The film's most-quoted line of dialogue, spoken by Octave, is "You see, in this world, there is one awful thing, and that is that everyone has his reasons." Renoir's sentiment of objective humanism for the film's characters is articulated by Octave's remark and shows his empathy for the people he was simultaneously criticizing. Richard Roud praised Renoir's role in the film, observing that Renoir's honesty compelled him to include his own role in his social criticism: "he did not wish to stand outside. And Renoir/Octave serves as the standard against which reality and fiction can be measured." In his original outline for the film, Renoir said he intended all the characters to be sincere and that the film would have no villains.