Jeremy Brett: Maxim de Winter

Quotes 

• Maxim de Winter : What do you think of Monte Carlo? Or don't you think of it at all?

  Mrs. de Winter : It is very elegant, I suppose. A bit artificial.

  Mrs. van Hopper : She's spoiled, Mr. de Winter. That's her problem. Most girls would give their eyes for the chance to see Monte.

  Maxim de Winter : Wouldn't that rather defeat the purpose?

• Mrs. van Hopper : Has your valet unpacked for you?

  Maxim de Winter : I don't possess one. Perhaps you'd like to do it for me.

  Mrs. van Hopper : Well I... I hardly think...

  [turning to The Girl] 

  Mrs. van Hopper : You could make yourself useful to Mr. de Winter, if he wants anything done. She's a capable child. In many ways.

  Maxim de Winter : It's a charming suggestion. But I stick to the family motto: He travels the fastest who travels alone. Perhaps you've never heard of it.

• Mrs. de Winter : [about Mrs. van Hopper]  She's not really a friend. She's an employer. She's training me to be a thing called a 'companion'. And she pays me ninety pounds a year.

  Maxim de Winter : I didn't know! I didn't know that your could buy companionship. It sounds rather a primitive idea. Like an Eastern slave market.

  Mrs. de Winter : I looked the word up in the dictionary. It said: a companion is a friend of the bosom.

• Maxim de Winter : [to the waiter]  Lay a place at my table. Mademoiselle will be lunching with me.

  Mrs. de Winter : I couldn't possibly.

  Maxim de Winter : Why not?

  Mrs. de Winter : It's very kind of you, but please don't be polite. I am quite all right here.

  Maxim de Winter : I'm not being polite. I would like you to have luncheon with me. Even if you had not knocked over that vase so clumsily, I would still have invited you.

• Mrs. van Hopper : I suppose your ancestors must often have entertained royalty at Manderley, Mr. de Winter.

  Maxim de Winter : Not since Ethelred, the one who was called the Unready. In fact it was while he was staying with my family, that he was given the name. He was invariably late for dinner.

• Maxim de Winter : Fashions change so quickly nowadays, they may have altered by the time you get to your room.