Memorable Lines

Maeve to Frank and Mary, recalling when she first came to America: "I was all of seventeen. I had the answers to everything." (to Mary) "Not unlike someone else I know."
Mary, sarcastically: "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!"
Frank, in an Irish brogue: "Ah, you come by it naturally then, ay Mary?"

Delia to Jill, after Frank has decided to stay with her: "Oh, this is too much! This is really too much! You know, I finally won. Jill the good, the smart, the talented sophisticate, done in by poor, dumb Delia!"
Jill: "Are you finished?"
Delia: "No. No, you are. So, uh, after you've had your little talk with my husband, why don't you just go home and just cry into your lawbooks? And just remember, I'll be in bed with Frank."

Jill to Maeve about the notion of her and Delia getting past all that happened between them: "Oh, Maeve, you make it sound as if we could all be friends one day!"
Maeve, apparently serious: "Ah, wouldn't that be fine!"

Delia to Roger, remembering a childhood incident: "Mary and I went out to play ball and I let her Spaulding fall into the sewer, and Mary said, 'I'm not playing with you anymore!' And she went back and she told Maeve, and Maeve said, 'Oh, you've gotta feel sorry for her cause she doesn't have very much. You have to share with her. She has no father, and her mother works so hard.' And Mary says, 'Well I don't care, I know Delia did it on purpose!'"
Roger: "Did you?"
Delia: "No." (starts to grin) "Yes." (covers her face with embarassment) "Yes!"

Maeve to Delia, recapping her night babysitting Little John: "After fifteen rounds of patticake, I could hardly keep my eyes open." (looking at a children's book) "Oh, and I wanted to know what happened to Miss Marple! Well, another time."

Jack to Sam, when Reenie asks for a recommendation for a messenger: "Well, Sam can do it. He needs the money, isn't that right, Sam? Hey, Mary, maybe you could sew pinstripes on his trousers for him, to save him the cost of a uniform."

Delia to Frank, as Jill leaves Ryan's with Seneca: "Well, it looks like she's found herself another husband. At least this time, she waited until his wife was dead!"

Johnny to Jack, about his best man: "Well, according to tradition, the groom usually picks his best friend. Isn't that right, Pat?"
Pat: "Yeah."
Johnny: "Tell me something, Jack, you got a friend?"

Nell's sister, Diana, testifying at Seneca's trial, and smiling: "They would behave like children...My sister was terribly demonstrative. When she and Seneca were having an argument, she would get on the phone and call me and tell me that he was behaving impossibly...And then he would take the phone away from her in order to tell me that she was behaving impossibly...I certainly remember that, because it was so like him, so lacking in tact."

Seneca to Jill, about calling Seneca's former co-worker and alleged mistress, Harriet Hill, to testify: "Wait a minute. Do you really have to put her on the stand?"
Jill: "Oh, you bet I do, bright and early tomorrow morning, and I hope that she comes in flat-heeled shoes and a potato sack, and looks as though she hasn't left that laboratory in thirty years!"
Seneca: "Not exactly a picture of Harriet Hill."

Roger to Johnny, who for some reason is discussing Frank's political career as if Roger cares: "Are you telling me there were people who didn't vote for Frank Ryan?"

Roger to Delia, about her non-existent friend whom she claims to be with whenever she sneaks out to see Roger: "Dee, one of these days, you're going to have to produce Sheila, and then you'll have a choice. Now, either you kill her off in a terrible accident...oh, no, no, that would be a costly funeral. Look, I could borrow a cape and wig, if you want?"

Reenie, polishing her toenails: "When Bucky sees that, he's gonna go mad with passion!"
Nick: "Oh, what, has Bucky got a foot fetish?"

Bucky to Kevin: "I know you've got stuff up there to give me courage, but you got anything up there to give me brains?"
Kevin: "Well I heard that fish makes good brain food."
Bucky: "Good, I'll have a glass of trout, then."

Mary to Jack, who has just planned an extensive honeymoon after Sr. Mary Joel told him to reassure Mary: "I want to know something. Are you doing this for me, or for Sister Mary Joel?"
Jack: "Well there's only two tickets. Joe couldn't fit it in her schedule."

Delia, about ready to jump out of her skin, to Roger, who has come into Ryan's: "What would you like?"
Roger: "Whatever Frank had's good enough for me. Frank, what did you have?"
Frank, obliviously: "Soup and a club sandwich."
Roger: "Well I would like exactly what Frank's had."
Delia, mortified: "I don't know if we have enough soup."
Roger: "Well it's still early. Would you check for me?"
Delia, afraid to leave them alone: "Okay."
Roger, as Delia nervously tries to take as long as possible to get to the kitchen: "You know Frank, I've probably known Delia for about as long as you have. Wouldn't you say?"
Frank, reading and only half paying attention: "Hmph, probably."
Roger: "Oh, not as well of course, until very recently. Oh Dee, listen, I'm hungrier than Frank. Could I add a side order of French fries to that?"

Pat to Maeve: "Mary in a wedding dress? You mean she's not getting married in her blue jean skirt?"
Maeve: "Saints preserve it, I hope not!"
Pat: "I've got an idea. She could wear your wedding blouse and her blue jean skirt."
Maeve: "Would you just mind saving that suggestion for someone else? Cause Mary's just crazy enough to take you up on it."

Maeve to Jill about Jack and Mary's upcoming wedding: "Mary thinks it will be alright. Of course, she knows her intended better than brides in my day knew their men!"

Roger to Jill, who has caught him and Delia laughing together at Ryan's and reamed them out for their indiscretion: "The reason that Delia was laughing was because I just said something amusing. Now, believe it or not, I do say amusing things from time to time. Smile!"

Mary, telling a visiting Kathleen the story of how she and Jack first met: "Jack was being so smart about my working for Frank on the city council campaign, and we're throwing this ball back and forth on the city wharf, right, and what I really wanted to do was throw the ball right through him."
Kathleen, laughing: "After all that, I should think so!"
Mary: "Listen to this, finally he turns to me and he said (impersonating Jack's voice) he didn't think I would ever have a career of my own, because if I could just transfer some of my devotion to Frank to someone new, I'd have the makings of a terrific wife. Well, I mean, that did it! I reared back, right, and I threw the ball high, and old hot shot wasn't about to miss it. So he runs and he jumps for it, right, and old Mr. Jack Fenelli went right off the pier and into the Hudson River!"
Kathleen: "Awww, good for you!"
Pat, chiming in: "And they've both been swimming against the stream ever since."

Delia, telling Roger about her newest alibi for the times she'd been sneaking out to meet him (she was in church): "[Frank] started questioning me and yelling at me and everybody just sat there with their mouths hanging open. So I went from telling them about Chinese cooking lessons and I lied right into a story about this church...I don't know, I was going so fast, I could barely believe all the details. I was having this tremendous spiritual experience and, I don't know, it was going so well I almost believed it myself."
Roger: "Does that mean that you're gonna have to spend more time in church now?"
Delia, laughing: "Yeah, it does!...Now look, don't you get any bright ideas and call me at home and say that you're my spiritual advisor! Okay?"
Roger: "No, no, I'll leave that all to Father McShane. But maybe I could burn some incense once in a while when you came to see me, and we could meditate together?"

Delia to Roger, upon learning that Faith is in the house during their rendezvous: "All we need is another sister finding us together."

Jack, after Mary has woken up in the middle of the night worried about Frank: "You know, I'm making progress."
Mary: "About what?"
Jack: "Oh, a little while ago, I would have been jealous of Frank."
Mary: "And you're not now?"
Jack: "Not overwhelmingly. I mean, I won't have to get up in the morning and sulk about it."
Mary: "Fenelli, sulk? Jack Fenelli - my little sunbeam - waking up with a foul temper? Oh, my dear, how could you suggest such a thing?"

Jillian to Seneca, who has shown up on her doorstep late at night to give her a crystal ball: "Ah, let me see! I gaze into my crystal ball, and what do I see?"
Seneca: "What do you see?"
Jillian: "Aaaah..."
Seneca: "What? What? What?"
Jillian: "Yes, I see the street. I see the street and I see...you! I see you walking, walking down the street."
Seneca: "Walking down the street?"
Jillian: "Going, going..."
Seneca: "Going where? Going where?"
Jillian: "Going...home."
Seneca: "Home? That thing is a fake! I have been cheated!"

Pat, about Frank: "He's not sacred. Contrary to popular belief, you don't go up in smoke when you dare to criticize Frank Ryan!"

Pat, about Frank: "No wonder the family thinks he's perfect. I just wish he wouldn't agree with them all the time."

Jack to Mary, about Little John, whom they are babysitting: "Well, I mean, what's to cry about, sitting in a nice hot tub with his rubber duckie and his bubble bath and you to scrub his back and sing him a song? I mean, the kid's not stupid."
Mary: "I'll do the same for you sometime."

Pat, to Alex, Jack's old army buddy: "Da's the one who'd like to talk to him. He'd love to hear stories about Jack in Vietnam."
Mary: "He'd love to see him go back there, you mean."

Delia to Frank: "How come when you find me with Roger, I'm wrong, and how come when I find you with Jill, I'm still wrong, and how come I'm always wrong? It doesn't matter what I do!...Now, I walk in on you and Jill, and I'm not supposed to be mad? You're mad at me? I don't know. I don't know. This world is all upside down sometimes."

Maeve to Johnny, who is fussing over her bad back: "Thank you, darling, for taking such good care of me. It's not something I need very often, but that doesn't say that I don't love every second of it once in a while. I guess there's a little bit of Delia in all of us."

Mary to Maeve, recalling how she always taught her not to pray for specific things: "You told us to pray for grace, but that was a little harder to check out. I mean, I was never sure when I'd gotten it or not."

Jillian, in response to Seneca's question about how he has upset her: "Yeah, by telling me something that you knew would make me angry to begin with!"
Seneca: "At Frank! You're not supposed to get mad at me."
Jillian: "Well, I am!"
Seneca: "Oh. Aren't you annoyed with him, even a little?"

Seneca, telling Jillian that Frank told him to stay away from her: "Well, I thought I behaved very well. I stood there politely and listened while he told me what to do - and what you were going to do - and not once did I suggest what he could do."

Delia's lawyer, Ms. Burney, to Delia: "Your husband has petitioned the Supreme Court for a custody hearing."
Delia: "In Washington?"
Ms. Burney: "No, Mrs. Ryan, the State Supreme Court."

Delia, homicidally stabbing a pumpkin that she is supposed to be carving: "This is gonna be you, Faith Coleridge - rich and snooty Faith! You just love those Ryan boys, don't you? Just like your big sister! Well, this time it's not gonna happen!"

Faith to Pat, mocking Delia: "Oh, Paddy, I've got this awful problem! You see, I've been working very hard all morning in the kitchen - very hard, it's my day off - 'cause I was gonna make you a surprise. But I can't tell you what the surprise is...because...then you'll know what the surprise is! But I was working along and, all of a sudden, I got this horrible pain, right around here." She puts her hand on her stomach. "And I'm so worried, Paddy! It keeps coming, and it grows and grows, worse and worse, and I'm so nervous, Paddy! Uhmm...it's this growling noise that I don't understand, and I kept looking for you, Paddy, and I...oh, Paddy, I need you! I need you to take care of me, and I thought maybe you could help me. Could you, Paddy, please?"

Jill to Frank, as if imparting earth-shattering news: "I am going to be appallingly selfish!"

Mary, about the Ryans: "I ask you, who could help but love the whole of us assembled?"

Jack, who is still walking with a cane, to Mary: "May I sit down?"
Mary: "To talk about an annulment? No!"

Frank to Mary, assuring her that Jack will have trouble getting a divorce: "How's big Jack going to prove cruel and inhuman treatment?"
Mary: "Well, I did talk him into living with Da for a couple of months."

Faith, tearfully, to Roger about Delia: "Why couldn't you have managed to take her off to Europe in the first place? Why didn't you tie her up and gag her and stuff her in a trunk and ship her out, away from here, away from Pat, away from me?"

Delia to Mary: "What really is a pity is that you couldn't have married Frank, because the two of you are the only people who are perfect enough for each other!"

Faith, about Delia: "But then, the Ryans can't throw very well throw her out - can they? - when she keeps providing them with more grandchildren. Thank God they just had two sons."

Pat to Frank: "No, no, your behavior is never the issue. Maybe it ought to be, though."

Delia to Pat, who's found her with Roger on St. Patrick's Day: "I'm sorry, Paddy, he just came in out of the green."

Bob to Alicia, on how all - or almost all - kids hate doctors: "Now, my sister, she loved to go to the clinic, every little thing that happened to her. She loved to be fussed over."

Frank, as the light finally dawns: "Maybe...it could be my fault. I mean, is it really possible that Frank Ryan - old, infallible Frank - could be wrong?"

Mary to Frank, in Maeve and Johnny's apartment, where they are both living with their children: "This apartment is turning into a Ryan family commune."

Bucky to Faith, persuading her to call Delia and tell her that Pat has fallen asleep on the boat and won't be home: "She doesn't even know where we are. She can't drive."
Faith: "She would spot us from the air and parachute in."

Roger to Delia, who is frantic having learned that Pat and Faith are together on Bucky's boat: "There's no cause for alarm if Bucky's with Pat and Faith. Of course, unless you suspect an orgy of some kind, but knowing my sister as well as I do..."

Johnny, to Maeve: "You know, it's amazing."
Maeve: "What?"
Johnny: "When I first saw you, back in the spring of 1944, coming out of that kitchen with your hair flying and wiping your hands on your apron, I though, 'There is a face I could look at for the rest of my life and never get tired of seeing.'"
Maeve, smiling: "Ah, is that what you thought?"
Johnny: "That's exactly what I thought! It's just astonishing - how right I was, and that you haven't changed."
Maeve: "Well, I thought you were daft then, the way you looked at me. I still think you're daft. But I love you, John, and I'm glad your eyes are failing you."

Delia to Pat, in a panic about the malpractice suit against him: "They're gonna throw us out of the apartment! We're gonna be out on the street!"
Pat: "Yeah, well, we wouldn't want that, would we? What would the neighbors say about the bed?"

A young Mary, in Maeve's flashback, about the man she will (or will not) end up marrying: "Pat says nobody's that hard up."

Faith to Pat, after Bucky pushed Delia into the Hudson River: "Did she catch a cold?"
Pat: "She didn't catch anything. She's very disappointed. She's still looking for symptoms, though, in all of my books. This morning she was sure she had this disease you get from drinking river water infested with mosquito larvae, but fortunately that mosquito larva is only found in the Congo."

A drunken Jack, who has called the Ryans at 2 a.m. looking for Mary, to Johnny: "Oh, you're home?"
Johnny: "And wide awake, thanks to you!"
Jack: "I thought you were at the aquarium."
Johnny: "What?"
Jack: "I saw you there, just a little while ago."
Johnny, to Maeve, who is right next to him: "He's out of his head!"
Jack: "I've been all through Coney Island, but I started at the aquarium. There was a walrus, I just stood there watching him barking orders over his big round belly and I thought to myself, 'Now, who does that remind me of?' And then I said to myself, 'Why, that's Da! Why, that's who it is! It's good old Da!'"

Rae, seeing Roger's apartment for the first time and noticing the portrait over the mantle: "Aaahhh, introduce me."
Roger: "Oh, that is Seton Ford Coleridge, my," counts with his fingers, "great great great great grandfather."
Rae: "Hmmm..." With a mock accent: "He looks like a Seton."
Roger: "True. Well, Seton was the cornerstone of the illustrious Coleridge family, as we know them today. He was also a Revolutionary War hero, a damned fine surgeon, and, above all, a paragon of virtue."
Rae: "With all that, how did he find time to have his portrait done?"
Roger: "Well, we Coleridges always find time for the amenities."
Rae: "Aaahhh!"
Roger: "It's generally believed that Seton was solely responsible for getting General Washington through the winter at Valley Forge. I suspect that he shoveled snow, along with everything else. When I moved into the apartment, my father gave me that portrait, in the hopes that I would emulate his virtues."
Rae: "And have you done so?"
Roger: "I'm afraid I'm an unworthy descendant, but Seton's wonderful company. He observes all and keeps his mouth shut."
Rae: "Aaahhh..." Raising her glass: "To Seton."
Roger, toasting: "To Seton."

Mary to Jack, who is frantically (and annoyingly) trying to get out of the basement at Ryan's, in which Maeve has trapped them to get them to work things out: "Try dynamite. You could hold the stick!"

Jill to Frank, about the interns' 135 hour work week being unfair: "Everyone admits that."
Frank: "Oh, not some of the oldtimers that run the place. 'Aah, when I was young, doctors used to be strong! I remember, during my internship, I didn't see my wife for six months!' Probably the happiest days of her life."

Father McShane, to Delia, after she has confessed another one of her schemes: "What troubles me most, Delia, is I hear nothing in your tone to suggest that you're penitent for what you've done."
Delia: "Well, that's because I'm not."

Maeve, coming into the bar from the kitchen, to Johnny and Tom: "I have big news, gentleman: Fenelli's come out of the closet!"
Johnny drops a tray of drinks.
Maeve: "Oh, John, the cat - the cat, Fenelli. You know, the one that's been...Jack's cat...living in Mary's closet. Oh, dear, I'll get a broom."

Maeve to Delia, who is trying on the hat that Jack and Mary had bought for Maeve to wear on a Caribbean cruise - a cruise which Delia has just conned her out of: "Why don't you borrow it for your trip?"
Pat: "No, Ma, no!"
Delia: "No, I couldn't do that. Mary and Jack would be so mad at me..."
Maeve: "Awwww, no, Jack?"
Jack: "Oh, sure, sure. I won't tell...Mary won't mind."

Jack to Mary about her news broadcast on Channel R: "Hey, it was a good show."
Mary: "Oh?"
Jack: "Even I didn't know that that old fire station was a landmark."
Mary: "Ah, even you, huh? Well, it turns out nobody knew. We were flooded with calls."
Jack:" No kidding?"
Mary: "Seven." After Jack and Kevin laugh: "Well, that's four more than we've had about anything else."

Delia to Roger: "Jill and Faith still like you, don't they?"
Roger: " I hope so."
Delia: "No, I mean you've done a lot of bad things but what happens is they get mad at you and then they forgive you, right?"
Roger: "Whereas members of your family suggest that they won't forgive or forget? Or, at least, the ones that will forget won't forgive?"
Delia: "Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Maybe it's because you're a better person than I am."
Roger: "No, no, not better, Dee, just more honest. I try very hard not to give the impression of being anything other than what I really am, which is, essentially, a self-serving person. I don't raise false expectations, therefore no one is disappointed - at least, not unbearably."

Roger to Delia, declaring his undying love: "I love you because of your infinite capacity to concentrate on yourself and your own pleasures for indefinite periods of time; I love you because you are beautiful, vain, lazy, slightly amoral, and also because you are the most accomplished liar of my acquaintance, and I knew the first time we met that we were made for each other. Now, how's that?"

Delia to Frank: "You know, Frank, you're really moving up in the world. Three years ago, you were running for city councilman and cheating on your wife with your mistress. Now, you're running for Senator and you're cheating on your mistress with your manager."

Kevin to Johnny, about his plans to follow Delia's lead in commodities investments: "Well I never thought I would live to see the day when you would put your faith - not to mention your life savings - into one of Delia's mad schemes! That girl has lived her life leaping from one irrational scheme to the other! The law of averages indicates that one of them has to work. John, would you consider pretending that you were pregnant, or would you consider standing on a ledge Lord knows how many stories up? Would you consider faking a nervous breakdown? So why are you considering this?"

Wes Leonard: "So, I'm gonna do two or three articles on the strike and its aftermath, and I've decided to devote one entire column to you - journalist hero. Now how about that?"
Jack: "Terrific. You get a Pulitzer, and I get a busted jaw."
Wes: "Hey, wouldn't that be ironic?"
Siobhan: "Anyway..."
Jack: "Anyway, what?"
Siobhan: "I don't know, it just seemed like the right thing to say."
Wes: "Actually, I was planning on doing one on you too - you know, Riverside's own Joan of Ark, that kind of angle..."
Siobhan, smiling: "Oh, yes?"
Wes: "Yeah, except there's one problem."
Siobhan: "What?"
Wes: "I still can't figure out how to spell your name. Is it...is there an 'sh'? Just an 's'? Well, you can teach me. How about over dinner?"
Siobhan: "I don't know."
Jack: "You never give up, do you?"
Wes: "Hey, we're talking about responsible journalism here! Besides, you owe me one, remember?"
Siobhan, to Jack: "Do you mind? I really am kind of hungry."
Jack: "Do what you want. You will anyway."
Siobhan: "I'll be careful."
Wes: "She will, too, dammit!"
Later, Jack tells the nurse to take the flowers Wes brought to maternity: "Are you sure? They really are beautiful - like a breath of spring."
Jack: "I like winter."

Delia to Jack: "You sure are in a bad mood, but then, you'd have to be, with a famous and successful wife off having fun in Washington with a foreigner, and you're stuck at home with a baby and a hole in your head."
Jack: "Well, I'm sure you can relate to that."

Delia to Frank (her first husband), about his and Rae's wedding plans: "I guess the woman's always more excited about the wedding, hah? Even the second time around. Actually, come to think about it, each time I got married I was more excited than the last."

Roger: "If there's one thing I learned - church is no fun."

Maeve, upon learning that Johnny considered borrowing money from Rae: "Oh, thank merciful heaven for small favors! I mean, if Rae had been the one to save Ryan's, we'd have the demolition crew right out front this minute."

Delia to Johnny, who has complimented her mink coat, at Joe and Siobhan's engagement party: "I wasn't sure if I should wear it - I thought it might make me look like a gun moll. Maybe Siobhan would like to borrow it?"

Roger to Delia: "Delia, dammit, would you try to understand what I'm telling you?"
Delia: "I do understand! Your mistress helps you write love letters to your wife, who couldn't understand that? It's so sophisticated and mature! It reminds me of those boring Swedish movies with subtitles you used to drag me to all the time to broaden my horizons! Well, aren't you glad you finally found somebody whose horizons are already broad enough? Maybe I should come home, and then Rae could move in with us! Wouldn't that be mature? Then you could take her to those lousy movies and I could stay home and cook and clean for you, and you would have everything you ever wanted!"

Delia, to Maeve, who has just introduced her to Barry only to be interrupted by a call from Pat: "Say hello for me! Not that he wants to hear from me. No, Pat's nice. He always was, even when we got divorced. Well...he's just a very nice person."
Barry: "I must have misunderstood earlier. I thought you were married to Frank."
Delia: "Oh, him too. I was married to both of them...not at the same time!" (pauses) "You want some more tea?"
Barry: "Uh, thanks." (pauses) "Are you married to any of the Ryans now?"
Delia: "There aren't any left."

Delia to Bob: "You've got a date?"
Bob: "Yes, I'm taking Faith to dinner."
Delia: "Oh..."
Bob, to Barry: "Nice meeting you."
Delia, to Bob: "Have a good time." After he has left: "If that's possible, under the circumstances. I wish he'd find someone wonderful."
Barry: "Faith isn't wonderful?"
Delia: "Faith...is boring."

Delia, meeting Betsy Palmer: "I saw you on Broadway in Same Time Next Year, and you were just wonderful! My husband took us for our anniversary."
Betsy: "Which one was it?"
Delia: "Roger. He's my last."

Delia to Ken George Jones, after he asks if she knows Jill: "Well, sure I do. I've known her practically my whole life. She was my first real enemy, and her sister was my last, but I've given up having enemies, which is the only reason I use the past tense. She was here tonight."
Ken: "I met her on the terrace."
Delia: "She's gonna marry Frank Ryan."
Ken: "So I understand."
Delia: "I used to think it served him right, but Frank's gotten somewhat nicer than he used to be."
Ken: "Why don't you like Jillian?"
Delia: "She's mean, spoiled, has to have her own way about everything, and she's smart enough to get it - even if what she wants happens to be someone else's husband, namely mine." Ken: "Frank?"
Delia: "I was married three times. First to your [Barry's] cousin Frank, then to your cousin Pat (Barry laughs), and then to Roger, who is Jill's brother, who is also mean and spoiled and smart and gets his own way about everything, but all things considered, he was a better husband than Frank. Or Pat. Or maybe I was a better wife."

Delia, about Faith becoming an alcoholic after Tom's death: "Well, I know it's hard losing your husband and everything, but she should face it, accept it, and move on. Like I have."
Kevin: "Well, she doesn't have as much practice as you have, Delia."

Delia to Barry, about a painting of an old lady in Tom's old apartment: "Oooh, this picture's creepy!"
Barry: "Oh, I don't know, I kind of like her. Who do you suppose she is?"
Delia: "Maybe it's Faith without her makeup."

Maeve, to Delia: "You can't marry every man that you fall in love with!"
Delia: "I have so far."
Maeve: "I know."

Delia: "Roger, I think, was born with a silver martini-stirrer in his hand."

Roger to Rae, who is afraid that Kim knows that they helped stop her wedding and is about to confront her: "Well, then, I've always found that, in that situation, the best answer, invariably, is to lie."
Rae: "Lie?"
Roger: "And keep on lying, no matter how strong the impulse to break down and tell the truth, you resist it. You lie and lie again."
Rae: "And what if she doesn't believe us?"
Roger: "Then we're not lying vigorously enough."

Delia to Frank, about his and Jill's upcoming wedding: "Yeah, and you could have the reception at the Crystal Palace. I mean it!"
Frank: "I know you do. It's a very generous offer."
Delia: "I didn't mean I'd do it for free."

Delia, by way of explaining why she stayed at home: "It was raining! I might have..."
Roger: "Melted?"

Faith: "I used to love Halloween. It was the one day a year when I could dress up and be somebody else."
Delia: "That must have been a treat for you."

Little John to Faith, about Frank not marrying Jill: "Maybe he'll marry somebody else."
Faith: "Maybe. Probably."
Little John: "He used to be married to Mommy. Maybe he'll marry her again. She gets married a lot. Will he?"
Faith: "I don't think so. I'm sorry."
Little John: "Who, then? How 'bout you?"

Roger, about Michael Pavel: "That shifty look he gets kind of unnerves me. Maybe I recognized it from the mirror."

Siobhan, having just hugged Roger after returning home: "Oh, now is this the appropriate greeting, or should I have been less enthusiastic? I'm assuming you're in the good graces of the family these days."
Roger: "Now, since when has my standing with anyone been relevant to you? You've always marched to the beat of your own drummer."

Roger to Delia: "You are a Ryan, frequently."

Joe, to Maeve, after the Ryans have found out he is alive: "Remember...what's his name in the Bible? Lazarus. His family was pretty upset too."

Roger, seeing Delia's flowers: "A new admirer?"
Delia: "No. I called the florist and had them sent to myself."
Roger: "Ah, an old admirer."

Delia to Roger: "Isn't there someone else you can go bother?"
Roger: "No, no one I can think of."
Delia: "Well, try. I'm sure you'll come up with somebody - one of your girlfriends. How about Lily?"
Roger: "What about her?"
Delia: "If you want to help somebody, why don't you talk to her? At least she could use it."
Roger: "Look, Lily seems to be doing just fine without me."
Delia: "What happened, did she dump you?"
Roger: "No, and why are you trying to change the subject?"
Delia, laughing: "She did, didn't she?"
Roger: "No, actually, we parted quite amicably. In fact, I got a postcard from her the other day."
Delia: "Where from?"
Roger: "LA. It seems when Ken died there was a great clamour for his music, and somebody unearthed a tape that Lily and he had made of 'A Stormy Kind of Love,' a song that she had written. It was released and it's become quite popular. She's working on her own TV special right now.
Delia: "Well, be sure and tell me when it is so I can miss it."

Delia, on why nobody could track her down using her last name(s): "I thought I'd just be Delia....like Cher; like Madonna, like....Gandhi!"

Maggie to Ben, about John: "He takes what he wants, because he feels that he deserves it, because when he was a young boy somebody taught him something nobody has ever taught you - that a little selfishness is a good thing, it's a healthy thing. Only they dress it up; they call it self-esteem."

Delia: "When I fall in love, it's not like clarinets and Frank Sinatra crooning. It's more like the New York Philharmonic being led by Lennie Bernstein, and it's an intensity, a feeling that it's just not easy for me to get rid of that way. It's like a long, loud, timpani roll!"

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