"Listen to me Abbé, and listen well. I've stared into the face of evil and I've lived to tell the tale and now, I beg you, for your sake, let me write it down."

"Conversation, like certain portions of the anatomy, always runs more smoothly when lubricated."

"Are your convictions so fragile they cannot stand in opposition to mine? Is your god so flimsy, so weak? For shame!"

"Suppose one of your precious inmates attempted to walk on water and drowned - would you comdemn the Bible? I think not."

"I didn't create this world of ours. I merely recorded it."

"You've already stolen my heart... as well as a more prominent organ, south of the Equator."

"Ah, you've come to read my trousers."

"I write what I see, the endless procession to the guillotine. We're all lined up, waiting for the crunch of the blade... the rivers of blood are flowing beneath our feet... I've been to hell, young man, you've only read about it."

"This monstrous God of yours? He strung up his son like a side of veal. I shudder to think what he'd do to me."

"In order to know virtue, we must acquaint ourselves with vice. Only then can we know the true measure of a man."

"My glorious prose filtered through the minds of the insane. Who knows, they might improve it."

"Some things belong on paper, others in life. It's a blessed fool who can't tell the difference."

"If I wasn't such a bad woman on the page, I couldn't be such a good woman in life."

"Don't come any closer, Abbe, God's watching."

"You can't be a proper writer without a touch of madness, can you?"

"You know how I define idealism, Monsieur Delbenet? Youth's final luxury."

"You prefer a book to your husband's company? Well no wonder, I'm only flesh and blood - that's no match for the printed page!"

"If you're going to martyr yourself, do it for God, not a chambermaid."

"Tell him I'm no fool, a prison's still a prison, even with Chinese silks and chandeliers."

"There are no bad words... only bad deeds."

"Meet the Marquis de Sade. The pleasure is all his."

"Geoffrey Rush - Marquis de Sade"

"Kate Winslet - Madeleine LeClerc"

"Joaquin Phoenix - Abbe du Coulmier"

"Louise Fletcher - Belle Delongpre"

"Richard Tyson - Perry"

"Sherilyn Fenn - April Delongpre"

"What's love got to do with it?"

"One hot movie."

"Let your body move your mind."

"Into her perfect life, comes a perfect stranger, until nothing is perfect anymore."

"The Crossroads of Destiny and Desire."

"Uncontrollable Passion. Undeniable Heat."

"Sheriff Earl Hawkins: Well there they be, son. Jonah and Jonah, Jr. They're so old they can't remember who's pappy and who's the son. They're weird and full of superstition. Burying a dead animal on their land can cause the cows to give bloody milk... or bring on a swarm of locusts."

"Sammantha Delongpre: Get off my sister!"

"Patti Jean: I'm so envious of your fuckin' tits. Now I know why men like women."

"The Delongpre family can claim three governors, two United States senators, three electives of the House of Representatives, a Supreme Court justice, and an ambassabor to Chile. At our table we've had the likes of General Patton, Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, Lyndon Johnson, the actress Tallulah Bankhead, and Truman Capote... and that film star Grace Kelly before she married her prince... and Betty Ford after her rehabilitation."

"This girl's got a secret. Huh? You got any secrets. I don't have any secrets. I don't have anything. All I got is a bike, a truck, and post office box in Clearlake, Florida."

"[to the motel guests after his argument with April.] Sorry about the disturbance folks, but that is one special wacko chick."

"[after making out with Perry] Darling, don't ever take a Southern woman for granted."

"Milla Jovovich - Sammantha Delongpre"

"Millie Perkins - Mrs. Delongpre"

"Don Galloway - Senator Delongpre"

"Juanita Moore - Delilah"

"Martin Hewitt - Chad Douglas Fairchild"

"Kristy McNichol - Patti Jean"