4 quotes
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.
Confronting Danger in the Wilderness
Denys
I wouldn't run. If you do, she'll think you're something good to eat.
Karen Blixen
Have you-- Do you have a gun?
[staring at the lion]
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
Oh my God, shoot her! Just how much closer did you expect to let her come?
[the lion comes closer to her; the lion approaches Karen then wanders off into brush]
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
Ye-ah, uh. On my saddle.
[looks around]
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.
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.
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.