- Contessa Sanziani: You're only what you wish to be. But, you must take the risk. Never turn away from either joy or suffering. Take it all. Take everything you can from life! It never gives anything back.
- Contessa Sanziani: No one is dead. No one dies unless we wish them to. It is a secret I will share with you. You see, time, you see, it doesn't exist.
- Contessa Sanziani: Now, you look as you should. You may go now.
- Nina: Oh, Contessa, thank you.
- Contessa Sanziani: Oh, don't thank me. I'm merely teaching myself to grow old in the right way. I'll wish you as much happiness, as much suffering, in your life, as I've had in mine. Go along now.
- Contessa Sanziani: Its your turn, little one, to be desired and to conquer. Tonight I choose between hating you and directing your steps. Now, be yourself - if you can. That is the important thing. And if you can't, be silent. He'll imagine what he wants to imagine. For this, of course, he has to pay a higher price. Oh, not for the money itself. Never. But, for what he thinks of you, for the value he places on you.
- Contessa Sanziani: It isn't enough to look at oneself. The mirror must be beautiful too.
- Nina: The mirror?
- Contessa Sanziani: Yes - the two. You and the mirror.
- Nina: If only I could be like you!
- Contessa Sanziani: Oh, never! Never! You must never wish to be like anyone else in this world. Unless you want to be a copy. Copies, of course, they only produce mediocrity.
- Nina: Not even a beautiful mirror can take away an ugly birthmark.
- Contessa Sanziani: You have my sacred promise. One day, there will be men, important men, who will go to their damnation for the sake of pressing their lips to it.
- Contessa Sanziani: Don't be afraid of showing yourself naked. Modesty is only a sense of imperfection - a virtue taught by ugly women. One gets rid of it directly, one knows ones beautiful. Be proud of your belly. Be proud of your breasts. Be proud of your skin. Never deny these precious gifts - its an insult to God.
- Contessa Sanziani: If you're not an original, you're nothing. The world, you see, worships the original.
- Contessa Sanziani: Yes, film. Film, yes. Something new, huh? Something American, no doubt. They're so terribly clever.
- Nina: That old lady has more life left in her, right this minute, than you've got left between your legs!
- Nina: Tell me something, do you have any idea for what its like for a woman to grow old? Oh, a man, that's a different story. A man can live to be 90 and they still come to honor him.
- [last lines]
- Nina: Be yourself. That's the important thing. The world, you see, worships the original.
- Nina: She doesn't tell stories to anyone. She *lives* them. She's living through all the great moments of her life.
- Nina: Sanziani never sold herself to anyone! Anyone! She never cared about money! She doesn't even know what money is now. What she did care about, what she worshipped, was genius. All kinds of genius. Men who accomplished great things in this world. Statesmen. Poets - and painters and composers. She gave herself to them, in return for their genius. She gave them the greatest gift of all. She made them feel like gods! No wonder men wanted her. No wonder they'd give up everything they had for her. And not just money. They gave everything.
- Contessa Sanziani: Oh, I thank God for Gabriele d'Orazio. He's given me strength. He's given me life! He's unveiled the sun to me. And when we make love, it's never dark, it's open - and free. To the sound of the sea and the wind.
- Count Sanziani: Really, Lucretia, how can you speak of such things?
- Contessa Sanziani: Because I'm alive. I'm alive!
- Valentina: There, there's an American girl. She wants to be a movie star. She likes girls. Watch it.
- Contessa Sanziani: Of course, I knew you'd come.
- Count Sanziani: Someone told me, well, I forget who it was, that you were staying here. That you were not well or very happy. I know 40 years ago I swore never to see you again. But, now - now that we've lived so long.
- Contessa Sanziani: I was expecting you.
- Count Sanziani: Really? Well, I must say, I find that surprising. But, your reactions always surprise me.
- Contessa Sanziani: There is nothing you can say that's going to alter anything. Nothing! I will not come back to live with you.
- Contessa Sanziani: When I tell you that I am miserable - you take me to the theater. When I tell you I intend to be unfaithful - you stroke my cheek and smile. Never a moment of passion! Never - never a burst of jealousy!
- Count Sanziani: All the same, I never forgive you for betraying me with a man older than myself or walking out of our life when - is it possible - here we are still quarreling - when it's all so - unimportant any more.
- Nina: [singing] If you keep dreaming, Some remarkable things occur, Oh, it's only a matter of time...
- Contessa Sanziani: I'm approaching an age when one must pay for love. But, I shall never resign myself to that.
- Contessa Sanziani: The Duke of Milan! I noticed him at dinner. Oh, completely bald. Shaved it all off. Lydia tells me he shaves his entire body. Must be a striking figure. I wonder how she knows?
- Nina: People like you! You and your goddamn, stupid rape scene. Well, I don't need you. I really don't need you. You can take your rape and you can rot with it. You can just rot with it!
- Antonio Vicari: You did it. You did it, Mario. What you have done is to go beyond the rape, itself. What we have now, will give the ending - a new hope - and a new vision.
- Nina: [singing] I only met you, And I shouldn't let you, But, oh, Do it again, I may cry, "No, no no, no, no!" But do it again, My lips just ache, To have you take, The kiss that's waiting for you, You know if you do, You won't regret it, Come and get it...
- Valentina: You listen to me. A screen test doesn't cost them anything. All they want to do is get into your pants. For nothing. You make them pay for it.
- Sister Pia: She did say something to me at the very end. I believe she must have regained consciousness. She said, "Is life over, already?"
- Nina: Don't give up your memories! Contessa, please, I mean for your sake as well as for mine. I feel like I'm a part of them now.
- Nina: You didn't know what you've done for me. You've made me think of myself as really *being* someone.