War & Peace (TV Series)

Part Four: A Letter and Two Proposals (1972)

Anthony Hopkins: Pierre Bezukhov

Quotes 

• Pierre Bezukhov : It is getting late.

  Prince Vasili Kuragin : Late? Late, he says. This one who comes in all hours of the night and morning.

  Pierre Bezukhov : Well, I didn't want to keep you up.

  Prince Vasili Kuragin : Sit down. The night's still young. If Anna Scherer hasn't gone yet, it's not late, no matter what time it is.

• Pierre Bezukhov : Yes. Oh, she's beautiful. Beautiful. And why not be honest, eh? I would like to go to bed with her. And yet she's brainless. Not a brain in her head. And yet does it matter? Didn't Andrei say all women were the same? Why do I feel as if I'm bound to marry her? Why? I don't want to, and yet, it's as if it's already been decided. They all expect me to, and somehow I... I know I shall. Whether I want to or not.

• Pierre Bezukhov : It's going to happen. I know it. They're all expecting it. They're so certain it will happen. I can't disappoint them. I can't. How will it be? I don't know. It's inevitable. The step must be taken. It's gone too far. I don't know how or why, but it has. How on earth did it happen? It's all done so quickly.

• Pierre Bezukhov : This had to be. It could not be otherwise. So it's no use wondering whether it's good or bad. At least I am no longer tortured by doubt, and that's something. But how did it happen? How exactly did it come to this? All I did was live in his house.

• Pierre Bezukhov : Why do people affect me so? That silly woman. She made me cry. And for what? Nothing. I'm like a straw in the wind, blown this way and that by a gust from any quarter.

• Pierre Bezukhov : How did it happen? All I did was live in his house. I took her out once or twice. Played cards with her. How did it happen? Everyone seemed to expect it, and there it was. It's as if I had nothing at all to do with it. What then is my purpose in life?

• Pierre Bezukhov : Happiness? To be happy? Yes, that's my purpose.