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Paula Alquist Anton: If I were not mad, I could have helped you. Whatever you had done, I could have pitied and protected you. But because I am mad, I hate you. Because I am mad, I have betrayed you. And because I'm mad, I'm rejoicing in my heart, without a shred of pity, without a shred of regret, watching you go with glory in my heart!
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Paula Alquist Anton: Yes, of course, that's it. I am mad.
[throws the knife away]
Paula Alquist Anton: I'm always losing things and hiding things and I can never find them, I don't know where I've put them.
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Paula Alquist Anton: My broach. The broach I lost at the Tower. I've found it at last, you see, but it doesn't help you, does it, and I'm trying to help you, aren't I, trying to help you to escape. How can a mad woman help her husband to escape?
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Paula Alquist Anton: It isn't here, you must have dreamed you put it there. Are you suggesting that this is a knife I hold in my hand? Have you gone mad, my husband? Or is it I who am mad?
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Gregory Anton: Jewels are wonderful things. They have a life of their own.
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Nancy Oliver: Gonna work on your tunes again tonight, sir? You're always working, aren't you?
Gregory Anton: Yes. What are you doing with your evening out?
Nancy Oliver: Oh, I'm going to a music hall...
[starts to sing 'Up in a balloon']
Gregory Anton: I've never been to an English music hall.
Nancy Oliver: Oh, you don't know what you've missed, sir...
Gregory Anton: And whom are you going to the music hall with?
Nancy Oliver: A gentleman friend, sir.
Gregory Anton: Oh, now you know, Nancy, don't you, that gentlemen friends are sometimes inclined to take liberties with young ladies.
Nancy Oliver: Oh no, sir, not with me. I can take care of myself - when I want to.
Gregory Anton: You know, Nancy, it strikes me that you're not at all the kind of girl that your mistress should have for a housemaid.
Nancy Oliver: [flirtatiously] No, sir? She's not the only one in the house - is she?
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Gregory Anton: For the last time, what do you want of me?
Brian Cameron: The jewels - and justice. How does it feel, Bauer, to have planned and killed and tortured for something and then to know it's been for nothing?
Gregory Anton: For nothing?
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Gregory Anton: I don't ask you to understand me. Between us all the time were those jewels, like a fire - a fire in my brain that separated us - those jewels which I wanted all my life. I don't know why... Goodbye, Paula.
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Gregory Anton: I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were dangerous to me.
Brian Cameron: I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were dangerous to her.
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Gregory Anton: You see how it is, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: I see *just* how it is, sir.
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Gregory Anton: You're not angry with me?
Paula Alquist Anton: Angry? If you hadn't come, I should have sent for you.
[long kiss and embrace]
Miss Thwaites: Well!
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Miss Thwaites: I'm afraid I enjoy a good murder now and then. My brother always calls me "Bloodthirsty Bessie."
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Miss Thwaites: Have a biscuit, dear.
Paula Alquist Anton: Thank you.
Miss Thwaites: Digestive biscuits. Unpleasant name, isn't it? I always call them "diggy biscuits."
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Miss Thwaites: I'm going to London. I must be in London for the spring. The crocuses, you know, and the daffodils and the tulips. The gardens are so beautiful in the spring. I go and say "Good morning" to my flowers in Thornton Square every day.
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Maestro Guardi: Real tragedy has touched your life - and very deeply. But now there is a chance to forget tragedy, my child. Take it. Free yourself from the past - and forget your singing, too, for a while. Happiness is better than art.
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Paula Alquist Anton: That house comes into my dreams sometimes - a house of horror. It's strange. I haven't dreamed of it since I've known you. I haven't been afraid since I've known you.
Gregory Anton: Afraid?
Paula Alquist Anton: Yes. For years I've been afraid of something nameless ever since she died. You've cast out fear for me.
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Miss Thwaites: Good morning, daffodils. Good morning, tulips. Good morning.
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Paula Alquist Anton: Will you light the gas, please?
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Paula Alquist Anton: It's all dead in here. The whole place seems to smell of death.
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Nancy Oliver: She's a tartar, ain't she?
Gregory Anton: What do you mean by that?
Nancy Oliver: Oh, you know, strict-like. I'm not gonna sleep in the same room with her.
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Gregory Anton: I hope you're not a flighty girl.
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Nancy Oliver: What's the matter with the mistress? She don't look ill to me. Is she?
Elizabeth: I don't know. Not as I can see. But the master keeps telling her she is.
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Gregory Anton: I'll have it mended. You better not wear it until I have. You might lose it. You know, you are inclined to lose things.
Paula Alquist Anton: I am? I didn't realize that.
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Gregory Anton: Are you becoming suspicious as well as absent-minded, Paula?
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Paula Alquist Anton: Suddenly, I am beginning not to trust my memory at all.
Gregory Anton: I tell you, you're just tired, that's all. It doesn't mean anything.
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Miss Thwaites: Odd. Definitely odd. It's an odd household, too. That maidservant, most impertinent. I can't get a thing out of her. She won't talk to me; though, she would quick enough if I wore trousers. The way she carries on with that policeman on the beat. It's scandalous!
-
Gregory Anton: Ring for the maid.
Paula Alquist Anton: I can put it on myself.
Gregory Anton: We've had this subject out before. Please, pull the bell cord.
Paula Alquist Anton: It seems so unnecessary.
Gregory Anton: What do you suppose the servants are for? Answer me. What do you suppose the servants are for?
Paula Alquist Anton: To do things. To serve us, I suppose.
Gregory Anton: Exactly.
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Gregory Anton: That complexion of yours, that's something that's not quite true, either. Oh, you do it very cleverly, I grant you. In fact, I was wondering whether you might not care to pass some of your secrets on to your mistress and help her get rid of her pallor.
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Gregory Anton: It hurts me when you're ill and fanciful.
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Gregory Anton: You must get over this ridiculous fear of the servants.
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Gregory Anton: Don't you think this is charming? It's from the new operetta at the Gaiety. I wish I could write tunes like Strauss.
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Paula Alquist Anton: Please don't leave me here all by myself now. I get so frightened when I am here alone and you go out night after night.
Gregory Anton: Frightened? You never told me that before.
Paula Alquist Anton: I'm telling you now! I'm frightened of the house! I hear noises and footsteps. I imagine things, that there are people over the house. I'm frightened of myself, too.
-
Nancy Oliver: She seems to be getting worse, doesn't she, sir?
Gregory Anton: You will please not refer to your mistress as "she."
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Lady Dalroy: I've put you next to Laura Pritchard.
Brian Cameron: I don't like Laura Pritchard. She's got adenoids.
Lady Dalroy: Nonsense. She's a most agreeable girl, and I want you to be very nice to her.
Lord Dalroy: Haven't you learned yet that Mildred is an incurable matchmaker?
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Lady Dalroy: I'm sorry, Brian, but you'll have to sit next to the Pritchard girl after all.
Brian Cameron: The Antons can't come.
Lady Dalroy: No.
Brian Cameron: Letter from her?
Lady Dalroy: No. From him.
Brian Cameron: Him?
Lady Dalroy: Yes. Apparently she's ill. Very tiresome of her.
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Gregory Anton: If I could only get inside that brain of yours and understand what makes you do these crazy, twisted things.
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Paula Alquist Anton: Did you turn on the gas? Did you turn on the gas anywhere downstairs just now?
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Elizabeth: The gas comes in pipes, ma'am. And I expect they get more gas in the pipes at some times, than they does at others.
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Paula Alquist Anton: I couldn't have dreamed it. No, I couldn't. I couldn't have dreamed it. No, I couldn't have dreamed it. I couldn't have dreamed it! Did I dream? Did I really, really dream? Dream, dream.
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Gregory Anton: You'd better explain your business, sir.
Brian Cameron: Well, as a mere figment, as a mere ghost existing in your wife's mind, I could hardly be said to have any business.
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Paula Alquist Anton: I must look for it, mustn't I? If I don't find it, you will put me in the madhouse. Where could it be, now?
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Paula Alquist Anton: This night will be a long night.
Brian Cameron: But it will end. It's starting to clear. In the morning, when the sun rises sometimes it's hard to believe there ever was a night. You'll find that, too.
Gaslight Quotes
Extended Reading
