Lolita quotes

View Quote Clare Quilty: [on the phone] Hello. Is this Professor Humbert?...How are you Professor?...I was just wondering if you've been enjoying your stay in our lovely little town...It doesn't matter what my name is. It's really obscure - an unremarkable name....my department, you see, is sorta concerned with the bizarre rumors that have been circulating about you and that lovely, remarkable girl you've been traveling around with...with all this traveling around you do, you don't get much time to see a psychiatrist regularly, is that right?...You are classified in our files, professor, you are classified in our files as a white widowed male. I wonder if you'd be prepared to give our investigator a report, Professor, on your, uh, current sex life, if any...!

View Quote Dick Schiller: An opportunity for a guy like me to get in on the ground floor where industry's opening up. And if we can scrape together enough money with, with maybe your help, well, we can go. We got a few back debts. We kinda over-extended ourselves. She's sure a swell kid, Professor Haze. She sure is, she's just nuts about dogs and kids. She's gonna make a swell mother too.

View Quote Jean Farlow: [about Charlotte] She was a wonderful person, Humbert. She was always so gay, wasn't she, John?

View Quote Jean Farlow: [to Humbert] Try to think of your poor little Lolita, all alone in the world. You must live for her sake.

View Quote Miss Lebone: [to Humbert] Well I think I ought to tell you that the neighbors are beginning to get a little curious about you and your little girl...You know how people talk.

View Quote Charlotte: ...The bathroom's back here, right next door. Well, we still have that good old-fashioned quaint plumbing. It should appeal to a European. [She flushes it to demonstrate] WOOSH! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Oh, excuse the soiled sock! I see that you're interested in art. In that case, in that case, you really must see, uh, the collection of reproductions I have in my bedroom. Voila!...Du-fee, and there's my little Van Gock, Monet. Is Mme. Humbert, umm...?
Humbert: There's no Madame. We are divorced... A happy divorce.
Charlotte: When did all this happen?
Humbert: About a year ago, in Paris.
Charlotte: Oh, Paris, France...You know, Monsieur, I really believe that it's only in the romance languages that, uh, one is able to really relate in a mature fashion. In fact, I remember when the late Mr. Haze...yes, he's passed on. But, uh, when we were on our honeymoon abroad, I-I knew that I'd never felt married until I'd had myself addressed as seniora.
Humbert: You're in Spain?
Charlotte: No, Mexico. He was a lovely human being. A man of complete integrity....Those are his ashes. It's very difficult for a woman, an attractive woman alone, you know, ha-ha.

View Quote Charlotte: [Humbert is locked in the bathroom] Dear, the door is locked. Sweetheart, I don't want any secrets between us. It makes me feel insecure.
Humbert: Can't this wait 'til I come out of here?
Charlotte: I suppose. Hum, what do you do in there so long? I want to talk to you.
Humbert: I haven't been here long. In point of fact, I only just came in.
Charlotte: Were there a lot of women in your life before me?
Humbert: I've told you about them already.
Charlotte: Well, you didn't tell me about all of them.
Humbert: Charlotte, if it would make you any happier, I will sit right down and I will make out a complete list of every woman I have ever known. Will that satisfy you?
Charlotte: Ohh, I'm lonesome...I think it's healthy for me to be jealous. It means that I love you. You know how happy I can make you.

View Quote Charlotte: Darling, I don't care about any other woman. I know that our love is sacred. The others were profane.
Humbert: Yeah, sacred. That's right. That's what it is, hmmm.
Charlotte: Oh Hum, hum-baby, you know, I love the way you smell. You do arouse the pagan in me. Hum, you just touch me, and I-I go as limp as a noodle. It scares me.
Humbert: Yes, I know the feeling.
Charlotte: Do you believe in God?
Humbert: The question is, 'does God believe in me?'
Charlotte: [pulling out a gun] But if I ever found out that you didn't believe in God, I think I would commit suicide. This is a Sacred Weapon, it's a tragic treasure. Mr. Haze purchased it when he found out he was ill. He wanted to spare me the sight of his suffering. Happily or unhappily, he, he was hospitalized before he could use it. Darling, you know, I have a most ambitious fantasy.
Humbert: What's yours?
Charlotte: I would love to get hold of a real French servant girl, you know...and have her come live in the house...We could put her in Lo's room. I've been meanin' to make a guest room out of that hole, anyway.
Humbert: And where, pray, will you put your daughter, when you get your guest or your maid?
Charlotte: You know, I've decided to send her straight from camp to a good boarding school, you know, with strict religious training, and then on to college. It's going to be you and me, alone forever. [Humbert's face falls] Darling, you've gone away.

View Quote Charlotte: I have a proposal. What say you I, uh, teach you some of the new steps, huh?
Humbert: Oh Charlotte, I don't even know the old ones. And you do this so very well, I'd much rather sit down and watch you. Very good.
Charlotte: Oh come on, Humbert. Ah, Humbert Humbert, what a thrillingly different name.
...
Charlotte: A little more joie de vivre! You know, when you smile like that, you remind me of someone. Oh, ah, a college boy I had, uh, a date with. I went dancing with him. A young, blue-blooded Bostonian. Oh, my very first glamour date. And you know, in certain lights, you remind me of Harold..I adored Harold, I really did. I swore at the time I would never marry again. I don't think I will, but, uh, it wouldn't be fair to his memory, do you think?
Humbert: No, one doesn't always find such loyalty these days.
Charlotte: Shouldn't life be for the living? What think you? You see, I'm a strongly emotional woman. Very strongly emotional. Oh, don't be afraid of hurting me...Take me in your arms! Oh, I can't live in the past, not any more Hum, not any more.
Lolita: Hi!
Charlotte: Darling, did you come back for something?
Lolita: Mona's party turned out to be sorta a drag. So I thought I'd come back and see what you two were doing.
Humbert: We had a wonderful evening. Your mother created a magnificent spread.

View Quote Charlotte: I have a surprise.
Humbert: The Farlows have been arrested?
Charlotte: Mona Farlow is leaving for summer camp tomorrow. Lolita is going with her....isolation from boys would be the best thing for both of the girls this crucial summer.
Humbert: Do you think that the camp is the answer?
Charlotte: Oh, frankly Hum, I do. And it's all arranged. The Farlows and I phoned the camp long distance, and I did all the shopping this ...Is something the matter with your face?
Humbert: Toothache!
Charlotte: Oh, you poor man.

View Quote Charlotte: My yellow roses. My - daughter....I could offer you a comfortable home, a sunny garden, a congenial atmosphere, my cherry pies.
...
[Humbert decides to rent the room]
Charlotte: What was the decisive factor? Uh, my garden?
Humbert: I think it was your cherry pies!

View Quote Charlotte: Oh, hello. Hello, again! Oh, it's certainly been a long time!
Quilty: It certainly has, yes.
Charlotte: Do you know that I've been the local authority on you ever since.
Quilty: Is that so? Well, that's very sweet of you. Thank you so much.
Charlotte: I'll never forget that intellectually stimulating talk that you gave to our club.
Quilty: Yes, a magnificent club. Really magnificent. Tell me one thing - are you a columnist?
Charlotte: No, no. Don't you remember? That afternoon changed my whole life.
Quilty: Oh, well, how about that? [He chuckles]
Charlotte: You remember it. [She whispers in his ear]
Quilty: Did I do that? [She nods] Did I?
Charlotte: And afterwards, you know, I showed you my garden. And I drove you to the airport.
Quilty: Yes, really great fun. Listen, listen, din, din you have a dawda (daughter)? Din you have a dawda with a lovely name? Yeah, a lovely, what was it now, a lovely lyrical lilting name like, uh, uh...
Charlotte: Lo-li-ta.
Quilty: Lo-li-ta, that's right. Lolita. Diminutive of Dolores, the tears and the roses.

View Quote Charlotte: Yeah, this would be your room. It's what you might call a studio - well, you know, a semi-studio affair ... it's very male - [sigh] - and, uh, quiet. We're really very fortunate here in West Ramsdale. Culturally, we're a very advanced group with lots of good Anglo-Dutch and Anglo-Scotch stock. And, uh, we're very progressive - intellectually.
Humbert: That is immediately apparent!
Charlotte: Oh, I do hope you'll want to address our club. There's a nice view from this window - of the front lawn, and a good place for you to do your writing. [gesturing] Shelves for your books...I am Chairman of the Great Books Committee. As a matter of fact, uh, you know, one of the speakers that I had, um, last season, was, uh, Clare Quilty...The writer, TV, TV play -
Humbert: No, no I wouldn't.
Charlotte: Oh, he's a very stimulating type of man. He gave us a talk on, hmm, uh, Dr. Schweitzer and Doctor Zhivago.

View Quote Humbert: All right, perhaps I was wrong in the attitude that I took about the school play.
Dr. Zempf: Zat's very big of you to admit that. And whilst you're admitting zat, why don't you alzo loozen up a little bit more in the other two 'd's' yah? The dating and the dance?
Humbert: You think that those are equally important?
Dr. Zempf: Dr. Hombards, I'll tell you about the two things. I feel that you and I should do all in our power to stop that old Dr. Cutler and his quartet of psychologists from fiddling around in the home situation. Zat's what I feel. Don't you agree with me?

View Quote Humbert: I thought we understood. No dates!
Lolita: What do you mean, no dates?...
Humbert: I don't want you around them. They're nasty-minded boys.
Lolita: Oh, you're a fine one to talk about someone else's mind.
Humbert: Don't avoid the issue. I told you, 'No dates.'
Lolita: It wasn't a date.
Humbert: It was a date.
Lolita: It wasn't a date.
Humbert: It was a date, Lolita.
Lolita: It was not a date.
Humbert: IT WAS A DATE!
Lolita: It wasn't a date.
Humbert: Well, whatever it was that you had yesterday afternoon, I don't want you to have again.