"[to Nina] Perfection is not just about control. It is also about letting go. Surprise yourself so you can surprise the audience. Transcendence. Very few have it in them."

"[to Nina] That was me seducing you. It needs to be the other way around."

"I had the craziest dream last night, about a girl who was turned into a swan -- but her prince falls for the wrong girl, and... she kills herself."

"I felt it. Perfect. It was perfect."

"Toby Hemingway – Tom"

"Sebastian Stan – Andrew"

"Janet Montgomery – Madeline"

"Kristina Anapau – Galina"

"At night I think of my piano in its ocean grave, and sometimes of myself floating above it. Down there everything is so still and silent that it lulls me to sleep. It is a weird lullaby and so it is; it is mine."

"The voice you hear is not my speaking voice - but my mind's voice. I have not spoken since I was six years old. No one knows why - not even me. My father says it is a dark talent, and the day I take it into my head to stop breathing will be my last. Today he married me to a man I have not yet met. Soon my daughter and I shall join him in his own country. My husband writes that my muteness does not bother him - and hark this! He says, "God loves dumb creatures, so why not I?" 'Twere good he had God's patience, for silence affects everyone in the end. The strange thing is, I don't think myself silent. That is because of my piano. I shall miss it on the journey."

"What a death! What a chance! What a surprise! My will has chosen life! Still it has had me spooked and many others besides!"

"I teach piano now in Nelson. George has fashioned me a metal finger tip, I am quite the town freak which satisfies! I am learning to speak. My sound is still so bad I am ashamed. I practice only when I am alone and it is dark."

"One day when my mother and father were singing together in the forest, a great storm blew up out of nowhere. But so passionate was their singing that they did not notice, nor did they stop as the rain began to fall, and when their voices rose for the final bars of the duet a great bolt of lighting came out of the sky and struck my father so that he lit up like a torch. And at the same moment my father was struck dead my mother was struck dumb! She never spoke another word."

"[to Ada] Do you know how to bargain, nod if you do. [she doesn't move] There's a way you can have your piano back. Do you want it back? You want it back?You see I'd like us to make a deal. There's things I want to do while you stay. If you let me you can earn it back. What do you think, one visit for every key."

"[to Ada] I have given the piano back to you. I've had enough. The arrangement is making you a whore, and me, wretched. I want you to care for me. But you can't. It's yours, leave. Go on, go."

"Ada, I am unhappy because I want you, because my mind has seized on you and thinks of nothing else. This is how I suffer, I am sick with longing. I don't eat, I don't sleep. If you do not want me, if you have come with no feeling for me, then go! Go! Go NOW! Leave!"

"[to Baines] Understand me. I am here for her, for her I wonder that I don't wake, that I am not asleep to be here talking with you. I love her. But what is the use? She doesn't care for me. I wish her gone. I wish you gone. I want to wake and find it was a dream, that is what I want. I want to believe I am not this man. I want my self back; the one I know."

"Holly Hunter - Ada McGrath"

"Harvey Keitel - George Baines"

"Sam Neill - Alisdair Stewart"

"Anna Paquin - Flora McGrath"

"Kerry Walker - Aunt Morag"

"Your mother needs you, Ellen! Jesus Christ, you've got a Harvard education, but where is your heart?"

"Julianne Nicholson as College student"

"Patrick Breen as Mr. Tweedy"

"Gerrit Graham as Oliver Most"

"James Eckhouse as District Attorney"

"Nicky Katt as Jordan Belzer"

"Lauren Graham as Jules"

"Tom Everett Scott as Brian Gulden"

"William Hurt as George Gulden"

"Renée Zellweger as Ellen Gulden"

"Meryl Streep as Kate Gulden"

"It's so much easier to be happy. It's so much easier to choose to love the things that you have, instead of always yearning for what you're missing, or what it is that you're imagining you're missing. It is so much more peaceful."

"Giovanni Ribisi—Daniel "Danny" McMann"

"Hector Elizondo as Ernie"

"Tracy Reiner - Michelle"

"Juliet Mills - Winnie the Housekeeper"

"Joe Flanigan - Jeff Reed"

"Linda Thorson - Drew Evanson"

"Sarah Paulson - Heather Tate"

"Poppy Montgomery - Caroline Tate"