20 Best The Reader Quotes

Michael: What are you doing? What is this? Why did you behave as if you didn't know me?
Hanna: You didn't want to know me! You could see I was in the first carriage. So why did you get on the second?
Michael: What did you think I was doing? Why the hell did you think I was there?
Hanna: How should I know? I've been working. I need a bath, and I'd like to be by myself. Would you please leave?
Michael: I didn't mean to upset you.
Hanna: You don't have the power to upset me. You don't matter enough to upset me.

Young: [Testifying in court] Each of the guards would choose a certain number of women. Hanna Schmitz chose differently.
Judge: In what way differently?
Young: She had favourites. Girls, mostly young. We all remarked on it, she gave them food and places to sleep. In the evening, she asked them to join her. We all thought - well, you can imagine what we thought. Then we found out - she was making these women read aloud to her. They were reading to her. At first we thought this guard... this guard is more sensitive... she's more human... she's kinder. Often she chose the weak, the sick, she picked them out, she seemed to be protecting them almost. But then she dispatched them. Is that kinder?

Hanna: What would you have done?

Michael: [reading from "Lady Chatterley's Lover"]
Hanna: This is disgusting. Where did you get this?
Michael: I borrowed it from someone at school.
Hanna: Well, you should be ashamed.
[pauses]
Hanna: Go on.

Hanna: [to Michael] You don't have the power to upset me. You don't matter enough to upset me.

Michael: I don't know what to say. I've never been with a woman before. We've been together four weeks, and I can't live without you. I can't. Even the thought of it kills me.

Rose: People ask all the time what I learned in the camps. But the camps weren't therapy. What do you think these places were? Universities? We didn't go there to learn. One becomes very clear about these things. What are you asking for? Forgiveness for her? Or do you just want to feel better yourself? My advice, go to the theatre, if you want catharsis. Please. Go to literature. Don't go to the camps. Nothing comes out of the camps. Nothing.

Michael: What's your name?
Hanna: What?
Michael: Your name.
Hanna: Why do you want to know?
Michael: I've been here three times. I want to know your name. What's wrong with that?
Hanna: Nothing, kid. There's nothing wrong with that. It's Hanna.
Michael: You looked so suspicious.
Hanna: What's yours, kid?
Michael: Michael.
Hanna: Michael. So I'm with a Michael.

Hanna: Do you have a book?
Michael: Yes, I have. I took one with me this morning.
Hanna: What is it?
Michael: The Odyssey by Homer. It's my homework.
Hanna: We're changing the order we do things. Read to me first, kid. Then we make love.

Michael: I'm not frightened. I'm not frightened of anything. The more I suffer, the more I love. Danger will only increase my love. It will sharpen it, it will give it spice. I will be the only angel you need. You will leave life even more beautiful than you entered it. Heaven will take you back and look at you and say: Only one thing can make a soul complete, and that thing is love.

[first lines]
Brigitte: You didn't wake me.
Michael: You were sleeping.
Brigitte: You let me sleep because you can't bear to have breakfast with me.

Michael: I sat in the second carriage because I thought you might kiss me.
Hanna: Kid, you thought we could make love in a tram?
Hanna: Is it true what you said? That I don't matter to you?
Hanna: [shakes head]
Michael: Do you forgive me?
Hanna: [nods]
Michael: Do you love me?
Hanna: [nods]

Professor: You have been skipping seminars.
Michael: I have a piece of information, concerning one of the defendants. Something they do not admitting.
Professor: What information? You don't need to tell me. It's perfectly clear you have a moral obligation to disclose it to the court.
Michael: It happens this information is favorable to the defendant. It can help her case. It may even affect the outcome, certainly the sentencing.
Professor: So?
Michael: There's a problem. The defendant herself is determined to keep this information secret.
Professor: What are her reasons?
Michael: Because she's ashamed.
Professor: Ashamed of what? Have you spoken to her?
Michael: Of course not.
Professor: Why "of course not"?
Michael: I can't. I can't do that. I can't talk to her.
Professor: What we feel isn't important. It's utterly unimportant. The only question is what we do. If people like you don't learn from what happened to people like me, then what the hell is the point of anything?

Michael: What's wrong now?
Hanna: Nothing's wrong. Nothing.
Michael: You know, you never ask. You never bother to ask how *I* am!
Hanna: You never say.
Michael: It just happens to be my birthday. It's my birthday, that's all! In fact, you've never even asked when it is!
Hanna: You want a fight, kid!
Michael: No, I don't want a fight! What's wrong with you?
Hanna: What business is it of yours?
Michael: Always on your terms, everything. What you want, it's always what *you* want. My friends were giving me a party.
Hanna: Then why are you here then? Go back to your party. Is that what you want?

Michael: I can't live without you. The thought of leaving you kills me. Do you love me?

Michael: I'm aware I was difficult. I wasn't always open with you. I'm not open with anyone.
Julia: I knew you were distant. You know, I always assumed it was my fault.
Michael: Julia. How wrong can you be.

Hanna: It doesn't matter what I feel. It doesn't matter what I think. The dead are still dead.

Teacher: The notion of secrecy is central to western literature. You may say, the whole idea of character is defined by people holding specific information which for various reasons, sometimes perverse, sometimes noble, they are determined not to disclose.

Michael: [from the theatrical trailer] .
[At the Tram Terminal]
Michael: [in insistent upset voice] I'm looking for Hanna Schmitz!
Tram: Schmitz has left.
Michael: [surprised and even more upset] LEFT?

Michael: I brought you these flowers. To say thank you.
Hanna: Put them over there in the sink.
Michael: I would've come earlier but I've been in bed for three months.
Hanna: You are better now?
Michael: Yes, thank you.
Hanna: Have you always been weak?
Michael: Oh no, I've never been sick before. It's incredibly boring. There's nothing to do. I couldn't even be bothered to read.