Quotes

Dialogue

Mills: Now, I wasn't standing around guarding the Taco Bell, alright? I worked homicide for 5 years. Somerset: Not here. Mills: I understand that. Somerset: Well, over the next 7 days, Detective, you'll do me the favor of remembering that.

Dialogue

Somerset: You meant what you said to Mrs. Gould, didn't you? About catching this guy? Mills: Yeah. Somerset: Hm. I wish I still thought the way you do. Mills: Why don't you tell me what the hell it is you think we're doing, then? Somerset: Picking up the pieces. We're collecting all the evidence, taking all the pictures and samples, writing everything down, noting the time things happen. Mills: That's all? Somerset: That's all. Putting everything into neat little piles and filing it away on the off chance it will ever be needed in the courtroom. Picking up diamonds on a deserted island, saving them in case we get rescued. Mills: [sits up] Bullshit! Somerset: Even the most promising clues usually only lead to others. So many corpses roll away un-revenged. Mills: Don't try to tell me you didn't get that rush tonight. I saw you. We're getting somewhere.

Dialogue

Somerset: Why don't you tell me what's really bothering you, Tracy? Tracy: David and I are gonna have a baby. Somerset: [baffled] Oh, Tracy... I don't think I'm the one to talk to about this... Tracy: I hate this city. Somerset: I had a relationship once. It was very much like a marriage. We got pregnant. This was long time ago. [sighs] I remember getting up one morning and going to work. Just another day like any other, except it was the first day after I knew about … pregnancy. And I felt this fear for the first time ever. I remember thinking, "How can I bring a child into a world like this? How can a person grow up with all this around them?" I told her I didn't want to have it, and over the next few weeks, I wore her down. Tracy: I want to have children. Somerset: I can tell you now that I know … I mean, I'm positive … that I made the right decision. But there's not a day that passes that I don't wish that I had made a different choice. If you don't keep the ba

Dialogue

Mills: Do you like what you do for a living? These things you see? Man in Massage Parlour Booth: No, I don't. But that's life.

Dialogue

Mills: [about Victor] Has he tried to speak or communicate in any way? Dr. Beardsley: Even if his brain were not mush, which it is, he chewed off his own tongue long ago. Somerset: Uh... Doc, is there absolutely no chance that he might survive? Dr. Beardsley: Detective, he'd die of shock right now if you were to shine a flashlight in his eyes. He's experienced about as much pain and suffering as anyone I've encountered, give or take... and he still has hell to look forward to. Good night.

Dialogue

Somerset: Victor's landlord said there was an envelope of cash in the office mailbox the first of every month. Quote: "I never heard a single complaint from the tenant in apartment 306, and nobody ever complained about him. He's the best tenant I've ever had." End quote. Mills: Yeah, a landlord's dream: a paralyzed tenant with no tongue. Somerset: Who pays the rent on time. Mills: I'm sick of all this waiting! Somerset: This is the job. Mills: Why aren't we out there, huh? Why we gotta sit here, rotting, waiting until the lunatic does it again? Somerset: It's dismissive to call him a lunatic. Don't make that mistake. Mills: Come on, he's insane. Look, right now he's probably dancing around in his grandmother's panties, yeah, rubbing himself in peanut butter. Ooh. How's that? Somerset: I don't think so. Mills: His luck will run out. Somerset: He's not depending on luck. We walked into that apartment exactly one year after he tied Victor to the bed. One year to the date. He wanted us to.

Dialogue

Mills: Modern Homicide Investigation, In Cold Blood, Of Human Bondage … bondage? Somerset: Not what you think it is. Mills: Okay. The Marquis de-Shaday … Somerset: It's the Marquis de Sade. Mills: Whatever. The Writings of Saint Thomas Aqua-something. Somerset: Saint Thomas Aquinas? There it is. He wrote about the seven deadly sins. Is that it? Mills: Yeah. Somerset: Let's try it. Mills: Jonathan Doe? Somerset: Whatever.

Dialogue

Mills: [picks up the phone] Hello? Doe: I admire you. I don't know how you found me, but imagine my surprise. I respect you law enforcement agents more every day. Mills: Well, I appreciate that, John. I tell you … Doe: No, no, you listen, all right? I'll be re-adjusting my schedule in light of today's little … setback. I just had to call and express my admiration. Sorry I had to hurt … one of you, but I really didn't have a choice, did I? Mills: Hm. Doe: You will accept my apology, won't you? I feel like saying more, but I don't want to ruin the surprise. [hangs up]

Dialogue

Somerset: You know, this isn't gonna have a happy ending. Mills: Hey man, if we catch him, I'll be happy enough. Somerset: If we catch John Doe and he turns out to be the Devil – I mean, if he's Satan himself – that might live up to our expectations. But … he's not the Devil. He's just a man. Mills: You know, see, you bitch and you complain and you tell me these things – if you think you're preparing me for hard times, thank you, but … Somerset: But you got to be a hero? You want to be a champion. Well, let me tell you, people don't want a champion. They wanna eat cheeseburgers, play the lotto and watch television. Mills: Hey, how did you get like this? I wanna know. Somerset: Well. [sighs] It wasn't one thing, I can tell you that. Mills: Go on. Somerset: I just don't think I can continue to live in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it was a virtue! Mills: You're no different. You're no better. Somerset: I didn't say I was different or bett

Dialogue

Mills: [to John Doe] I've been trying to figure something in my head, and maybe you can help me out, yeah? When a person is insane, as you clearly are, do you know that you're insane? Maybe you're just sitting around, reading Guns and Ammo, masturbating in your own feces. Do you just stop and go, "Wow! It is amazing how fucking crazy I really am!"? Yeah, do you guys do that? Doe: It's more comfortable for you to label me as insane. Mills: It's very comfortable.

Dialogue

Doe: Nothing wrong with a man taking pleasure in his work. I won't deny my own personal desire to turn each sin against the sinner. Mills: Wait a minute, I thought all you did was kill innocent people... Doe: [outraged] Innocent? Is that supposed to be funny? [his voice rising in anger] An obese man, a disgusting man who could barely stand up, a man who if you saw him on the street, you'd point him out to your friends so that they could join you in mocking him, a man, who if you saw him while you were eating, you wouldn't be able to finish your meal. And after him I picked the lawyer, and you both must have secretly been thanking me for that one. This is a man who dedicated his life to making money by lying with every breath that he could muster to keeping murderers and rapists on the streets! Mills: Murderers? Doe: A woman … Mills: Murderers, John, like yourself? Doe: A woman, so ugly on the inside that she couldn't bear to go on living if she couldn't be beautiful on the outsi

Dialogue

Mills: What do you got? Somerset: Dead dog. Doe: I didn't do that.

Dialogue

Doe: Do you hear me, Detective? I'm trying to tell you how much I admire you... and your pretty wife. Mills: What? Doe: Tracy. Mills: What'd you fucking say? Doe: It's disturbing how easily a member of the press can purchase information from men in your precinct. I visited your home this morning, after you'd left. I tried to play husband. I tried to taste the life of a simple man. It didn't work out, so I took a souvenir... her pretty head! Because I envied your normal life. It seems that envy is my sin.

Dialogue

Doe: She begged for her life, Detective. Somerset: Shut up. Doe: She begged for her life – Somerset: Shut up! Doe: ... and for the life of the baby inside her. Somerset: Shut up! [back-hands him] Doe: Oh … [smiles] he didn't know.

Dialogue

Police Captain: [about Mills] We’ll take care of him. Somerset: Anything he needs. Police Captain: Where you gonna be? Somerset: Around. I'll be around. [voiceover] Ernest Hemingway once wrote, "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.