Shakespeare in Love (1999) - Quotes

Inspiration from Film: A Lasting Impact

Quotes about Shakespeare in Love: I have always liked movies, and sometimes an image or a scene or a character stays with me for years and inspires me when I write. For example: the magic in Fanny and Alexander or the story within a story of Shakespeare in Love.

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Love as the Sole Source of Inspiration

Taglines: Love is the only inspiration.

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A Comedy on Unwritten Love Stories

Taglines: A Comedy About the Greatest Love Story Almost Never Told...

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The Conclusion of Denied Love

Lord Wessex: How is this to end?

Queen Elizabeth: As stories must when love's denied: with tears and a journey.

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The Show Must Go On

Philip Henslowe: The show must... you know...

William Shakespeare: [prompting him] Go on!

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The Cost of Dreams in Theater

William Shakespeare: I'm done with theater. The playhouse is for dreamers. Look what the dream brought us.

Viola De Lesseps: It was we ourselves did that. And for my life to come, I would not have it otherwise.

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The Value Beyond Artistry in Shakespeare's Works

Viola De Lesseps: I would not have thought it: there IS something better than a play!

William Shakespeare: There is.

Viola De Lesseps: Even your play.

William Shakespeare: Hmm?

Viola De Lesseps: And that was only my first try.

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First Experiences of Intimacy

Viola De Lesseps: I have never undressed a man before.

William Shakespeare: It is strange to me, too.

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Love as Sickness and Cure

Viola de Lesseps: [as Thomas Kent] Tell me how you love her, Will.

William Shakespeare: Like a sickness and its cure together.

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The Value of Obedience and Desire

Lord Wessex: [about Viola] Is she obedient?

Sir Robert de Lesseps: As any mule in Christendom - but if you are the man to ride her, there are rubies in the saddlebag.

Lord Wessex: I like her!

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Theatre Business: Challenges and Unexpected Success

Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.

Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?

Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.

Hugh Fennyman: How?

Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery. (recurring line)

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A Love Story Begins at Sea

William Shakespeare: [last lines] My story starts at sea... a perilous voyage to an unknown land... a shipwreck... The wild waters roar and heave... The brave vessel is dashed all to pieces, and all the helpless souls within her drowned... all save one... a lady... whose soul is greater than the ocean... and her spirit stronger than the sea's embrace... Not for her a watery end, but a new life beginning on a stranger shore. It will be a love story... for she will be my heroine for all time. And her name will be... Viola.

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Coughing Through Shakespeare's Play

William Shakespeare: You see? The comsumptives plot against me. "Will Shakespeare has a play, let us go and cough through it.

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The Detrimental Effects of Denied Love

William Shakespeare: Love denied blights the soul we owe to God.

Farewell to Lord Wessex's Lost Wife

Queen Elizabeth: Master Kent, as I foretold, Lord Wessex has lost his wife to the theater. Go, make your farewell, and send her out.

A Woman's Insight on Love and Deception

Queen Elizabeth: [to Lord Wessex] Have her then, but you're a lordly fool. She's been plucked since I saw her last, and not by you... it takes a woman to know it.

Understanding a Woman's Role in Power

Queen Elizabeth: I know something of a woman in a man's profession. Yes, by God, I do know about that.

A Desire for Authentic Expression

Viola De Lesseps: Write me well.

The Nature of True Love

Viola De Lesseps: [to her Nurse] I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all. No... not the artful postures of love, not playful and poetical games of love for the amusement of an evening, but love that overthrows life. Unbiddable, ungovernable - like a riot in the heart, and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture. Love - like there has never been in a play.

Dreaming of a Life in Theater

Viola De Lesseps: I would stay asleep my whole life, if I could dream myself into a company of players.

Defending the Value of Theatre and Art

Richard Burbage: The Master of the Revels despises us all for vagrants and peddlers of bombast. But my father, James Burbage, had the first license to make a company of players from Her Majesty, and he drew from poets the literature of the age. We must show them that we are men of parts. Will Shakespeare has a play. I have a theatre. The Curtain is yours.