- Victor Herbert: [congratulating Jerome Kern on his composing ability] My boy, you've got a song to sing.
- Jerome Kern: Always the same discouraging answer. The big hits were all English or European, and the local talent didn't stand a chance - Broadway was closed to an American.
- James I. Hessler: Don't waste your time fussing with those wheezy little tunes - think big. Try to be somebody.
- Julie LaVerne (segment "Show Boat"): [singing] Fish got to swim, birds got to fly, I got to love one man till I die, Can't help lovin' that man of mine, Tell me he's lazy, Tell me he's slow, Tell me I'm crazy, maybe, I know, Can't help lovin' that man of mine...
- Joe (segment "Show Boat"): Where to? The Waldorf, Mr. Kern?
- Jerome Kern: What was that Joe?
- Joe (segment "Show Boat"): The big shindig they're throwing for you. It's down at the Waldorf, ain't it, Mr. Kern?
- Jerome Kern: I remember the day very well. It was Spring. Then, I might have been any American kid coming down that street. I had a song under my arm, my hopes were high, and the world was wonderful.
- James I. Hessler: I've given up arranging. I'm through dressing up silly little tunes for girls shows and beerhalls. I'm gonna write some real music for a change.
- London Specialty: [singing] I don't know why I am so very shy, I always was demure, I never knew what silly lovers do, No flirting I'd endure; In all my life I never kissed a man, I never winked my eye, But now at last I'm going to break the ice, So how'd you like to try? How'd you like to spoon with me?
- London Specialty: [singing] Sit beneath an oak tree large and shady, Call me little tootsy wootsy baby, How'd you like to hug and squeeze?
- James I. Hessler: It's Spring isn't it? Tomorrow morning I think I'm gonna give you a great, big dose of sulphur and molasses.
- James I. Hessler: You certainly are full of surprises. I thought you'd be up in the clouds!
- Jerome Kern: I feel like I've just been yanked out of the clouds.
- Jerome Kern: Jim, you know, for the first time in my life I'm lonely. Here I am on a ship full of people and with you, and I might as well be on a deserted island all by myself. Did you ever feel this way?
- James I. Hessler: Yes, once.
- Jerome Kern: What did you do about it?
- James I. Hessler: I married the girl.
- Julia Sanderson: [singing] They'll never believe me, they'll never believe me, That from this great big world you've chosen me...
- Dance Specialty (segment: "Till the Clouds Roll By"): [singing] Oh, the rain comes a pitter, patter, And I'd like to be safe in bed, Skies are weeping, while the world is sleeping, Trouble heaping on our head...
- Dance Specialty (segment: "Till the Clouds Roll By"): [singing] Helter skelter, I must fly for shelter, Till the clouds roll by...
- Jerome Kern: Yes, it was good to be home. I felt I had everything in the world: happiness, success, and the wife I had dreamed about. I wanted to put it all into music: Eva's smile - and her eyes - and what it meant to be with her. And at last it seemed to me that the clouds had rolled by.
- Jane (segment: "Cleopatterer"): [singing] She danced new dances now and then, The sort that make you blush, Each time she did them, scores of men, Got injured in the rush, They'd stand there gaping in a line, And watch her agitate her spine...
- Dinah Shore: [singing] The last time I saw Paris, Her heart was warm and gay, No matter how they change her, I'll remember her that way.
- Frank Sinatra: [singing] You'll get a little drunk, And you'll land in jail. I gets weary, And so sick of tryin', I'm tired of livin', But I'm feared of dyin', But ol' man river, He just keeps rollin' a - - - - - - - - - - - long.