Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

Molly Picon: Yente

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Quotes 

• Yente : Tzeitel! I happened to stop in the post office today, to say hello, see what's what. It doesn't cost anything to be friendly. Ah, so few people are like that. People, huh! I tell you, Tzeitel, if God lived on earth, people would break his windows!

• Yente : Even the worst husband, God forbid, is better than no husband, God forbid. Who should know better than me? Ever since my husband died, I've been a poor widow. All alone, no-one to talk to, nothing to say to anyone. All I do at night is think of him. And even thinking of him gives me no pleasure.

• Yente : From such children come other children!

  Golde : Motel is nothing! Yente, you said you had news for me...

  Yente : Ah, children, they are your blessing in your old age. My poor Aaron, God rest his soul, couldn't give me children. Between you and me, Golde, he hardly tried.

• [Yente has returned from the post office] 

  Yente : The postman told me there was a letter for your sister, Hodel.

  Tzeitel : Thank you, I'll go and get it.

  Yente : I got it. It's, ah, from her intended, Perchik.

  Tzeitel : Oh, she'll be so happy, she's been waiting to hear from... but it's open!

  Yente : [shrugs]  So, it happened to be open...

• Yente : Sometime, maybe we'll meet on a happier occasion. Meanwhile, we suffer. Oh-ho-hoh, we suffer. We suffer in silence, right? Of course, right.

• Yente : Out of the whole town, he's cast his eye on Tzeitel.

  Golde : My Tzeitel?

  Yente : No, the Tzar's Tzeitel! Of course your Tzeitel!

  Golde : Such a match for my Tzeitel!

• Golde : But Tevye wants a learned man. He doesn't like Lazar.

  Yente : Good, so Lazar won't marry him. He wants the daughter, not the father.

• Yente : Well, Anatevka hasn't exactly been the Garden of Eden.