- Dr. Han Suyin: I will make no mistakes in the name of loneliness. I have my work and an uncomplicated life. I don't want to feel anything again... ever.
- Mark Elliott: Are we going swimming?
- Dr. Han Suyin: Mark, going out with you once was harmless enough. I don't want my seeing you to be awkward. Hong Kong has a peculiar code and malice is a pleasant pastime for women with nothing to do.
- Dr. Han Suyin: If we were in Chungking, Mr. Elliott, Third Uncle would consider it unpardonable to accept. No Chinese girl would dare dine alone with an American she had just met.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Oh, Mark. We both know that even the fat, ugly people of this world believe that being in love makes them beautiful and justifies everything.
- Mark Elliott: What incredible hands you have. They curve like a Balinese dancer's.
- Dr. Han Suyin: I have always been afraid of hands. Men's hands. I am not afraid of yours.
- Mark Elliott: You still think we have no destiny together?
- Dr. Han Suyin: I have decided one thing. That you must decide. For you are stronger than I am.
- Mark Elliott: No, I think you're the strong one.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Then you are wrong. For you are gentle, and there is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness
- Mark Elliott: I really can't believe that you're a doctor, Doctor.
- Dr. Han Suyin: What a shame we haven't a scalpel with us. I could make a slight incision to convince you.
- Dr. Han Suyin: So you're a reporter?
- Mark Elliott: Please. A correspondent.
- Dr. Han Suyin: What's the difference?
- Mark Elliott: About $100 a week.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Do you know that in Peking the moon is larger than anyplace else in the world?
- Mark Elliott: Now, that's very unscientific. It's the same size everywhere.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Oh, no, the moon is larger in Peking - much larger than in Hong Kong and London.
- Mark Elliott: All right. If you insist.
- Mark Elliott: I, uh, I'd like to explain about my wife. I'd like you to know that I tried to make a go of it. I'd like you to believe that. A great many mistakes are made in the name of loneliness.
- Mark Elliott: Say, when I called you earlier, they said you were doing a hysterectomy. What's a hysterectomy?
- Dr. Han Suyin: Nothing that would interest you.
- Dr. Han Suyin: It wouldn't be good for you to see too much of me anyhow. Might even be harmful.
- Mark Elliott: Oh? Why?
- Dr. Han Suyin: I'm Eurasian. The word itself seems to suggest a certain moral laxity in the minds of some people. People never think of the meaning of words. They only feel them.
- Mark Elliott: Well, you're talking about stupid people.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Make no mistake, I.. I'm proud to be Eurasian. I like to think we combine the best qualities of both races. That we're the answer to race snobbery.
- Mark Elliott: Well, you're certainly the answer to a lot of things for me.
- Mark Elliott: You know, in the last few weeks I've come alive. I like it.
- Dr. Han Suyin: You've been good for me, Mark. I don't feel that the whole world is sick any longer.
- Dr. Han Suyin: I'm so happy, it frightens me. I have a feeling that heaven is unfair and is preparing for you and for me a great sadness because we have been given so much.
- Mark Elliott: Darling, whatever happens, always remember: Nothing is fair nor unfair under heaven.
- Dr. Han Suyin: [Explaing to Mark why each family member has given Suyin a small piece of their personal jade jewelry] We believe that jade, if worn long enough, becomes the person who wears it. They have given me something of themselves to take away.
- Dr. Han Suyin: [upon learning that Mark is being sent to Korea as a correspondent] But... But why Korea?
- Mark Elliott: North Korea invaded the South. They crossed the 38th parallel last night. There isn't much time. We have to pack.
- Dr. Han Suyin: It's only a little war, isn't it?
- Mark Elliott: That's hard to tell.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Will it... Will it last long?
- Mark Elliott: Oh, I don't think very long. A couple of weeks, maybe three.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Could you possibly not go?
- Mark Elliott: No, I could not possibly not go.
- Dr. Han Suyin: I thought not. Our gorgeous lie did not even last the night.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Every woman in love should have a secret garden.
- Mark Elliott: And every man in love should have a mountain.
- Dr. Sen: When do you leave the hospital, Suyin?
- Dr. Han Suyin: Tomorrow.
- Dr. Sen: In a week I'm returning to China. Have you thought about going back?
- Dr. Han Suyin: I must stay in Hong Kong.
- Dr. Sen: Because of Mr. Elliott?
- Dr. Han Suyin: Yes, as a matter of fact.
- Dr. Sen: So, you're willing to sacrifice your country and many men for a romantic attachment to one man - a man who will not even marry you?
- Dr. Han Suyin: [protesting] Sen...
- Dr. Sen: Where's your pride, Suyin?
- Dr. Han Suyin: I will not allow you to make me feel small, selfish or ashamed.
- Dr. Sen: Forget this man, Suyin. It is a weakness unworthy of you. There's no longer any place in the world for weakness.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Then there is no place for doctors, since our whole approach to weakness is sympathetic.
- Dr. Sen: China has been reborn, Suyin. Our people are free at last.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Sen, refugees pour into Hong Kong at the rate of 3,000 a day. As a man who believes in this New Order, doesn't it disturb you that so many flee from "freedom"?
- Mark Elliott: [voiceover of Mark, as Dr. Han Suyin reads one of his letters from Korea] I do not know what is to happen, darling. But this I do know: Life's greatest tragedy is not to be loved.
- Adeline Palmer-Jones: Why anyone would want to live anywhere but Hong Kong I can't understand. Where else in the world could you get ten servants for the price of one?
- Anne Richards: By next month the ratio will be 12 to 1. Shanghai has fallen, you know. The Reds will have *all* of China pretty soon.
- Dr. Han Suyin: It seems that destiny never put us anywhere together at the same time.
- Mark Elliott: Well, perhaps destiny intends something for us at last.
- Dr. Han Suyin: I don't think so. I don't think destiny intends anything for us. Of that I am quite sure.
- Mark Elliott: [as he arrives to collect her for their date] You're wearing European clothes.
- Dr. Han Suyin: It is the European side of me that is having dinner with you.
- Mark Elliott: I don't suppose you'd go back in and change?
- Dr. Han Suyin: I certainly would not.
- Mark Elliott: I loved that dress you had on the other day.
- Dr. Han Suyin: I'll make you a present of it.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Hong Kong has a peculiar code, and malice is a pleasant pastime for women with nothing to do.
- Waiter at restaurant: [waiter brings the fish dish to their dining table] Your honorable fish, sir.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Mark, like everyone else in Hong Kong you're at loose ends. I think you probably need a love affair, but I'm not the answer. I will make no mistakes in the name of loneliness. I have my work and an uncomplicated life. I don't want to feel anything again, ever.
- Mark Elliott: A moment ago, you said that words had no meaning, that people have to feel.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Let's not tax the day with self-analysis. The friends I was going to see have a house over there, right across the bay. Would you like to swim over and drop in on them?
- Mark Elliott: Why not?
- [they both swim off across the bay]
- Dr. Han Suyin: Oh, how good it is to know a man who doesn't live his life measuring time in bits and pieces. I like it so much.
- Third Uncle: Suchen has brought disgrace on us. She has gone to live in the house of a foreigner.
- Lee Foo: Not 50 yards from our home, she is living under the protection of this alien.
- Dr. Han Suyin: Why?
- Third Uncle: She fears that when the Communists take over Chungking that she will be shot. She thinks they will not harm her in the house of a foreigner.
- Third Aunt: Our clan has never begged of foreigners.
- Dr. Han Suyin: May I see her, Third Uncle?
- Third Uncle: It has grown dark. I will send a boy to light the way for you.
- Third Uncle: Suyin, you are a Chinese citizen. When your passport expires you may not be granted the right to practice in Hong Kong. Where would you go if this happened?
- Mark Elliott: If Suyin wanted to practice medicine in China, I would live here.
- Third Uncle: The new tapestry will be tightly woven, Mr. Elliott. You would not fit into its hard pattern.
- Mark Elliott: Now, darling, if you think it's unwise, I'll understand.
- Dr. Han Suyin: To go on living, one must be occasionally unwise...
- Dr. Han Suyin: Why are you smiling?
- Mark Elliott: Oh, I don't know. The way you walk, the way you talk. Everything about you. I love you, Suyin.
- Fortune Teller: Have many children!
- Mark Elliott: [Sceptically] HOW many?
- Fortune Teller: Ten, maybe fifteen...
- [Noticing Suyin's alarm]
- Fortune Teller: Too many, look again.