Florence Foster Jenkins Quotes

Florence Foster Jenkins: People may say I couldn't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
CosmÚ McMoon: Mr. Bayfield, I am a serious pianist. I have ambition. I...
St Clair Bayfield: Oh, you think that I didn't have ambition? I was a good actor. But I was never going to be a great actor. It was very very hard to admit that to myself. But once I had, I felt free from the tyranny of ambition. I started to live. Is ours not a happy world, CosmÚ? do we not have fun?

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
St Clair Bayfield: No mockers and no scoffers!

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
Florence Foster Jenkins: Now, I must warn you, I work very hard. I study an hour every day. Sometimes two. And my father didn't leave me as much money as everybody thinks, so I couldn't pay you more than a hundred and fifty.
CosmÚ McMoon: A month?
Florence Foster Jenkins: A week. I'm not destitute!

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
St Clair Bayfield: Are you fond of sandwiches?
CosmÚ McMoon: Yes.
St Clair Bayfield: Good, good. Madam Florence is inordinately fond of sandwiches. And potato salad as well. When we throw parties we make mountains of the stuff. It would serve you well to consume both with enthusiasm.
CosmÚ McMoon: I shall.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
Carlo Edwards: Obviously I'll do my utmost to attend the concert, but I'll be away in Florida at some point.
St Clair Bayfield: Oh, right. When?
Carlo Edwards: Let me know when you've fixed a date.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
St Clair Bayfield: You are not strong enough, Bunny. What if it kills you?
Florence Foster Jenkins: Then I shall die happy.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
St Clair Bayfield: In the hall, Madam Florence keeps a collection of chairs in which people of note have expired. They're not for practical use.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
St Clair Bayfield: Singing at Carnegie Hall is her dream. And I am going to give it to her.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
St Clair Bayfield: Will you be writing something?
Earl Wilson: Yes, and it will be the truth.
St Clair Bayfield: Isn't the truth that a lot of hurt people are having some fun?

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
St Clair Bayfield: [Doing breathing exercises with Florence before a concert]
St Clair Bayfield: Blow the candles out.
Florence Foster Jenkins: [breathes feebly]
St Clair Bayfield: Hate the candles!

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
CosmÚ McMoon: Oh! I played Carnegie Hall. I... God darn it, Mr. Bayfield, CosmÚ McMoon from San Antonio, Texas, played Carnegie Hall.
St Clair Bayfield: And he was brilliant. Utterly, utterly brilliant.
CosmÚ McMoon: We did it.
St Clair Bayfield: Yes, I think we did. [both laugh and raise their glasses]
St Clair Bayfield: Mud in your eye.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
Florence Foster Jenkins: [dressed as Valkyre]How do I look?
St Clair Bayfield: Wunderbar.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
St Clair Bayfield: If you can forgive Madam Florence her little eccentricities, you'll find her to be a most generous and delightful person. Ours is a very happy world.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
St Clair Bayfield: Is her instrument quite what it was? Perhaps not. But as Beethoven said, a few wrong notes may be forgiven, but singing without feeling cannot.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
Florence Foster Jenkins: Just hurry.
St Clair Bayfield: Yes, yes. There in a demisemiquaver.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
Florence Foster Jenkins: They're getting through the potato salad like gannets.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
[First lines] St Clair Bayfield: Swounds I should take it, for it cannot be but I *am* pigeon-livered and lack gall to make oppression bitter, or ere this I should have fatted all the region kites with this slave's offal. Boody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! O vengeance! [applause, takes a bow]
St Clair Bayfield: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. That was, of course, a speech of Hamlet's from a play I was lucky enough to perform in on several occasions, though not, as yet, in the principal role.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins
Florence Foster Jenkins: You know, we are so looking forward to that concert. Are the preparations going well?
Arturo Toscanini: Very well. Though there are some financial matters that remain... problematico. Madam Florence, without your help there will be no concert.

Movie: Florence Foster Jenkins