The Purple Rose of Cairo

Cecilia:
I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional but you can't have everything.

Tom Baxter:
It's so impulsive, but... I'll come. Why not? What's life without a little risk taking? Who knows?

Tom Baxter:
I don't get hurt or bleed, hair doesn't muss; it's one of the advantages of being imaginary.

Moviegoer:
I want what happened in the movie last week to happen this week; otherwise, what's life all about anyway?

Tom Baxter:
Cecilia, it's clear how miserable you are with your husband. And if he hits you again, you tell me. I'd be forced to knock his teeth out.

Cecilia:
I don't think that'd be such a good idea. He's big.

Tom Baxter:
I'm sorry. It's written into my character to do it, so I do it.

Tom Baxter:
I was thinking about some very deep things. About God and his relation with Irving Saks and R.H. Levine. And I was thinking about life in general. The origin of everything we see about us. The finality of death; how almost magical it seems in the real world, as opposed to the world of celluloid and flickering shadows.

Hooker:
[to another hooker] Where did you FIND this clown?

Gil's Agent:
Tom Baxter's come down off the screen and he's running around New Jersey!... Nobody knows how it happened, but he's done it.

Gil Shepherd:
How can he do that? It's not physically possible!

Gil's Agent:
In New Jersey anything can happen.

Tom Baxter:
[to Cecilia] I love you. I'm honest, dependable, courageous, romantic, and a great kisser.

Gil Shepherd:
And I'm real.

Tom Baxter:
[pauses after kissing Cecilia] Where's the fade-out?

Cecilia:
What?

Tom Baxter:
Always when the kissing gets hot and heavy just before the lovemaking, there's a fadeout.

Cecilia:
Then what?

Tom Baxter:
Then we're making love in some private, perfect place.

Cecilia:
That's not how it happens here.

Tom Baxter:
What, there's no fade out?

Cecilia:
No, but when you kissed me, I felt like my heart faded out. I closed my eyes, and I was in some private place.

Tom Baxter:
How fascinating. You make love without fading out?

Cecilia:
Yes.

Tom Baxter:
Well, I can't wait to see this!

Tom Baxter:
I guess I have to get a job.

Cecilia:
That's not gonna be so easy either - right now the whole country's out of work.

Tom Baxter:
Well, then, we'll live on love. We'll have to make some concessions, but so what? We'll have each other

Cecilia:
That's movie talk.

Theater Manager:
Cecilia, what are you doing here?

Cecilia:
Meeting Gil Shepherd.

Theater Manager:
They all gone.

Cecilia:
Th - whaddaya, whaddaya mean?

Theater Manager:
They went back to Hollywood.

Cecilia:
Gil too?

Theater Manager:
Mr Shepherd, yeah. Soon as Tom Baxter went back up on the movie screen - couldn't wait to get outta here. He said this was a close call for his career. I think he's gonna play Charles Lindbergh. [pause] Don't forget, Cecilia, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers start today.

Tom Baxter:
Life's too short to spend time thinking about life. Let's just live it!