- Juan Gallardo: They say that when a ship is sinking all the rats leave. Good-bye, rats!
- [Antonio Lopez and Encarnacíon start to leave]
- Juan Gallardo: But you're mistaken if you think I'm sinking! Well, what are you waiting for!
- Carmen Espinosa: All my life I have heard about you.
- Doña Sol des Muire: What have you heard?
- Carmen Espinosa: Shall I be frank?
- Doña Sol des Muire: Please do!
- Carmen Espinosa: I've heard you've been all over the world, that you speak many languages, and that you've known a great many men...
- Doña Sol des Muire: Go on!
- Carmen Espinosa: I've never been out of Andalucia, I speak only one language, and I've had only one man. Maybe that's why I want so much to keep him.
- Doña Sol des Muire: Senora Gallardo, is there anything I can offer you?
- Carmen Espinosa: Yes, my husband!
- Juan Gallardo: [to Carmen] Someday I'll come back to you with a whole trunkful of clippings, and when you marry me, you'll marry the first torero of Spain, not the second or third, but the first, the greatest!
- Juan Gallardo: [to Garabato] I wouldn't admit this to anybody else in the world... but always when I'm dressing like this... there's a feel of rust in my throat, the taste of death... Fear! But it's gone when I step into the arena. The minute I hear the music, the yell of the crowd, it's all right again.
- Natalio Curro: [to members of the bullfighting crowd] You're lucky to be here this afternoon. You'll see history made. From now on the history of the bull ring will be figured as B.G. and A. G. - Before Gallardo and After Gallardo! I, Curro, say it!
- Natalio Curro: At last Seville has a matador, the greatest matador of all history, a saint, the first man of the world! The day he was born, there was salt in the air! A great quantity of salt!
- [laughs]
- Nacional: [dying in great pain] I've dragged myself through the blood and sand of a thousand arenas. In the end there's only one thing I regret - I never learned to read or write. I was obliged to renounce education... but I make the whole world responsible for my ignorance.
- Juan Gallardo: [seeing his mother scrubbing the floor] Get up, get up! Suppose someone should see you?
- Señora Augustias Gallardo: There is no one left in the house to see me but you.
- Juan Gallardo: But I don't like to see you on your kneees like this!
- Señora Augustias Gallardo: But what's wrong with my being on my knees? That's how I pray, and that's how I work! This house was clean when we moved in. Let it be clean when we move out!
- Natalio Curro: [referring to Dona Sol at the arena] If this is death in the afternoon, she is death in the evening.
- Nacional: But it isn't right for you to fill yourself with rum on the day of a corrida. You don't have to worry about the bulls this afternoon. We drew a couple of bravos.
- Juan Gallardo: It's not the bulls - it's the crowds. They're waiting for me with claws.
- Nacional: The crowd is forgetful, Juanillo, like a woman, and fickle like a woman, and cruel... like a woman.
- Juan Gallardo: Shut your mouth!
- Manola de Palma: You know, Dona Sol, Juan and I are old friends. His mother used to work here. We used to live around the corner. We ran away together with some other boys. Hey, Juan, remember that horse we stole? Remember what happened to it?
- Doña Sol des Muire: What happened?
- Manola de Palma: We ate the horse!
- Doña Sol des Muire: You did? How did it taste?
- Natalio Curro: [to a tableful of sycophants at an outdoor restaurant] I understand Gallardo has one more contract to fulfill - the corrida next Sunday afternoon. I predict he will make his exit in a cloud of rotten oranges and dead cats. I hold him directly responsible for the death of Nacional, and I should say so in my article tomorrow. The trouble with Gallardo is he has cats in his belly. His father was the same way. Like father, like son.
- Juan Gallardo: [after Curro suddenly realizes Gallardo has overheard him] That's the second time you've said things about my father. As for you, you've probably never been baptized.
- [he holds him still while pouring a bottle of wine on his head, leaving him humiliated]
- Juan Gallardo: I'll baptize you now. I christen you liar, and your second name is swine!
- Natalio Curro: A butcher! He belonged to the slaughterhouse; not to the bullring.
- Juan (as a child): I spit in your milk!
- Don Jose Alvarez: Tell me, muchacho, how did it feel when you were fighting that bull?
- Juan (as a child): Sort of gay. Very gay! That's the way I always feel when I fight a bull.
- Juan (as a child): I'm not going to starve the rest of my life on gazpacho and rotten cod fish. And Encarnacion, how about her? How can she get a husband unless I make money for her dowry. And you! I don't want to see you for the rest of your life on your knees, scrubbing floors.
- Señora Augustias Gallardo: That's what your father said, too. And here I am. On my knees. Oh, you! You're your father - come back to plague me again. He died once and I died a thousand times - every time he went into the ring! And now you. You want me to die a thousand times more?
- Juan Gallardo: I was raised on it.
- Doña Sol des Muire: Really? How is it made?
- Juan Gallardo: Well, you take biscuits and oil and vinegar and some onions and garlic and you, eh, and bread crumbs, and you fry 'em all together in a pan. You throw 'em in a pot: Gazpacho.
- Doña Sol des Muire: Sounds lovely.
- Juan Gallardo: I'm glad you decided not to go to the concert.
- Doña Sol des Muire: So am I. Perhaps, we can have a concert of our own?
- Señora Augustias Gallardo: Tell me, on those days when Juan goes to the ring, to whom do you pray?
- Carmen Espinosa: To our lady of hope, La Macarena.
- Señora Augustias Gallardo: The Virgin. She is only a woman. And women can do so little. Now, I pray to a man God. Jesus of great power.
- Carmen Espinosa: What do you ask for?
- Señora Augustias Gallardo: I pray to him to let my son be gored in the ring. Not to die! But, to be hurt. So, he may cheat the end which every torero meets. Yes, that's what I pray for. And I pray to him not to send you a son. For he'll only grow up to torment and let you die every Sunday afternoon - just as you are dying now.
- Juan Gallardo: I don't understand it! The more money I make, the less I seem to have. It melts away before I ever see it!
- Señora Augustias Gallardo: Yes. One can't build on sand.
- Nacional: But, what can you expect from a herd that for the most part can't read or write? They enjoy the pleasure of a tragic emotion without the slightest danger to themselves. They scream with a lust for blood! As for the people who sit in the shade, at least they can afford it. But, the citizens of the sun, they pay five pesetas, a whole days pay - enough to feed a family, to fry in the sunny side of the ring, while they watch a few bulls being butchered. A criminal business.
- Nacional: You can't blame the crowd. You're not giving them anything!
- Juan Gallardo: Well, I've had bad luck. The bulls have been much bigger.
- Nacional: They only seem bigger. Because, when you face them, you're afraid! You were born with very little, like the rest of us; but, one thing that you had was real and pure. You were a born killer of bulls - a matador! She took it away from you. Now, when you face the bull with a sword, you're drained! Empty! There's nothing left of you but fear! You have a gun, haven't you? Why don't you bring it to the ring with you and kill the beast with a bullet!
- [Juan slaps Nacional]
- Nacional: Amigo, there is some things you can't stop, not even with a cape. Well, I'm quitting. This is my last season.
- [rolls over and dies]
- Waiter: What will you have?
- Juan Gallardo: What will you have?
- Doña Sol des Muire: Champagne!
- Juan Gallardo: Champagne.
- Waiter: Champagne?
- Juan Gallardo: Sí, champagne!
- Waiter: Champagne?
- Doña Sol des Muire: What is it Juan?
- Juan Gallardo: I was just trying to figure out what kind of a woman you are?
- Doña Sol des Muire: Yes?
- Juan Gallardo: The trouble is you're - you're not one woman, but, many - and never the same.
- Doña Sol des Muire: Well, one changes, you know.
- Manola de Palma: [sitting with Doña Sol and Juan] You know, Doña Sol, Juan and I are old friends. His mother used to work here. We used to live right around the corner. We ran away together - with some other boys. Hey, Juan, remember that horse we stole? Remember what happened to it?
- Doña Sol des Muire: What happened?
- Manola de Palma: We ate the horse!
- Doña Sol des Muire: [intrigued] You did! How did it taste?
- Manola de Palma: Excellent! Ah, those were good days. We spent a long time fighting the bulls and each other. We were great rivals - even then.
- [laughs]
- Juan Gallardo: Carmencita, when I hold you in my arms like this, I'm born again! You give me strength! I can do anything!
- Carmen Espinosa: I'm so glad you're wearing your white suit. It's the one I like best.
- Juan Gallardo: No you don't. You hate it, like my mother does. You hate them all. But, this is the last time I'm ever going to wear one. I'm through with the ring forever!