Tied for most-quoted character in Sophie's Choice (1982): in 9 of its 24 quotes
Most scenes with: Stingo (6), Nathan Landau (2)
You may keep one of your children.
You are a Polack, not a Yid. That gives you a privilege, a choice.
This was not judgement day — only morning. Morning: excellent and fair.
Stingo, you look... you look very nice, you're wearing your ****.
That's my "seersucker."
Mmm. You know, when you... when you live a good life... like a saint... and then you die, that must be what they make you to drink in paradise.
My mother, she's very sick, you know. And I can't do anything. But I think — if only I could have got — that meat for my mother it would make her strong. So I go to the country and er... the peasants were selling ham and I buy it with the black market money and I bring it back. But it's forbidden, you know, because all the meat goes to the Germans. So I sat on the train and I hid it under my skirt, I am pretending that I am pregnant, you know? Oh I was so afraid. I was shaking. And then the German, was in front of the train and he saw me. So he come over and take under my skirt that ham and... So they sent me Auschwitz.
You were sent to Auschwitz because you stole a ham?
No, I was sent to Auschwitz because they saw that I was afraid.
You're so beautiful. I'd like to get you in bed. Are you a polack? You! Are you also one of those filthy communists?
I am a pole! I was born in Cracow! I am not a Jew. Neither are my children! They're not Jews. They are racially pure. I am a Christian. I am a devout Christian.
You are not a communist? You are a believer.
Yes sir, I believe in Christ.
You believe in Christ the redeemer?
Yes.
Did He not say... "Suffer the children, come unto me?" You may keep one of your children.
I beg your pardon?
You may keep one of your children. The other must go away.
You mean, I have to choose?
You are a Polack, not a Yid. That gives you a privilege, a choice.
I bet your father is a - very interesting man.
Yeah, my father was - a civilized man. That's a word, yeah? "Civilized"?
A very good word.
Yeah? My father was a civilized man living in a uncivilized time. The civilized, they was the first to die.
Tell me. Tell me, Sophie. The same anti-Semitism for which Poland has gained such a worldwide renown that this similar anti-Semitism guide your own destiny, help you along, protect you in a manner of speaking so you became one of the minuscule, handful of people who lived - while the millions died? Tell me. Tell me why? Explanation, please! Tell me why, old lucky number 11379, tell me, why you inhabit the land of the living? What splendid little tricks and strategems sprang from that lovely head of yours to allow you to breath the clear Polish air? While the multitudes at Auschwitz choked - slowly - on the gas?
No!
Explain!
Stop it!
Explain!
You tried to commit suicide in Auschwitz?
No, it was after that. After that, I was in, um... After liberation.
After you were safe?
Yes, safe, yeah. I was safe, I was in Sweden. I was in that, uh, refugee camp. I mean, that was good. They try to help you, you know? They try to... they try... but... I knew that... Christ had turned his face away from me... and that only a Jesus who no longer cared for me could... kill those people that I love, but... leave me alive... with my shame? Oh, God. So I went to that church... and I took the glass. I knelt down and I... cut my wrist. But I didn't die, of course! Of course not. Stingo... there's so many things you don't understand. There's so many things that I can't... that I cannot... tell you.
Sophie, I want to understand. I'd like to know the truth.
The truth does not make it easier to understand, you know. I mean, you think that you find out the truth about me, and then you'll understand me. And then you would forgive me for all those... for all my lies.
I promise, I'll never leave you.
You must never promise that. No one, no one should ever promise that. Ah, the truth, ah, the truth, I don't even know what is the truth - after all these lies I have told.
Well, I love you very much, Sophie. And I want to marry you. I want you to live down there on that farm with me. When I write my books there, I want you to help me and I want you to help me raise a family because I love you very, very much. Is it too much to hope that you might love me, too?
Listen, Stingo, I'm beyond 30 years now, you know. What are you going to do with an old Polish lady like me?
Manage. I'll Manage. "Old woman". Don't talk that way. You're always going to be my number one.
