Velvet Goldmine (1998)

Toni Collette: Mandy Slade

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mandy Slade : It's funny how beautiful people look when they're walking out the door.

• Mandy : You live in terror of not being misunderstood.

• Mandy : What's true about music is true about life: that beauty reveals everything because it expresses nothing.

• Mandy : Now, just because someone sees, you know, two naked people asleep in bed together, it doesn't necessarily prove sex was involved. It does, however, make for a very strong case.

• Mandy : I just, uh... don't think I have what you're looking for.

  Arthur : See, I think you do, actually.

  Mandy : Oh, yeah? And what makes you think so?

  Arthur : Well, that smile for one thing.

  Mandy : Well, smiles lie.

  Arthur : Exactly.

• [after Curt Wild has exposed himself to an audience] 

  Brian Slade : They despised him.

  Mandy Slade : Yeah. But when you're abused like that, you know you've touched the stars.

  Brian Slade : I know. I just... just wish it'd been me. Wish I'd thought of it.

  Mandy Slade : You will, love.

• Mandy Slade : For the first time in Brian's life, he was simply telling it like it was. Did he realize what he'd actually done? How could he have? I mean, today there'd be fighting in the streets, but in 1972, it was more like dancing.

• Mandy Slade : I needn't mention how essential dreaming is to the character of the rock star.

• Mandy Slade : I was beaming, truly, like someone's mum.

• Brian Slade : [lying in bed in a coke haze]  Woman defend themselves by attacking, just as they attack by sudden and strange surrenders.

  Mandy Slade : I lost my girlhood, true, but it was for you.

• Mandy Slade : [voiceover on New Year's Eve '69]  And in crowded clubs or hotel bars, this shipwreck of the streets rehearsed his future glory. A cigarette tracing a ladder to the stars.

• Mandy Slade : Once, of course, it was a gorgeous gorgeous time. We were all living our dreams. But you see all that went away. All of it. With Curt. And not even the real Curt. I mean, it was this idea of Curt more than anything. This image, which, of course, nobody could ever possibly live up to. I mean Maxwell Demon, Curt Wild. They were fictions!Once, of course, it was a gorgeous gorgeous time. We were all living our dreams. But you see all that went away. All of it. With Curt. And not even the real Curt. I mean, it was this idea of Curt more than anything. This image, which, of course, nobody could ever possibly live up to. I mean Maxwell Demon, Curt Wild. They were fictions!