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Rebecca

Rebecca quotes

34 total quotes

2nd Mrs. de Winter
Beatrice Lacy
Jack Favell
Maxim de Winter
Mrs. Danvers
Mrs. Edyth Van Hopper




View Quote Yes, and we must be careful not to shock Cinderella, mustn't we?
View Quote Go and question Dr. Baker. He'll tell you why Rebecca went to him, to confirm the fact that she was going to have a child, a sweet, curly-headed little child...She told Max about it. Maxim knew he wasn't the father, so like the gentleman of the old school that he is, he killed her.
View Quote de Winter: [referring to Manderlay] To me, it's just the place where I was born and I've lived in all my life. But now, I don't suppose I shall ever see it again.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Well, we're lucky not to, uh, be home during the bad weather, aren't we? I-I can't ever remember enjoying swimming in England till June, can you? The water's so warm here that I could stay in all day. There's a dangerous undertow and there's a man who drowned here last year. I never have any fear of drowning. Have you?
de Winter: Come, I'll take you home.
View Quote 2nd Mrs. de Winter: You know, I, I wish there could be an invention that bottled up the memory like perfume and it never faded never got stained. Then whenever I wanted to, I could uncork the bottle and, and live the memory all over again.
de Winter: And what particular moment in your young life would you want to keep?
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Oh, all of them. All these last few days. I-I feel as though I've, I've collected a whole shelf full of bottles.
de Winter: Sometimes, you know, those little bottles contain demons. They have a way of popping out at you, just as you're trying most desperately to forget. Stop biting your nails!
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Oh, I wish I were a woman of thirty-six, dressed in black satin with a string of pearls.
de Winter: [Laughs] You wouldn't be here with me if you were.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Would you please tell me, Mr. de Winter, why you ask me to come out with you? Oh, it's obvious that you want to be kind, but why do you choose me for your charity?
de Winter: [He abruptly stops the car in the middle of the road.] I asked you to come out with me because I wanted your company. You've blotted out the past for me, more than all the bright lights of Monte Carlo. But if you think I just asked you out of kindness or charity, you can leave the car now and find your way home. Go on, open up the door and get out. [The young woman begins crying and he hands her a handkerchief.] Care to blow your nose?
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Thank you.
de Winter: Please don't call me Mr. de Winter. I've a very impressive array of first names, George Fortescu Maximilian, but you needn't bother with them all at once. My family called me Maxim. And another thing, please promise me never to wear black satin or pearls, or to be thirty-six years old.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Yes, Maxim.
View Quote 2nd Mrs. de Winter: I don't want to go. I shall hate it. I shall be miserable.
de Winter: Which would you prefer? New York or Manderley?
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Oh, please don't joke about it. Mrs. Van Hopper's waiting, and I better say goodbye now.
de Winter: I repeat what I said. Either you go to America with Mrs. Van Hopper or you come home to Manderley with me.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: You mean you want a secretary or something?
de Winter: I'm asking you to marry me, you little fool.
View Quote de Winter: My suggestion didn't seem to go at all well. Sorry.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Oh, but you don't understand. It's that I, well, I'm not the sort of person men marry.
de Winter: I don't know what you mean.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: I don't belong in your sort of world, for, for one thing.
de Winter: Well, what is 'my sort of world?'
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Oh well, Manderley, you know what I mean.
de Winter: Well, I'm the best judge of whether you belong there or not. Of course, if you don't love me, that's a different theorem. A fine blow to my conceit, that's all.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Oh, I do love you. I love you most dreadfully. I've been crying all morning because I thought I'd never see you again.
de Winter: Bless you for that. I'll remind you of this one day. You won't believe me. It's a pity you have to grow up.
View Quote 2nd Mrs. de Winter: What did she use the cottage for?
Crawley: The boat used to be moored near there.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: What boat? What happened to it? Was that the boat she was sailing in, when she was drowned?
Crawley: Yes. It capsized and sank. She was washed overboard.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Wasn't she afraid to go out like that alone?
Crawley: She wasn't afraid of anything.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Where did they find her?
Crawley: Near Edgecoombe, about 40 miles up channel about two months afterwards. Maxim went up to identify her. It was horrible for him.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Yes, it must have been. Mr. Crawley, please don't think me morbidly curious. It isn't that. It's just that I feel at such a disadvantage. All the time, whenever I meet anyone, Maxim's sister or even the servants, I know they're all thinking the same thing. They're all comparing me with her - with Rebecca.
Crawley: You mustn't think that. I can't tell you how glad I am that you married Maxim. It's going to make all the difference to his life. And from my point of view, it's very refreshing to find someone like yourself, who is not entirely in tune, shall we say, with Manderley.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: That's very sweet of you. I dare say, I, I've been stupid, but every day, I, I realize the things that she had that I lack - beauty and wit and intelligence and all the things that are so important.
Crawley: Oh, you have qualities that are just as important, more important if I may say so - kindliness and sincerity, and if you'll forgive me, modesty mean more to a husband than all the wit and beauty in the world. We, none of us, want to live in the past, Maxim least of all. It's up to you, you know, to lead us away from it.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: I promise you I won't bring this up again, but before we end this conversation, would you answer just one more question?
Crawley: If it's something I'm able to answer, I'll do my best.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Tell me, what was Rebecca really like?
Crawley: I suppose, I suppose she was the most beautiful creature I ever saw.
View Quote de Winter: Oh hang Mrs. Danvers. Why on earth should you be frightened of her? You behave more like an upstairs maid or something, not like the mistress of the house at all.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Yes, I know I do. But I feel so uncomfortable. I try my best every day, but it's very difficult, with people looking me up and down as if I were a prize cow.
de Winter: Well, what does it matter if they do? You must remember that life at Manderley is the only thing that interests anybody down here.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: What a slap in the eye I must have been to them then. I suppose that's why you married me, cause you knew I was dull and gauche and inexperienced. There would never be any gossip about me.
de Winter: Gossip? What do you mean?
2nd Mrs. de Winter: I-I don't know. I just said it for something to say. Don't look at me like that. Maxim. What's the matter? What have I said?
de Winter: It wasn't a very attractive thing to say, was it?
2nd Mrs. de Winter: No. It was rude, hateful.
de Winter: I wonder if I did a very selfish thing in marrying you.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: What do you mean?
de Winter: I'm not much of a companion to you, am I? You don't get much fun, do you? You ought to have married a boy, someone of your own age.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Maxim, why do you say this? Of course we're companions.
de Winter: Are we? I don't know. I'm very difficult to live with.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: No, you're not difficult, you're easy, very easy. Our marriage is a success, isn't it? A great success? We're happy, aren't we? Terribly happy? If you don't think we are happy, it would be much better if you didn't pretend. I'll go away. Why don't you answer me?
de Winter: How can I answer you when I don't know the answer myself? If you say we're happy, let's leave it at that. Happiness is something I know nothing about.
View Quote Mrs. Danvers: You wouldn't think she'd been gone so long, would you? Sometimes, when I walk along the corridor, I fancy I hear her just behind me, like a quick light step. I couldn't mistake it anywhere, not only in this room, but in all the rooms in the house. I can almost hear it now. Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?
2nd Mrs. de Winter: I don't believe it.
Mrs. Danvers: Sometimes, I wonder if she doesn't come back here to Manderley, to watch you and Mr. de Winter together. You look tired. Why don't you stay here and rest, and listen to the sea? It's so soothing. Listen to it. Listen.
View Quote Mrs. Danvers: I watched you go down just as I watched her a year ago. Even in the same dress you couldn't compare.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: You knew it. You knew that she wore it. And yet you deliberately stressed that I wear it. Why do you hate me? What have I done to you that you should ever hate me so?
Mrs. Danvers: You tried to take her place. You let him marry you. I've seen his face, his eyes. They're the same as those first weeks after she died. I used to listen to him, walking up and down, up and down, all night long, night after night, thinking of her. Suffering torture because he lost her.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: I don't want to know. I don't want to know.
Mrs. Danvers: You thought you could be Mrs. de Winter. Live in her house. Walk in her steps. Take the things that were hers. But she's too strong for you. You can't fight her. No one ever got the better of her. Never. Never. She was beaten in the end, but it wasn't a man. It wasn't a woman. It was the sea.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Oh, stop it! Stop it! Oh, stop it!
View Quote de Winter: I identified it, but I knew it wasn't Rebecca. It was all a lie. I knew where Rebecca's body was! Lying on that cabin floor at the bottom of the sea.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: How did you know, Max?
de Winter: Because I put it there. Will you look into my eyes, and tell me that you love me now? You see, I was right, it's too late.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: No, it's not too late. You're not to say that. I love you more than anything in the world. Oh, please Maxim, kiss me please.
de Winter: No, it's no use. It's too late.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: We can't lose each other now. We must be together always, no secrets, no shadows.
View Quote de Winter: Do you remember that cliff where you first saw me in Monte Carlo?...That was where I found out about her...She stood there laughing, her black hair blowing in the wind and told me all about herself - everything. Things I'll never tell a living soul. I wanted to kill her. It would have been so easy. Remember the precipice. I frightened you, didn't I? You thought I was mad. Perhaps I was. Perhaps I am mad. It wouldn't make for sanity would it, living with the devil. 'I'll make a bargain with you,' she said. 'You'd look rather foolish trying to divorce me now after four days of marriage. So I'll play the part of a devoted wife, mistress of your precious Manderley. I'll make it the most famous showplace in England if you like. Then, people will visit us and envy us, and say we're the luckiest, happiest, couple in the country. What a grand show it will be! What a triumph!' I should never have accepted her dirty bargain but I did. I was younger then and tremendously conscious of the family honor. Family honor. She knew that I'd sacrifice everything rather than stand up in a divorce court and give her away - admit that our marriage was a rotten fraud. You despise me don't you, as I despise myself. You can't understand what my feelings were, can you?
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Of course I can, darling, of course I can.
de Winter: Well, I kept the bargain and so did she, apparently. Oh, she played the game brilliantly. But after a while, she began to grow careless. She took a flat in London and she'd stay away for days at a time. Then, she started to bring her friends down here. I warned her but she shrugged her shoulders. 'What's it got to do with you?' she said. She even started on Frank, poor faithful Frank. Then there was a cousin of hers, a man named Favell.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: Yes, I know him. He came the day you went to London.
de Winter: Why didn't you tell me?
2nd Mrs. de Winter: I didn't like to. I thought it would remind you of Rebecca.
de Winter: Remind me, as if I needed reminding.
View Quote 2nd Mrs. de Winter: But you didn't kill her. It was an accident!
de Winter: Who would believe me? I lost my head. I just knew I had to do something, anything. I carried her out to the boat. It was very dark. There was no moon. I put her in the cabin. When the boat seemed a safe distance from the shore, I took a spike and drove it again and again through the planking of the hull. I'd opened up the sea ****s and the water began to come in fast. I climbed over into the dinghy and pulled away. I saw the boat heel over and sink. I pulled back into the cove. It started raining.
View Quote 2nd Mrs. de Winter: Maxim, does anyone else know this?
de Winter: No, no one except you and me.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: We must explain it. It's got to be the body of someone you've never seen before.
de Winter: No, they're bound to know her. Her rings, bracelets she always wore. They'll identify her body. Then, they'll remember the other woman - the other woman buried in the crypt.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: If they found out it was Rebecca, you will simply say you made a mistake about the other body, that the day you went to Edgecoombe, you were ill, you didn't know what you were doing. Rebecca's dead. That's what we've got to remember. Rebecca's dead. She can't speak. She can't bear witness. She can't harm you anymore. We're the only two people in the world that know Maxim, you and I.
de Winter: I told you once that I'd done a very selfish thing in marrying you. I can understand now what I meant. I've loved you, my darling. I shall always love you. But I've known all along that Rebecca would win in the end.
2nd Mrs. de Winter: No, no. She hasn't won. No matter what happens now, she hasn't won.
View Quote Favell used to visit her here in this cottage. I found out about it and I warned her that if he came here again I'd shoot them both. One night, when I'd found that she'd come quietly back from London, I thought that Favell was with her. And I knew then, that I couldn't stand this life of filth and deceit any longer. I decided to come down here and have it out with both of them. But she was alone. She was expecting Favell but he hadn't come.