Peter O'Toole credited as playing...
Don Quixote De La Mancha • Miguel Cervantes • Alonso Quijana
- Miguel de Cervantes: I'm a poet.
- The Duke: They're putting people in prison for that?
- Miguel de Cervantes: No, no, no, not for that.
- The Duke: Too bad.
- Miguel de Cervantes: Life as it is. I've lived for over 40 years and I've seen life as it is. Pain. Misery. Cruelty beyond belief. I've heard all the voices of God's noblest creature. Moans from bundles of filth in the street. I've been a soldier and a slave. I've seen my comrades fall in battle or die more slowly under the lash in Africa. I've held them in my arms at the final moment. These were men who saw life as it is, yet they died despairing. No glory, no brave last words, only their eyes, filled with confusion, questioning "Why?" I do not think they were asking why they were dying, but why they had ever lived. When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness To surrender dreams - -this may be madness; to seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness! And maddest of all - to see life as it is and not as it should be!
- Don Quixote: [about to attack the windmill] Ho, there, foul monster! Cease the knocking at thy craven knees and prepare to do battle!
- Sancho Panza: [nearly simultaneously] Your Grace, I swear by my wife's little black moustache that's not a giant, it's only a...
- [with a yell, Don Quixote charges off]
- The Governor: We generally fine a prisoner all his possessions.
- Miguel de Cervantes: All of them.
- The Governor: It's not practical to take more.
- Don Quixote: Not well? What is illness to the body of a knight-errant? What matter wounds? For each time he falls, he shall rise again, and woe to the wicked.
- Miguel de Cervantes: I shall impersonate a man. His name is Alonso Quijana, a country squire no longer young. Being retired, he has much time for books. He studies them from morn till night and often through the night and morn again, and all he reads oppresses him; fills him with indignation at man's murderous ways toward man. He ponders the problem of how to make better a world where evil brings profit and virtue none at all; where fraud and deceit are mingled with truth and sincerity. He broods and broods and broods and broods and finally his brains dry up. He lays down the melancholy burden of sanity and conceives the strangest project ever imagined - -to become a knight-errant, and sally forth into the world in search of adventures; to mount a crusade; to raise up the weak and those in need. No longer will he be plain Alonso Quijana, but a dauntless knight known as Don Quixote de La Mancha.
- Miguel de Cervantes: It is imperative each knight has a lady; a knight without a lady is a body without a soul. To whom would he dedicate his conquests? What visions sustain him when he sallies forth to do battle with evil and with giants?
- The Duke: I invent false information about a country and sell it to others stupid enough to believe it.
- Miguel de Cervantes: Seems a sound proposition. What brought you here?
- The Duke: A lapse of judgment. I told the truth.
- Don Quixote: Dost not see? A monstrous giant of infamous repute whom I intend to encounter.
- Sancho Panza: It's a windmill.
- Don Quixote: A giant. Canst thou not see the four great arms whirling at his back?
- Sancho Panza: A giant?
- Don Quixote: Exactly.
- Don Quixote: ...that I may dedicate each victory to her and call upon her in defeat, and if at last I give my life, I give it in the sacred name of Dulcinea.
- Sancho Panza: Many a man has gone to bed feeling well, only to wake up the next morning and find himself dead.
- Don Quixote: That's a proverb.
- Sancho Panza: Yes, Your Grace.
- Don Quixote: I don't approve of them.
- Captain of the Guard: If you need anything, just shout... If you're able.
- Cervantes' Manservant: What did he mean by that?
- Miguel de Cervantes: He meant to frighten us. I think they intend us to stay.
- Miguel de Cervantes: We are to appear before the Inquisition.
- The Governor: Heresy?
- Miguel de Cervantes: No, not exactly. You see, we were presenting an entertainment.
- The Governor: An entertainment? How does an entertainment get into trouble with the Inquisition?
- Cervantes' Manservant: Perhaps they found an entertainment is not always what it seems.
- The Governor: [to the Manservant] But why are YOU here?
- Cervantes' Manservant: Somebody has to stage-manage the stage.
- The Governor: Ho, ho! These two have empty holes in their heads!
- The Barber: Oh, by the beard of St. Anthony... I do believe I see before me... a knight... in full armor. It's ridiculous! There aren't any knights!
- Don Quixote: [draws his sword] What?
- The Barber: I was wrong. Forgive me. Forgive me, your... your... bigness. I thought I'd been touched by the sun.
- Don Quixote: Dear God, it is she. Sweet lady, fair virgin. I dare not gaze fully upon thy countenance as I'd be blinded by beauty.
- Aldonza: I'll get you the wine.
- Don Quixote: My lady, you must not wait upon my needs, I implore you. Speak once, your name
- Aldonza: Aldonza.
- Don Quixote: My lady jest!
- Aldonza: Aldonza!
- Don Quixote: My lady, think, put me to the test. Oh, speak softly not my captive heart. How could I fail thee, when I know
- [starts singing]
- Don Quixote: I have dreamed thee too long. Never seen thee or touched thee, but know thee with all of my heart...