Agnes of God (1985)

Jane Fonda: Doctor Martha Livingston

Photos 

Quotes 

• Doctor Martha Livingston : Agnes, how do you feel about babies?

  Sister Agnes : Oh, they frighten me; I'm afraid I'll drop them. They have a soft spot on their heads, and if you drop them so they land on their heads, they become stupid. I was dropped on MY head; that's why I don't understand things.

  Doctor Martha Livingston : Like what?

  Sister Agnes : Numbers! You can spend your whole life counting 'em and never reach the end.

  Doctor Martha Livingston : I don't understand them, either... Do you 'spose I was dropped on my head?

  Sister Agnes : [concerned]  I hope not... it's a terrible thing to be dropped on your head.

• Doctor Martha Livingston : Suppose the saints would have smoked if tobacco'd been popular back then?

  Mother Miriam Ruth : Undoubtably. Not the ascetics, of course, but, well, St. Thomas More.

  Doctor Martha Livingston : Long, thin, and filtered!

  Mother Miriam Ruth : St. Ignatius would smoke cigars and then stub them out on the soles of his bare feet. And of course all of the apostles?

  Doctor Martha Livingston : Hand rolled.

  Mother Miriam Ruth : Even Christ would partake socially.

  Doctor Martha Livingston : St. Peter?

  Mother Miriam Ruth : Pipe!

  Doctor Martha Livingston : Right!

  Mother Miriam Ruth : Mary Magdalene?

  Doctor Martha Livingston : Ohhh! You've come a long way baby!

  Mother Miriam Ruth : And St. Joan would chew tobacco!

  Doctor Martha Livingston : All right! What do you suppose today's saints are smoking?

• [last lines] 

  Doctor Martha Livingston : [Last Lines]  I don't know the meaning behind the song she sang. Perhaps it was a song of seduction, and the father was a field hand. Perhaps the song was simply a lullaby she remembered from many years ago, and the father was hope, and love, and desire and a belief in miracles. I want to believe that she was blessed. And I do miss her. And I hope she's left something; some little part of herself with me. That would be miracle enough, wouldn't it?

• Doctor Martha Livingston : Smoking is an obsession with me. Maybe someday I'll become obsessed with something else and give up smoking.

• Doctor Martha Livingston : Who did this to you? Who?

  Sister Agnes : God! It was God... and now I'll burn in Hell because I hate him.

• Doctor Martha Livingston : Sister Mary Cletus, she used to call me Polka-Dot Livingston!

  Mother Miriam Ruth : So, you left the church because you had freckles?

  Doctor Martha Livingston : No... I... uh... YES! I left the church because I had freckles!

• Mother Miriam Ruth : [about Sister Agnes]  I am saying that you have a beautifully simple woman here.

  Doctor Martha Livingston : An unhappy woman.

  Mother Miriam Ruth : She's happy with us, and she could go on being happy if she were left alone.

  Doctor Martha Livingston : Then why did you call the police in the first place, Mother, huh? Why didn't you just throw the baby into the incinerator and be done with it?

  Mother Miriam Ruth : Because I am a moral person.

  Doctor Martha Livingston : Bullshit.

  Mother Miriam Ruth : Bullshit yourself.

  Doctor Martha Livingston : The Catholic Church doesn't have a corner on morality.

  Mother Miriam Ruth : Who said anything about the Catholic Church?

  Doctor Martha Livingston : You just did.

  Mother Miriam Ruth : What the hell does the Catholic Church got to do with you?

  Doctor Martha Livingston : Nothing.

  Mother Miriam Ruth : What have we done to hurt you? And don't deny it, I can smell an ex-Catholic a mile away. What did we do? Burn a few heretics, sell some indulgences? That was in the days when the Church was a ruling body, we let Governments do those things today. So what did we do to you, hey?...

• Doctor Martha Livingston : As much as God loves you

• Eve LeClaire : Nobody is interested in sending a nun to prison.

  Justice Joseph Leveau : We're not telling you what to decide Martha. We're not even telling you to take this.

  Eugene Lyon : Is there any reason why you feel you shouldn't take it?

  [Martha pauses for a long moment at the window, then turns] 

  Doctor Martha Livingston : Today's my birthday. I always make bad decisions on my birthday.

  [the Judge, Eve and Lyon all chuckle. The Judge throws the file down on his desk towards her] 

  Justice Joseph Leveau : Happy birthday.