- Cathy Whitaker: That was the day I stopped believing in the wild ardor of things. Perhaps in love, as well. That kind of love. The love in books and films. The love that tells us to abandon our lives and plans, all for one brief touch of Venus. So often we fail at that kind of love. The world just seems too fragile a place for it. And of every other kind, life remains full. Perhaps it's just we who are too fragile.
- [Studying a Miró painting]
- Raymond Deagan: So, what's your opinion on modern art?
- Cathy Whitaker: It's hard to put into words, really. I just know what I care for and what I don't. Like this... I don't know how to pronounce it... Mira?
- Raymond Deagan: Miró.
- Cathy Whitaker: Miró. I don't know why, but I just adore it. The feeling it gives. I know that sounds terribly vague.
- Raymond Deagan: No. No, actually, it confirms something I've always wondered about modern art. Abstract art.
- Cathy Whitaker: What's that?
- Raymond Deagan: That perhaps it's just picking up where religious art left off, somehow trying to show you divinity. The modern artist just pares it down to the basic elements of shape and color. But when you look at that Miró, you feel it just the same.
- Frank Whitaker: How about this girl getting her husband another drink?
- Cathy Whitaker: Don't you think you've had enough, dear?
- Frank Whitaker: No, honey, I don't think I've had enough!
- [Frank is drunk at the cocktail party]
- Stan Fine: Frank is the luckiest guy in town!
- Frank Whitaker: It's all smoke and mirrors, fellas. That's all it is. You should see her without her face on.
- Doreen: Frank!
- Cathy Whitaker: No, he's absolutely right. We ladies are never what we appear, and every girl has her secrets.
- Raymond Deagan: I've learned my lesson about mixing in other worlds. I've seen the sparks fly. All kinds.
- Eleanor Fine: I'm just delighted to see you taking interest in yet another civic cause. I can see it now: "Cathleen Whitaker and her kindness to homosexuals."
- Cathy Whitaker: Ugh. That word.
- Mrs. Leacock: You are the proud wife of a successful sales executive; planning the parties, and posing at her husband's side on the advertisements. To everyone here in Connecticut, you are - Mr. and Mrs. Magnatech.
- Eleanor Fine: Cathy? Oh, she's been liberal ever since she played summer stock at college with all those steamy Jewish boys. Why do you think they used to call her "Red"?
- Dr. Bowman: Today, the general attitude regarding this sort of behavior is naturally more modern, more scientific than it ever has been before. But for those who do seek treatment, who possess the will and desire to lead a normal life, there still remains only a scant five to thirty percent rate of success - for complete heterosexual conversion.
- Eleanor Fine: A bit flowery for my taste.
- Cathy Whitaker: How do you mean?
- Eleanor Fine: Oh, you know, a touch light on his feet.
- Cathy Whitaker: Oh, you mean...
- Eleanor Fine: Yes, darling, he's one of those.
- Eleanor Fine: Girlfriend of mine, Shirley Dawson, her husband - every night of the week. Plus, three more times on the weekend. Can you imagine?
- Cathy Whitaker: Oh, jeepers, look at the time. I have to fly. I'm having the carpets cleaned for tomorrow.
- Cathy Whitaker: Heaven knows we all have our troubles. I'm sure you, yourself...
- Raymond Deagan: What?
- Cathy Whitaker: I don't know. Ever since running into you at the exhibition, I kept wondering what it must be like to be the only one in a room. Colored or whatever it was. How that might possibly feel. I'm sure I've - I've never...
- Raymond Deagan: Well, I suppose you sort of grow accustomed to it over time. I mean, don't get me wrong. There is a world, even here in Hartford, where everybody does indeed look like me. Trouble is, very few people ever leave that world.
- Raymond Deagan: Sometimes it's the people outside our world we confide in best.
- Cathy Whitaker: But once you do confide, share with someone, they're no longer really outside, are they?
- Cathy Whitaker: It isn't plausible for me to be friends with you. You've been so very kind to me and I've been perfectly reckless and foolish in return, thinking...
- Raymond Deagan: Thinking what? That one person could reach out to another, take an interest in another - and maybe for one fleeting instant could manage to see beyond the surface, beyond the color of things?
- Cathy Whitaker: Do you think we ever really do see beyond those things - the surface of things?
- Raymond Deagan: "Just beyond the fall of grace, behold that ever-shining place." Yes. I *do*. I don't really have a choice.
- Cathy Whitaker: I wish I could.
- Cathy Whitaker: I must say, you look extremely fetching all gussied up in your white tux and tie.
- Frank Whitaker: Well, it's a good thing, since I can hardly breathe in it.
- Cathy Whitaker: You know, I'm not prejudiced. My husband and I have always believed in equal rights for the Negro and support the N.A.A.C.P.
- Cathy Whitaker: Yes. I have spoken to Raymond Deagan on occasion. He brought his little girl to Eleanor's art show. But - but, apparently, even here in Hartford, the idea of a white woman even speaking to a colored man...
- Frank Whitaker: Oh, please! Just save me the Negro rights!