Quo Vadis (1951)

Peter Ustinov: Nero

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Quotes 

• Emperor Nero : [none of his closest men will die for him in light of the mob's anger over Rome's burning]  I'm surrounded by eunuchs!

• Emperor Nero : [annoyed]  Why do you stare at me, Acte?

  Acte : My lord, I can only say... when all this sets with the final sun, remember the look of Acte.

  Emperor Nero : [snidely]  Why should I remember you?

  Acte : No one loves you as I love you.

  Emperor Nero : I command you to *stop* loving me!

• Emperor Nero : Is it possible that human beings can produce such a sound?

  Petronius : Yes, when they've been pushed too far.

• [Nero is exasperated with the mobs] 

  Emperor Nero : Do I live for the people or do the people live for me?

  Petronius : You are the sun in their sky! Does the sun have privacy?

  Emperor Nero : The sun has the night! These people expect me to shine daily - hourly!

• Emperor Nero : [During the burning of Rome]  Insatiable and thankless mob! What do they want?

  Petronius : Justice.

  Emperor Nero : No mob ever wants justice. They want vengeance.

• Emperor Nero : Poppaea, one woman shouldn't judge another. She hasn't the glands for it. Ha-ha!

• Emperor Nero : Petronius, look what I've created! Tigellinus, my robe of grief. Terpnos, lyre. History will judge my song, Petronius. Will it be great enough to match the occasion? I'm seized with the fear that it will not be great enough.

  Petronius : You will be worthy of the spectacle, as the spectacle is worthy of you.

  Emperor Nero : You encourage me, Petronius. But I'm aware that I must compete with those who sang of the burning of Troy. My song must be greater, just as Rome is greater than Troy.

  [singing] 

  Emperor Nero : Silence, ye spheres, Be still, ye hurtling stars, Open wide-vaulted skies above me, Now, at last, lo, I see Olympus, And a light from its summit, Doth illumine me, I am one with the gods, immortal, I am Nero, The artist who creates with fire, That the dreams of my life, May come true, To the flames now I give the past, To the flames and soil, Take thou this Rome, Oh, receive her now, ye flames, Consume her as would a furnace, Burn on, O ancient Rome, Burn on, burn on!

• Emperor Nero : [as the Christians enter the arena to die]  They're singing!

• Emperor Nero : [On learning that Petronius is dead]  I shall never forgive him for this!

• Emperor Nero : [as Vinicius and the other soldiers march past]  Come closer. Look. They march as they fight: strong, brave, relentless... our unconquerable children. We must take them to our breast.

  Poppaea : [Obviously attracted to Vinicius and interpreting the double-entendre literally]  Yes, my lord.

• Emperor Nero : Dear Poppaea, one woman should never judge another. She hasn't the glands for it. Ha-ha-ha. Isn't that witty, Petronius?

  Petronius : Among the gods, your humor is unique.

• Emperor Nero : My conflagration does not burn enough. And do you know why? I've never seen a burning city. You said one must - suffer an experience to re-create it. A sculptor has his model. I had no model.

  Petronius : To burn a city in order to create an epic. That's carrying the principle of art for art's sake too far.

  Emperor Nero : Soon the spring will be over. The summer heat will begin. What stenches will arise from Rome?

• Emperor Nero : It's lonely to be an emperor.

  Petronius : It is lonelier still to be a genius.

  Emperor Nero : You're the only one who understands the complications of my tortured nature. Is that not a theme for a poem, Petronius?

  Petronius : It is a theme for an epic, Divinity. But to write it, you must suffer it.

• Emperor Nero : They demand too much. I tell you, this mob, this mob tortures me. I hate it second only to Rome itself.

• Emperor Nero : Why do you stare at me, Acte?

  Acte : My lord, I can only say, when all this sets with the final sun, remember the look of Acte.

  Emperor Nero : Why should I remember you?

  Acte : No one loves you as I love you.

  Emperor Nero : I command you to stop loving me!

• Emperor Nero : Is it not disgusting when common bovine solicitude... replaces the fire in a woman's body? Ah, but what pulsating purity there is in fire. My new Rome shall spring from the loins of fire... a twisting, writhing, breathing flame.

• Emperor Nero : There are those who say that I am mad. I'm only seeking. The flatness and misery of common life depress me. I seek because I must exceed the stature of man in both good and evil. I seek because I must be greater than man for only then will I be the supreme artist! Do you know why I condemned both my wife and my mother to death? I did it in order to lay at the gates of an unknown world the greatest sacrifice a man can put there. Now, I thought, doors will open beyond which I shall catch a glimpse of the unknown. Let it be wonderful! Or let it be awful. So long as it is uncommon!

• Petronius : But what of the Rome that has stood for a thousand years? After all, Divinity, the old Rome, our Rome... dirty and magnificent, but still our beloved Rome... it still stands.

  Emperor Nero : Does it?

• Tigellinus : Rome is a sea of flames. It burns from rim to rim.

  Emperor Nero : You hear that? That is my epic! To change the face of the world! To demolish and create, and create anew. Now, to your chariots, all of you. You shall come with me to the funeral pyre. This very night you shall hear my dirge over burning Rome. Its flames shall carry me higher than the gods.

• Emperor Nero : I do not ask favors, I confer them.

• Emperor Nero : [about the angry roman mob]  Petronius, you're not like these other people. They think that you're their friend. Speak to them, make promises. Grain, oil, wine.

  Petronius : They will take them, Nero, without your permission.

• Petronius : Rome has given the world justice and order. Sign that, and Roman justice will receive a blow... from which it may never recover. Condemn these Christians and you make martyrs of them... and insure their immortality. Condemn them, and in the eyes of history... you'll condemn yourself.

  Emperor Nero : When I have finished with these Christians, Petronius... history will not be sure that they ever existed.

• Emperor Nero : I didn't wish to be a monster. The gods willed it!

• Emperor Nero : [dying]  Oh, how dull, how tasteless life will be for them without me. How can they face such a world? How can they endure it?

• Emperor Nero : Yes, well, now you have it as I composed it. Now, from the beginning.

  [singing] 

  Emperor Nero : O lambent flames, O force divine, O omnivorous powers, hail...

• Emperor Nero : They irk me, those people. They irk me! Do I live for them or do they live for me?

  Petronius : Unfortunately, Caesar, as a ruler, you must have subjects to rule. Sheer population is a necessary evil.

• Emperor Nero : What do you think, Petronius?

  Petronius : Put a dress on an olive stump and my poor, untutored nephew would call it beautiful. I know your incomparable judgment, Divinity. And I'll wager you've already decided, even from here that she is too narrow in the hips.

  Emperor Nero : Yes, yes, that's exactly what I think.

• Emperor Nero : Music opens up new worlds for me. Draws back the veil from new delights. I can see Olympus and a breeze blows on me from beyond the Earth. And in those moments - I, a god, feel as diminutive as dust.

• Emperor Nero : When I play and sing, I have visions of things I never dreamed existed. The world is mine. And mine to end.

• Emperor Nero : Petronius, forgive me if I seem to have slighted you of late. I have been steeped in my genius beyond all description.

• Emperor Nero : Do you think I do not know that there are people in Rome who call me a matricide, a wife killer? Hold me a monster? Tyrant? But there is something they do not realize. A man's acts may be cruel while he himself is not cruel.

• Emperor Nero : Petronius, are you a Christian?

  Petronius : I am not. I have heard that the Christians teach you to love your neighbor. And as I see what men are, I cannot, for the life of me, love my fellow man.

• Tigellinus : The mob from burned areas.

  Petronius : They want to survive.

  Emperor Nero : Who asked them to survive?

• Emperor Nero : The people shall have their vengeance. I hereby proclaim that the guilt of the burning of our beloved city rests with the foul sect which calls itself Christian. They have spread the lie that it was Nero who burnt Rome. I will exterminate these criminals in a manner matching the enormity of their crime. Their punishment will be a warning. A spectacle of terror to all evil men everywhere and forever who would harm you or harm Rome or harm your Emperor - who loves you.

  Petronius : Pause, Nero, before you sign this decree. Rome has given the world justice and order. Sign that, and Roman justice will receive a blow from which it may never recover. Condemn these Christians and you make martyrs of them and insure their immortality. Condemn them, and in the eyes of history, you'll condemn yourself.

  Emperor Nero : When I have finished with these Christians, Petronius, history will not be sure that they ever existed.

• Emperor Nero : When music caresses my soul, I feel as gentle as a child in a cradle.

• Emperor Nero : I am devastated dear Petronius is not here to witness our pleasure, Vinicius. "Sing no more!" he said.

  [singing] 

  Emperor Nero : Upon these lilies I heap now, Red roses upon red, A blood-red tide shall surge, Upon her milk-white flesh...