- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: Words are important.
- Pu Yi, at 15: Why are words important?
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: If you cannot say what you mean, Your Majesty, you will never mean what you say and a gentleman should always mean what he says.
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: The Emperor has been a prisoner in his own palace since the day that he was crowned, and has remained a prisoner since he abdicated. But now he's growing up, he may wonder why he's the only person in China who may not walk out of his own front door. I think the Emperor is the loneliest boy on Earth.
- Pu Yi, at 15: Is it true, Mr. Johnston, that many people out there have had their heads cut off?
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: It is true, Your Majesty. Many heads have been chopped off. It does stop them thinking.
- The Governor: [Confronting Puyi in the prison gardens, where Puyi works alone] Perhaps you think we're here to teach men to lie in a new way?
- The Governor: [Puyi continues working as if trying to ignore the Governor] Why did you sign every accusation made against you? I didn't stop you from killing yourself to see you like this! Someone who will sign anything to please his enemies... to please me!
- The Governor: [Puyi continues working] You knew about a lot of things in Manchukuo... even the secret agreements. But you couldn't possibly have known about the Japanese biological warfare experiments in Harbin! Could you? So why did you sign these papers?
- Emperor Pu Yi: I was responsible for everything.
- The Governor: You are responsible for what you do! All your life you thought you were better than everyone else. Now you think you're the worst of all!
- Emperor Pu Yi: [sighs] Why can you not leave me alone? You saved my life to make me a puppet in your own play. You saved me because I am useful to you.
- The Governor: Is that so terrible? To be useful?
- The Governor: [bidding farewell to Pu Yi as he is released from reform camp] You see, I will end up living in prison longer than you!
- Pu Yi, at 15: Who is this George Washington?
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: A famous American, Your Majesty. A revolutionary general, the first American president.
- Pu Yi, at 15: Ah, like Mr. Lenin in Russia?
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: Not quite.
- Pu Yi, at 15: Does he have a car?
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: He lived a long time ago, Your Majesty.
- Pu Yi, at 15: *I* want a car.
- Pu Yi, at 15: [in heavily accented English] I know that you know that I know that you know that that is a dialogue between Confucius and Chuang Tzu.
- Pu Yi, at 15: Where are your ancestors buried?
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: In Scotland, Your Majesty.
- Pu Yi, at 15: But then, where's your skirt? In your country, men wear short skirts, do they not?
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: No, Your Majesty, Scotmen do not wear skirts. They wear kilts.
- The Governor: [setting a recurring theme of imprisonment throughout the film] Open the door! Open the door! Open the door!... Open the door!
- Emperor Pu Yi: The Forbidden City had become a theater without an audience. So, why did the actors remain on the stage?
- Chen Pao Shen: [as Puyi is heading off to become the Emperor of Manchukuo] If you go you betray your country!
- Emperor Pu Yi: [pause, at a distance] Which country?
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: I think your mouse is trying to escape, Your Majesty.
- Pu Yi, at 15: Please do not tell anyone about my mouse.
- Amakasu: When an Englishman robs someone, Your Majesty, he becomes a gentleman. If he robs a lot, he becomes a knight. Do you imagine the British run their Empire as a charity? If India has to pay for the cost of its own occupation, so must Manchukuo.
- Wan Jung: Is the Emperor against arranged marriages?
- Pu Yi, at 15: It is humiliating not to choose whom you marry!
- Wan Jung: Even I was not allowed to choose. And yet westerners might be amazed how much happiness can come from arranged marriages.
- Pu Yi, at 15: I want a modern wife, Johnston, who speaks English and French! And who can dance the quickstep!
- Wen Hsiu: I do not want to be your mistress any longer.
- Emperor Pu Yi: I thought you were my secondary consort.
- Wen Hsiu: In the Forbidden City, you were the Emperor and I was a secondary consort. But now you are Henry Pu Yi. Wan Jung is your wife, Elizabeth. And who am I? I'm nobody.
- Pu Chieh - 7 Years: Is it true that you can do whatever you want?
- Pu Yi - 8 Years: Of course, I can. If I am naughty, someone else is punished. One of them!
- Wan Jung: I also had a tutor like Mr. Johnston. Miss Windsor. She's American. Miss Windsor taught me how to do the dance of the quickstep. Does the Emperor know how to do the quickstep?
- Pu Yi, at 15: Will you teach me?
- Wan Jung: You say California. I say French Riviera.
- Emperor Pu Yi: San Francisco!
- Wan Jung: Monte Carlo! Are we really going this time?
- Pu Yi - 8 Years: I do not understand. I do not understand.
- Lung Yu: Your Majesty is a big boy now. He cannot have a wet nurse anymore. It is much better like this. Much healthier.
- Pu Yi - 8 Years: But she is not just my wet nurse. She is my butterfly.
- Emperor Pu Yi: After a few years, the tiny republic had become as corrupt as the old Empire. It fell quickly into the hands of ambitious generals and corrupt bureaucrats.
- Pu Yi, at 15: Are you a gentleman?
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: I would like to be a gentle man, Your Majesty. I try to be.
- Pu Yi, at 15: I'm not a gentleman. I'm not allowed to say what I mean. They are always telling me what to say.
- Chang: [to Reginald] The Emperor awards you with the order of the Ruby Hat Button, and with the right to be carried in your own chair, with four bearers.
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: It would be conveniently sad if he becomes blind. To the expense, Your Excellency. To the cost of maintaining one thousand two hundred eunuchs, three hundred and fifty ladies-in-waiting and one hundred and eighty-five cooks to buying a hundred and twenty sable furs a month and three thousand chickens a week. To the fact that eight hundred and forty guards and employees of the household department, plus one Lord Chamberlain, care only about one thing! Filling their own rice bowls!
- Interrogator: Now than, there are two types of confession. We call them toothpaste and water tap. The toothpaste prisoner needs to be squeezed every now and then or else he forgets to keep confessing. The water tap man needs one good hard twist before he starts. But then everything comes out.
- Eastern Jewel: Of course, I'd love to be the Emperor's new secondary consort!
- Emperor Pu Yi: Eastern Jewel.
- Eastern Jewel: If the post is available.
- [embrace]
- Emperor Pu Yi: The post is vacant, my dear cousin. But, you do not fit the part.
- Captain of Imperial Guard: By the command of Her Imperial Majesty, also called, the compassionate, and the Blessed, the Respectful, and the Long-Living, the Empress Dowager commands. Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, son of Prince Chun, shall be transferred immediately to the Forbidden City and will remain in the great within, awaiting Her Majesty's decision. Respect this!
- Scribe: Three months later, Japanese armies were besieging the provisional capital at Nanking. And when the city fell, the atrocities began. Trying to terrorize the rest of China into surrender, the Japanese High Command ordered a massacre. More than two hundred thousand civilians were systematically executed. The world watched in horror, but no help was given.
- Tzu Hsui: How small you are. Are you afraid of me? Everyone is. I am the Grand Empress Dowager, and I have lived here for a long, long time. And they call me the old Buddha.
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: Your Majesty, in my country, it would be usual to begin with some kind of an examination.
- Pu Yi, at 15: The Emperor cannot be examined.
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: Well, that may have to change.
- Tzu Hsui: Men, you know, are not allowed in the Forbidden City after dark. Even little men like you! The only man who can live here is the Emperor. But the Emperor is on high, riding the dragon now!
- Pu Chieh - 7 Years: They're turning away!
- Pu Yi - 8 Years: Of course! Ordinary people are not allowed to look at the Emperor! I am too important.
- Emperor Pu Yi: Anything Western was good. Especially Wrigley's chewing gum, Bayer aspirin, and cars.
- Wan Jung: What is His Majesty thinking?
- Pu Yi, at 15: I was thinking, if I was the real Emperor, I would become the ruler of China now.
- Wan Jung: And what would the Emperor do, if he could really rule?
- Pu Yi, at 15: I would change everything.
- Wan Jung: You're brave. Are you not frightened?
- Emperor Pu Yi: I am excited. I do not want to escape anymore. I want to rule.
- Wan Jung: If Your Majesty thinks it is old-fashioned to make the rain and the wind with a stranger, we can be like a modern couple, to begin with.
- Pu Yi, at 15: Our official taster's a brave man. Many of my ancestors have been poisoned, you know.
- Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: Does Your Majesty have lunch like this every day?
- Pu Yi, at 15: Oh, yes! Every day! Like theater! I do not know why. It has always been like that.
- Emperor Pu Yi: [singing] Am I blue? Am I blue? Ain't these tears in my eyes, Telling you? Am I blue?
- Pu Yi, at 15: I know that you know that I know that you know that - that is a dialog between Confucius and Chuang Tzu.
- Oculist: Well, it's perfectly simple, Johnston. The Emperor needs spectacles.
- Pu Yi, at 15: Like Harold Lloyd!
- American: Who's that couple?
- Wen Hsiu: Oh, Henry and Elizabeth.
- American: The Emperor of China?
- Wen Hsiu: The ex-Emperor and his wife.
- American: She's beautiful.
- Wen Hsiu: Yes, very.
- American: And who are you?
- Wen Hsiu: I'm His Highness's other wife.
- American: His other wife?
- Wen Hsiu: Number two wife.
- American: Well, some people have the luck.
- Eastern Jewel: Oh, I know everything! I know Chiang Kai Shek has got false teeth. I even know his nickname: "Cash My Check!"