“My Brilliant Career” quotes

“Loneliness is a terrible price to pay for independence. Sybylla, don't throw away reality for some impossible dream.”
Patricia Kennedy - Aunt Gussie

“- Mother: Sybylla, I want to have a talk with you.
- Sybylla Melvyn: Talk away.
- Mother: You're a young woman now and - I have been thinking about this a great deal - we can't afford to keep you any longer.”
Julia Blake - Mother
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn

“- Sybylla Melvyn: They're fortunate, aren't they? Every day they get their food.
- Aunt Gussie: As long as I remember.
- Sybylla Melvyn: They never have to look for water in a dried-up creek. Scratch for a living, like all our countrymen, forced on the road to beg.
- Aunt Gussie: Perhaps they're meant to counterbalance the ugly things in life.”

Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn
Patricia Kennedy - Aunt Gussie

“Here is the story of my career... here is the story, of my career... my brilliant career. I make no apology for being egotistical... because I am!”
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn

“- Sybylla Melvyn: You just want to get rid of me!
- Mother: I must do what I feel is right! Oh, I pray to God for guidance.
- Sybylla Melvyn: This is what he told you to do? God be damned!”

Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn
Julia Blake - Mother

- Aunt Helen: Be careful how you treat him.
- Sybylla Melvyn: What do you mean?
- Aunt Helen: You know what they say "Heed the spark or you may dread the fire".
Wendy Hughes - Aunt Helen
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn

“- Sybylla Melvyn: Why does it always have to come down to marriage?
- Aunt Gussie: Don't be foolish child. It's natural to want someone as part of your life.
- Sybylla Melvyn: I don't want to be part of anyone.
- Aunt Gussie: Do you imagine you're the only female on earth to have such notions?”
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn
Patricia Kennedy - Aunt Gussie

“I can't lose myself in somebody else's life, when I haven't lived my own yet.”
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn

“Gertie, don't you ever dream that there's more to life than this? Don't you want to meet people who talk about books and words and have visions? Gertie, I can't settle for a new dress, a picnic, now and then, living out in the bush for the rest of my life. I might just as well be dead.”
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn

“The sun is shining on another day and hope is whispering in my ear.”
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn

“- Sybylla Melvyn: I think ugly girls should be strangled at birth by their parents. It's bad enough being born a girl... but being born ugly and clever...
- Aunt Gussie: Clever, are you?
- Sybylla Melvyn: I hope so. I'm done for if I'm not! There has to be something I'm good at.”
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn
Patricia Kennedy - Aunt Gussie

“- Uncle Julius: I see that Furlow's bought himself a very fine bull.
- Sybylla Melvyn: He should make a few cows happy!”
Peter Whitford - Uncle Julius
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn

“- Harry Beecham: Did you find the answers to all those questions? I mean, what was wrong with the world and...
- Sybylla Melvyn: Yes. Partly me.”
Sam Neill - Harry Beecham
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn

“There's any amount of love and good in the world, you know? It doesn't just come to you. You have to search for it.”
Wendy Hughes - Aunt Helen

“I have such a daughter. A useless, blaming, Godless. What can I do?”
Julia Blake - Mother

“- Grandma Bossier: I shall make quite sure my granddaughter will never marry a man unworthy of her. Don't worry.
- Sybylla Melvyn: I don't. I'm not marrying anyone. I'm going to have a career!
- Grandma Bossier: A career? What in?
- Sybylla Melvyn: Oh, literature, music, art. Maybe, the opera. I've not made up my mind yet.”
Aileen Britton - Grandma Bossier
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn

“- Uncle Julius: You've changed, no doubt about that.
- Sybylla Melvyn: You haven't. Your kisses still smell of whiskey and cigars.
- Uncle Julius: That's what makes me irresistible.”

Peter Whitford - Uncle Julius
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn

“Now, plain looks never stopped anyone from being intelligent or witty or making friends. Being beautiful is no guarantee of success in anything. But, it does help a little.”
Wendy Hughes - Aunt Helen

“- Uncle Julius: Our Sybylla appears to have hidden talents.
- Aunt Helen: The only trouble is - you don't know what she'll do next.”
Peter Whitford - Uncle Julius
Wendy Hughes - Aunt Helen

“- Aunt Helen: Marriage gives us respectability, dear, as you'll learn.
- Sybylla Melvyn: No. That is just what men want us to believe! Stupid idiots like Frank Hawdon! Well, I won't be caught up in it. Not by him or anyone!”
Wendy Hughes - Aunt Helen
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn

“- Aunt Gussie: You washed your hair. It'll never dry by dinner.
- Sybylla Melvyn: Perhaps I should cut it all off!”
Patricia Kennedy - Aunt Gussie
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn

“Being misunderstood, that's a trial we must all bear. You have a wildness of spirit which is going to get you in trouble all of your life. So, you must learn to control it. You try and cultivate a little more feminine vanity.”

Wendy Hughes - Aunt Helen

“Aunt Helen, you don't have to worry. I know he can marry anyone. I know. But, I know he wouldn't want to marry me. Even if I wanted to get married; which I don't. He'd never ask me in a million years.”
Judy Davis - Sybylla Melvyn