Quotes

Others

Celaeno: [to the Unicorn] Set me free. We are sisters, you and I. Mabruk: [after realizing that the Lady Amalthea is a unicorn] Haggard, I would not be you for all the world. You have let your doom in by the front door, but it will not depart that way! Farewell, poor Haggard! Rukh: This here is the manticore. A man's head, a lion's body, tail of a scorpion. Creatures of night, brought to light. Here is a dragon. Breathes fire now and then. Mostly people who poke it, little boy. Its inside an inferno, but its skin so cold, it burns! Speaks 17 languages badly and is subject to gout. Creatures of night, brought to light! The Satyr. Ladies, keep back! The Cat: No cat out of its first fur was ever deceived by appearances, unlike human beings, who seem to enjoy it. The Cat: When the wine drinks itself, when the skull speaks, when the clock strikes the right time, only then will you find the tunnel that leads to the Red Bull. There be a trick to it, of course. The Skull: To get to the Red Bul

Dialogue

Older Hunter: I mislike the feel of these woods. Creatures that live in a Unicorn's forest learn a little magic of their own in time, mainly concerned with disappearing. Younger Hunter: Unicorns? I thought they only existed in fairy tales. This is a forest, like any other... isn't it? Older Hunter: Then why do the leaves never fall here? Or the snow? Why is it always spring here? I tell you there is one unicorn left in the world, and as long as it lives in this forest we'll find no game to hunt here. Younger Hunter: Let's turn around, hunt somewhere else. Older Hunter: Stay where you are, poor beast. This is no world for you! Stay in your forest and keep your trees green, and your friends protected. And good luck to you, for you are the last! Unicorn: I am the only unicorn there is? The Last...?

Dialogue

Unicorn: Say my name then. If you know my name, tell it to me. Butterfly: [quoting Romeo and Juliet] Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name...! Unicorn: Say it, if you know. Butterfly: Rumpelstiltskin! Gotcha! Unicorn: I should know better to expect a silly butterfly to know my name! All butterflies know are songs, and poetry, and anything else they hear. I guess you mean well. Fly away, Butterfly! Butterfly: One, two, three, O'Leary.. Butterfly: Listen. Don't listen to ME, listen. You can find the others if you are brave. They passed down all the roads long ago, and the Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footprints. Listen! Listen, listen QUICKLY! Unicorn: I AM listening! Where did they go and what is the Red Bull? Butterfly: Listen! LISTEN! [laughs] The king is in his counting house, counting out, counting out, counting...

Dialogue

Schmendrick: Tell me what you see. Don't be afraid. Look at your fellow legends and tell me what you see. Unicorn: What he calls a manticore looks to be no more than a shabby, toothless lion. And he has them believing that poor old ape with the twisted foot is a satyr! Illusions, deceptions, mirages! Your Mommy Fortuna cannot truly change things! Schmendrick: That's true. She can only disguise, and only for those eager to believe whatever comes easiest. … No, She cannot turn cream into butter, but she can make a lion look like a manticore to eyes that want to see a manticore. Just like she put a false horn, on a real unicorn, so they could see the unicorn. I know you. If I were blind, I would know what you are. Unicorn: Who are you? Schmendrick: I am called Schmendrick, the Magician. Uh... you won't have heard of me. I entertain the sight-seers as they gather for the show. It's not much of a job for a real magician, but I've had worse. Schmendrick: Yes, the old woman caught her by chan

Dialogue

Mommy Fortuna: The harpy's as real as you are, and just as immortal. And she was just as easy to capture, if you want to know. Unicorn: Do not boast, old woman. Your death sits in that cage, and she hears you. Mommy Fortuna: Oh, she'll kill me one day or another. But she will remember forever that I caught her; I held her prisoner. So there's my immortality, eh? Ha! Ha! Now, you were out on the road, hunting for your own death, and I know where it awaits you. I know HIM, that one.. Unicorn: Do you speak of the Red Bull? Tell me, if you do, and where he is, if you know! Mommy Fortuna: The Red Bull of King Haggard...so you know of the Bull! Well, he'll not have you! You belong to me. Unicorn: You know better... Keep your poor shadows, if you will, but let me go, and, let her go. I cannot see her caged. She is real, like me. We are two sides of the same magic… The harpy and me, we are not for you. Mommy Fortuna: Who are you for then? Do you think those fools knew you, without any help fro

Dialogue

Schmendrick: Take me with you, for luck, for laughs, for the unknown... Unicorn: You may come with me, if you like, though I wish you'd asked for some other reward for having freed me. Schmendrick: I thought about it. But you couldn't granted my true wish. Unicorn: No. I cannot turn you into something you are not. I cannot turn you into a true magician. Schmendrick: Ah, it's ok. Don't worry about it. Unicorn: I'm not.

Dialogue

Molly Grue: No, it can't be. Can it be? Where have you been? Where have you been? Damn you! Where have you been? Schmendrick: Don't you talk to her that way! Unicorn: I'm here now. Molly Grue: And where were you twenty years ago? Ten years ago? Where were you when I was new? When I was one of those innocent young maidens you always come to? How dare you! How dare you come to me now, when I am this! [Weeps] Schmendrick: Can you really see her? Do you know what she is? Molly Grue: If you had been waiting to see a unicorn, as long as I have... Schmendrick: She's the last unicorn in the world. Molly Grue: It would be the last unicorn in the world that came to Molly Grue. … It's all right, I forgive you.

Dialogue

Molly Grue: [as the Red Bull attacks the unicorn] Please! Please do something! Schmendrick: What can I do? Do you think the Red Bull likes card tricks? If I could, I would change her into some other creature, some beast too humble for the Bull to be concerned with. But that would take a real magician with real magic, and I can't pretend anymore... Molly Grue: But you do. You have magic. Maybe you can't find it, but it's there. You called Robin Hood, and there is no Robin Hood. You have all the power you need if you dared to look for it.

Dialogue

Schmendrick: The Red Bull came for a unicorn, so she had to become something else. The magic chose the shape, not I. I am a bearer, I am a dwelling, I am a messenger… Molly Grue: You are an idiot! Do you hear me? You've lost her! You've trapped her in a human body! She'll go mad!

Dialogue

Molly Grue: Why won't you help me? Why must you always speak in riddles? The Cat: Because I be, what I be. I would tell you what you want to know if I could, mum, but I be a cat. And no cat anywhere, ever gave anyone a straight answer.

Dialogue

Amalthea: Don't! Haggard: I will not touch you. What are you looking at? Amalthea: The sea. Haggard: Ah yes, the sea is always good. There is nothing I can look at for very long, except the sea.

Dialogue

Lír: You were dreaming, my Lady. Amalthea: But I am always dreaming, even when I am awake! It is never finished. I will not trouble you, my Lord Prince. Lír: Trouble me, please, trouble me! I would court you with more grace, if I knew how. I only wish you wanted something of me.. Amalthea: Drown out my dreams! Keep me from remembering, whatever wants me to remember it!

Dialogue

Amalthea: Lír! Don't let him change me! The Red Bull has no care for human beings. We may walk out past him and get away! Schmendrick: If we do that, then all the unicorns of the world will remain prisoners forever, except one, and she will grow old and die. Amalthea: Everything dies! I want to die when you die. [looks at Lír] I'm no unicorn, no magical creature. I'm a woman, and I love you! Don't let him! Lír, I will not love you when I'm a unicorn. Lír: Amalthea, don't... Schmendrick: Then let the quest end here! I don't think I could change you back, even if you wished it. Marry the prince, and live happily ever after. Amalthea: Yes, that is my wish. Lír: No. My lady, I am a hero, and heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever. A happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story. Molly Grue: But what if there isn't a happy ending? Schmendrick: There are no h

Dialogue

Schmendrick: I cannot, not all the magic in the world can help her now. Molly Grue: Then what is magic for? What is the use of wizardry if it cannot even save a unicorn? Schmendrick: That's what heroes are for. Lír: Of course — that is exactly what heroes are for.

Dialogue

Lír: I wish I could see her just once more, so I could tell her all that's in my heart. She will never know what I really meant to say. Schmendrick: She will remember your heart when men are fairy tales in books written by rabbits. Of all unicorns, she is the only one who knows what regret is — and love.

Dialogue

Unicorn: You are a true wizard now, as you always wished. Does it make you happy? Schmendrick: Well, men don't always know when they're happy. But I — I think so. And you? Unicorn: I am a little afraid to go home. I have been mortal, and some part of me is mortal yet. I am no longer like the others, for no unicorn was ever born who could regret, but I now I do. I regret. Schmendrick: I am sorry. I have done you evil and I cannot undo it. Unicorn: No. Unicorns are in the world again. No sorrow will live in me as long as that joy — save one. And I thank you for that part, too. Farewell good magician. I will try to go home.