Johnny has just been released from prison, and gets a job in a café beside waitress Frankie. Frankie is a bit of a loner, but Johnny is determined their romance will blossom.

Johnny: You don't have to be afraid anymore.
Frankie: I am. I'm afraid. I'm afraid to be alone, I'm afraid not to be alone. I'm afraid of what I am, what I'm not, what I might become, what I might never become. I don't want to stay at my job for the rest of my life but I'm afraid to leave. And I'm just tired, you know, I'm just so tired of being afraid.
Johnny: I think we should get married and have kids.
Frankie: [hysterical] I don't like kids!
Johnny: I don't believe that.
Frankie: [pause] I can't have any! Are you happy now?
Johnny: Now, there's a man and a woman. He's a cook. She's a waitress. Now, they meet and they don't connect. Only, she noticed him. He could feel it. And he noticed her. And they both knew it was going to happen. They made love, and for maybe one whole night, they forgot the 10 million things that make people think, I don't love this person, I don't like this person, I don't know this- Instead, it was perfect, and they were perfect. And that's all there was to know about. Only now, she's beginning to forget all that, and pretty soon he's going to forget it too.
Johnny: [Waiting for Frankie] I have a cousin who's gay, by the way.
Tim: Oh, most people do.
Frankie: Ready!
Johnny: He's a really great guy.
Tim: I'm sure.
Johnny: He just found out he was gay a couple of months ago.
Tim: Well, I'll look him up in the directory. Under the new entries.
Johnny: So, how about you? Do you ever want to kill yourself sometimes?
Frankie: Yeah, everybody wants to kill themselves sometime.
Tim: [after repeated phone calls from Johnny] Excuse me, Johnny, I've got to hang up. We're expecting a call from you any minute
Frankie: [shows Johnny a scar on her neck] The man I was with... he did this with a belt buckle. He's the reason I can't have kids. He, uh... he knocked me around while I was... pregnant.
[begins crying]
Frankie: I lost the baby.
Johnny: [gently kisses the scar] It's gone.
Frankie: It'll never be gone.
[last lines]
Frankie: I'm thirty-six.
Frankie: Why do you want to kill yourself sometimes?
Johnny: I want to kill myself sometimes when I think that I'm the only person in the world and that part of me that feels that way is trapped inside this body, that only bumps into other bodies, without ever connecting to the only other person in the world trapped inside of them. We have to connect. We just have to.
Frankie: [joking with Jorge] Hey Jorge, the immigration!
[a group of people run out of the cafe in a hurry]
Frankie: No! I didn't mean it!
Frankie: [Johnny carves a rose out of a potato and gives it to Frankie] What is *that?*
Johnny: A rose. It grew in the kitchen.
[doorbell rings]
Tim: Are you expecting someone?
Frankie: No.
[doorbell rings again]
Frankie: Hello, who is it?
Johnny: Frankie?
Frankie: Johnny?
Tim: Ooh, I just got goosebumps.
Johnny: Raw eggs, coming up!
Frankie: Not raw! Runny!
Frankie: I don't date, by choice.
Tim: Too bad, because I love your choices. We went from Mr. Abuse You to Mr. Use You, plus a Christmas fling with a cross-dresser that I blew the whistle on, thank you very much.
Johnny: I know I can't the make the bad go away. You're right, I can't. But when the bad comes again, I am gonna be next to you.
Cora: [stroking a pregnant woman's belly] People think I'm a tough bitch, but it ain't true. Shit like this chokes me up.
Cora: It didn't SEEM like you came! I mean, usually a guy'll moan or somethin', you didn't even clear your throat!
Frankie: Why are you doing this?
Johnny: Everything I want is in this room.
Cora: Tino! Who do ya gotta fuck to get a waffle here?
[Tino points at himself, Cora looks at a customer]
Cora: Forget the waffle!
Mr. Rosen: [to Johnny as he leaves prison] New York City can be a real dangerous, hostile place.
Johnny: It'll be a nice change.
Frankie: I'm a BLT down sort of person, and I think you're looking for someone a little more pheasant under glass.
Nick: Come on, Grandma, we go home, we watch wrestling!
[repeated line]
Johnny: Pardon my French.
Nedda: Want some bran? You might as well eat rope and yank it through.