Mona Lisa Smile Quotes

Taglines In a world that told them how to think, she showed them how to live.

Katherine Watson This is quite the event. I'm surprised I was invited.

Bill Dunbar Well, look around you. Who wasn't?

Joan Brandwyn It was my choice... not to go. He would have supported it.

Katherine Watson But you don't have to choose.

Joan Brandwyn No, I have to. I want a home; I want a family, that's not something I'll sacrifice.

Katherine Watson No-one's asking you to sacrifice that, Joan, I just want you to understand you can do both.

Joan Brandwyn Do you think I'll wake up one morning and regret not being a lawyer?

Katherine Watson Yes, I'm afraid that you will.

Joan Brandwyn Not as much as I regret not having a family, not being there to raise them. I know exactly what I'm doing and it doesn't make me any less smart.

Joan Brandwyn This must seem terrible to you.

Katherine Watson I didn't say that.

Joan Brandwyn Sure you did. You always do. You stand in class and tell us to look beyond the image, but you don't. To you a housewife is someone who sold her soul for a center hall colonial. She has no depth, no intellect, no interests. You're the one who said I could do anything I wanted. This is what I want.

Katherine Watson Congratulations. Be happy.

Betty Warren: Don't disregard our traditions just because you're subversive.

Katherine Watson Don't disrespect this class just because you're married.

Betty Warren Don't disrespect me just because you're not.

Katherine Watson Come to class, do the work, or I'll fail you.

Betty Warren If you fail me, there will be consequences.

Katherine Watson Are you threatening me?

Betty Warren I'm educating you.

Katherine Watson That's my job.

Connie Baker And, it was perfect, romantic, we stayed up all night, talking.

Joan Brandwyn You're late, what happened to Sunday brunch?

Giselle Levy We stayed up all night, too. Not talking.

Connie Baker The psychoanalyst again.

Giselle Levy Divine exhaustion.

Taglines They had everything. She showed them more.

Giselle Levy Whatever you do, don't put the boss's wife next to your husband.

Betty Warren Why not?

Giselle Levy She's screwing him.

Katherine Watson Pre-law? Well... have you decided which law school you're going to?

Joan Brandwyn Well, I haven't really thought much about it. After Wellesley, I plan on getting married.

Katherine Watson And then what?

Joan Brandwyn And then... I'll be married.

Betty Warren Ms. Watson, can you get me in touch with your friend at Greenwich Village?

Mrs. Warren What do you need at Greenwich Village?

Betty Warren An apartment. I filed for divorce and since you know I'm not welcome in your house. You remember Giselle Levy. What did you call her? A New York kike, that's it. Well, she and I are going to be roommates.

Giselle Levy Hi. Are you ready?

Betty Warren Yeah.

Katherine Watson You ok. Greenwich Village.

Betty Warren For a while. Then who knows, maybe law school. Maybe Yale.

Katherine Watson Well, I wouldn't go up against you in any court, anywhere.

Charlie Stewart My parents say my future is right on the horizon.

Connie Baker Tell them the horizon is an imaginary line that recedes as you approach it.

Betty Warren All her life, she had wanted to teach at Wellesley College. So, when a position opened in the Art History department, she pursued it single-mindedly until she was hired. It was whispered that Katherine Watson, a first-year teacher from Oakland State, made up in brains what she lacked in pedigree. Which was why this bohemian from California was on her way to the most conservative college in the nation.

Staunton's Secretary I was in California once. How do you get any work done with all that sunshine?

Katherine Watson We tan in class.

Betty Warren She's smiling. Is she happy?

Mrs. Warren The important thing is not to tell anyone.

Betty Warren She looks happy. So, what does it matter?

Mrs. Warren Don't wash your dirty laundry in public.

Connie Baker Now that's just an advertisement.

Katherine Watson Quiet! Today you just listen. What will the future scholars see when they study us? A portrait of woman today? There you are ladies. The perfect likeness of a Wellesley graduate, Magna Cum Laude doing exactly what she was trained to do. Slide. A Rhodes scholar. I wonder is she reciting Chaucer while she presses her husband's shirts. Slide. Heh, now you physics major's can calculate the mass and volume of every meat loaf you ever make. Slide. A girdle to set you free! What does that mean?... What does that mean?... What does it mean? I give up. You win. The smartest women in the country... I didn't realize that by demanding excellence I would be challenging... what did it say?

Katherine Watson what did it say? um... the roles you were born to fill

Katherine Watson is that right? the roles you were born to fill?... It's, uh, it's my mistake.

Katherine Watson Class dismissed.