Megan Follows: Anne Shirley

Anne of Avonlea

Anne Shirley

Gilbert Blythe: It'll be three years before I finish medical school. Even then there won't be any diamond sunbursts or marble halls.
Anne Shirley: I don't want diamond sunbursts, or marble halls. I just want you.

Anne Shirley: I went looking for my dreams outside of myself and discovered, it's not what the world holds for you, it's what you bring to it.

[Anne is deeply depressed, and Marilla tries to cheer her up by offering her some homemade plum puffs]
Anne Shirley: Plum puffs won't minister to a mind diseased in a world that's crumbled into pieces.
Marilla Cuthbert: Well I'm glad to see that your dented spirits haven't injured your tongue.

Marilla Cuthbert: You set your heart too much on frivolous things and then crash down into despair when you don't get them.
Anne Shirley: I know. I can't help flying up on the wings of anticipation. It's as glorious as soaring through a sunset... almost pays for the thud.
Marilla Cuthbert: Well, maybe it does. But I'd rather walk calmly along and do without flying AND thud.

Anne Shirley: I feel as though someone's handed me the moon... and I don't exactly know what to do with it.

Gilbert Blythe: Anne, There's not going to be any wedding anymore.
Anne Shirley: You're gonna get well, Gil. I know you are.
Gilbert Blythe: I called it off. It wouldn't be fair to Christine. There would never be anyone for me but you.

Anne Shirley: Why do people have to grow up and marry, change?
Gilbert Blythe: Oh, you'd change. If someone ever admitted that they were head over heels for you, you'd be swept off your feet in a moment.
Anne Shirley: I would not, and I defy anyone who would try and make me change.
Gilbert Blythe: Oh, you do?

Anne Shirley: I don't want any of it to change. I wish I could just hold on to those days forever. I have a feeling things will never be the same again, will they?
Gilbert Blythe: I won't change, that's the least I can promise you.

Anne Shirley: Our friendship, it won't ever be the same now. Why can't he just be sensible instead of acting like a sentimental schoolboy?
Marilla Cuthbert: Because he loves you.
Anne Shirley: He loves me? I can't know why.
Marilla Cuthbert: Because you made Josie Pye and Ruby Gillis and all of those wishy-washy young ladies who waltzed by him look like spineless nothings.
Anne Shirley: Marilla, he's hardly my idea of a romantic suitor.
Marilla Cuthbert: Anne, you have tricked something out of that imagination of yours that you call romance. Have you forgotten how he gave up the Avonlea school for you so that you could stay here with me? He picked you up everyday in his carriage so that you could study your courses together. Don't toss it away for some ridiculous ideal that doesn't exist. Hmm? Now, you come downstairs and see if a good cup of tea and some of those plum puffs I made today don't hearten you.

Gilbert Blythe: What are you thinking?
Anne Shirley: I'm afraid to speak or move for fear that all this wonderful beauty will just vanish... like a broken silence.

Anne Shirley: I promise I'll always be here if you need me. Good friend are always together in spirit. Let's not change Gil, let's just go on being good friends.
Gilbert Blythe: Friends, huh? I thought we were kindred spirits.
[whispers forlornly]
Gilbert Blythe: Please say yes.
Anne Shirley: I can't. Gil, I'm so desperately sorry.
[runs off while a heartbroken Gil looks after her]

Gilbert Blythe: Maybe you don't think I'm good enough for you now, but I will be someday.
Anne Shirley: No, Gil you're a great deal too good for me. But you want someone who'll adore you. Someone who'll be happy just to hang on your arm and build a home for you. I wouldn't.
Gilbert Blythe: Anne, that's not what I'm looking for at all.
Anne Shirley: We'll end up like two old crows fighting all the time. I know I'd be unhappy and I'd wish we'd never done it.

Anne Shirley: Fred is... extremely good.
Marilla Cuthbert: That is exactly what he should be! Would you want to marry a wicked man?
Anne Shirley: Well, I wouldn't marry anyone who was really wicked, but I think I'd like it if he could be wicked and wouldn't.
Marilla Cuthbert: You'll have better sense some day, I hope.

Anne Shirley: Fortunately for you, Josie, the only thing you've ever had to wear twice is a sour expression.

[Anne has just invited Miss Brooke to Green Gables for the summer]
Katherine Brooke: Now you can go through the motions of telling me how delighted you are and how I'll have a wonderful time.
Anne Shirley: I AM delighted... but as to a wonderful time... that will depend entirely on YOU, Katherine.

Mrs. Harris: [Anne is taking Mrs. Harris out for a picnic] I don't eat my lunch outside! I'm not a raggle taggle gypsy! Take me in! Take me in!
Anne Shirley: Hush, Mrs. Harris! Some of these girls are Pringles.
Mrs. Harris: Pringles?
Anne Shirley: Yes, and you don't want them running home and telling tales.
Mrs. Harris: You'll pay for this.