Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Red Dwarf TV - Star Trek: The Next Generation TV - Dorothy Parker - Thomas Campbell - Dorothy Fields - The Office US TV - Brief Encounter 1946 - Cashback 2006 - The Importance of Being Earnest & Oscar Wilde 1952 - William Shakespeare - George Carlin - Anna Karenina 1985 - Anna Karenina 2012 - Lucy Worsley TV - George Eliot - Thomas Hardy - Richard Brinsley Sheridan - Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema TV - Inside Evil TV - Panorama TV - Storyville TV - Dateline: The Women & Dirty John TV - Dirty John: The Dirty Truth TV - Very Bad Men TV - The Tinder Swindler TV - Trafficked TV - Anton Chekhov -
Classicism is health, romanticism is disease. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I should have guessed; it was all a mighty bit too strange. Actually meeting someone who didn’t want to vomit all over me in complete loathing and disgust. Red Dwarf s4e1: Camille, Arnie, BBC 1991
Worf [long roar]: That is how the Klingon lures a mate.
Wesley: Are you telling me to go yell at Salia?
Worf: No. Men do not roar. Women roar ... [besotted] and they hurl heavy objects ... and claw at you ...
Wesley: What does the man do?
Worf: He reads love poetry. He ducks a lot. Star Trek: The Next Generation s2e10: The Dauphin
Worf, we’re alone now. You don’t have to act like a Klingon glacier, I don’t bite ... actually, that’s not true, I do bite. Star Trek: The Next Generation s2e20: The Emissary, K’Ehleyr
What’s a knockout like you doing in a computer-generated gin-joint like this? Star Trek: The Next Generation s2e22: Shades of Gray, Riker to bird
By the time you say you’re his,
Shivering and sighing
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying –
Lady, make a note of this:
One of you is lying. Dorothy Parker, Unfortunate Coincidence, 1937
Better be courted and jilted
Than never be courted at all. Thomas Campbell, 1777-1844
A fine romance with no kisses,
A fine romance, my friend that is. Dorothy Fields, A Fine Romance, song 1930
Holly and I are like Romeo and Juliet, and the office is like the dragon that kept them apart. The Office US s7e16: PDA, NBC 2010
Round up all suspicious characters and search them for stolen documents. Casablanca 1942 ***** starring Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman & Paul Henreid & Claude Rains & Conrad Veidt & Sydney Greenstreet & Peter Lorre & Curt Bois et al, director Michael Curtiz, rozzer
May I see your papers? ibid. rozzers
Realizing the importance of the case my men are rounding up twice the usual number of suspects. ibid. Louis
I don’t mind a parasite; I object to a cut-throat one. ibid. Rick
I stick my neck out for nobody. ibid. Rick
I’m only a poor corrupt official. ibid. Louis
Rozzer: What is your nationality?
Rick: I am a drunkard. ibid.
Leave him alone, Miss Ilsa. You bad luck to him. ibid. Sam
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world she walks into mine. ibid. Rick to Sam
You played it for her, you can play it for me. ibid.
Here’s looking at you, kid. ibid. him to her in Paris
And what if you tracked down these men and killed them? What if you murdered all of us? From every corner of Europe hundreds, thousands would rise to take our places. Even Nazis can’t kill that fast. ibid. Laszlo to Nazi
You either lay off politics or get out. ibid. Rick
I’m the only cause I’m interested in. ibid. Rick to Ilsa
I’m going to die in Casablanca; it’s a good spot for it. ibid.
Go ahead and shoot and you’ll be doing me a favour. ibid.
Each of us has a destiny: for good or for evil. ibid. Laszlo
You’re getting on that plane with Victor where you belong ... You’ll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but soon and for the rest of your life. We’ll always have Paris. ibid.
The problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. ibid.
Round up the usual suspects. ibid. Louis
I hardly know him at all really. Brief Encounter ***** 1946 starring Celia Johnson & Trevor Howard & Stanley Holloway & Joyce Carey & Cyril Raymond & Everley Gregg & Marjorie Mars & Margaret Barton & Alfie Bass & Wallace Bosco & Sydney Bromley et al, director David Lean, Johnson
This can’t last. This misery can’t last. ibid.
I’ve been so foolish. I’ve fallen in love. ibid.
There’s your train. You mustn’t miss it. ibid. her to him
At that moment the first awful feeling of danger swept over me. ibid. her
Do you know, I believe we should all behave quite differently if we lived in a warm sunny climate all the time. We shouldn’t be so withdrawn and shy and difficult. ibid.
I felt gay and happy and sort of released; that’s what’s so shameful about it all. ibid.
I don’t suppose that anybody’s ever perfectly happy really. ibid.
It’s awfully easy to lie when you know that you’re trusted implicitly. So very easy. And so very degrading. ibid.
And then he walked away. Away out of my life for ever. ibid.
Only an overwhelming desire not to feel anything ever again. ibid.
Why did we break up? ... One day she’s with me and she’s saying I love you, and the next week she’s with someone else. Probably saying the same thing. Cashback 2006 starring Sean Biggerstaff & Emilia Fox & Shaun Evans & Michelle Ryan & Stuart Goodwin & Michael Dixon & Michael Lambourne & Gayle Dudley & Marc Pickering et al, director Sean Ellis, opening remarks
There is an art to dealing with the boredom of an eight-hour shift, an art to putting your mind somewhere else while the seconds slowly tick away. ibid.
I had three crushes when I was young: the first was an athlete called Zola Budd. ibid.
The very essence of romance is uncertainty. The Importance of Being Earnest 1952 starring Michael Redgrave & Richard Wattis & Michael Denison & Walter Hudd & Edith Evans & Joan Greenwood & Margaret Rutherford et al, director Oliver Parker, Algernon
But who so firm that cannot be seduced? William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar I ii 312, Cassius to Brutus and Casca
If a movie is described as a romantic comedy, you can usually find me next door playing pinball. George Carlin
Men do these things. Anna Karenina 1985 starring Jaqueline Bisset & Christopher Reeve & Paul Scofield & Ian Ogilvy & Anna Massey & Joanna David & Judi Bowker & Valerie Lush & Judy Campbell et al, director Simon Langton, Anna to sister in law
I know what it was. We both do. ibid. Vronsky
I will leave this room. I will leave this house. I will be his. I will have him. I love him. ibid. Anna to hubby
Why isn’t love enough? ibid. Anna to Vronsky
Paperwork is the soul of Russia; farming is only the stomach. Anna Karenina 2012 starring Keira Knightley & Jude Law & Aaron Taylor-Johnson & Kelly MacDonald & Ruth Wilson & Matthew MacFadyen & Alicia Vikander & Olivia Williams & Emily Watson & Michelle Dockery & Holliday Grainger et al, director Joe Wright, geezer
Oh to be your age again. Surrounded by that blue mist. ibid. Anna
I’m damned anyway. ibid. Anna
I love him. I am his mistress. ibid. Anna to husband
I’m having his child. ibid.
I’m a bad woman. ibid.