Cynthia: I can still turn a few heads...

Roxanne: ...and a few stomachs!
Maurice: Life isn't fair then is it. Somebody always draws the short straw.
Maurice: She can't help it; she never had enough love
Maurice: Secrets and lies! We're all in pain! Why can't we share our pain? I've spent my entire life trying to make people happy, and the three people I love the most in the world hate each other's guts, and I'm in the middle! I can't take it anymore!
Cynthia: You gotta laugh, ain't ya sweetheart? Else you'd cry.
Cynthia: But sweetheart, I can't be your mother!

Hortense Cumerbatch: Why not?

Cynthia: Well... look at me!
Cynthia: [to Hortense] You look more like me than m'daughter does!
[last lines]

Cynthia: Oh, this is the life, ain't it?

Roxanne, Hortense Cumerbatch: Yeah.
Cynthia: Where's this food, then? I'm ravishin'.

[Hortense laughs]

Cynthia: What?

[Hortense chuckles]
Monica Purley: Can't miss what you never had!

Maurice: Can't you?
Roxanne: Don't be stupid.
Maurice: Is that a suit?

Monica Purley: It came as a combination.

Maurice: They go together?

Monica Purley: Well, if you think they do, they do, and if you think they don't, they don't.
Monica Purley: I suppose we'd have to invite Cynthia as well. There's no show without Punch.
Cynthia: You've been sitting there for a month with a face like a slapped horse.

Roxanne: Well, what's there to smile about?
Cynthia: He knows where I am if he wants me. He'd have had us up there to see it by now, I expect, if it weren't for her. Toffy-nosed cow.
Cynthia: I was stuck at home from the age of 10 looking after Maurice and your Granddad.

Roxanne: Yeah, we know.

Cynthia: Then I got saddled with you. That was my downfall, darling.

Roxanne: I didn't ask to be born.

Cynthia: No, and I never asked to have you neither.

Roxanne: Well, you should have thought about that before you dropped your knickers!
[repeated line]

Maurice: Lovely!
Monica Purley: Since when was Hoovering a spectator sport?
Monica Purley: I'm having milk. Not in a wine glass. Give me a highball. You don't put milk in a wine glass.
Cynthia: I'm known for my legs. If you've got it, flaunt it.
Roxanne: Just so's you know, I ain't staying the night, not every time I come round. And I want you to stop before. I was just speaking my mind, all right?

Paul: Yeah.

Roxanne: Now give us a snog.
Dionne: I don't wanna hear her and Norbert havin' it off. I don't want her to know who I'm havin' it off with, and I don't want her to see me drunk. Don't want her to know nothing about me.

Hortense Cumerbatch: Maybe that's because you're frightened that when you look at her you can see yourself in 20 years time.

Dionne: [rolls her eyes] Please.
Maurice: Roxanne not in then?

Cynthia: She's got some bloke in tow.

Maurice: Has she?

Cynthia: Shifty-looking bleeder. Walks like a crab.
Cynthia: I only see her first thing in the morning. She comes in, grunts, then buggers off to work.

Maurice: You should be glad she's got a fella.

Cynthia: I am glad, Maurice. I want her to be happy. But I'd like her to bring him 'round, see who she's knocking about with.
Cynthia: Dad liked her, didn't he? Nice thighs.
Maurice: Give him a ring. Get him to do something about it. It's his responsibility.

Cynthia: Don't be daft, Maurice. He don't give a toss, does he?
Maurice: My dad never said a word about my mum after she died.

Monica Purley: That's men for you.

Maurice: I hated him for it. He must have been in real pain. Maybe just couldn't share it. I didn't know what I felt. I still don't.
Maurice: Tell her if she can't make it, I'll give her a clump.

Cynthia: Not before I do.
Monica Purley: Do you think Roxanne's serious about this scaffolder bloke?
Cynthia: I'd like to meet him. I wouldn't know him if he stood up in me soup.

Roxanne: Don't hold your breath.
Hortense Cumerbatch: D'you like Italian food?

Cynthia: Yeah. I eat anything, me. Chinese, kebabs, the lot!
Maurice: Life isn't fair, is it? Someone always draws the short straw.
Stuart: You know what it's like, Maurice. You sweat your balls off for years and try and make people happy. And what d'you get back? Nothing!
Stuart: I can still do it! I've still got an eye. They can't teach you that. I'm still a photographer!
[repeated line]

Cynthia: Ta-da!
Monica Purley: Having a steak, are you, Cynthia?

Cynthia: Yes. Thank you, Monica.

Monica Purley: That'll put hairs on your chest.
Hortense Cumerbatch: You can tell a lot about people from lookin' at their eyes.

Maurice: That's true.

Monica Purley: Can you?

Jane: Windows to your soul.

Cynthia: That's a nice way of puttin' it, Jane.

Jane: It's true though, ain't it.
Cynthia: She thought I'd been seein' a bloke. Could've been, I suppose. I can still turn a few heads.

Roxanne: Turn stomachs!
Monica Purley: I hope your wish comes true, pet.
Roxanne: She's a slag!

Secrets & Lies Quotes

Extended Reading

Secrets & Lies short comments

Mallory 2022-04-21 09:02:51

[45] Speaking of which, except for Hortens, everyone in the hair is fat, ugly, and neurotic. It makes me sick to death.
Junior 2022-01-05 08:02:19

In Palme d'Or in 1996, my mother really did a good job. A family living at the bottom of London may not be smart or overly emotional, but it is ordinary and real. Uncle said: The three people I love most in my life hate each other to their bones. Because of misunderstandings like this. Although I have never experienced such a complicated family relationship, I still feel quite real.