- Dr. Rivers: Why not?
- Siegfried Sassoon: Too afraid, too inhibited. Shamed by an inner corruption. Or perhaps it's simply because of... What's the phrase? "The love that dare not speak its name."
- Dr. Rivers: You are not alone in that respect.
- [Speaking about Wilfred]
- Siegfried Sassoon: I'd give everything I possess to have him stay just one more hour. One more minute. Quick to tears, slow to love.
- Siegfried Sassoon: When I first met him, he had a slight stammer. And spoke, I thought, with a grammar school accent. How could I be such a snob? He really is a lovely man. And I think the greater poet.
- [He Sighs]
- Robbie Ross: How did you find Mr. Churchill?
- Siegfried Sassoon: Imperial.
- Robbie Ross: And Mr. Coward?
- Siegfried Sassoon: Gushing.
- Robbie Ross: What would you have done if Royalty had paid a call?
- Siegfried Sassoon: Oh, well, then I'd have tried to curtsey from a sitting position.
- [They Laugh]
- Siegfried Sassoon: Pain is not the only terror. There are many more.
- Dr. Rivers: Can you name them?
- Siegfried Sassoon: If I could name them, they would cease to be terrors.
- Dr. Rivers: I've always thought that politicians were too stupid to be subtle.
- Siegfried Sassoon: Perhaps they're just too subtle to be inelegant.
- Siegfried Sassoon: Why do all the worst terrors come at night?
- Dr. Rivers: The night is, I think, like the unconscious. Waiting all day so that it can steal over you in the dark.
- Dr. Rivers: I trust after this disclosure, you will be discreet.
- Siegfried Sassoon: Discretion is my middle name.
- Wilfred Owen: Halitosis! Your first poem in Hydra.
- Siegfried Sassoon: Long live the editor!
- Wilfred Owen: I am the editor.
- Siegfried Sassoon: Hooray for nepotism!
- [They Laugh]
- Dr. Rivers: What about your poetry?
- Siegfried Sassoon: It's egotism, really.
- Dr. Rivers: That seems a little harsh.
- Siegfried Sassoon: Truth often is.
- Siegfried Sassoon: I think he's still in love with you.
- Ivor Novello: The main drawback with love is that it descends, all too quickly, into possessiveness.
- Siegfried Sassoon: If I was selfish enough, I'd ask you to marry me.
- Hester Gatty: If I were foolish enough, I'd accept.
- Siegfried Sassoon: Who can know the secrets of a human heart?
- Ivor Novello: Usually the people who don't have one.
- Stephen Tennant: Oh, I look 500 years old / Some say I am beautiful / And, as an aesthete / I feel that beauty is eternal / We see it in the eyes of those who love us.
- Stephen Tennant (Older): I am... very lonely, Siggy.
- Siegfried Sassoon (Older): Is it agony? One does hope so.
- Stephen Tennant (Older): I'm trying to apologize.
- Siegfried Sassoon (Older): You're 30 years too late!
- Siegfried Sassoon: Bravery is only cowardice in extremis. At the root of bravery lies terror, and the fear of fear.
- Siegfried Sassoon: [of The Beatles] It's not music! It's rubbish, made by stupid people for stupid people!