Little Women (1994)

Winona Ryder: Jo March

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Quotes 

• Laurie : I have loved you since the moment I clapped eyes on you. What could be more reasonable than to marry you?

  Jo March : We'd kill each other.

  Laurie : Nonsense!

  Jo March : Neither of us can keep our temper-...

  Laurie : I can, unless provoked.

  Jo March : We're both stupidly stubborn, especially you. We'd only quarrel!

  Laurie : I wouldn't!

  Jo March : You can't even propose without quarreling.

• Friedrich : But I have nothing to give you. My hands are empty.

  [entwines her hands with his] 

  Jo : Not empty now.

• Beth : If God wants me with Him, there is none who will stop Him. I don't mind. I was never like the rest of you... making plans about the great things I'd do. I never saw myself as anything much. Not a great writer like you.

  Jo : Beth, I'm not a great writer.

  Beth : But you will be. Oh, Jo, I've missed you so. Why does everyone want to go away? I love being home. But I don't like being left behind. Now I am the one going ahead. I am not afraid. I can be brave like you.

• Jo March : I find it poor logic to say that because women are good, women should vote. Men do not vote because they are good; they vote because they are male, and women should vote, not because we are angels and men are animals, but because we are human beings and citizens of this country.

  Mr. Mayer : You should have been a lawyer, Miss March.

  Jo March : I should have been a great many things, Mr. Mayer.

• Jo March : Well, of course Aunt March prefers Amy over me. Why shouldn't she? I'm ugly and awkward and I always say the wrong things. I fly around throwing away perfectly good marriage proposals. I love our home, but I'm just so fitful and I can't stand being here! I'm sorry, I'm sorry Marmee. There's just something really wrong with me. I want to change, but I - I can't. And I just know I'll never fit in anywhere.

• Laurie : I'm quite taken by that one.

  Jo : That's Meg!

  Laurie : Meg.

  Jo : That's my sister. She's completely bald in front.

• Marmee : I am going to write this man a letter.

  Jo : A letter. That'll show him.

• Jo : [as Jo and Laurie dance awkwardly at Belle Gardner's ball]  I'm sorry! Meg always makes me take the gentleman's part at home! It's a shame you don't know the lady's part!

• Jo : My book! Someone's publishing my book! Hannah! Hannah, someone's publishing my book!

  Hannah : Heaven help us!

  Jo : But it came without a letter, how did it arrive?

  Hannah : Foreign gentleman brought it. Odd name, Fox or Bear.

  Jo : Bhaer! Did you ask him to wait?

  Hannah : I thought he was one of Miss Amy's European friends come with a wedding gift. I told him Miss March and Mr Laurie were living next door.

  Jo : Oh Hannah! You didn't!

• Jo : Now we are all family, as we always should have been.

• Jo March : [uncovers John's eyes]  Surprise!

  Marmee : John. You have a daughter.

  Hannah : And a son.

  [Marmee and Hannah hands the twins to John] 

  Meg : Oh, Marmee, I can't believe you did this four times.

  John Brooke : Yes, but never two at once, my darling.

• Laurie : Fellow artists, may I present myself as an actor, a musician, and a loyal and very humble servant of the club.

  Jo March : We'll be the judge of that.

  Laurie : In token of my gratitude and as a means of promoting communication between adjoining nations, shouting from windows being forbidden, I shall provide a post office in our hedge, to further incourage the bearing of our souls and the telling of our most appalling secrets. I do pledge never to reveal what I recieve in confindence here.

  Meg : Well, then. Do take your place Rodrigo.

  Jo March : Sir Rodrigo.

• Josephine 'Jo' March : If lack of attention to personal finances is a mark of refinement, then I say the Marches must be the most elegant family in Concord!

• Beth : [hearing Jo crying]  Are you thinking about father?

  Jo March : [whimpering]  My hair!

• Marmee : I fear you would have a long engagement, three or four years. John must secure a house before you can marry and do his service to the union.

  Jo : John? Marry? You mean that poky old Mr Brooke? How did he weasel his way into this family?

  Marmee : Jo! Mr Brooke has been very kind to visit father in the hospital every day.

  Jo : He's dull as powder Meg, can't you at least marry someone amusing?

  Meg : I'm fond of John, he's kind and serious and I'm not afraid of being poor.

  Jo : Marmee, you can't just let her go and marry him.

  Meg : I'd hardly just go and marry anyone.

  Marmee : I would rather Meg marry for love and be a poor man's wife than marry for riches and lose her self-respect.

  Meg : So, you don't mind that John is poor.

  Marmee : No, but I'd rather he have a house.

  Jo : Why must we marry at all? Why can't things just stay as they are?

  Marmee : It's just a proposal, nothing can be decided on. Now girls? Don't spoil the day.

• Friedrich Bhaer : You do not take wine?

  Jo : Only medicinally.

  Friedrich Bhaer : Pretend you've got a cold.

• Jo : Late at night my mind would come alive with voices and stories and friends as dear to me as any in the real world. I gave myself up to it, longing for transformation.

• Jo : Friedrich, this is what I write. My apologies if it fails to live up to your high standards.

  Friedrich Bhaer : Jo, there is more to you than this. If you have the courage to write it.

• Jo : What's going to happen?

  Friedrich : The inevitable.

• Josephine 'Jo' March : Doesn't he have a noble brow? If I were a boy I'd want to look just like that.

• Amy March : [after hearing of Jo's need to get away from Laurie]  Aunt March is going to France.

  Jo : FRANCE? Oh! That's ideal! I'd put up with anything to go!

  Amy March : [hesitates]  No, she has asked me to accompany her.

• Jo : I go around throwing away perfectly good marriage proposals!

• Friedrich Bhaer : I am going to the west. They need teachers and they are not so concerned about the accent.

  Jo March : I don't mind it either.

• Jo : Meg? John Brooke stole your glove.

  Meg : Which glove? Not my white one.

  Jo : Laurie says he keeps it in his pocket. Hannah, don't you think he ought to give it back?

  Hannah : It isn't what I think that matters.

• Younger Amy March : Do you love Laurie more than you love me?

  Jo : Don't be such a beetle! I could never love anyone as I love my sisters.

• Jo : If I weren't going to be a writer I'd go to New York and pursue the stage. Are you shocked?

  Laurie : Very.

• Marmee : [Jo has been to visit Aunt March to try and get money for a train ticket]  25? Can Aunt March spare this much?

  Jo : I couldn't bear to ask.

  [she takes off her hat, everyone gasps - she's got short hair] 

  Jo : I sold my hair.

• Meg : Have you heard from the professor?

  Jo : No. No, we did not part well.

  Meg : Well, John and I don't always agree but then we mend it.

• Friedrich Bhaer : You know, when first I saw you I thought "ah, she is a writer".

  Jo : What made you think so?

  [Friedrich indicates her inky fingers] 

• Jo March : He's dull as powder, Meg. Can't you at least marry someone amusing?

• Jo : If only I could be like father and crave violence and go to war and stand up to the lions of injustice.

• Jo : Imagine, giving up Italy to come live with that awful old man.

  Meg : [Meg tsks]  Oh Jo, please don't say awful; it's slang.

• Jo : Teddy, please don't ask me.

• Jo : Will we never all be together again?

• Josephine 'Jo' March : I won't have a sister who is a lazy ignoramus.

• Jo : Teddy? Oh, this is magic!

  Laurie : Jo, you are absolutely

  Jo : Covered in flour! Oh dear.

• Marmee : [as revenge, Amy has burned a precious manuscript]  It is a very great loss and you have every right to be put out. But don't let the sun go down on your anger. Forgive each other, begin again tomorrow.

  Jo : I will never forgive her.

• Josephine 'Jo' March : You plastered yourself on him!

  Meg March : It's proper to take a gentleman's arm if it's offered!

• Younger Amy March : [Jo is curling Meg's hair]  What's that smell? Like burnt feathers.

  Jo : Aaahh!

  Meg : You've ruined me!

• Marmee : Wouldn't this have made a wonderful school?

  Jo : A school.

  Marmee : Hmm. What a challenge that would be.

• Jo : Alright, I'm up. Horrible piano.

• Jo : [shocked at the decline of Beth's health]  Marmee.

  Marmee : She wouldn't let us send for you sooner. The doctor has been a number of times but it's beyond all of us and I think she's been waiting for you before she...

• Jo : I don't have an opera dress.

  Friedrich Bhaer : Where we are sitting, we shall not be so... formal.