Phantom of the Paradise Quotes

Swan: Saturday, November 19, 1953. Today, I have decided to kill myself. And being the greatest showman of my time, I'm recording live for the Swan archives. Why? It's simple, I'm getting old. I can't bear it. To see this beautiful face ravaged by the forces of time. If I can't be young forever, I'd rather end it all - now!

Winslow Leach: [singing] All my dreams are lost and I can't sleep. And sleep alone could ease my mind. All my tears have dried and I can't weep. Old emotions, may they rest in peace and dream. Dream a bunch of friends, rest in peace and dream, dream it never ends.

Swan: [holding a contract] It's all here. Read it carefully, and then sign at the bottom in blood. Messy, I know. But it's the only way I can bind you. Tradition. What do you have to lose?

The Phantom: [to Beef] Never sing my music again. Not here, not anywhere. Do you understand? Never again. My music is for Phoenix. Only she can sing it. Anyone else who tries, dies!

Swan: [to the Phantom] Winslow, what a foolish thing to do. Didn't you read you contract closely? See where it says "terms of agreement", can you read what it says? "This contract terminates with Swan." No more suicides, Winslow. You gave up your right to rest in peace when you signed this contract. What if you do find a loophole? Is that what you're thinking? Forget it. That stays sealed only as long as I have the power to bind you. If I am destroyed, that gaping wound opens. You might say we terminate together.

Winslow Leach: [after receiving his prison sentence] But I'm innocent! Swan stole my music and FRAMED ME!

Swan: [to Phoenix] Your voice, remember? You promised me your voice! Our contract, remember?

Swan: This picture will age in your place. And you must watch it every day just to see how lucky you are. And the tape from which the picture comes must be guarded at all costs. When it goes, you go.

The Phantom: [singing] Half asleep, I hear a voice. Is it only in my mind? Or is it someone calling me, someone I failed and left behind? To work it out, I let them in. All the good guys and the bad guys that I've been. All the devils that disturb me, and the angels that defeated them somehow. Come together in me now.

The Phantom: [singing] Like a circus on parade. Seldom close enough to see. I wonder through an angry crowd, and wonder what's become of me. To work it out, I let them in. All the good guys and the bad guys that I've been. All the devils that disturb me, and the angels that defeated them somehow. Come together in me now.

Beef: [singing] Life at last, salutations from the other side. I can see that you're the devil's pride. Do you realize that all of you donated something horrible you hated that is part of you? I'm your nightmares comin' true, I am your crime! Life at last, sit and listen while the fun begins. Hearts are broken and the bad guys win. Sit and listen, all the cutting up is easy. And this isn't for the queasy or the weak of heart. You had better start for home while there's still time! I'm the evil that you created, gettin' horny and damned frustrated. Bored still and I want me a woman now. I'm the evil that you created, gettin' horny and damned frustrated. Each of you must stop and try me, all of you might satisfy me!

Phoenix: [singing] Our love is an old love, baby, it's older than all our years. I have seen in strange young eyes, familiar tears. We're old souls in a new life, baby. They gave us a new life to live and learn. Some time to touch old friends and still return. Our paths have crossed and parted, this love affair was started long, long ago. This love survives the ages, in it story lives are pages. Fill them up, may ours turn slow. Our love is a strong love, baby, we give it all and still receive. And so with empty arms, we must still believe. All souls last forever so we need never fear goodbye. A kiss when I must go... no tears... in time... we kiss hello.

Phoenix: [singing] Caught up in your wheelin' dealin', you've got no time left for simple feelin'. I thought I knew you, but I didn't know you at all. Trapped inside you world of worry, you miss so much when you always hurry. Well, slow down, baby, you'll only get hurt if you'll fall. Well, you told me one time that you'd be somebody. That you weren't workin' just to survive. But you're workin' so hard that you don't even know you're alive. Workin' so hard to be somebody special, not working just to survive. Well, you're special to me, babe. But what I don't see, babe, is where you go once you arrive. Where we go once we arrive.

Phoenix: [singing] Then all the evil that takes poesssion until your pipe dreams become obesssions. They scare me, baby, and we should have nothing to fear. I'm no child, but I can't help wonder it seems like some kind of spell you're under. You're listening, baby, but somehow you don't really hear. Well, you told me one time that you'd be somebody. That you weren't workin' just to survive. But you're workin' so hard that you don't even know you're alive. Workin' so hard to be somebody special, not working just to survive. Well, you're special to me, babe. But what I don't see, babe, is where we go once we arrive. Where you go once you arrive.

Introductory Narrator: Swan... he has no other name. His past is a mystery, but his work is already a legend. He wrote and produced his first gold record at 14; in the years since then, he has won so many other that he once tried to deposit them in Fort Knox. He brought the blues to Britain. He brought Liverpool to America. He brought folk and rock together. His band, the Juicy Fruits, single-handedly gave birth to the nostalgia wave of the '70s. Now he is looking for the new sound of the spheres, to inaugurate his own Xanadu, his own Disneyland: the Paradise, the ultimate rock palace. This film is the story of that search, of that sound, of the man who made it, the girl who sang it... and the monster who stole it.