Gwyneth Paltrow credited as playing...
Sylvia Plath
- Sylvia: [to Ted, after making love] We're not even two people. Even before we met, we were just these two halves, walking around with big gaping holes in the shape like the other person. And when we found each other we were finally whole. And then it was as if we couldn't stand being happy so we ripped ourselves in half again.
- Sylvia: Sometimes I dream the tree, and the tree is my life. One branch is the man I shall marry, and the leaves my children. Another branch is my future as a writer, and each leaf is a poem. Another branch is a good academic career. But as I sit there trying to choose, the leaves bring to turn brown and blow away, until the tree is absolutely bare.
- Sylvia: Sometimes I feel like I'm not - solid. I'm hollow. There's - nothing behind my eyes. I'm a negative of a person. Its as if I never - I never thought anything. I never wrote - anything. I never felt anything. All I want is blackness. Blackness and silence.
- Sylvia: You must think I'm some stupid American bitch.
- Professor Thomas: Oh, not at all. I assumed you were Canadian.
- Mr. Robinson: Mr. Robinson. Mr. Robinson! You forgot this.
- [hands him a book of her poems]
- Sylvia: Oh, thanks. Do you think you might be reviewing it?
- Mr. Robinson: This? I shouldn't think so. We just got the new Pasternak. Then, Betjeman's out next week and there's an E.E. Cummings in the pipeline. Not in the same league, really, is she? Sylvia...
- Sylvia: Plath.
- Al Alvarez: Look. One thing I do know about death is it is not a reunion or a homecoming. There's - there's no - your life doesn't flash before you and the missing piece of you clicks into place. It's just - there's just "fuck all"! There's nothing.
- Sylvia: So, what do you do when your life get's as bad as it can and just keeps getting worse?
- Al Alvarez: You just keep going.
- Sylvia: What is it that you do?
- David Wevill: I'm a poet.
- Sylvia: Huh, so are we.
- Ted: You're?
- Ted: Ted Hughes. I'll get some wine.
- Sylvia: I'm Sylvia Plath.
- Assia Wevill: Oh, my God, that's...
- Ted: I gave Assia a copy of your book, "The Colossus."
- Assia Wevill: It's amazing. Yes, I love your poems. They're very beautiful. They're frightening with this haunting quality. What?
- Sylvia: No, it's just - that's the best review I've ever gotten.
- Al Alvarez: Sylvia, I know this must have been hard on you.
- Sylvia: No. I've never been happier and I've never written more. Its as if, now he's gone, I'm free. I can finally write. I wake up between three and four, cause that's the worst time, and I write till dawn. I really feel like God is speaking through me.
- Al Alvarez: Have you got a title for your novel yet?
- Sylvia: The Bell Jar.
- Al Alvarez: When is it coming out?
- Sylvia: The new year.
- Al Alvarez: Are you going to let me read it?
- Sylvia: It's a pot boiler.
- Sylvia: No, no! Don't call a doctor. Don't you know what they do? They hook you up to the eastern grid and fill you full of sparks.
- Sylvia: Who is she?
- Ted: She's nobody. A student. She was - in that creative writing class I talked to. She'd written all these poems. I took pity on her. You think I'm fooking her?
- Sylvia: Are you?
- Ted: Oh, for Christ sake! This place is really getting to you, isn't it? This bunch of dried up, malicious old women who think their men are gonna get taste for fresh meat! As a matter of fact, I'm not fooking her. But, if I do start fookin' the students, you'll be the first to know.
- Professor Thomas: There's been a power cut. The moment you need heat and light, to sustain life itself, the government cuts the electricity.
- Sylvia: Why?
- Professor Thomas: To build a national character!
- [first lines]
- Sylvia: Dying is an art. Like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like Hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I've a call.