#mbutterfly

[opening scene]

Gallimard: Butterfly, Butterfly...

[ending scene]

Song (smoking a cigarette): Butterfly? Butterfly?

Act 3, Scene 2

Gallimard: You showed me your true self. When all I love was the lie. A pefect lie—

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Gallimard: Yes I do! I knew all the time somehwere that my happiness was temporary, my love a deception. But my mind kept the knowledge at bay. To make the wait bearable.

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Gallimard: Tonight, I've finally learned to tell fantasy from reality. And, knowing the difference, I choose fantasy.

Act 2, Scene 8

Song: I’m happy. Which often looks like crazy.

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Act 2, Scene 7

Song: Miss Chin? Why, in the Peking Opera, are women’s roles played by men?

Chin: I don’t know. Maybe, a reactionary remnant of male—

Song: No. Because only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act.

Lastly, my favourite.

Act 3, Scene 1

SONG: Rule One is: Men always believe what they want to hear. So a girl can tell the most obnoxious lies and the guys will believe them every time— “This is my first time” — “That’s the biggest I’ve ever seen” — or both, which, if you really think about it, is not possible in a single lifetime. You’ve maybe heard those phrases a few times in your own life, yes, Your Honor?

SONG: Rule Two: As soon as a Western man comes into contact with the East — he's already confused. The West has sort of an international rape mentality towards the East. Do you know rape mentality?

...Basically, “Her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes.”

The West thinks of itself as masculine — big guns, big industry, big money — so the East is feminine — weak, delicate, poor... but good at art, and full of inscrutable wisdom — the feminine mystique.

Her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes. The West believes the East, deep down, wants to be dominated — because a woman can't think for herself.

You expect Oriental countries to submit to your guns, and you expect Oriental women to be submissive to your men. That’s why you say they make the best wives.