The English Patient
The English Patient

Katharine Clifton: My darling. I'm waiting for you. How long is the day in the dark? Or a week? The fire is gone, and I'm horribly cold. I really should drag myself outside but then there'd be the sun. I'm afraid I waste the light on the paintings, not writing these words. We die. We die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we've entered and swum up like

rivers. Fears we've hidden in - like this wretched cave. I want all this marked on my body. We are the real countries. Not boundaries drawn on maps with the names of powerful men. I know you'll come carry me out to the Palace of Winds. That's what I've wanted: to walk in such a place with you. With friends, on an earth without maps. The lamp has gone out and I'm writing in the darkness.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Almásy: Every night I cut out my heart. But in the morning it was full again.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Katharine Clifton: You speak so many bloody languages, and you never want to talk.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Hana: [reads Almásy's note on the firecracker] "Betrayals in war are childlike compared with our betrayals during peace. New lovers are nervous and tender, but smash everything. For the heart is an organ of fire." For the heart is an organ of fire.I love that. I believe that. K? Who is K?
Almásy: K is for Katharine.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Almásy: You're wearing the thimble.
Katharine Clifton: Of course, you idiot. I always wear it; I've always worn it; I've always loved you.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Katharine Clifton: Will we be alright?
Almásy: Yes. Yes, absolutely.
Katharine Clifton: "Yes" is a comfort. "Absolutely" is not.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Madox: I have to teach myself not to read too much into everything. It comes from too long having to read so much into hardly anything at all.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Almásy: I just wanted you to know: I'm not missing you yet.
Katharine Clifton: You will.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Almásy: I once traveled with a guide who was taking me to Faya. He didn't speak for nine hours. At the end of it he pointed at the horizon and said, "Faya!" That was a good day.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Almásy: New lovers are nervous and tender, but smash everything. For the heart is an organ of fire.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Almásy: When were you most happy?
Katharine Clifton: Now.
Almásy: And when were you least happy?
Katharine Clifton: Now.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Katharine Clifton: Promise me you'll come back for me.
Almásy: I promise, I'll come back for you. I promise, I'll never leave you.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Hana: There's a man downstairs. He brought us eggs. He might stay.
Almásy: Why? Can he lay eggs?
Hana: He's Canadian.
Almásy: Why are people always so happy when they collide with someone from the same place? What happened in Montreal when you passed a man in the street? Did you invite him to live with you?


The English Patient
The English Patient

Almásy: There is no God... but I hope someone looks after you.
Madox: Just in case you're interested, it's called the suprasternal notch. Come and visit us in Dorset when all this nonsense is over.
[Heads away but turns back]
Madox: You'll never come to Dorset.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Almásy: What do you love?
Katharine Clifton: What do I love?
Almásy: Say everything.
Katharine Clifton: Hm, let's see... Water. Fish in it. And hedgehogs; I love hedgehogs.
Almásy: And what else?
Katharine Clifton: Marmite - I'm addicted. And baths. But not

with other people. Islands. Your handwriting. I could go on all day.
Almásy: Go on all day.
Katharine Clifton: My husband.
Almásy: What do you hate most?
Katharine Clifton: A lie. What do you hate most?
Almásy: Ownership. Being owned. When you leave, you should forget me.

[she adopts a look of disgust, pushes him gently away to get out of the tub, picks up her tattered dress and leaves]

The English Patient
The English Patient

Katharine Clifton: This - what is this?
Almásy: It's a folk song.
Katharine Clifton: Arabic.
Almásy: No, no. It's Hungarian. My daijka sang it to me when I was a child growing up in Budapest.
Katharine Clifton: It's beautiful. What's it about?
Almásy: Szerelem

means love. And the story, well, there's this Hungarian count. He's a wanderer. He's a fool. And for years he's on some kind of a quest for... who knows what. And then one day, he falls under the spell of a mysterious English woman. A harpy, who beats him, and hits him, he becomes her slave, and he sews her clothes, and worships...
[Katharine starts hitting him]

Almásy: Stop it! Stop it! You're always beating me!
Katharine Clifton: Bastard! You bastard, I believed you! You should be my slave.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Katharine Clifton: Am I K in your book? I think I must be.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Almásy: There is no God, but I hope someone watches over you.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Almásy: This... this, the hollow at the base of a woman's throat, does it have an official name?
Madox: Good God, man, pull yourself together.

The English Patient
The English Patient

Almásy: How can you ever smile, as if your life hadn't capsized?