- [last lines]
- Eric: [handing him a letter] Dear Mr. Nagase, the war has been over for many years. I have suffered much, but I know you have suffered, too. And you have been most courageous, and brave in working for reconciliation. While I cannot forget what happened in Kanchanaburi, I assure you of my total forgiveness. Sometime the hating has to stop.
- [first lines]
- Eric: At the beginning of time, the clock struck one. A drop of dew, and the clock struck two. From the dew grew a tree, and the clock struck three. Then the tree made a door, and the clock struck four. Then man came alive, And the clock struck five. Count not, waste not, the hours of the clock. Behold I stand at the door and knock.
- Finlay: When we surrendered, the Japs said we weren't men. Real men would... would kill themselves, would die of shame. But we said no. We'll live - for revenge. But we didn't, no. We don't live. We're miming in the choir. We can't love. We can't sleep. We're an army of ghosts.
- Patti: Did you know Warrington is famous for vodka?
- Eric: [eyes on his book] You know, with all due respect to your friend, if all he mentioned is vodka, he's really only scratched the surface of Warrington.
- [looks up at Patti]
- Eric: the Black Prince? Remember the Black Prince? Had all his armour made there. Warrington was really the only place to go if you wanted a suit of armour. Sort of Saville Row in steel
- Nagase: That's what I saw. So many murdered. So I will speak. I make pilgrimages. I work for... reconciliation. I will not let them forget the tragedy of war.
- Eric: The what?
- Nagase: The tragedy of war.
- Eric: No, this wasn't a tragedy. This was a crime. You're not tragic. You're a criminal. You were an intelligent, educated man, and you did nothing.
- Nagase: I tried to make amends.
- Eric: You're living off this.
- [indicating the war museum]
- Eric: You're a criminal and a liar.
- Young Takeshi Nagase: You have no honor. Your army's defeated. You surrendered like dogs. Look at you, you should be ashamed to be alive. If my army was defeated, I would take my life to save my honor.
- Young Eric: You'll get your chance. Any day now.
- Eric: My mother was already dead, as it happens. All through the war, I wrote letters home to a dead woman.