"One of the hazzards of this prison. The 'brave' men of the Inquistion--it means they're coming to fetch someone; haul him off; the next thing he knows, he is burned."
"They are coming for me!!!"
"Very possibly--why Cervantes is not afraid? Where is your courage? Or is that in your imagination, too? There is no escape! It is happening! Not to your brave Man of La Mancha, but to you! Quick, Cervantes! Call on him! Let him shield you! Let him save you, if he can, from that." [ another prisoner is taken. He screams, "No! No!" ]
"Well--not this time. But you see there is a difference between reality and illusion. There's a difference between these prisoners, and your men of lunacy."
"We say, rather: men whose illusions are very real."
"It's the same thing. Why are you poets so obsessed with madmen?"
"We have much in common."
"You both turn your backs on life."
"We both select on life."
"We have to come to terms with life as it is."
"Life as it is. I've lived for over forty years, and I've seen life as it is. Pain! Misery! Cruelty beyond belief! I've heard all the voices of God's noblest creatures: moans of pain from bundles in the street. I've been a soldier--and a slave. I've seen my comrades fall in battle, or die more slowly under the lash in Africa. I've held them at their last moments; These were men who saw life as it is. But they died despairing! No Glory! No Brave Last Words! Only their eyes filled with confusion, questioning: 'WHY?' I do not think they were questioning why they were dying, but why they had ever lived?
And life, itself seems lunatic! Who knows where madness lies?! Perhaps to be too practical is madness! To surrender dreams, this may be madness! To seek treasure where there is only trash! Too much sanity may be madness! But maddest of all is to see life as it is, and not as how it should be!"
[ Later, he is called to trial ]
"I am called to another trial before I am done with this one."
"I think I know what this contains: the history of your mad (k)night."
"As much as is written."
"Read as well as you did here, and you may not burn."
"I have no intention of burning."
"I think that Don Quixote is brother to Cervantes!"
"God help us; we are both Men of La Mancha! For me, alone, was Don Quixote born. But here, I give him to you."
Lyrics by Joe Darion
Music by Mitch Leigh
To dream the impossible dream,
to fight the unbeatable foe,
to bear with unbearable sorrow,
to run where the brave dare not go.
To right the unrightable wrong,
to love pure and chaste from afar,
to try when your arms are too weary,
to reach the unreachable star.
This is my quest,
to follow that star --
no matter how hopeless,
no matter how far.
To fight for the right
without question or pause,
to be willing to march into hell for a
heavenly cause.
And I know if I'll only be true to this
glorious quest
that my heart will be peaceful and calm
when I'm laid to my rest.
And the world will be better for this,
that one [wo]man scorned and covered with
scars
still strove with his/her last ounce of courage.
To reach the unreachable star!
To dream the impossible dream,
to fight the unbeatable foe,
to bear with unbearable sorrow,
to run where the brave dare not go.
To run where the brave dare not go,
Though your goal be impossibly far,
To reach, with your heart striving upward,
To assume: the attainable star!
[ WISHING STAR ]