Confronting Danger in the Wilderness
Denys:
I wouldn't run. If you do, she'll think you're something good to eat.
Karen Blixen: [staring at the lion]
Have you-- Do you have a gun?
Denys:
She won't like the smell of you.
Karen Blixen:
Shoot-- Shoot it.
Denys:
She's had breakfast.
Karen Blixen:
Please shoot her.
Denys:
Well, let's give her a moment.
Karen Blixen: [the lion comes closer to her; the lion approaches Karen then wanders off into brush]
Oh my God, shoot her! Just how much closer did you expect to let her come?
Denys:
A bit. It wanted to see if you'd run. That's how they decide. A lot like people that way.
Karen Blixen:
She almost had me for lunch!
Denys:
Well, it wasn't her fault, Baroness. She's a lion.
Karen Blixen:
Well, it wasn't mine.
Denys:
Doesn't that outfit come with a rifle?
Karen Blixen: [looks around]
Ye-ah, uh. On my saddle.
Denys:
Better keep it with you. Your horse isn't much of a shot.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Choosing Authenticity Over Expectations
Karen Blixen:
When you go away... you don't always go on safari, do you? Just want to be away.
Denys:
It's not meant to hurt you.
Karen Blixen:
It does.
Denys:
I'm with you because I choose to be with you. I don't want to live someone else's idea of how to live. Don't ask me to do that. I don't want to find out one day that I'm at the end of someone else's life. I'm willing to pay for mine. To be lonely sometimes. To die alone, if I have to. I think that's fair.
Karen Blixen:
Not quite. You want me to pay for it as well.
Denys:
No, you have a choice, and you're not willing to do the same for me.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Navigating Life's Uncertainties and Perspectives
Karen Blixen:
I had a compass from Denys. To steer by, he said. But later it came to me that we navigated differently. Perhaps he knew, as I did not, that the Earth was made round so that we would not see too far down the road.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Complexity of Farewell and Endurance
Karen Blixen:
It's an odd feeling, farewell. There is such envy in it. Men go off to be tested, for courage. And if we're tested at all, it's for patience, for doing without, for how well we can endure loneliness.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
