“A Room With A View” quotes

“He's the sort who can't know anyone intimately, least of all a woman. He doesn't know what a woman is. He wants you for a possession, something to look at, like a painting or an ivory box. Something to own and to display. He doesn't want you to be real, and to think and to live. He doesn't love you. But I love you. I want you to have your own...” (continue)(continue reading)
Julian Sands - George Emerson

“We all have our little foibles, and mine is the prompt settling of accounts.”
Maggie Smith - Charlotte Bartlett, a Chaperon

“What is it about Italy that makes lady novelists reach such summits of absurdity?”
Daniel Day-Lewis - Cecil Vyse

“In my small way I am a woman of the world. And I know where things can lead to.”
Maggie Smith - Charlotte Bartlett, a Chaperon

“- The Reverend Mr. Eager: Remember the facts about this church of Santa Croce; how it was built by faith in the full fervour of medievalism.
- Mr. Emerson: Built by faith indeed! That simply means the workers weren't paid properly.”
Patrick Godfrey - The Reverend Mr Eager, Chaplain of the Anglican Church in Florence
Denholm Elliott - Mr Emerson, an English tourist

“- Charlotte Bartlett: I would like to thank your father personally for his kindness to us.
- George Emerson: You can't. He's in his bath.”
Maggie Smith - Charlotte Bartlett, a Chaperon
Julian Sands - George Emerson

“- George Emerson: My father says there is only one perfect view, and that's the view of the sky over our heads.
- Cecil Vyse: I expect your father has been reading Dante.”
Julian Sands - George Emerson
Daniel Day-Lewis - Cecil Vyse

“Smell! A true Florentine smell. Inhale, my dear. Deeper! Every city, let me tell you, has its own smell.”
Dame Judi Dench - Eleanor Lavish, a novelist

- Charlotte Bartlett: This is not at all what we were led to expect.
- Lucy Honeychurch: I thought we were going to see the Arno.
- Charlotte Bartlett: The signora distinctly wrote "South rooms, with a view and close together", instead of which she has given us North rooms without a view and a long way apart.
Maggie Smith - Charlotte Bartlett, a Chaperon
Helena Bonham Carter - Lucy Honeychurch, Miss Bartlett's cousin and charge

“- Charlotte Bartlett: I shall never forgive myself.
- Lucy Honeychurch: You always say that, Charlotte, but you always do forgive yourself.”
Maggie Smith - Charlotte Bartlett, a Chaperon
Helena Bonham Carter - Lucy Honeychurch, Miss Bartlett's cousin and charge

“I have no profession. My attitude - quite an indefensible one - is that as long as I am no trouble to anyone, I have the right to do as I like. It is, I dare say, an example of my decadence.”
Daniel Day-Lewis - Cecil Vyse

“- Cecil Vyse: You don't love me, evidently. I dare say you're right not to, but... it would help a little, hurt a little less, if I knew why.
- Lucy Honeychurch: Because you're the sort who can't know anyone intimately, least of all a woman.”
Daniel Day-Lewis - Cecil Vyse
Helena Bonham Carter - Lucy Honeychurch, Miss Bartlett's cousin and charge

“Women like looking at a view. Men don't.”
Denholm Elliott - Mr Emerson, an English tourist

“- Reverend Beebe: Looking at Italian art! You see, you talk of coincidence and fate. You're naturally drawn to things Italian, as are we and all our friends, aren't we, Freddy? That narrows the field immeasurably.
- George Emerson: It is fate. But call it Italy if it pleases you, Vicar.”
Simon Callow - The Reverend Mr Beebe
Julian Sands - George Emerson

“- Lucy Honeychurch: Mother is calling, I have got to go. They trust me.
- Mr. Emerson: Why should they, when you deceived everyone, including yourself?”
Helena Bonham Carter - Lucy Honeychurch, Miss Bartlett's cousin and charge
Denholm Elliott - Mr Emerson, an English tourist

- Freddy Honeychurch: Come and have a bathe.
- George Emerson: I'd like that.
- Reverend Beebe: That's the best conversation opening I've ever heard. "How do you do? Come and have a bathe".
Rupert Graves - Freddy Honeychurch
Julian Sands - George Emerson
Simon Callow - The Reverend Mr Beebe