Liv Ullmann credited as playing...
Eva
- Eva: The mother's injuries are to be handed down to the daughter. The mother's failures are to be paid for by the daughter. The mother's unhappiness is to be the daughter's unhappiness. It's as if the umbilical cord had never been cut.
- Eva: There's no dividing line, no insurmountable wall. I know it can't be described. It's a world of liberated feelings. Do you know what I mean? To me, man is a tremendous creation, an inconceivable thought. In man is everything, from the highest to lowest. Everything exists side by side. Realities, not only the reality we perceive with our dull senses, but a tumult of realities arching above each other inside and outside. It's just fear and priggishness to believe in limits. There are no limits, neither to thoughts nor feelings. It's anxiety that sets limits.
- Eva: You said my hair was too long and you had it cut short, it was hideous! Then you thought that I had crooked teeth, and you got me braces, I looked so grotesque! You would buy me books and I would read them and not understand them, and you would make me talk about them, and I would always be afraid that you would show up my stupidity.
- Eva: Look at me, mama. Look at Helena.
- Charlotte Andergast: You can't blame me entirely.
- Eva: You expect an exception for you. You've set up a sort of discount system with life but one day you'll see that your agreement is one-sided.
- Eva: But one thing I did understand: not a shred of the real me could be loved or accepted. I didn't dare to be myself even when I was alone because I hated what was my own.
- Eva: I will never let you vanish out of my life again. I'm going to persist. I won't give up, even if it is too late. I don't think it is too late. It must not be too late.
- Charlotte Andergast: Eva, you do like me, don't you?
- Eva: You're my mother.
- Charlotte Andergast: That's one way of answering.
- Eva: Do you like me?
- Charlotte Andergast: I love you.
- Eva: Do you?
- Eva: I loved you, Mama. As a matter of life and death. But I distrusted your words. They didn't match the expression in your eyes. You have a beautiful voice. When I was little, I could feel it all over my body. But I knew instinctively you didn't mean what you said. I couldn't understand your words. The most horrible thing was, you'd smile when you were mad. When you hated Papa, you'd call him, "my dearest." When you were tired of me, you'd say, "darling little girl."
- Eva: I didn't realize I hated you. I was so sure we loved each other. I couldn't hate you, so my hatred turned into an insane fear. I had nightmares. I bit my nails. I pulled out tufts of hair. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. I couldn't make a sound. I tried to scream, but I could only make stifled grunts. That frightened me even more. I thought I was going out of my mind.
- Eva: I couldn't say anything. I had no words. You had taken charge of all the words in our home.
- Charlotte Andergast: You're exaggerating.
- Eva: I must finish speaking. I know I'm tipsy, but otherwise I wouldn't have said what I have. When I'm too ashamed to say any more, you can explain, and I'll listen and understand, just as I've always done.