- Boris Lermontov: Why do you want to dance?
- [Vicky thinks for a short while]
- Victoria Page: Why do you want to live?
- [Lermontov is suprised at the answer]
- Boris Lermontov: Well I don't know exactly why, er, but I must.
- Victoria Page: That's my answer too.
- Boris Lermontov: You cannot have it both ways. A dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love can never be a great dancer. Never.
- [last lines]
- Victoria Page: Julian?
- Julian Craster: Yes, my darling?
- Victoria Page: Take off the red shoes.
- Boris Lermontov: [to Julian Craster] It is worth remembering, that it is much more disheartening to have to steal than to be stolen from, hmmm?
- Boris Lermontov: Don't forget, a great impression of simplicity can only be achieved by great agony of body and spirit.
- Grischa Ljubov: You can't alter human nature.
- Boris Lermontov: No? I think you can do even better than that. You can ignore it!
- [Before the curtain goes up on the premiere]
- Livingstone 'Livy' Montagne: You're a magician, Boris. To have produced all this in three weeks, and from nothing.
- Boris Lermontov: My dear Livy, not even the best magician in the world can produce a rabbit out of a hat if there is not already a rabbit in the hat.
- [Describing the ballet of the Red Shoes]
- Boris Lermontov: The Ballet of the Red Shoes is from a fairy tale by Hans Andersen. It is the story of a young girl who is devoured with an ambition to attend a dance in a pair of red shoes. She gets the shoes and goes to the dance. For a time, all goes well and she is very happy. At the end of the evening, she is tired and wants to go home, but the red shoes are not tired. In fact, the red shoes are never tired. They dance her out into the street, they dance her over the mountains and valleys, through fields and forests, through night and day. Time rushes by, love rushes by, life rushes by, but the red shoes go on.
- Julian Craster: What happens in the end?
- Boris Lermontov: Oh, in the end, she dies.
- Julian Craster: One day when I'm old, I want some lovely young girl to say to me, "Tell me, where in your long life, Mr. Craster, were you most happy?" And I shall say, 'Well, my dear, I never knew the exact place. It was somewhere on the Mediterranean. I was with Victoria Page." "What?" she will say. "Do you mean the famous dancer?" I will nod. "Yes, my dear, I do. Then she was quite young, comparatively unspoiled. We were, I remember, very much in love."
- Boris Lermontov: How would you define ballet, Lady Neston?
- Lady Neston: Well, one might call it the poetry of motion perhaps, or...
- Boris Lermontov: One might. But for me it is a great deal more. For me it is a religion. And one doesn't really care to see one's religion practised in an atmosphere... such as this.
- [first lines]
- [holding doors closed]
- Doorman: They're going mad, sir. It's the students.
- [From outside]
- Julian Craster: Down with tyrants!
- Manager, Covent Garden: All right, let them in.
- Livingstone 'Livy' Montagne: [Craster has called the orchestra to rehearsal one hour early, Livy is upset] Mr. Craster! Precisely what is going on? I can only suppose you have taken leave of your senses! Do you realize that by calling the orchestra one hour early we shall have to pay them?
- [orchestra laughs]
- Livingstone 'Livy' Montagne: And why are you rehearsing Heart of Fire? Did I ever ask you to do that? Tell me, I'm interested.
- Julian Craster: Well, I...
- Livingstone 'Livy' Montagne: [interrupts] I'm sure Mr. Lermontov will be interested,too. Well?
- Julian Craster: I like it.
- Livingstone 'Livy' Montagne: You like it? I've no doubt you also like the national anthem and La Marseillaise. I hope you're not thinking of summoning the full orchestra at dawn to practice those noble melodies!
- [orchestra laughs]
- Livingstone 'Livy' Montagne: Well I leave this young man to you, Lermontov. After all he is your... discovery. Not mine.
- Boris Lermontov: Mr. Craster, I must ask you to exercise in future a little more control over your natural ambitions. And why you should have chosen Heart of Fire for this early morning escapade...
- [acknowledges the orchestra members]
- Boris Lermontov: ... good morning, gentlemen,
- [orchestra answers]
- Boris Lermontov: is a mystery that I shall never hope to solve. And may I see that wrong note in the score, please?
- [Craster presents the score, points out his correction]
- Boris Lermontov: Hmm... however there are passages in Heart of Fire which no one need be ashamed of.