Atonement quotes

View Quote Leon: Guess who we met on the way in?
Cecilia: Robbie.
Leon: I told him to join us tonight.
Cecelia: Leon! You didn't!

View Quote Cecelia: :[after reading Robbie's letter] I suppose he's what you might call eligible.
Leon: Rather!
Cecelia: He certainly seems to think he's the cat's pyjamas. Which is odd, considering he has pubic hair growing out of his ears.

View Quote Cecilia: [crying] I don't know how I could've been so ignorant about myself... so... so stupid. And you know what I'm talking about, don't you? You knew before I did.
'Robbie: Why're you crying?
Cecilia: Don't you know?
Robbie: Yes, I know exactly. [kisses her]

View Quote Briony: Lola, can I tell you something? Something really terrible?
Lola: Yes please.
Briony: What's the worst word you can possibly imagine?

View Quote Robbie: Have you been in touch with your family?
Cecilia: No I told you I wouldn't. Leon waited outside the hospital last week. I just pushed past him.
Robbie: Cee, you don't owe me anything.
Cecilia: Robbie didn't you read my letters? Had I been allowed to visit you? Had they let me, every day, I would have been there every day.
Robbie: Yes but, if all we have rests on a few moments in a library three and a half years ago then I am not sure, I don't know...
Cecilia: Robbie, look at me, come back, come back to me.

View Quote Cecilia: There isn't much time. Robbie has to report for duty at six and he's got a train to catch. So sit down. There are some things you're going to do for us.
[Briony and Cecilia sit in the kitchen. Robbie leans on the table, looming over them]
Robbie: You'll go to your parents as soon as you can and tell them everything they need to know to be convinced that your evidence was false. You'll go and see a solicitor and make a statement and have it signed and witnessed and send copies to us. Is that clear?
Cecilia : Yes.
Robbie: Then you'll write a detailed letter to me, explaining everything that led up to you saying you saw me by the lake.
Cecilia: Try and include whatever you can remember of what Danny Hardman was doing that night.
Briony: Hardman?
Robbie: Yes!
Briony: It wasn't Danny Hardman. It was Leon's friend, Marshall.
[Cecilia and Robbie look at her, astonished]
:Cecilia: I don't believe you.
Briony: He's married Lola; I've just come from their wedding.
[Silence. Finally, Robbie exhales the breath he's been holding, Cecilia looks across at him]
Cecilia: Lola won't be able to testify against him now. He's immune.
[Robbie straightens up and turns away, grappling with a riot of emotions; silence; finally, Briony stands up and speaks, very formal]
Briony: I'm very, very sorry for the terrible distress that I have caused. I'm very, very sorry.
Robbie: Just do as I have asked of you. Write it all down. Just the truth. No rhymes, no embellishments, no adjectives. And then leave us be.
Briony: I will. I promise.

View Quote Love is all very well, but you have to be sensible.

View Quote [writing] The princess was well aware of his remorseless wickedness. But that made it no easier to overcome the voluminous love she felt in her heart for Sir Romulus. The princess knew instinctively that the one with red hair was not to be trusted. As his young ward dived again and again into the depths of the lake, in search of the enchanted chalice, Sir Romulus twirled his luxuriant mustache. Sir Romulus rode with his two companions, northwards, drawing ever closer to an effulgent sea. So heroic in manner, he appeared so valiant in word... And no could ever guess at the darkness lurking in the black heart of Sir Romulus Turnbull. He was the most dangerous man in the world.

View Quote My doctor tells me I have something called vascular dementia; which is essentially a continuous series of tiny strokes. Your brain gradually closes down. You lose words, you lose your memory: which, for a writer, is pretty much the point. That's why I could finally write this book; and why, of course, it's my last novel. Strangely enough, it would be just as accurate to call it my first novel. I wrote several drafts as far back as my time at St. Thomas's Hospital during the war. I just couldn't ever find the way to do it.

View Quote [to Briony] 'll be quite honest with you. 'm torn between breaking your neck here

View Quote Jackson:: When can we go home?
Lola:: Soon.
Pierrot: We can't go home: it's a divorce!
Lola: How dare you say that?
Pierrot: Well, it's true.
[Lola grabs Peirrot by the shoulders and shakes him.]
Lola: You will never ever use that word again. Do you understand?

View Quote [Paul Marshall unwraps a brown paper parcel to reveal a shell of khaki sugar which he taps with his fingernail]
Paul Marshall: There'll be one of these provided in every kitbag of every soldier in the British Army. Sugar casing so it won't melt.
Pierrot: Why should they get free sweets?
Paul Marshall: Because they'll be fighting for their country.
Jackson: Our Daddy says there isn't going to be a war.
Paul Marshall: Your Daddy is wrong.

View Quote Pierrot: It's boring how everything ends in O. Polo and Aero.
Jackson: And Oxo and Brillo.

View Quote Cecilia: My brother and I found the two of them down by the lake. Small Text
Police Inspector: You didn't see anyone else?
Cecilia: I wouldn't necessarily believe everything Briony tells you. She's rather fanciful.

View Quote Frenchman: Ah, c'est vrai, l'arm?e anglaise se retire. (Subtitled: So it's true, the English are retreating.)
Robbie: On va disparaitre, avant qu'il fait jour. (Subtitled: We'll be gone at first light.)
Frenchman: On s'est battu toutes ces ann?es, tant de gens sont morts. Maintenant les Allemands sont de nouveau en France. (Subtitled: We fought all those years, lost all those dead. Now the Germans are back in France.)
Robbie: On va revenir. On va les chasser. C'est promis. (Subtitled: We'll come back. We'll throw them out. I promise you.)
Frenchman: Bonne chance! (Subtitled: Good luck!)