"What's the matter with you all? You've lost your sense of humor?"
Henryk says this after telling a horrible story about the Nazis killing a man. Mrs. Szpilman doesn't allow them to talk about the horrors of the day, but Henryk is defiant and wants to talk about all of the terrible things that are happening.
"Here, sell this. Food is more important than time."
While Wladyslaw is hiding away in a flat outside the ghetto, the man who is providing him with food tells him that it is hard to raise money for him. Szpilman takes his watch off and tells him to sell it, suggesting that food is more important than "time."
"Halina, it's a funny time to say this. I wish I knew you better."
As Wladyslaw and his sister walk to the trains that will take them to the death camps, he says this to her. It is a small and tragic statement, one that foreshadows their ultimate separation and death.
"Thank God, not me. He wants us to survive. Well, that's what we have to believe."
When Wladyslaw tries to thank Hosenfeld for his unexpected help, Hosenfeld says this to him. He sees his helping Wladyslaw as the will of God, even if he remains ambivalent about God's existence in such dark times.
"No one plays Chopin like you."
Dorota says this to Wladyslaw on their little date to show her admiration for him as a pianist.
"It's an official decree, no Jews allowed in the parks."
When he goes on his outing with Dorota, Szpilman realizes that he is not allowed in a coffee shop because he is a Jew. When she suggests they go to the park, he tells her that Jews are not allowed in the park either, which she thinks is a joke, but it is not a joke at all.
"If I'm going to die, I prefer to die in my own home."
When the Szpilman family first gets wind of the German invasion, they want to leave the city, but Szpilman is intent on staying put. He feels a strong connection to his home, and he does not want to go somewhere else.
"Ah, more Jewish police. You mean you want me to beat up Jews and catch the Gestapo spirit? I see."
When Heller offers the Szpilman brothers jobs with the Jewish police, this is Henryk's response. He laughs at the proposal, suggesting that it is evil and hypocritical to work for the Nazis in any capacity.
"Why the fucking coat?"
At the end of the film, the Russian and Polish soldiers shoot at Wladyslaw because he is wearing Hosenfeld's German army jacket. They mistake him for a German, so when he identifies himself as Polish, they ask him this, irreverently questioning why a Pole would wear a German jacket.
"I want to help. I want to do something."
While talking to his friend who works at the newspaper, Wladyslaw tells him that he wants to get involved with the resistance in some way. His friend tells him that, as an artist, he does enough, but Wladyslaw insists that he wants to do more.
