Amanda: Extraordinary how potent cheap music is.


--Norma Shearer (as Amanda Prynne) in Private Lives

Amanda: Have you known her long?
Elyot: About four months, we met in a house party in Norfolk.
Amanda: Very flat, Norfolk.


--Norma Shearer (as Amanda Prynne) in Private Lives

Amanda: I think very few people are completely normal really, deep down in their private lives. It all depends on a combination of circumstances. If all the various cosmic thingummys fuse at the same moment, and the right spark is struck, there's no knowing what one mightn't do. That was the trouble with Elyot and me, we were like two violent acids bubbling about in a nasty little matrimonial bottle.


--Norma Shearer (as Amanda Prynne) in Private Lives

Irene Fellara: [last line international version] Look Harry! They've gone away.


--Norma Shearer (as Irene Fellara) in Idiot's Delight

Irene Fellara: Did I ever tell you of my escape from the Soviets?
Achille Weber: You've told me about it at least 11 times and every time it was different.
Irene Fellara: Well, I made several escapes.


--Norma Shearer (as Irene Fellara) in Idiot's Delight

Irene Fellara: Harry, do you know any hymns?


--Norma Shearer (as Irene Fellara) in Idiot's Delight

Irene Fellara: I told you then that I wasn't everybody. It's true; I'm nobody. But I learned it was no use telling the truth to people whose life was a whole lie.


--Norma Shearer (as Irene Fellara) in Idiot's Delight

Irene Fellara: My father was old. The hardships of that terrible journey had broken his body. But his spirit was strong. His spirit that is Russia.
Irene Fellara: He lay there in that little boat. And he looked up at me. Never can I forget his face. So thin. So white. So beautiful in the starlight.
Irene Fellara: And he said to me, 'Irena, little daughter'. And then... he died.
Irene Fellara: For four days I was alone with his body. Sailing through the storms of the Black Sea. I had no food. No water. I was in agony from the violent wounds of the Bolshevikii. I knew I must die.
Irene Fellara: And then... an American cruiser rescued me. May Heaven bless those good men!
Harry Van: Ahem. Excuse me Madame. But it seems to me that the last time you told me about your escape it was different.
Irene Fellara: Well! I made several escapes.


--Norma Shearer (as Irene Fellara) in Idiot's Delight

Irene Fellara: Oh, 'Kak Stranna!' How strange!


--Norma Shearer (as Irene Fellara) in Idiot's Delight

Jan Ashe: [Clearly taken with Gable] You're a new kind of man in a new kind of world.


--Norma Shearer (as Jan Ashe) in A Free Soul