Antonio Salieri: [reflecting upon a Mozart score] On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse. Bassoons and basset horns, like a rusty squeezebox. And then suddenly, high above it, an oboe. A single note, hanging t...
[last lines] [Salieri is wheelchaired through the insane asylum] Antonio Salieri: Mediocrities everywhere... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you all.
Antonio Salieri: All I wanted was to sing to God. He gave me that longing... and then made me mute. Why? Tell me that. If He didn't want me to praise him with music, why implant the desire? Like a lust in my body! And then deny me the talent?
Antonio Salieri: [addressing a crucifix] From now, we are enemies... You and I. Because You choose for Your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me for reward only to recognize the incarnation. Because You are unjust, unfair...
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Forgive me, Majesty. I am a vulgar man! But I assure you, my music is not. Emperor Joseph II: You are passionate, Mozart, but you do not persuade...
Antonio Salieri: [to Father Vogel] I will speak for you, Father. I speak for all mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint.
Antonio Salieri: Leave me alone. Father Vogler: I cannot leave alone a soul in pain. Antonio Salieri: Do you know who I am? Father Vogler: It makes no difference. All men are equal in God's eyes. Antonio Salieri: [leans in mockingly] *Are* they?
Antonio Salieri: [reflecting upon a Mozart score] Astounding! It was actually, it was beyond belief. But they showed no corrections of any kind. Not one. He had simply written down music already finished in his head! Page after page of it as if he we...
Antonio Salieri: My plan was so simple. It terrified me. First I must get the death mass and then, I must achieve his death. Father Vogler: [stares in horror] What? Antonio Salieri: His funeral! Imagine it, the cathedral, all Vienna sitting there, hi...
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.
[Having played two pieces of music to Father Vogel, who does not recognize either] Antonio Salieri: Can you remember no melody of mine? I was the most famous composer in Europe. I wrote 40 operas alone! [suddenly inspired] Antonio Salieri: Here, what...
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, ...
[repeated line] Emperor Joseph II: Well, there it is.
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 ...
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 ba...
Antonio Salieri: [to Father Vogel] While my father prayed earnestly to God to protect commerce, I would offer up secretly the proudest prayer a boy could think of: "Lord, make me a great composer. Let me celebrate Your glory through music and be cele...
[the Emperor offers the sheet music of Salieri's welcome march to Mozart] Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Keep it Majesty, if you want. It's already here in my head. Emperor Joseph II: What? On one hearing only? Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: I think so, Sire, ye...
