“The voice you hear is not my speaking voice – -but my mind’s voice. I have not spoken since I was six years old. No one knows why – -not even me. My father says it is a dark talent, and the day I take it into my head to stop breathing will be my last. Today he married me to a man I have not yet met. Soon my daughter and I shall join him in his own country. My husband writes that my muteness does not bother him – and hark this! He says, “God loves dumb creatures, so why not I?” ‘Twere good he had God’s patience, for silence affects everyone in the end. The strange thing is, I don’t think myself silent. That is because of my piano. I shall miss it on the journey.”

– Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter), The Piano (1993), written and directed by Jane Campion