one dimension, to starving for attention hating convention hating pretension, not to mention of course, hating dear old Mom and Dad.
-
Mark: How do you leave the past behind when it keeps finding ways to get to your heart? It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out till you're torn apart - rent!
Mark, Tenants, Roger: How can you connect in an age where strangers, landlords, lovers, your own blood cells betray? What binds the fabric together when the raging, shifting winds of change keep ripping away?
Benjamin Coffin III: Draw a line in the sand and then make your stand...
Roger: Use your camera to spar!
Mark: Use your guitar!
Mark, Tenants, Roger: When they act tough, you call their bluff. We're not gonna pay... we're not gonna pay... We're not gonna pay... last year's rent! This year's rent! Next year's rent! Rent, rent, rent, re-ent, rent! We're not gonna pay rent! Cause everything is rent!
-
Collins: Gentlemen, our benefactor on this Christmas day, whose charity is only matched by talent, I must say... a new member of the Alphabet city avant-garde... Angel Dumott Schunard!
-
Angel: Today for you, tomorrow for me!
Tom: And you should hear her beat.
Roger: You earned this on the street?
Angel: It was my lucky day today on Avenue A when the lady in the limousine drove my way - she said, "Darling, be a dear - haven't slept in a year! I need your help to make my neighbor's yappy dog disappear! This akita - Evita - just won't shut up! I believe if you play nonstop that pup will breathe its very last high-strung breath. I'm certain that cur will bark itself to death!"
-
Mark: How do you document real life when real life's getting more like fiction each day? Headlines, breadlines blow my mind, and now this deadline - eviction or pay... rent!
Roger: How do you write a song when the chords sound wrong, though they once sounded right and rare? When the notes are sour, where is the power you once had to ignite the air?
Mark: We're hungry and frozen...
Roger: Some life that we've chosen!
Mark, Roger: How we gonna pay, how we gonna pay, how we gonna pay... last year's rent!
-
Benjamin Coffin III: [about Maureen] Still dating her?
Mark: Last month I was dumped.
Benjamin Coffin III: She's got a new man?
Mark: Well, no.
Benjamin Coffin III: What's his name?
Mark, Roger: Joanne.
-
Mark: [after opening song] December 24th, 1989, 9 PM, Eastern Standard Time. From here on in, I shoot without a script. See if anything comes of it, instead of my old shit.
-
Mimi: Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.
-
Mark: [sings] There is no future. There is no past.
Roger: [sings] Thank God this moment's not the last.
Roger, Mimi: [sings] There's only us... there's only this. Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.
-
Mark: We don't need your charity.
[hands Ben a cheque]
Mark: It should cover us a little while.
Benjamin Coffin III: Where'd you get this?
Mark: It's my first advance.
Benjamin Coffin III: Okay, congratulations.
-
Mimi: [sings] Let's go out tonight. I have to go out tonight. You wanna prowl? Be my night owl? Well, take my hand were gonna howl out tonight.
-
Joanne: [sings] Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. Five hundred twenty-five thousand journeys to plan. Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. How do you measure the life of a woman or a man?
-
Joanne, Collins, Mark, Angel, Mimi, Maureen, Roger, Benjamin Coffin III: All Its time now to sing out, though the story never ends. Lets celebrate remember the year of the life of friends. Remember the love.
Joanne: You got to, you got to remember the love.
Collins, Mark, Angel, Mimi, Maureen, Roger, Benjamin Coffin III: Remember the love.
Joanne: You know that love us a gift from up above.
Collins, Mark, Angel, Mimi, Maureen, Roger, Benjamin Coffin III: Remember the love.
Joanne: Share love, give love, spread love.
-
Joanne: [sung] Did you swoon when she walked through the door?
Mark: [sung] Every time, so be... cautious.
Joanne: [sung] Did she moon over other boys?
Mark: [sung] More than moon.
Joanne: [sung] I'm getting nauseuous.
-
Mark: [sung] How do you document real life when real life's getting more like fiction each day?
-
Collins: Getting dizzy!
-
Mimi: It's right that today's Halloween. It was Angel's favorite holiday. I knew we'd hit it off the moment we met. There was this skinhead that was harassing her... and she walked right up to him and said, "I'm more of a man than you'll ever be - and more of a woman than you'll ever get."
-
Maureen: Look, gimme that, I'm sick and tired of you always carrying that around
[takes camera]
Mark: Maureen, no! Your gonna break it!
Maureen: [while filming Mark and slightly running from him] Hey Mark! Happy New Years, Mark!
Mark: No! This is NOT my barmitzvah give it back to me!
-
Mark: [as they Tango] It's hard to do this backwards.
Joanne: You should try it in heels.
-
[first lines]
Mark, Angel, Maureen, Roger, Collins, Benjamin Coffin III, Mimi: Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear. Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. How do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes - how do you measure a year in the life? How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love... seasons of love.
-
Joanne: [sung] Measure your life in love!
-
Collins, Mark, Roger, Angel, Ali, Paul, Steve, Pam: [sung] Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow, from this nightmare?
-
Mark: Dearly beloved, we gather here to say our goodbyes. Here she lies, no one knew her worth. The late, great daughter of Mother-Earth. On these nights, when we celebrate the birth, in that little town of Bethlehem, we raise our glass, you bet your ass to La Vie - - Boheme.
-
Mark: [teasing her] Pookie!
Joanne: [looks at him, annoyed] Shut up!
-
Mr. Cohen: [on Mark's answering machine] We're sorry to hear that Maureen dumped you. I say c'est la vie. Let her be a lesbian! She doesn't know what she's missing!
-
Mark's Dad: [on the answering machine] Listen, Mark, I'm sorry to hear that Maureen dumped you. I say "se la vie", let her be a Lesbian!
Roger: [snickers loudly]
Mark's Dad: She doesn't know what she's missing! Happy Holidays!
[hangs up]
-
Joanne: Didn't give an inch when I gave a mile!
-
Mark: Has she ever pouted her lips and called you Pookie?
Joanne: Never.
Mark: Have you ever doubted a kiss or two?
Joanne: This is spooky.
-
Angel, Mimi: [sung] To hand crafted beers made in local breweries, To yoga, to yogurt, to rice, and beans, and cheese, To leather, to dildos, to curry-vindaloo, to huevos rancheros, and Maya Angelou.
-
Mark: [sung] Will I lose my dignity, will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?
-
Mark: Hey look, all our shit's back.
-
Mark: Pookie
-
Collins: To marijuana!
-
Collins: You gonna put that trashcan back?
Angel: No.
-
Maureen: [sung] A tiger in a cage can never see the sun! This diva needs her stage, baby, let's have fun!
-
Life Cafe Waiter: [sung] So that's five miso soup, four seaweed salad, three soy burger dinner, two tofu dog platters, and one pasta with meatless balls.
Roger: Ugh!
Collins: It tastes the same.
Mimi: If you close your eyes!
-
Roger Davis: [referring to Angel as she breaks the padlock off the apartment building] That's an all service woman you got there.
-
Alexi: How much did I love your footage? So mu - it reminded me of my Berkeley days - fighting the good fight. Kudos. Kudos
-
Roger: [sung] You look familiar.
Mimi: [sung] Like your dead girlfriend?
Roger: [sung] Only when you smile, but I'm sure I've seen you somwhere else.
Mimi: [sung] Do you go to the Cat Scratch Club? That's where I work. I dance.
Roger: [sung] Yes! They used to tie you up.
Mimi: [sung] It's a living.
Roger: [sung] I didn't recognize you without the handcuffs.
-
Roger: Zoom in on my empty wallet.
Mark: Touché.
-
Mrs. Johnson: Now maybe you two can get back together!
-
Mark: [yelling out window] Hey Collins! Don't get your ass kicked this time!
-
Maureen: Moo with me... Moooooo
-
Mimi: [sung] The heart may freeze or it can burn. The pain will ease if I can learn... there is no future. There is no past. I live this moment as my last! There's only us... there's only this. Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. No other road... mo other way. No day but today...
Roger: [sung] Excuse me, if I'm off track. But if you're so wise, then tell me, why do you need smack? Take your needle... take your fancy prayer. And don't forget, get the moonlight out of your hair. Long ago you might've lit up my heart. But the fire's dead, and ain't ever ever gonna start! Another time, another place. The words would only rhyme... we'd be in outer space. It'd be another song, we'd sing another way. You wanna prove me wrong? Come back another day... another day!
-
Roger: [sung, to Mimi] You were the song all along, and before the song dies... I should tell you, I should tell you... I have always loved you. You can see it in my eyes... Mimi!
-
Collins, Mark, Maureen, Roger, Mimi, Joanne: No day but today!
-
Mimi: [on hands and knees to find her drugs] They say I have the best ass below 14th street. Is it true?
Roger: What?
Mimi: You're staring again.
Roger: Oh no. I mean, you do have a nice, I mean...
-
Mark, Mimi: Why Dorothy and Toto went over the rainbow to blow off Auntie Em
All: La vie Boheme!
-
Angel: You teach?
Collins: I teach- computer age philosophy, but my students would rather watch TV
Angel: America
All: America!
-
Mark: That's a lie; just last week I had a tea.
Life Cafe Waiter: You couldn't pay.
Mark: Oh yeah...
Angel: Well tonight, we can. Kapow!
-
Collins: Baby, you're drunk.
Angel: No I'm not.
-
Mimi: He was always "Run away, Hit the road, Don't commit". You're full of shit!
-
Mimi: [sung] Excuse me, did I do something wrong? I get invited then ignored all night long!
Roger Davis: [sung] I've been tryin', I'm not lyin'! No one's perfect, I've got baggage!
Mimi: [sung] Life's too short, babe, time is flyin'! I'm lookin' for baggage that goes with mine!
Roger Davis: [sung] I should tell you...
Mimi: [sung] I've got baggage, too!
Roger Davis: [sung] Should tell you...
Roger Davis: [simultaneously] Baggage...
Mimi: [simultaneously] Baggage...
Collins: [all but Mimi and Roger] Wine and beer!
Mimi: [pagers go off] AZT break.
Roger Davis: [sung] You?
Mimi: [sung] Me. You?
Roger Davis: [sung] Mimi.
-
Angel, Collins: I've longed to discover something as true as this is.
-
Maureen: There will always be women in rubber flirting with me!
-
Angel: New York City.
Mark: Uh-huh.
Angel: Center of the universe.
Collins: Sang it, girl!
Angel: Times are shitty, but I'm pretty sure they can't get worse.
Roger: I hear that.
Angel: It's a comfort to know, when you're singing the hit-the-road blues...
[sung]
Angel: That anywhere else you could possibly go after New York would be
[whispered]
Angel: a pleasure cruise!
Collins: Now you're talkin'!
-
Mark: Come on guys, chill!
-
Mark, Roger: [answering machine] Speak.
-
Roger: We got power.
Mark: Oh. Merry Christmas.
-
Benjamin Coffin III: Hey. Bum. Get your ass off the Range Rover.
Mark: Hey, Benny, that attitude toward the homeless is exactly what Maureen is protesting.
Benjamin Coffin III: Maureen is protesting losing her performance space. Not my attitude.
-
Roger: I once was born to be bad. I used to shiver like that...
Mimi: I have no heat. I told you...
Roger: I used to sweat.
Mimi: I got a cold.
Roger: Uh-huh. I used to be a junkie...
Mimi: But now and then, I like to...
Roger: Uh-huh.
Mimi: ...feel good.
Rent Quotes
Extended Reading
