Sirens (1994)

Pamela Rabe: Rose Lindsay

Photos 

Quotes 

• Norman Lindsay : I freely admit that the human universe is infinitely richer than my meagre palette. For instance, I do absolutely no justice at all to the nervous nellies and the shrinking violets, the saints...

  Estella Campion : You're very contemptuous of shrinking violets, aren't you, Mr. Lindsay?

  Norman Lindsay : Dear Estella, I'm a shrinking violet myself. I mean, I choose to live not in the real world but in here.

  [he points to his head] 

  Norman Lindsay : I flee from the real world into my little studio and there before me is the unlimited canvas of my imagination.

  Anthony Campion : Yes, but your paintings don't stay in the studio, do they? They do go out into the real world. And while you have a wonderful imagination, Lindsay, most people's are, quite frankly, stunted and you absolutely have no idea what effect they might have on people or what they might incite them to. Rape?

  Norman Lindsay : Mr. Campion, in my opinion, the female body is the most beautiful thing in the world. And if it turns you into a ravenous maniac, then I would suggest that it may be a very good idea if your wife takes the greatest care to get undressed behind a screen.

  Rose Lindsay : Well, Estella's seen the pictures, too. Does that mean we're in danger from her?

• Norman Lindsay : Look, Jesus never said anything about chastity, anyway. That all started with a bunch of grumbling old men on some God-forsaken island somewhere that suddenly decided the body was bad for the soul.

  Anthony Campion : [sarcastically]  Atlantis, was it?

  Rose Lindsay : It's a pity for women it wasn't.

• Rose Lindsay : So many people can't feed their kidsnand the Church says, Have more.

• Norman Lindsay : The fact is, the gloomy God of the Old Testament still has us by the scruff of the neck today. When He was invented, there was a lot of pagan religions around that celebrated sexuality and fertility and so on. So how was this new religion to compete with something that was so popular? Well, by saying that sex was evil and that women, the embodiment of sexuality, were in fact responsible for the downfall of mankind in the Garden of Eden!

  Rose Lindsay : Yes, and we've been second-class citizens ever since.

  Anthony Campion : Mrs. Pankhurst would be proud of you, Rose.

  Rose Lindsay : [thumps the table]  Why can't we be vicars or priests?

  Sheela : Or popes?

  Rose Lindsay : Because we're too deafened by the din of our bodies to hear God's Word.