The English Patient

"I think I was a pilot."

"A very...plum...plum."

"Its probably none of my business - your wife...do you think it is appropriate to leave her?"

"[to Katherine] I once traveled with a guide who was taking me to Faya. He didn't speak for nine hours. At the end of it he pointed to the horizon and said, Faya! That was a good day."

"[to Katherine] There's really no need. This is just a scrapbook. They are too good. I should feel obliged. Thank you."

"[to Katherine] We planned badly."

"[to Katherine] In a few minutes there'll be no stars - the air is filling with sand."

"[to Katherine] I apologize if I appear abrupt. I am rusty at social graces."

"[to Katherine] Let me tell you about winds. [to Katharine]"

"[to Katherine] Could I ask you, please, to paste your paintings into my book? I should like to have them. I should be honored."

"[to Katherine] Mrs. Clifton...I believe you still have my book."

"K at dawn - silhouetted."

"[to himself in the Cave of Swimmers] My God...they're swimming. Swimming."

"[to Katherine] I can still taste you. I try to write with your taste in my mouth."

"[to Katherine] Swoon, They'll catch you."

"[to Katherine] Maddox knows I think - he keeps talking about Anna Karenina - I think it's his idea of a man to man chat...well it's my idea of a man to man chat."

"[to Hana] I long for the rain on my face."

"[to Katherine] I'm not agreeing. Don't think I'm agreeing, because I'm not."

"[upon seeing Katherine in the plane wreckage] Katherine? My God, Katherine what are you doing here?"

"[to Caravaggio] Thousands of people did die. Just different people."

"[to Caravaggio] No...I was never a spy. [to Caravaggio]"

"The International Sand Club: misfits, buggers, fascists, and fools - God bless us every one. Oops! mustn't say international - dirty word, filthy word."

"[to Katherine] Every night I cut out my heart. But in the morning it was full again."

"[to Hana] K is for Katherine."

"[to Hana] In that case, I suppose we can't charge."

"[to Hana] Condensed milk - one of the truly great inventions."

"[to Kip] Hana was just telling me that you were indifferent...to her cooking."

"[to Caravaggio] I have come to love that little tap of the fingernail against the syringe. Tap...Tap...Tap."

"[singing the tune of "It's Only a Paper Moon" (by Harold Arlen, Billy Rose, and E.Y. Harburg)] It wouldn't be make believe if you believed in me."

"[last words; to Hana] Read to me will you? Read me to sleep."

"I must be a curse. Anybody who loves me, anybody who gets close to me...or I must be cursed. Which is it?"

"[to Almásy] It's raining."

"There's a war. Where you come from becomes important."

"[reading Almásy's note on the Christmas firecracker] Dec. 22nd [1938] - Betrayals during war are childlike compared with our betrayals during peace. New lovers are nervous and tender, but smash everything. For the heart is an organ of fire. For the heart is an organ of fire - I love that. I believe that."

"[to Almásy] I've been thinking - how does someone like you decide to come to the desert?"

"[to Almásy] And that would be unconscionable, I suppose, to feel any obligation? Yes. Of course it would."

"I'm not one of the walking wounded. It's only one night. Besides, if I remain it's the most effective method of persuading my husband to abandon whatever he's doing and come and rescue us."

"[to Almásy] This is not very good is it?"

"[to Almásy] Am I a terrible coward to ask how much water we have?"

"[to Almásy] Yes is a comfort. Absolutely is not."

"[to Almásy] You still have sand in your hair."

"[to Almásy] A woman should never learn to sew, and if she can she shouldn't admit to it."

"[to Almásy] This a different world is what I tell myself; a different life. And here, I'm a different wife."

"[reading from the notes she found in Almásy's book] The neck of K can never be something, not in my mind. And K's clothes always at ease on her. Does he notice? What is the significance of Betrayal? Does K bother with a moral Labyrinth - K's debate - does she debate?"

"[to Almásy] Am I 'K' in your book? I think I must be."

"[to Almásy] You speak so many bloody languages, and you never want to talk."

"[to Almásy] I can't do this anymore."

"[to Almásy] Do you think you are the only one who feels anything? Is that what you think?"

"[to Almásy] Why did you hate me? Don't you know you drove everybody mad?"

"[written in journal] My darling, I'm waiting for you. How long is a day in the dark? Or a week? The fire is gone now, and I'm horribly cold. I really ought to drag myself outside but then there'd be the sun...I'm afraid I waste the light on the paintings and on writing these words. We die. We die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have entered and swum up like rivers, fears we've hidden in, like this wretched cave. I want all this marked on my body. We're the real countries. Not the boundaries drawn on maps, the names of powerful men. I know you will come carry me out into the palace of winds. That's all I've wanted, to walk in such a place with you, with friends. An earth without maps. The lamp's gone out, and I'm writing in the darkness."