The Passion of Ayn Rand

Barbara:
I didn't know you were an actor.

Frank:
Neither did anyone else in Hollywood.

Frank:
[talking about Ayn] She had a typewriter, a Remington Rand, crazy about movies. Came right up to me and said 'you are the embodiment of my ideal man'. I never had a chance.

Ayn Rand:
Love is a command to rise to one's highest potential, the best and noblest vision of ourselves. Love is a reward, the greatest we can earn, granted to us for the moral qualities we have achieved in our lives.

Ayn Rand:
Tell me your principles.

Nathaniel Branden:
To think for myself. To reach my own conclusions. To seek truth, wherever it might lead.

Nathaniel Branden:
I feel as if... as if my whole life I've been on a leaky raft in the middle of the ocean and, and as soon as I cover one leak with my foot, there's another and...

Barbara:
[Interrupting] Yes, alone and sinking.

Nathaniel Branden:
Yes, but after tonight, I think... it's possible to stand on solid ground, to understand, to really know.

Ayn Rand:
You respect his intellect?

Barbara:
Very much.

Ayn Rand:
You share the same principles?

Barbara:
Absolutely.

Ayn Rand:
You accept that emotion ultimately derives from the thinking one has done, or has failed to do?

Barbara:
I do.

Ayn Rand:
Then there is only one possible conclusion. Nate is your ideal man.

Caroline:
I know I still care what other people think. I know I am guilty of social metaphysics. And I know my wish to correct my thinking comes from a desire to please Nathan, who I respect tremendously. And I know that that desire is very, very, very, very wrong.

Caroline:
I do not exist for other people. I must not rely on other people. I must... identify the origins of my emotions. I must establish a rational... I can't.

Nathaniel Branden:
Can't what?

Caroline:
I can't stop thinking about you.

Wise-ass Man:
Excuse me, Miss Rand. I was wondering if you could give us the essence of your philosophy - standing on one leg.

1st Supporter:
Go on!

2nd Supporter:
Sit down!

Ayn Rand:
[Stands on one leg] Metaphysics: objective reality. Epistemology: reason. Ethics: self-interest. Politics: capitalism.