Most-quoted character in The Last Unicorn (1982): in 27 of its 61 quotes
Most scenes with: Schmendrick the Magician (5), Molly Grue (2), Lír (2)
I am the only Unicorn there is? The Last? … That cannot be. Why would I be the last? What do men know? Because they have seen no unicorns for a while does not mean we have all vanished. We do not vanish. … There has never been a time without unicorns. We live forever! We are as old as the sky, old as the moon! We can be hunted, trapped; we can even be killed if we leave our forests, but we do not vanish. … Am I truly the last?
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea I could never leave this forest, but I must know if I'm the only unicorn left in the world! Suppose they're hiding together... somewhere far away? What if they're waiting for me? In need of my help? … I must go quickly, and come back as soon as I can.
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea Mare? Mare? I — a horse! Is that what you take me for? Is that what you see? … I have forgotten that men cannot see Unicorns. If men no longer know what they're looking at, there may well be other unicorns in the world yet — unknown — and glad of it.
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea Do not boast, old woman. Your death sits in that cage, and she hears you.
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea To Mommy Fortuna
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea Don't look back, and don't run. You must never run from anything immortal; it attracts their attention.
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea To Schmendrick, as the harpy Celaeno kills Mommy Fortuna
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea I can never regret. I can feel sorrow, but it's not the same thing.
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea To Schmendrick, on the morning after escaping from The Midnight Carnival
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea I wish you had let the Red Bull take me! I wish you had left me to the harpy! I can feel this body DYING all around me!
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea After magic transforms her into a woman.
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea But, I am always dreaming, even when I'm awake; it is never finished.
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea Molly, who am I? Why am I here? What is it that I am seeking in this strange place, day after day? I knew a moment ago, but I have forgotten.
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea Everything dies! I want to die when YOU die!
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea Unicorns are in the world again. No sorrow will live in me as long as that joy, save one...and I thank you for that part, too.
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea To Schmendrick
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea Once, I can't remember, I was long ago, someone strange. I was innocent and wise, and full of pain. Now that I'm a woman, everything has changed. Once, when I was searching, somewhere out of reach, far away, in a place I could not find, or heart obey. Now that I'm a woman, everything is strange.
Unicorn / Lady Amalthea Please, all I want to know is if you've seen other unicorns like me somewhere in the world.
Unicorn Say my name then. If you know my name, tell it to me.
Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name...!
Unicorn Say it, if you know.
Rumpelstiltskin! Gotcha!
Unicorn I should know better to expect a silly butterfly to know my name! All butterflies know are songs, and poetry, and anything else they hear. I guess you mean well. Fly away, Butterfly!
One, two, three, O'Leary..
Listen. Don't listen to ME, listen. You can find the others if you are brave. They passed down all the roads long ago, and the Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footprints. Listen! Listen, listen QUICKLY!
Unicorn I AM listening! Where did they go and what is the Red Bull?
Listen! LISTEN! [laughs] The king is in his counting house, counting out, counting out, counting...
Tell me what you see. Don't be afraid. Look at your fellow legends and tell me what you see.
Unicorn What he calls a manticore looks to be no more than a shabby, toothless lion. And he has them believing that poor old ape with the twisted foot is a satyr! Illusions, deceptions, mirages! Your Mommy Fortuna cannot truly change things!
That's true. She can only disguise, and only for those eager to believe whatever comes easiest. … No, She cannot turn cream into butter, but she can make a lion look like a manticore to eyes that want to see a manticore. Just like she put a false horn, on a real unicorn, so they could see the unicorn. I know you. If I were blind, I would know what you are.
Unicorn Who are you?
I am called Schmendrick, the Magician. Uh... you won't have heard of me. I entertain the sight-seers as they gather for the show. It's not much of a job for a real magician, but I've had worse.
Unicorn [seeing the harpy]: That one is real. That is the harpy Celaeno.
Yes, the old woman caught her by chance, asleep, just as she took you. Oh, she should never have meddled with a real harpy — or a real unicorn for that matter. Because the truth melts her magic, always. She is going to free herself very soon now and she must not catch you uncaged.
Move away from there! You know what she told you!
Don't be afraid; Schmendrick is with you. Do nothing 'til you hear from me.
Mommy Fortuna The harpy's as real as you are, and just as immortal. And she was just as easy to capture, if you want to know.
Unicorn Do not boast, old woman. Your death sits in that cage, and she hears you.
Mommy Fortuna Oh, she'll kill me one day or another. But she will remember forever that I caught her; I held her prisoner. So there's my immortality, eh? Ha! Ha! Now, you were out on the road, hunting for your own death, and I know where it awaits you. I know HIM, that one..
Unicorn Do you speak of the Red Bull? Tell me, if you do, and where he is, if you know!
Mommy Fortuna The Red Bull of King Haggard...so you know of the Bull! Well, he'll not have you! You belong to me.
Unicorn You know better... Keep your poor shadows, if you will, but let me go, and, let her go. I cannot see her caged. She is real, like me. We are two sides of the same magic… The harpy and me, we are not for you.
Mommy Fortuna Who are you for then? Do you think those fools knew you, without any help from me? Ha ha ha! No! I had to give you a horn they could see! Ha ha! These days it takes a cheap carnival trick to make folk recognize a real unicorn. But, the Red Bull will know you when he sees you, so you are safer here! You should thank me for protecting you!
Take me with you, for luck, for laughs, for the unknown...
Unicorn You may come with me, if you like, though I wish you'd asked for some other reward for having freed me.
I thought about it. But you couldn't granted my true wish.
Unicorn No. I cannot turn you into something you are not. I cannot turn you into a true magician.
Ah, it's ok. Don't worry about it.
Unicorn I'm not.
No, it can't be. Can it be? Where have you been? Where have you been? Damn you! Where have you been?
Don't you talk to her that way!
Unicorn I'm here now.
And where were you twenty years ago? Ten years ago? Where were you when I was new? When I was one of those innocent young maidens you always come to? How dare you! How dare you come to me now, when I am this! [Weeps]
Can you really see her? Do you know what she is?
If you had been waiting to see a unicorn, as long as I have...
She's the last unicorn in the world.
It would be the last unicorn in the world that came to Molly Grue. … It's all right, I forgive you.
Amalthea Don't!
I will not touch you. What are you looking at?
Amalthea The sea.
Ah yes, the sea is always good. There is nothing I can look at for very long, except the sea.
You were dreaming, my Lady.
Amalthea But I am always dreaming, even when I am awake! It is never finished. I will not trouble you, my Lord Prince.
Trouble me, please, trouble me! I would court you with more grace, if I knew how. I only wish you wanted something of me..
Amalthea Drown out my dreams! Keep me from remembering, whatever wants me to remember it!
Amalthea Lír! Don't let him change me! The Red Bull has no care for human beings. We may walk out past him and get away!
If we do that, then all the unicorns of the world will remain prisoners forever, except one, and she will grow old and die.
Amalthea Everything dies! I want to die when you die. [looks at Lír] I'm no unicorn, no magical creature. I'm a woman, and I love you! Don't let him! Lír, I will not love you when I'm a unicorn.
Amalthea, don't...
Then let the quest end here! I don't think I could change you back, even if you wished it. Marry the prince, and live happily ever after.
Amalthea Yes, that is my wish.
No. My lady, I am a hero, and heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever. A happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.
But what if there isn't a happy ending?
There are no happy endings, because nothing ends.
Schmendrick, let her stay the way she is. Let her be...
That's not in the story. Lír knows that, and so does she.
You don't care! You don't care what happens to her or to the others, just so you become a real magician, at last. You don't care —
Well I wish I didn't care! I wish to God I didn't care about anything but my magic! But I do! I do.
Unicorn You are a true wizard now, as you always wished. Does it make you happy?
Well, men don't always know when they're happy. But I — I think so. And you?
Unicorn I am a little afraid to go home. I have been mortal, and some part of me is mortal yet. I am no longer like the others, for no unicorn was ever born who could regret, but I now I do. I regret.
I am sorry. I have done you evil and I cannot undo it.
Unicorn No. Unicorns are in the world again. No sorrow will live in me as long as that joy — save one. And I thank you for that part, too. Farewell good magician. I will try to go home.
