Lea de Lonval: I'm probably making a fool of myself... but then again, why not? Life is short!
Lea de Lonval: I can't criticize his character, mainly because he doesn't seem to have one!
Lea de Lonval: What do you expect me to do, go and pine away in Normandy? Stop dyeing my hair? Is that what you want?

Cheri: Yes.

Lea de Lonval: You're not the first young man I've said goodbye to.

Cheri: Yes, I know, but what I thought might be appropriate is if I were the last.
Madame Peloux: [to Lea] He pays no attention to me anymore, but I'm sure he'll listen to anything you have to say.
Lea de Lonval: That woman always makes me feel so grubby. I can't stop myself from going down to her level. She's always been a troublemaker. I landed a good few blows today. We're like two dogs fighting over an old slipper.
Cheri: Nounoune.

Lea de Lonval: Chéri.
[first lines]

Narrator: We may think ourselves familiar in this day and age with the notion that whores of every description can very easily achieve fame and fortune. But towards the end of the 19th century, there what came to be known in France as the "Belle Epoque", a select group of courtesans, who became for a short period, the most celebrated and powerful women in the long history of prostitution.
Lea de Lonval: Is there anything more wonderful than a bed to oneself?
Madame Peloux: No more than ten cigarettes a day, he said, and brandy only at the weekend. He said it was my heart.

Lea de Lonval: So there is one.
Cheri: You're so beautiful.

Lea de Lonval: A good body lasts a long time.
Lea de Lonval: Being with someone for six years is like following your husband to the colonies. By the time you got back you've forgotten what you're supposed to wear, and nobody remembers who you are.
La Loupiote: I don't know how you could go off like that with strange men.

Madame Peloux: All men are strange.
La Copine: [to Chéri] I'm so sorry, I know what the trouble is. You have everything you could possibly want, and none of it means a thing.
Lea de Lonval: [holding her arms above her head] Beautiful handles, don't you think, for such an old vase?
Cheri: Stop it, Nounoune! I can't allow you to ruin my idea of you!

Lea de Lonval: What?

Cheri: Talking like that, you remind me of my mother!
Lea de Lonval: Did you really think I was such a good person? If I'd been a truly good person, I'd have made a man of you instead of thinking but nothing but your pleasure and my happiness.
[last lines]

Narrator: He was unable to suppress a sense that he had been able to escape from something. That he was a free man again. A feeling he eventually came to realize was entirely misguided. It was many years before he understood that both of them had been quite unjustly punished. Léa for being born so many years before him, and Chéri for having failed to grasp that Léa was the only woman he would ever be able to love. And once he was settled in his mind that this was the case, he took out his old service revolver, and put a bullet in his brain.
Lea de Lonval: You came back here and you found an old woman. Yes, you found an old woman. Don't cry. Why are you crying? I'm so grateful to you. Were you really in love with me? Did you really think I was such a good person? If I had been a truly good person, I'd have made a man of you instead of thinking of nothing but your pleasure and my happiness. I wouldn't have kept you all to myself. Look at me. You're right. The qualities you lack, I expect it is my fault. But 30 years of easy living does make you very vulnerable. So no, I never did talk to you about the future. Forgive me. I loved you as if we were going to die the same day. I carried you in my heart for such a long time. I forgot you were going to have to carry your own burdens. A young wife. Perhaps even a child. And so you're going to suffer. You're going to miss me. And you're going to have to try to find enough wisdom and tolerance not to cause suffering to others. The thing is, now you've had a taste of youth. It's never satisfying, but you'll always want to go back for more. You must go. I love you. But it's too late. So get dressed. And go away now.
Madame Peloux: Don't you find now the skin is a little less firm, it holds perfume so much better.