Sylvia (2003)

Daniel Craig: Ted Hughes

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Quotes 

• Ted : A fucking good poem is a weapon. It's... and not like a "pop", it's a bomb. A bloody big bomb!

  Sylvia : That's why they make children learn them in school. They don't want them messing about with them on their own. I mean, just imagine if a sonnet went off accidentally. Boom.

• Ted : I'm sorry...

  Sylvia : What for?

  Ted : I don't know yet...

• Sylvia : What is it that you do?

  David Wevill : I'm a poet.

  Sylvia : Huh, so are we.

  Ted : You're?

  Ted : Ted Hughes. I'll get some wine.

  Sylvia : I'm Sylvia Plath.

  Assia Wevill : Oh, my God, that's...

  Ted : I gave Assia a copy of your book, "The Colossus."

  Assia Wevill : It's amazing. Yes, I love your poems. They're very beautiful. They're frightening with this haunting quality. What?

  Sylvia : No, it's just - that's the best review I've ever gotten.

• Sylvia : Who is she?

  Ted : She's nobody. A student. She was - in that creative writing class I talked to. She'd written all these poems. I took pity on her. You think I'm fooking her?

  Sylvia : Are you?

  Ted : Oh, for Christ sake! This place is really getting to you, isn't it? This bunch of dried up, malicious old women who think their men are gonna get taste for fresh meat! As a matter of fact, I'm not fooking her. But, if I do start fookin' the students, you'll be the first to know.

• [about the cows on the river bank] 

  Sylvia : How do you think they prefer Milton or Chaucer?

  Ted : Chaucer obviously!

• Ted : You know what your trouble is?

  Sylvia : I have a husband who thinks he can tell me how to write poetry?

  Ted : There's no secret to it. You've just got to pick a subject and - stick your head into it. You've got to write. That's what poets do.

• 1st Woman at Ted Hughes' Lecture : Your voice - was so powerful.

  Ted : But, what did you think of the words?

  1st Woman at Ted Hughes' Lecture : The words?