Phillip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?
Phillip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Hugh Fennyman: How?
Phillip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.

Hugh Fennyman: Uh, one moment, sir.
Ned Alleyn: Who are you?
Hugh Fennyman: I'm, uh... I'm the money.
Ned Alleyn: Then you may remain so long as you remain silent.

Lord Wessex: I have spoken with your father.
Viola De Lesseps: So, my lord? I speak with him every day.

William Shakespeare: I have a new play.
Christopher Marlowe: What's it called?
William Shakespeare: Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter.
Christopher Marlowe: What is the story?
William Shakespeare: Well, there's this pirate...

Christopher Marlowe: I thought your play was for Burbage.
William Shakespeare: This is a different one.
Christopher Marlowe: A different one you haven't written?

Queen Elizabeth: Mr. Tilney! Have a care with my name -- you will wear it out!

Lord Wessex: I cannot shed blood in her house, but I will cut
your throat anon. What is your name?
William Shakespeare: Christopher Marlowe, at your service.

Lord Wessex: Is she obedient?
Sir Robert de Lesseps: As any mule in Christendom -- but if you are the man to ride her, there are rubies in the saddlebag.
Lord Wessex: I like her!

Tilney: That woman is a woman!

Lord Wessex: My lady, the tide waits for no man, but I swear
it would wait for you.

Viola de Lesseps: [as Thomas Kent] Tell me how you love
her, Will.
William Shakespeare: Like a sickness and its cure together.

Queen Elizabeth: I know something of a woman in a man's
profession. Yes, by God, I do know about that.

[On first hearing the tragic ending to Romeo and Juliet.]
Philip Henslowe: Well, that will have them rolling in the aisles.

Philip Henslowe: The show must... you know...
William Shakespeare: [prompting him] Go on!

Viola De Lesseps: This is not life, Will. It is a stolen season.

William Shakespeare: I'm done with theater. The playhouse is
for dreamers. Look what the dream brought us.
Viola De Lesseps: It was we ourselves did that. And for my life to come, I would not have it otherwise.

Viola De Lesseps: I loved a writer and gave up the prize for a
sonnet.
William Shakespeare: I was the more deceived.
Viola De Lesseps: Yes, you were deceived, for I did not know how much I loved you.

[About Marlowe's death in a tavern]
Ned Alleyn: A quarrel about the bill.
Philip Henslowe: The bill! Ah, vanity, vanity!
Ned Alleyn: Not the billing -- the BILL!

William Shakespeare: Love knows nothing of rank or river
bank.

William Shakespeare: Love denied blights the soul we owe to God.

William Shakespeare: A broad river divides my lovers: family,
duty, fate. As unchangeable as nature.

Lord Wessex: How is this to end?
Queen Elizabeth: As stories must when love's denied: with tears and a journey.

Viola de Lesseps: I would stay asleep my whole life, if I could
dream myself into a company of players.

William Shakespeare: You see? The comsumptives plot against me. "Will Shakespeare has a play, let us go and cough through it."

Viola De Lesseps: Master Shakespeare?
William Shakespeare: The same, alas.
Viola De Lesseps: Oh, but why "alas"?
William Shakespeare: A lowly player.
Viola De Lesseps: Alas indeed, for I thought you the highest poet of my esteem and writter of plays that capture my heart.
William Shakespeare: Oh -- I am him too!

Viola De Lesseps: Good morning, my lord. I see you are open for business -- so let's to church.

Queen Elizabeth: And tell Shakespeare, something more cheerful next time, for Twelfth Night.

William Shakespeare: My story starts at sea... a perilous voyage to an unknown land... a shipwreck... the wild waters roar and heave... the brave vessel is dashed all to pieces, and all the helpless souls within her drowned... all save one... a lady... whose soul is greater than the ocean... and her spirit stronger
than the sea's embrace... not for her a watery end, but a new life
beginning on a stranger shore. It will be a love story... for she will be my heroine for all time. And her name... Viola.

Philip Henslowe: You see -- comedy. Love, and a bit with a dog. That's what they want.

Viola De Lesseps: [as Juliet] I do remember well where I should be, and there I am -- where is my Romeo?
Nurse: [shouting from the audience] Dead!