CROMWELL: You don’t seem to appreciate the seriousness of your position.
MORE: I defy anyone to live in that cell for a year and not appreciate the seriousness of his position.
CROMWELL: Yet the State has harsher punishments.
MORE: You threaten like a dockside bully.
CROMWELL: How should I threaten?
MORE: Like a Minister of State, with justice!
CROMWELL: Oh, justice is what you’re threatened with.
MORE: Then I’m not threatened.Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, Act 2 (1960)
Quotations by:
Bolt, Robert
ROPER: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
MORE: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
ROPER: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
MORE: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, Act I (1967)
MORE: I must in fairness add that my taste in music is reputedly deplorable.
HENRY: Your taste in music is excellent. It exactly coincides with my own.
Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 1 (1960)
(Source)
Bolt's 1966 film adaptation uses the same language.
MORE: If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we’d live like animals or angels in the happy land that needs no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all … why then perhaps we must stand fast a little — even at the risk of being heroes.
Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 1 (1960)
(Source)
Spoken to his family while in the Tower of London, awaiting trial. In the 1966 film adaptation, this is shortened:If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saintly. But since we see that avarice, anger, pride and stupidity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice and thought, perhaps we must stand fast a little -- even at the risk of being heroes.
MORE: Why not be a teacher? You’d be a fine teacher. Perhaps even a great one.
RICH: And if I was who would know it?
MORE: You, your pupils, your friends, God. Not a bad public, that.
Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 1 (1960)
(Source)
More trying to convince Rich not to seek a public or political office (because of the corrupting influences he would face).
Rendered almost identically into the 1966 film adaptation.MORE: Why not be a teacher? You’d be a fine teacher, perhaps a great one.
RICH: And if I was who would know it?
MORE: You. Your pupils. Your friends. God. Not a bad public, that.
MORE: When a man takes an oath, Meg, he’s holding his own self in his hands. Like water (cups hands) and if he opens his fingers then, he needn’t hope to find himself again.
Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 2 (1960)
(Source)
Answering to his daughter Margaret, who is trying to convince him to swear to the Act of Succession so that he can be freed from the Tower. In the 1966 screenplay, the same dialogue is used.
MORE: I will not take the oath. I will not tell you why I will not.
NORFOLK: Then your reasons must be treasonable!
MORE: Not “must be”; may be.
NORFOLK: It’s a fair assumption!
MORE: The law requires more than an assumption; the law requires a fact.
Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 2 (1960)
(Source)
The 1966 film adaptation uses the same language.
NORFOLK: I’m not a scholar, as Master Cromwell never tires of pointing out, and frankly I don’t know whether the marriage was lawful or not. But damn it, Thomas, look at those names … You know those men! Can’t you do what I did, and come with us, for friendship?
MORE: And when we stand before God, and you are sent to Paradise for doing according to your conscience, and I am damned for not doing according to mine, will you come with me, for friendship?
Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 2 (1960)
(Source)
In Bolt's 1966 film adaptation, this is shortened:NORFOLK: I'm not a scholar, I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not. But damn it, Thomas, look at these names! Why can't you do as I did, and come with us, for fellowship?
MORE: And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?
MORE: I do none harm, I say none harm, I think none harm. And if this be not enough to keep a man alive, in good faith I long not to live.
Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 2 (1960)
(Source)
After he has been condemned, speaking his mind about the Supremacy Act, but denying any malice.The 1966 film adaptation uses the same language.
CRANMER: Then the matter is capable of question?
MORE: Certainly.
CRANMER: But that you owe obedience to your King is not capable of question. So weigh a doubt against a certainty — and sign.
MORE: Some men think the Earth is round, others think it flat; it is a matter capable of question. But if it is flat, will the King’s command make it round? And if it is round, will the King’s command flatten it? No, I will not sign.
Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 2 (1960)
Bolt's 1966 film adaptation uses the same language.
The fourth and most important difference between a novel and a film (or play) is that when the reader tires of a novel he can mark his place, put it down, and return to it later. But the attention of an audience must be held continuously. There must be an unbroken progression. It may be progression of the emotion or the thought or the action, but emotion and thought must issue in action or threaten to. In a dramatic medium such as film the characters cannot pause to propound ideas and emotions not directly relevant to their own dramatic situation. In the middle of War and Peace Tolstoy can plant a substantial essay on the nature of military power. In a film script one unnecessary page, one page not furthering the progression, will lose the attention of the audience for the next ten.
Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
Doctor Zhivago: The Screenplay, “Author’s Note” (1965)
(Source)
If we’ve told lies, you’ve told half-lies. And a man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth, but a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it.
Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
Lawrence of Arabia [Dryden] (1962)