How do I retrieve the contents of a Quill text editor

Quite simply by accessing the editor's innerHTML:

var quill = new Quill('#editor', {
    theme: 'snow'
});
// ....
var editor_content = quill.container.innerHTML // or quill.container.firstChild.innerHTML could also work

Hope this helps!

Depends what you want to get, here's an example showing a few ways:

http://codepen.io/k3no/pen/amwpqk

var delta = editor.getContents();
var text = editor.getText();
var justHtml = editor.root.innerHTML;
preciousContent.innerHTML = JSON.stringify(delta);
justTextContent.innerHTML = text;
justHtmlContent.innerHTML = justHtml;