- Midge: For the first time in my life, people cheering for me. Were you deaf? Didn't you hear 'em? We're not hitchhiking any more. We're riding!
- Midge: Look, you and me and the old lady. That's what's important. Nobody else.
- Connie: What's happened to you? Nothing stands in your way anymore, does it? First, Emma, then Johnny Dunne, now Haley. You've got your own way of destroying people and I don't want any part of it.
- Midge: Well, who's twisting your arm?
- Connie: Thanks, Midge. You've made it easy for me.
- [starts to leave]
- Midge: OK, go on. Feed yourself for a change. Find yourself a job. Go with Haley. Ah, take your bleeding heart out of here.
- Connie: It's not that, Midge. It's just that I wouldn't get much sleep at nights wondering when it was going to be my turn.
- [he exits]
- Haley: [to Midge] This is the only sport in the world where two guys get paid for doing something they'd be arrested for if they got drunk and did it for nothing.
- Connie: [entering the room holding a newspaper after Midge just dumped Haley as his manager] Hey, did you see what Walker says?
- [pauses when he notices their dour expressions]
- Connie: What's the matter?
- Haley: Nothing. This is a celebration. Midge is getting a shot at the title and he's got himself a new manager... a blonde.
- Connie: And I know you, but I didn't know you up in that ring. You looked as if you wanted to kill that guy. As if you would've killed him if they hadn't stopped you.
- Midge: Is that bad?
- Connie: I don't know. I really don't know. But I kept thinking you weren't just hitting that guy in the ring. I kept thinking you were hitting a lot of guys. Different guys. All the guys that ever hurt you. I can't put my finger on it but there's... there's something wrong about that.
- Midge: [to Grace] You dumped me once. Now I'm dumping you. For good. You better promote yourself another meal ticket.
- Emma: [to Connie at the restaurant] I wanted to get away from dirty dishes and glasses, but here I am.
- Connie: [to Midge] Why did you do it? Because you were bored? Did you have to prove to yourself you're really the champion? You stink! You stink from corruption! You're worse than a murderer. You're a grave robber!
- [Midge knocks him down]
- Connie: Why haven't you divorced him?
- Emma: I don't know. You know there's more loneliness than anything else in the world. You could be lonely in an awful lot of places - movies, dance halls, in your own room. People are funny.
- [she looks at her wedding ring]
- Emma: One little piece of cheap gold can almost make you believe things are different than they really are. What do you want, Connie? Does Midge want a divorce? He can have it!
- [she cries and leaves]
- Harris: [as he and Midge look at the New York skyline from the window of Harris' high-rise office] Wonderful view, isn't it? The capitol of the whole world. It's all yours if you want it. People look very small down there, don't they? You know, there are only two kinds of people in this world. The big and the little. It's very seldom anyone gets the chance to decide for himself which he's going to be.
- Grace: [to Midge] I'm expensive. Awful expensive. I didn't want you to think you could buy me cheap.
- Emma: It's funny.
- Midge: What?
- Emma: You know, I didn't like you at first. Well, you know, you never smile. I mean really smile. Not just on the outside.
- Midge: Got to be happy to smile that way.
- Emma: Aren't you happy?
- Midge: Well, right now I am.
- Emma: Then why don't you smile?
- Emma: [he laughs] Midge, why aren't you happy?
- Midge: Happy? It's hard to be happy when you're poor. I've been poor all my life. Real poor. You know what it is to be real poor? Cold poor? Hungry poor?
- Connie: [taking the high road about Midge to a reporter] He was a champion. He went out like a champion. He was a credit to the fight game until the very end.