Gabriel Oak: At home by the fire, whenever I look up, there you will be. And whenever you look up, there I shall be.


--Alan Bates (as Gabriel Oak) in Far from the Madding Crowd

Mick: I could turn this place into a penthouse. For instance this room. This room could have been the kitchen. Right size, nice window, sun comes in. I'd have I'd have teal-blue, copper and parchment linoleum squares. I'd have those colours re-echoed in the walls. I'd offset the kitchen units with charcoal-grey worktops. Plenty of room for cupboards for the crockery. We'd have a small wall cupboard, a large wall cupboard, a corner wall cupboard with revolving shelves. You shouldn't be short of cupboards. You could put the dining-room across the landing, see? Yes. Venetian blinds on the window, cork floor, cork tiles. You could have an off-white pile linen rug, a table in... in afromosia teak veneer, sideboard with matte black drawers, armchairs in oatmeal tweed, a beech frame settee with a woven sea-grass seat... (sits up) it wouldn't be a flat it'd be a palace.


--Alan Bates (as Mick) in The Caretaker

Rupert Birkin: Gudrun Brangwen. Gerald Crich. Tibby and Laura Lupton. Ursula Brangwen. Rupert Birkin. What peculiar names we all have. Do you think we've been singled out, chosen for some extraordinary moment in life, or are we all cursed with the mark of Cain?


--Alan Bates (as Rupert Birkin) in Women in Love

Rupert Birkin: I abhor humanity, I wish it was swept away. It could go, and there would be no loss if every human being perished tomorrow.
Ursula Brangwen: So, you want everybody in the world destroyed?
Rupert Birkin: Yes, absolutely. Don't you yourself think it's a wonderful, clear idea? A world empty of people... just uninterrupted grass and a rabbit sitting there?
Ursula Brangwen: You don't seem to see much love in humanity. What about individual love?
Rupert Birkin: I don't believe in love any more than I believe in hate or grief. Love is an emotion. You feel or don't feel, according to your circumstances.
Ursula Brangwen: If you don't believe in love, what do you believe in? Just in the end of the world and rabbits?
Rupert Birkin: The point about L-O-V-E is that we hate the word, because we've vulgarised it. lt should be taboo, forbidden from utterance for many years... till we've found a new and better idea.


--Alan Bates (as Rupert Birkin) in Women in Love

Rupert Birkin: I want the finality of love.


--Alan Bates (as Rupert Birkin) in Women in Love

Rupert Birkin: I would like to die from our kind of life. Be born again... through a love that is like sleep. With new air around one, that no one's ever breathed before.


--Alan Bates (as Rupert Birkin) in Women in Love

Rupert Birkin: It almost breaks my heart. My beloved country. It had something to express, even when it made this chair. Now all we can do is to fish amongst rubbish heaps... for remnants of the old expression. There's no production in us anymore... just sordid and foul mechanicalness.
Ursula Brangwen: I hate your past. I'm sick of it.
Rupert Birkin: Not as sick as I am of the accursed present.
Ursula Brangwen: Well, I don't want the past to take its place. I don't want old things.
Rupert Birkin: The truth is, we don't want things at all. The thought of a house and furniture of my own is hateful to me.


--Alan Bates (as Rupert Birkin) in Women in Love