Orphan Quotes

Kate Coleman: Esther? We have to talk about last night.
Esther: Do we?
Kate Coleman: Yes, we do... See, there are certain things that grownups do that children aren't supposed to see, and, uh... that was one of 'em.
[a pause; Esther keeps painting]
Kate Coleman: Esther, listen to me.
[Esther

turns to Kate]
Kate Coleman: When grownups love each other very, very much... they want to show each other that love; they want to express it...
Esther: I know. They fuck.

[Kate overhears Esther playing Tchaikovsky flawlessly on the piano]
Kate Coleman: You told me you didn't know how to play.
Esther: No, I didn't.
Kate Coleman: Yes, you did.
Esther: You offered to teach me, and I accepted.
Kate Coleman: Okay... so, then, you were just...

pretending, this whole time?
Esther: I thought you would enjoy teaching me. It must be frustrating for someone who loves music as much as you to have a son who isn't interested and a daughter who can't even hear.

Daniel Coleman: [watching Esther neatly cut up her food] Can you eat normal?
Esther: I am eating normal.
Daniel Coleman: Yeah, maybe in Transylvania or whatever country you're from.
Esther: Incidentally, I'm from Russia. Transylvania isn't even a country. It's a part of Romania.
Daniel

Coleman: You're such a freak.
Kate Coleman: Hey.
John Coleman: Hey, Danny... I don't want any more talk like that, all right?
Daniel Coleman: But why does she have to act like that? All my friends make fun of me because of her.
John Coleman: Maybe you need some different friends.

Daniel Coleman: Maybe you should send her back to the retard camp where she belongs.
Kate Coleman: Daniel.
John Coleman: Daniel! Apologize to your sister.
Daniel Coleman: She's not my *fucking* sister.

[Esther holds a box cutter to a sleeping Daniel's neck; he wakes up]
Esther: Shhhh...
[She grabs his hair and slams his head against the pillow]
Daniel Coleman: Ah!
Esther: Tell me what you saw.
Daniel Coleman: What are you doing?
Esther: What did you see?

Daniel Coleman: [crying] I saw you and Max in the treehouse...
Esther: [pulls his hair] What else?
Daniel Coleman: What do you mean?
Esther: What else did you see?
Daniel Coleman: Nothing, I didn't see anything else, I swear!
Esther: Did you tell anyone?

Daniel Coleman: No... I didn't tell anyone.
[as he cries, she moves the box cutter down between his legs]
Esther: If I find out that you're lying, I'll cut your hairless little prick off before you even figure out what it's for. Do you understand me?
Daniel Coleman: Yes...
[a dark stain appears on his pants]

Esther: You pissed yourself.

John Coleman: She could've picked it up anywhere. Hell, she probably picked it up at school.
Kate Coleman: No, this wasn't something she overheard; I mean, she knew what it meant.
John Coleman: Huh.
Kate Coleman: And, and babe, the *way* she said it, is, I don't even think she expected to get in trouble over

it.
John Coleman: Well... we'll talk to her about it tonight.
Kate Coleman: [sighs] Fine...
John Coleman: Well, what did you have in mind?
Kate Coleman: Thought we could take her to Dr. Browning.
John Coleman: [chuckles] I don't think we need to take her to the shrink quite yet.

Kate Coleman: Well, you know, we just don't know that much about her, I mean... for all we know the, the family she stayed with could've been like, "Pass the fuckin' potatoes" at dinnertime.
[John laughs]
Kate Coleman: I, just, that she's saying it to my face, what's she saying when we're not there? I don't want her exerting that kind of

influence over Max.
John Coleman: Anyway, I just don't wanna make a big deal out of one little dirty word.
Kate Coleman: Fine... fuckin' spend some time with her, then.
John Coleman: A'ight, bitch.

Kate Coleman: [Kate's cell phone rings as she is waking up after being sedated in the hospital; she answers the phone] Hello?
Dr. Varava: Is this Katherine Coleman?
[pause]
Dr. Varava: Hello?
Kate Coleman: [Gets out of the hospital bed] Yeah, this is she.
Dr. Varava: My name is

Dr. Varava. I'm calling from the Saarne Institute. I've just seen the picture that you sent to us.
Kate Coleman: And do you recognize her?
Dr. Varava: Where is she? Is she someplace where she can hear you?
Kate Coleman: No, she's not with me. She's with my husband at home...
Dr. Varava: Call your

husband right now and tell him to get your family out of the house, then call the police.
Kate Coleman: What? Why?
Dr. Varava: Then tell him that the little girl in the picture is not really a little girl. She is a grown woman!
Kate Coleman: What? What are you talking about? The picture that I sent you is of our adopted

daughter. She's nine years old.
Dr. Varava: No, she's not. She has a rare hormonal disorder. It's called Hypopituitarism. It causes proportional dwarfism. She only looks like a child. According to our records, Leena Klammer was born in 1976. She's 33 years old!

Kate Coleman: I know what you're doing. I will not let you hurt my children.
Esther: Me? I'm not the one who passed out drunk and let Max almost drown in the pond. If it wasn't for John, she'd be dead. And you'd probably still be in jail.
Kate Coleman: ...Who told you that?
Esther: [holds up Kate's diary] It's

very intimate. I learned so much about you.
Kate Coleman: Give it to me.
Esther: Jessica. Your cheating husband.
Kate Coleman: Esther... give it to me.
Esther: Where you hide your wine bottles.
Kate Coleman: I'm - I'm warning you right now.
Esther:

[reading] "She was still kicking when the doctor told me it was something called phantom - "
[Kate angrily snatches the diary away]
Esther: " - fetal movement. For sixteen days I carried - "
Kate Coleman: Stop it.
Esther: " - my dead baby inside me."
Kate Coleman: Esther!

Esther: "It was the cruelest torture I could imagine."
Kate Coleman: Stop it! You stop it! What's wrong with you?

[Esther and Max walk up after Daniel has shot a pigeon with his paintball gun]
Esther: Did you kill it?
Daniel Coleman: [crying] It was just a paintball, I didn't think it'd hurt him...
[She picks up a big rock and holds it out to him]
Esther: Put it out of its misery.
[off his look]

Esther: It's in pain. And it's your responsibility.
Daniel Coleman: It was just an accident.
Esther: If you walk away now, it'll starve to death. Is that what you want?
[pause]
Daniel Coleman: I'm not doin' it...
[after a moment, she smashes the pigeon with the rock]

Esther: [to Max] It's all right. It's in Heaven now.
Daniel Coleman: What's wrong with you?

Saarne Institute Orderly: Hello?
Kate Coleman: Is this the Saarne Institute?
Saarne Institute Orderly: Yes.
Kate Coleman: Yes, I, I need to talk to somebody about, uh, one of your children. She was adopted by an American family. It's a girl.
Saarne Institute Orderly: She is not come

from here...
Kate Coleman: Well, I haven't even told you her name yet.
Saarne Institute Orderly: You do not understand. Saarne Institute is not an orphanage, it is a mental hospital.

John Coleman: Where'd you get the idea for this one?
Esther: My paintings always tell stories. This one's about a sad mother lion who can't find her cubs.
John Coleman: She's smiling.
Esther: She's dreaming about her babies. It's the only thing that makes her happy.
John Coleman: I hope

she finds them.
Esther: She will. Look.
[She begins painting the cubs]
Esther: They were lost in the jungle, and they were so scared because they didn't have a mother or father. But just when they thought they'd be alone forever, they found their mother asleep under this tree. Now when she wakes up, her dream will have come true. She'll have

her family again.

Dr. Varava: Does she have the scars?
Kate Coleman: What? I don't know, what scars?
Dr. Varava: Leena was one of our *most* violent patients. When she here she was kept in a straitjacket to stop her from hurting our staff, she was constantly fighting to get out of it. It cut into her skin and left her with scars around her wrists and

neck. There is no way you could have not seen them!

Esther: I like it when it's just the two of us. You don't know how long I've waited for a daddy just like you.
John Coleman: Mommy too, right?
Esther: I don't think Mommy likes me very much.
John Coleman: Hey. That's not true, Mommy loves you.
Esther: It's all right. It must be hard to

love an adopted child as much as your own.
John Coleman: Sweetheart, you're just as much part of this family as Danny and Max, okay? Why don't you do something nice for Mommy, show her how much you love her?
Esther: That's a wonderful idea.