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Florence Ponting: He knows the names of trees and flowers and constellations and he wears plimsolls, never shoes.
Ruth Ponting: And his socks never match.
Florence Ponting: Exactly.
Ruth Ponting: And he doesn't know the difference between a croissant and a baguette.
Florence Ponting: That's why I love him.
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Edward Mayhew: [about his mother] When he used this horrible phrase, everything changed. Brain-damaged. Suddenly I saw her the way other people did.
Florence Ponting: That must have been awful. You're always very kind to her. My mother just pretends to be brain-damaged.
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Florence Ponting: [during foreplay] Say something. No, say something stupid like you used to.
Edward Mayhew: Miss Ponting, you have a clavicle and a philtrum that all men wish to play on, and a vibrato that all men adore, but you're entirely mine, and I'm so very glad and proud.
Florence Ponting: In that case, you may kiss my vibrato.
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Florence Ponting: [Reading love, sex and marriage to Ruth] Women are like doorways. Men can enter though them.
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Florence Ponting: Edward, I want to make you happy. But I think I'm always a disappointment. You're always advancing, I'm always backing away, and we can't talk about it. We can never just be happy... or just be. You're always demanding something more and I'm useless at... And you go silent and unhappy and it's all my fault. And when I do... I mean when I say yes to something, even if I don't really want to, I know there'll be another thing that I'm expected to do. I'm no good at these demands.
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Florence Ponting: You know I love you.
Edward Mayhew: Still!
Florence Ponting: I want to spend my life with you. And you feel the same. We love each other and we can set each other free. Edward, it must be obvious to you by now that I'm...
Edward Mayhew: Florence, what is it?
Florence Ponting: That I'm pretty hopeless. No, I'm absolutely hopeless at sex. I'm no good at it. I don't seem to need it like other people, like you do. I might change, but I can't imagine it. If I don't say this now, we'll always be struggling with it. It's going to cause you a lot of unhappiness and me too.
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Florence Ponting: We can live by our own rules too, Edward. I can say this because I know you love me. We don't have to be like everyone else. We could live together and... and so... and no one would know what we did or didn't do. We'd be together and if you wanted, really wanted, that's to say, whenever it happened, and of course, it would happen, I'd understand. More than that, I'd want it because I want you to be happy, and free. I'd never be jealous as long as I knew that you loved me.
On Chesil Beach Quotes
Extended Reading
