The House of Mirth (2000)

Gillian Anderson: Lily Bart

Photos 

24 more photos

Quotes 

• Lily Bart : Why is it when we meet we always play this elaborate game?

• Lily Bart : Grace, you know Lawrence. If I asked him to help me, told him why - would he loathe me if I told him everything?

  Grace : No - you must not do that. He is like other men. They have minds like moral flypaper. They can forgive a woman almost anything except the loss of her good name.

• [to Lawrence] 

  Lily Bart : Love me. But don't tell me so.

• Lily Bart : I have tried. I have tried hard. But life is difficult and I am a useless person. And now I am on the rubbish heap.

• Lily Bart : Sometimes, I think a man understands a woman's motives better than her own sex does.

• Mrs. Peniston : Only someone without family could make such a vulgar remark.

  Lily Bart : Aunt Julia, you *are* my family.

• Sim Rosedale : [Proposing to Lily]  I know you're not in love with me. You're not even fond of me. Yet.

  Lily Bart : I am very much flattered by your offer. But I should be selfish and ungrateful if the reason for accepting your generosity - financial.

  Sim Rosedale : Miss Bart, I generally get what I want in life. I've attained a certain social position and I have the means to maintain it. Now all I want is the woman - the right woman to share both with me. Now I know you have a fondness for luxury and amusement and to not have to settle for it. I can provide the style and the means of settling.

• Lily Bart : They do fetch such fabulous prices, don't they?

  Lawrence Selden : Only the very rich can afford to buy them.

  Lily Bart : And you know that I am not rich. But life is very expensive.

  [Lawrence lights Lily's cigarette with his own cigarette, Lily breathes deep, exhales smoke onto Lawrence's face] 

  Lily Bart : Do you mind not being rich enough? And having to work? Do you mind that?

  Lawrence Selden : Well, the work itself is not so bad. I'm rather fond of the law.

  Lily Bart : But do you mind enough to have to marry to get out of it?

  Lawrence Selden : God forbid.

  Lily Bart : Ah, you see, there is the difference. A girl must, and a man if he chooses.

• Lily Bart : I have been about too long. People are getting tired of me. They are beginning to say that I ought to marry.

  Lawrence Selden : Isn't marriage your vocation. Isn't it what you're all brought up for?

  Lily Bart : I suppose so.

  Lawrence Selden : So why not take the plunge and have it over?

• Lily Bart : You never speak to me.

  Lawrence Selden : I'm never near you long enough.

• Lily Bart : I thought that I could manage my own life. But I have been foolish, Grace. Foolish to the point of being compromised.

• Lily Bart : Oh, how delicious to have a place like this all to oneself.

  Lawrence Selden : Even women have been known to enjoy the privileges of a flat.

  Lily Bart : Governesses, yes. But not poor, marriageable girls.

• Lily Bart : Dear Mr Selden, it is stupid of you to be disingenuous. And it isn't like you to be stupid.

• Lily Bart : You must suppose me a dull kind of person if you think I never yield to an impulse.

  Lawrence Selden : But I don't suppose that. Your genius lies in converting impulses into intentions.

  Lily Bart : My genius? My genius would appear to be my ability to do the wrong thing at the right time.

  Lawrence Selden : Or vice versa.

• Mrs. Peniston : To grow richer, when at a time when most people's investments are shrinking strikes me as being in very bad taste.

  Grace : But society still uses such men if only obliquely.

  Lily Bart : If obliquity were a vice, we should all be tainted.

• Lily Bart : If you would forgive your enemy, first inflict a hurt on them.

• Lily Bart : There are men who dislike me - and others who are afraid of me. They think I want to marry them. But I don't think that you dislike me. And you can't possibly think that I want to marry you.

  Lawrence Selden : No, I absolve you from that.

• Lily Bart : Oh, if I could only do over my aunt's drawing room I know I should be a better woman.

  Lawrence Selden : Is it so very bad?

  Lily Bart : That shows how seldom you come there. Why don't you come oftener?

  Lawrence Selden : When I do come, it's not to look at Mrs Peniston's furniture.

  Lily Bart : Nonsense. You don't come at all. And yet we get on so well when we meet.

  Lawrence Selden : Cream or lemon?

  Lily Bart : Lemon.

• Judy Trenor : She *is* dangerous. And you are not nasty. And for always getting what she wants in the long run, commend me to a nasty woman.

  Lily Bart : I thought you were so fond of Bertha.

  Judy Trenor : Oh, I am. It's much safer to be fond of dangerous people.

• Lily Bart : Why don't you say it, Judy? I have the reputation for being on the hunt for a husband.

• Lawrence Selden : You will marry someone very rich.

  Lily Bart : What a miserable future you foresee for me.

  Lawrence Selden : Haven't you seen it for yourself?

  Lily Bart : Of course. But it seems so much darker when you show it to me.

• Lawrence Selden : Waiting for me, I hope.

  Lily Bart : Waiting to see if you would come.

  Lawrence Selden : Weren't you sure that I would?

  Lily Bart : If I waited long enough. But I only had a limited time to give to the experience.

• Mrs. Peniston : Jennings, we will take tea in the upstairs sitting room. Lily, you can read me the obituaries.

  Lily Bart : Oh, Aunt Julia, Grace does it so much better than me. She can make even the most insignificant death seem interesting.

• Lily Bart : Why do we never see each other?

  Lawrence Selden : I have my law practice, and - you're always surrounded by admirers.

• Lily Bart : What more do you have to say to me?

  Augustus 'Gus' Trenor : Go home.

• Lily Bart : How dare you compromise me in this way!

  Augustus 'Gus' Trenor : Don't take that high tone with me. I've been patient enough. After all, the man who pays for the dinner is generally allowed a seat at the table.

  Lily Bart : I don't know what you mean.

• Mrs. Peniston : [scornfully]  It's true, then. You play cards for money. Do you play on Sundays?

  Lily Bart : You are hard on me, Aunt Julia. I have never really cared for cards and one hates to be thought of as priggish and one *drifts* into doing what others do.

• Lily Bart : We lost you, as much as you mislaid us.

• George Dorset : You would not have cared for the denouement.

  Lily Bart : The denouement? Isn't that too big a word for a small incident?

• Lily Bart : Well? What happened? What will happen?

  Lawrence Selden : Nothing, as yet. And nothing in the future, I think.

  Lily Bart : You're sure?

  Lawrence Selden : I'm not sure, but I'm a good deal surer.

• Mrs. Peniston : I shall certainly not do anything that gives the impression that I countenance your behavior.

  Lily Bart : Aunt Julia, I will be disgraced!

  Mrs. Peniston : I consider that you *are* disgraced, Lily.

• Lily Bart : Well, what is truth? Where a woman is concerned, it's a story that's easiest to believe.

• Lily Bart : I saw nothing. I know nothing.

  George Dorset : Just say what you know and the way will be clear for us both.

  Lily Bart : I know nothing.

  George Dorset : You're sacrificing both of us.

  Lily Bart : I know nothing. Absolutely nothing.

• Mrs. Carry Fisher : What do you say to putting a few things in a trunk and spending the summer with me and the Gormers?

  Lily Bart : To take me out of my friends' way, you mean?

  Mrs. Carry Fisher : To keep you out of their sight till they realize how much they miss you. Besides, The Gormers have taken a tremendous fancy to you. Oh, I know they're not quite your set, they're kind of a social Coney Island, but anyone is welcome who makes noise and doesn't put on airs.

  Lily Bart : Yes. I shall come.

• Mrs. Carry Fisher : Lily, you must marry - as soon as you can.

  Lily Bart : Do you mean to recommend me to a good man's love?

  Mrs. Carry Fisher : No, I don't think either of my candidates would answer to that description.

  Lily Bart : Either? There are actually two?

  Mrs. Carry Fisher : Well, perhaps I ought to say one and a half.

  Lily Bart : Other things being equal, I think I should prefer half a husband.

• Lily Bart : Soon everybody will be leaving - for Newport and Bar Harbor and Long Island. And me to a hotel in broiling New York.

• Lily Bart : I must know where I stand, Carry. I must know what is being said of me.

• Sim Rosedale : Why do you talk of saying goodbye? Can't we still be good friends all the same?

  Lily Bart : What is your idea of being good friends? Seeing me without asking me to marry you?

  Sim Rosedale : Well, that's about the size of it.

• Lily Bart : More noise, more color more slap-dash sociability.

• Lily Bart : So what am I to do with you?

• Lily Bart : We resist the great temptations, but it is the little ones that eventually pull us down.

• Mrs. Carry Fisher : By the way, I had a visit from Mattie Gormer the other day. She was with Bertha Dorset of all people.

  Lily Bart : No doubt the rabbit always thinks it is fascinating the anaconda.

• Lawrence Selden : That was undignified.

  Lily Bart : Where does dignity end and rectitude begin?