Antonio Salieri: I heard the music of true forgiveness filling the theater, conferring on all who sat there, perfect absolution. God was singing through this little man to all the world, unstoppable, making my defeat more bitter with every passing bar.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: I am fed to the teeth with elevated themes! Old dead legends! Why must we go on forever writing about gods and legends?
Baron Van Swieten: Because they do. They go on forever. Or at least what they represent. The eternal in us. Opera is here to enoble us. You and me, just the same as His Majesty.
Emanuel Schikaneder: Look, I asked you if we could start rehearsals next week and you said yes.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Well, we can.
Emanuel Schikaneder: So let me see it. Where is it?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Here. It's all right here in my noodle. The rest is just scribbling. Scribbling and bibbling, bibbling and scribbling.
Antonio Salieri: He was my idol. Mozart, I can't think of a time when I didn't know his name. I was still playing childish games and he was playing music for kings and emperors. Even the Pope in Rome! I admit I was jealous when I heard the tales they told about him. Not of the brilliant little prodigy himself, but of his father, who had taught him everything.
Emperor Joseph II: My dear young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Why must I submit samples of my work to some stupid committee just to teach a thirteen-year-old girl?
Count Von Strack: Because His Majesty wishes it.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Is the emperor angry with me?
Count Von Strack: Quite the contrary.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Then why doesn't he simply appoint me to the post?
Count Von Strack: Mozart, you are not the only composer in Vienna.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: No, but I'm the best.
Antonio Salieri: Are you sure you can't leave these and, and come back again?
Constanze Mozart: It's very tempting sir, but it's impossible, I'm afraid. Wolfgang would be frantic if he found those were missing, you see they're all originals.
Antonio Salieri: Originals?
Constanze Mozart: Yes, sir, he doesn't make copies.
Antonio Salieri: These, are originals?
Constanze Mozart: Wolfie, I think you really are going mad. You work like a slave for that idiot actor who won't give you a penny. And here, this is not a ghost! This is a real man who puts down real money. Why on earth won't you finish it? Can you give me one reason I can understand?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: It's killing me.
Antonio Salieri: But why? Why would God choose an obscene child to be His instrument? It was not to be believed! This piece had to be an accident. It had to be.
Antonio Salieri: ...It better be.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: It's unbelievable, the director has actually torn up a huge section of my music. They say I have to rewrite the opera. But it's perfect as it is! I can't rewrite what's perfect.
Constanze Mozart: Stop it.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: I am stopping it! Slowly. There? See? I've stopped. Now we're going back.
Constanze Mozart: No.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Yes, yes! You don't know where you are! Here, everything goes backwards. People walk backwards, dance backwards, sing backwards, and even talk backwards.
Constanze Mozart: That's stupid.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Why? People fart backwards.
Count Orsini-Rosenberg: Italian is the proper language for opera. All educated people agree on that.
Constanze Mozart: What are you doing here?
Antonio Salieri: Your husband took sick. I brought him home.
Constanze Mozart: But why you?
Antonio Salieri: Because, madam, I was at hand.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: I actually threw the score on the fire, he made me so angry.
Antonio Salieri: You burned the score?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: No, no. My wife took it out in time.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: My music... they started without me.
Emperor Joseph II: Brava, madame! You are an ornament to our stage.
