- Verteller: The proverb is wrong. Time does not heal all wounds. It merely softens the pain and blurs the memories.
- Boer Bas: I wanted to have a word.
- Antonia: What about?
- Boer Bas: About you and me. About marriage. I was thinking, you're a widow and my wife is dead. You are a good-looking woman. My sons need a mother.
- Antonia: But, I don't need your sons.
- Boer Bas: No?
- Antonia: No.
- Boer Bas: Don't you need a husband?
- Antonia: What for?
- Verteller: [First lines] Even before the sun had risen, Antonia knew that her days were numbered. She knew more than that, she knew that this would be her last day. Not that she felt unwell. But, unlike others, Antonia knew when enough was enough.
- Antonia: [walking to mass] That wall's the Saturday night urinal. The stench on Sunday morning could bend nails. Ah, the nuns! They haven't gone extinct, yet.
- Verteller: Days turned into weeks, then into years. Antonia planted, Danielle painted, the fields turned green, then brown again.
- Pastoor (The Village Priest): Corruption that infects us all. Of such, Peter, the rock upon whom the Church is built, warns: "Them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government." The kingdom of the Jews fell through Jezebel and her cursed daughter. More the shame that these are women! They should set an example of humility and obedience, and teach their daughters chastity. Let them repent, lest they be cast into hellfire at the day of judgment!
- Pastoor (The Village Priest): And Our Lord said unto them: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." And just as her accusers left, convicted by their own conscience, so we must think of our own transgressions before condemning others. Let us also remember that salvation came into the world through a woman. And that no one seeks her protection or help in vain. Nor should we forget the lesson read on the feast day of a holy woman: "She openeth her mouth with wisdom in her tongue is the law of kindness."
- Kromme Vinger (Crooked Finger): Imagine moving to another time scale, so that a life-span of 80 years would be over in 29 days or last 80,000 years. Time...
- Thérèse (6): But what about time? Did we invent time?
- Kromme Vinger (Crooked Finger): We made it up.
- Thérèse (6): Perhaps ants live in their time...
- Kromme Vinger (Crooked Finger): And crickets.
- Thérèse (6): And bees.
- Kromme Vinger (Crooked Finger): And butterflies.
- Thérèse (6): And trees.
- Kromme Vinger (Crooked Finger): And stars.
- Thérèse (6): And the moon!
- Thérèse (6): Reverend Mother says that God created everything. But she won't ask herself who created God.
- Kromme Vinger (Crooked Finger): The tragedy of those who believe in a God is that their faith rules their intellect. In my experience, religions often cause death and destruction. But we were discussing Plato.
- Danielle: Have you ever eaten an artichoke? Shall I tell you how? An artichoke is thick and round and green. The leaves are fleshy and soft. First, boil the artichoke in salted water. Then, peel off the leaves, one by one, dip them in a vinaigrette sauce, then scrape off the tender flesh with your teeth, until you reach the heart.
- Lara: The heart?
- Danielle: The heart, yes.
- Lara: And what do you do with the heart?
- Danielle: You savor it, bit by bit, with your eyes closed. It's a delicacy.
- Lara: The whole thing is a delicacy.
- Danielle: Yes, all of it is a delicacy.
- Boer Daan: Still as mean and ugly as before. But, Christ, what a well-stacked daughter you've got. Here, my two sons. Thoroughbred stallions both of them, ready to be put out to stud. Just right for this girl of yours, eh?
- Kromme Vinger (Crooked Finger): The world is a hell, inhabited by tormented souls and demons.
- Thérèse (13): Schopenhauer?