Quotes

Dialogue

Karen Crowder: Who's this guy they're sending here? Clayton? I never heard of him. Maude: Michael Raymond Clayton. Born September 9, 1959, St. Joseph's Hospital, Bronx, New York. Father is NYPD patrolman Raymond Xavier Clayton. Mother, Alice Mary Clayton. Graduates Washingtonville Central High School, Orange County, New York in 1977. Graduates St. Johns University 1980. Fordham Law, '82. Eighty-two through Eighty-six, he's ADA with the Queens District Attorney's office. And 1986, he's with the Joint Manhattan Queens Organized Crime Task Force. And then, in 1990, he starts with Kenner Boch and Ledeen. Karen Crowder: So he's a partner? Maude: No. He's listed as "special counsel". Says he specializes in wills and trusts. Karen Crowder: He goes from criminal prosecution to wills and trusts? He's been there seventeen years, and he's not a partner? This is the guy they send? Who is this guy?

Dialogue

Michael Clayton: Mr. Greer, you left the scene of an accident on a slow week night, six miles from a state police barracks. Believe me, if there's a line, you're right up front. Mr. Greer: I can get a lawyer any time I want. I don't need you for that. We're not sitting here for forty five minutes for a god damned referral. Michael Clayton: I don't know what Walter promised you, but… Mr. Greer: A miracle worker. That's Walter on the phone twenty minutes ago. Direct quote, okay: "Hang tight, I'm sending you a miracle worker." Michael Clayton: Well, he misspoke. Mr. Greer: About what? That you're the firm's fixer? Or that you're any good at it? [explodes in anger] The guy was running. In the street! You take that, you add the fog, you add the light, you add the… the angle. What the fuck is he doing, running in the middle of the street at midnight? You answer me that, huh? Mr. Greer: What if someone had stolen the car? Huh? Happens all the time. Michael Clayton: Cops like hit-and-runs. The

Dialogue

Marty Bach: Marty Bach, how can I help you? Bridget Klein: Marty, hi. It's Bridget Klein. Look, we're going with a story tomorrow about a settlement in the U-North defoliant case. You wanna comment? Marty Bach: Case you're referring to is now, as it has been for the past six years, pending and unresolved. Till such time as our client has their day in court or the plaintiffs come to their senses and drop the suit, I'll have nothing of value to tell you. Bridget Klein: Come on, Marty, you're closing the U-North case. You're settling. I know that, okay? I know you're up there with, like, 600 people jamming this thing through. Marty Bach: Yeah, here's what I know: your deadline was twenty minutes ago, so you're either fishing for a story, or trying to get out of writing a retraction. In either case, I wish you the best of luck.

Dialogue

Arthur Edens: I look up, and Marty's standing in my office with a bottle of champagne. He tells me we just hit thirty thousand billable hours on U-North, and he wants to celebrate. An hour later, I'm in a whorehouse in Chelsea, and two Lithuanian redheads are taking turns sucking on my cock. I'm laying there, I'm trying not to come, I'm trying to make it last, right? So I start doing the math—thirty thousand hours, what is that? Twenty-four times thirty—seven hundred twenty hours in a month, eight thousand seven hundred and sixty hours per year… Michael Clayton: Arthur… Arthur Edens: Wait! Because it's years! It's lives! And the numbers are making me dizzy, and now I'm not just trying not to come, I'm trying not to think! But I can't stop. Is that me? Am I just some freak organism that's been put here to eat and sleep and spend my days defending this one horrific chain of carcinogenic molecules? Is this my place? Michael Clayton: You promised me, Arthur. Arthur Edens: Is that it, Micha

Dialogue

Michael Clayton: You are the senior litigating partner of one of the largest, most respected law firms in the world. You are a legend. Arthur Edens: I'm an accomplice! Michael Clayton: You're a manic-depressive! Arthur Edens: I am Shiva, the god of death.

Dialogue

Marty Bach: Oh, for chrissake. Don Jeffries signed this? That's really his signature? Karen Crowder: M-hm. Marty Bach: Where's the original? Karen Crowder: We had a warehouse fire five years ago. We lost a number of documents.

Dialogue

Arthur Edens: I just need to make my thoughts a little bit more precise. That's—that's my goal. Michael Clayton: As good as this feels, you know where it goes. Arthur Edens: No. No, no, you're wrong. What makes this feel good is that I don't know where it goes.

Dialogue

Michael Clayton: You need to think this through. I will help you think this through. I'll find somebody to help you think this through. Don't do this. You're making it easy for them. Arthur Edens: Michael, I have great affection for you. And you lead a rich and interesting life, but you're a bag-man, not an attorney. If you wanted to lock me up, you should have kept me in Wisconsin, where claims and evidence of my inappropriate behavior would have had jurisdictional relevance. I have no criminal record in the state of New York. And the single defining criterion for involuntary incarceration is danger. Is the defendant a danger to himself or others? You think you got the horses for that? Well, good luck and God bless, but I tell you this: the last place you want to see me is in court. Michael Clayton: I'm not the enemy. Arthur Edens: Then who are you?

Dialogue

Karen Crowder: You, you have to contain this. Mr. Verne: Contain? Karen Crowder: Right. Well, that's my question. What are the—what's the option that we're looking at, along those lines? Mr. Verne: You're talking about the paper, the data? I don't… Karen Crowder: Well, I'm wondering if there is some other option. I mean, something I'm not thinking of? Mr. Verne: We deal in absolutes.

Dialogue

Henry Clayton: What? Michael Clayton: Your uncle Timmy, and I mean this, on his best day, is never as tough as you. I'm not talking about crying or drugs or anything like that. I'm talking about in his heart. In his heart. Do you understand me? And all this charming bullshit. This "Big Tim, Uncle Boss" bullshit… and I know you love him, and I know why… but when you see him like that, you don't have to worry… because that's not how it's going to be for you. You're not going to be one of these people who goes through life wondering why shit keeps falling out of the sky around them. I know that. I know it. Okay? Michael Clayton: I see it every time I look at you. I see it right now. I don't know where you got it from, but you got it. Okay? [phone rings] Hold on…

Dialogue

Michael Clayton: What if Arthur was onto something? Marty Bach: What do you mean? Onto what? Michael Clayton: U-North. What if he wasn't crazy? What if he was right? Marty Bach: Right about what? We're on the wrong side? Michael Clayton: Wrong side, wrong way. Anything. All of it. Marty Bach: This is news? This case reeked from day one. Fifteen years in, I gotta tell you how we pay the rent? Michael Clayton: But what would they do? What would they do if he went public? Marty Bach: What would they do? Are you fucking soft? They're doing it! We don't straighten this settlement out in the next twenty-four hours, they're gonna withhold nine million dollars in fees. Then they're gonna pull out the video of Arthur doing his flashdance in Milwaukee. They're gonna sue us for legal malpractice. Except there won't be anything for them to win, because by then, the merger with London will be dead, and we'll be selling off the goddamn furniture! Marty Bach: That's eighty. We're calling it a bonus.

Dialogue

Karen Crowder: You don't want the money? Michael Clayton: Keep the money. You'll need it. Don Jefferies: Is this fellow bothering you? Michael Clayton: Am I bothering you? Don Jefferies: Karen, I've got a board waiting in there. What the hell's going on? Who are you? Michael Clayton: I'm Shiva, the God of death.

Dialogue

Taxi driver: So what are we doin'? Michael Clayton: Give me fifty dollars' worth. Just drive.