"[In a letter] Dearest Cecilia, the story can resume. The one I had been planning on that evening walk. I can become again the man who once crossed the Surrey park at dusk, in my best suit, swaggering on the promise of life. The man who, with the clarity of passion, made love to you in the library. The story can resume. I will return. Find you, love you, marry you and live without shame."

"[To Robbie] Come back, come back to me."

"[In a letter] My darling, Briony found my address somehow and sent a letter. The first surprise was she didn't go up to Cambridge. She's doing nurses' training at my old hospital. I think she may be doing this as some kind of penance.She says she's beginning to get the full grasp of what she did and what it meant. She wants to come and talk to me. I love you. I'll wait for you. Come back. Come back to me."

"[Last lines] I never made that journey to Balham. So the scene in which I confess to them is invented, imagined. And, in fact, could never have happened... .because Robbie Turner died of septicaemia at Bray Dunes on the first of June 1940, the last day of the evacuation...and I was never able to put things right with my sister Cecilia....because she was killed on the 15th of October, 1940 by the bomb that destroyed the gas and water mains above Balham tube station. So, my sister and Robbie were never able to have the time together they both so longed for... and deserved. Which ever since I've... ever since I've always felt I prevented. But what sense of hope or satisfaction could a reader derive from an ending like that? So in the book, I wanted to give Robbie and Cecilia what they lost out on in life. I'd like to think this isn't weakness or... evasion... but a final act of kindness. I gave them their happiness."

"My doctor tells me I have something called vascular dementia; which is essentially a continuous series of tiny strokes. Your brain gradually closes down. You lose words, you lose your memory: which, for a writer, is pretty much the point. That’s why I could finally write this book; and why, of course, it’s my last novel. Strangely enough, it would be just as accurate to call it my first novel. I wrote several drafts as far back as my time at St. Thomas’s Hospital during the war. I just couldn’t ever find the way to do it."

"[writing] The princess was well aware of his remorseless wickedness. But that made it no easier to overcome the voluminous love she felt in her heart for Sir Romulus. The princess knew instinctively that the one with red hair was not to be trusted. As his young ward dived again and again into the depths of the lake, in search of the enchanted chalice, Sir Romulus twirled his luxuriant mustache. Sir Romulus rode with his two companions, northwards, drawing ever closer to an effulgent sea. So heroic in manner, he appeared so valiant in word... And no could ever guess at the darkness lurking in the black heart of Sir Romulus Turnbull. He was the most dangerous man in the world."

"I am very, very sorry for the terrible distress that I have caused you. I am very, very sorry..."

"[in a letter] Dear Cecilia, Please don't throw this away without reading it. As you'll have seen from the notepaper, I'm here at St. Thomas's, doing my nurses' training. I decided not to take up my place at Cambridge. I decided I wanted to make myself useful, do something practical. But no matter how hard I work, no matter how long the hours, I can't escape from what I did and what it meant, the full extent of which I'm only now beginning to grasp. Cee, please write and tell me we can meet. Your sister, Briony."

"Love is all very well, but you have to be sensible."

"Vanessa Redgrave – Older Briony"

"Heroes never die.... They just reload."

"Live for nothing or die for something."

"Paul Schulze - Michael Burnett"

"Maung Maung Khin - Tint"

"Graham McTavish - Lewis"

"Matthew Marsden - School Boy, a young British sniper"

"Julie Benz - Sarah Miller"

"Sylvester Stallone - John Rambo"

"You know what you are... what you're made of."

"Olek Krupa — Miroslav Lokar"

"David Keith — Master Chief Tom O'Malley"

"Charles Malik Whitfield — Capt. Rodway, USMC"

"Gabriel Macht — Stackhouse"

"Gene Hackman — RADM Leslie McMahon Reigart"

"Owen Wilson — Lt. Chris Burnett"

"His only weapon is his will to survive."

"Mission: to evade and survive."

"Prepare to cross the line."

"In War There Are Some Lines You Should Never Cross."

"[addressing Marines he will lead in his own rescue mission for Burnett] Gentlemen, I want to make one thing clear before we leave - I intend to put you in harm's way. Any man who doesn't wish to join this mission, step away right now. [the men are silent] All right, then, lets go get our boy back."

"[on the radio] Burnett!! [Pauses due to no names over the airwaves] Zero-six, you’re a combat naval aviator, start acting like one. You've been shot down. Life is tough. I am very sorry. You pull yourself together. You do whatever it takes. Create some angles between you and your pursuers. Use your training, use your head. Evade and survive, and we will bring you home. Do you understand? We will bring you home."

"The movie, true to Miller’s vision, is also loaded with sweaty hunks running around in those tight leather Speedos and capes. None of this is played for gay appeal, but could induce snickering among some teens. Snyder shrugs it off. ”Some people have said to me, ’Your movie is homoerotic,’ and some have said, ’Your movie’s homophobic.’ In my mind, the movie is neither. But I don’t have a problem with people interpreting it the way they’d like to.” As long as they buy tickets first."

"Tyrone Benskin – Persian Emissary"

"Giovanni Antonio Cimmino – Pleistarchus"

"Stephen McHattie – Loyalist"

"Peter Mensah – Messenger"

"Rodrigo Santoro – Xerxes"

"Andrew Tiernan – Ephialtes"

"Andrew Pleavin – Daxos"

"Tom Wisdom – Astinos"

"Michael Fassbender – Stellios"

"Vincent Regan – Captain Artemis"

"Dominic West – Theron"

"David Wenham – Dilios, Narrator"

"Lena Headey – Queen Gorgo, Leonidas' wife"

"Gerard Butler – Spartan King Leonidas"

"Q. Has the response from Iran surprised you?"

"What was your actual involvement?"

"There was a time [on 300] when three nights in a row people were taken to hospital during the fights. One time I was supposed to turn and hit a guy with my sword and I turned to whack him and he was gone, and then I looked down and he was lying there going [grabs arm], 'Arrgghh,' and he’s broken his arm. And the night before a guy got a spear in his eye. He almost lost his eye; he had to get stitches. It was insane."