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The Lady from Shanghai

The Lady from Shanghai quotes

38 total quotes

Arthur Bannister
George Grisby
Michael O'Hara
Others




View Quote Arthur: Are you independently wealthy?
Michael: I'm independent.
Arthur: Of money. Before you start that novel Elsa says you're going to write, you'd better learn something. You've been traveling around the world too much to find out anything about it....
Michael: I've always found it very sanitary to be broke.
Arthur: ...Money cannot bring you health and happiness, etc. Is that it? Without money, I'd be flat on my back in the ward of a county hospital...Each man has his own idea of happiness, of course, but money is what all of us have in common...You call yourself independent. Come around and see me five years from now.
View Quote Michael: Love. Do you believe in love at all, Mrs. Bannister?
Elsa: I was taught to think about love in Chinese.
Michael: The way a Frenchman thinks about laughter in French?
Elsa: The Chinese say, it is difficult for love to last long. Therefore, one who loves passionately is cured of love, in the end.
Michael: Sure, that's a hard way of thinking.
Elsa: There's more to the proverb: Human nature is eternal. Therefore, one who follows his nature keeps his original nature, in the end.
View Quote Elsa: He isn't really a steward...He's a detective, Michael. My husband hires him to watch me. He wants to fix it so I'll never be able to divorce him...I haven't a cent, Michael. He wants to cut me off without a cent.
Michael: Does that matter so much, I shouldn't think it would?
Elsa: Oh, I told you, sweet, you don't know anything about the world.
Michael: Well lately, I've been rounding out my education.
View Quote Grisby: That's what I need you for, Michael. To see to it that I'm not around. How'd you like $5,000?...I'll fill in the details later...It's yours. All you have to do is kill somebody.
Michael: Who, Mr. Grisby? I'm particular who I murder...You know, I wouldn't like to kill just anybody. Is it someone I know?
Grisby: Oh, yeah, but you'll never guess...It's me...I want you to kill me!
View Quote Michael: Sure, I'm gonna take you where there aren't any spies.
Elsa: Michael, where?
Michael: A long way off. Somewhere in the far places.
Elsa: Far places? We're in one of them now. Anyway, it doesn't work. I tried it. Everything's bad, Michael, everything. You can't escape it or fight it. You've got to get along with it. Deal with it, make terms. You're such a foolish knight errant, Michael. You're big and strong, but you just don't know how to take care of yourself. So how could you take care of me?
View Quote Arthur: Your Honor, the District Attorney isn't cross-examining, he's making speeches.
District Attorney: That simply isn't so.
Arthur: I move for a declaration of mistrial be sought on the grounds that the jury is being prejudiced.
District Attorney: These are some of the great Bannister's 'trial tactics.' In an appeal for sympathy...
Arthur: The District Attorney is beginning to get vicious.
Judge: When you two gentlemen get over your argument, tell me who won. Then I'll decide on the objection. [Laughter] Objection sustained.
View Quote Elsa: Why don't you try and understand? George was supposed to take care of Arthur, but he lost his silly head and shot Broome. After that, I knew I couldn't trust him. He was mad. He had to be shot.
Michael: And what about me?
Elsa: We could have gone off together.
Michael: Into the sunrise? You and me, or you and Grisby?
Elsa: I love you.
Michael: One who follows his nature keeps his original nature in the end. But haven't you heard ever of something better to follow?
Elsa: No.
View Quote Elsa: [gasping, as she is dying] He and George, and now me!
Michael: Like the sharks, mad with their own blood. Chewing away at their own selves.
Elsa: It's true. I made a lot of mistakes.
Michael: You said the world's bad. We can't run away from the badness. And you're right there. But you said we can't fight it. We must deal with the badness, make terms. And then the badness'll deal with you, and make its own terms, in the end, surely.
Elsa: You can fight, but what good is it? Goodbye.
Michael: You mean we can't win?
Elsa: No, we can't win. Give my love to the sunrise.
Michael: We can't lose, either. Only if we quit.
Elsa: And you're not going to.
Michael: Not again!
Elsa: Oh Michael, I'm afraid. [He strolls away] Michael, come back here. Michael! Please! I don't want to die! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!