Vanessa Ives quotes from Penny Dreadful

Vanessa

We here have been brutalized with loss. It has made us brutal in return. There is no going back from this moment.

Vanessa

Things are so rarely what they seem.

Vanessa

You have to give them names or they’ll never come to life.

Vanessa

Perhaps it has always been there, this thing, this demon inside me. Or behind my back, waiting for me to turn around.

Vanessa

I tried to pray that night and God didn’t answer me, but another did.

Vanessa

An unforgivable transgression that has marked me for life. You think you've suffered. You think you know blood. You think you've walked on corpses. Spread them from here to the horizon and I have walked further! You weak, foul, lustful, vainglorious man. How dare you presume to speak to me of death?

Vanessa

I write in hope that one day you will answer me and that everything can again be like it was... Though I know that can never be.

Vanessa

I don't remember clouds when we were young. Were there any, my dearest Mina? Just beyond the horizon, perhaps? Or was it all seashore and sandcastles? Such a thought is naive, I know. But aren't memories always that?

Vanessa

Your father loves you very much and would do anything to save you. But I love you in a different way. I love you enough to kill you.

Vanessa

I have a complicated history with the Almighty.

Vanessa

I wish I were going mad. Then the doctors could lock me away and cut out the madness. Anything to make it end. You know the true path to freedom? Open any vein.

Vanessa

You offer me a normal life... Why do you think I want that anymore? I know what I am. Do you?

Vanessa

The old monsters are gone. The old curses have echoed to silence. And if my immortal soul is lost to me, something yet remains... I remain.

Vanessa

[to Dr. Seward] Such things have a name. They are witches, they are vampires, they are Lucifer. They are all those things that walk in your nightmares. Shall we walk together?

Vanessa Ives

I have a need for a gentleman who's comfortable with firearms and not hesitant to engage in dangerous endeavors. Or was all that a tall tale as well?

Ethan Chandler

What do you think?

Vanessa

Expensive watch, but threadbare jacket. Sentimental about the money you used to have. Your eye is steady, but your left hand tremors. That's the drink, so you keep it below the table, hoping I won't notice. You have a contusion healing on your other hand, the result of a recent brawl with a jealous husband, no doubt. Your boots are good quality leather, but have been resoled more than once. I see a man who's been accustomed to wealth, but has given himself to excess and the unbridled pleasures of youth. A man much more complicated than he likes to appear.