- [first lines]
- Sophie Gray: [narrating] Once, a beautiful young girl lived in a very cold house in Scotland. The house was cold because someone's grandfather killed himself there. One day, the grandson came to visit the house. He thought the beautiful girl was an angel came down to Earth. The grandson worked very hard. He read and thought and drew and wrote. He wrote a fairy story just for her. She was twelve years old. Her mother and father were kind, but his were wicked. When she grew up, he married her.
- Effie Gray: How do you do. I'm Eff... I mean, Mrs. John Ruskin.
- Lady Eastlake: I know who you are. But who are you when you are not Mrs. John Ruskin? I'm Elizabeth.
- Effie Gray: I'm Eff... I mean Euphemia.
- Lady Eastlake: Absurd business, isn't it? Having to lose your own name, and then taking your husband's Christian name into the bargain. Fortunately I do not have that cross.
- John Ruskin: What is the purpose of art? To idealize? To sentimentalize? No, of course not. The purpose of art is to reveal the truth. The purpose of art is to reveal God.