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Amy's Forever Knight Concordance

Compiled by Amy R.
Last Modified November 12, 2010   (Original April 1, 2002)

 Compilation and expansion continue! 

 

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Browse by category (left) or use the "Find" option on your "Edit" menu (Ctrl+F) to locate a specific quotation with a key word.  Some quotations appear in more than one category.

Quotations appear sequentially by episode.

Addiction

 

Mai Chung:

Men come to me to control their desires, their urges.  For sex, for food, for opium.  For you the urge is blood.  But urges and desires are all in the mind.  And the nerves that lead from the mind.
Nick:

Hi, my name's Nick, and I'm an addict.  Well, it's been three days since I stopped abusing.  I'm still alive.

~~~~~
Monica:

Ah, the beast within.  It's a good description for it, isn't it?  The way it gnaws at you, the way it chews your insides.
Nick:

Yeah.  Yeah, it's a good description.
Monica:

Sometimes, though, it gets to be too much.  Too much to hold in, and you just want to give it a rest, just say, "What the hell," just let it out.
Nick:

That's why you have to control yourself.
Nick: Hey, wait a second -- "Donut"?  Did you just call him "Donut"?
Jim Anderson: You mean you don't?
Nick: Well, maybe now we do.
Schanke: I'm warning you, Knight.  It's a name I got because I used to have an affinity for junk food.
Nick: I guess now it's grown into a full-blown addiction.

~~~~~
Schanke: Hey, I thought you told me you quit.
Jim Anderson: I told you: you quit, I quit.  That's the deal.
Schanke: I have not had a smoke in two weeks.
Jim Anderson: Not according to your wife.
Tracy:

What was I supposed to do, give her a field sobriety test in my living room?

~~~~~
Tracy:

Mom, I thought you stopped drinking.
Barbara Vetter:

Oh, well, I still like a little drink on special occasions.
Tracy:

And what's special about today?  Let me guess: it's Wednesday?
Barbara Vetter:

I don't appreciate your sarcasm, Tracy.
Tracy:

You know how much trouble the drinking caused you and Dad?
Barbara Vetter:

You known damn well it wasn't because of my drinking that your father wound up in bed with . . . . I deserve a drink for putting up with him . . . .  I wanted something else for you, something better.  I didn't want to worry about you, too.  I was sick with worrying.
Tracy:

So you drank and made yourself sicker.

[Topics]


Archaeology

 

Nick: I am the night curator and the associate professor of the archaeological museum at the University of Chicago.

~~~~~
Chairman: Are you implying that the other members of the faculty were lying, Mr. Girard?  Perhaps the committee should have their names!
Nick: No, I never said anything about lying.  All I'm saying is that there has clearly been a misinterpretation of the facts.

~~~~~
Reporter: Mr. Girard, the Dean of Archaeology has been quoted as saying that he will review your tenure.
Nick: Well, I've been tried and convicted and my hearing has barely begun.  It's hardly a surprise that I've been sentenced, as well.
Reporter: Does this mean you'll resign your position as Associate Professor of Archaeology?
Nick: Do I have a choice?

~~~~~
Nick: That's a unique figurine.  It's from the Upper Paleolithic period.  You know, that little piece of clay is from a dig that single-handedly changed modern archaeology's mind about when the Paleolithic period started.  It's a very important piece.
Natalie: It's fascinating.  Is that one, too?
Nick: What?
Natalie: A very, very important piece.
Nick: Indeed.  You are looking at a desk nameplate taken from the Chicago area circa 1954.  It represents the end of a significant period in the ongoing transient life of a certain indigenous vampire.
Natalie: You hated leaving that one behind, didn't you?  I know how you feel about archaeology.
Nick: I had some remarkable students.  And I think I was actually making a difference.
Natalie: I don't doubt it for a moment.

 

[Topics]


Cars

 

Schanke: Great car.
Nick: It works.
Schanke: I just hope that Metro Transit doesn't make an issue out of this.  Sixteen cases of whiplash!  City could go bankrupt.  As a matter of fact, I'm feeling a little soft-tissue damage myself.  Right here, right here; feel it.  You do have insurance, don't you, Knight?.
Vachon: Cars are sexier with fins, don't you think?  More predatory.

[Topics]


Converts and Crossing Over

 

Natalie:

I know what you are, and I know what you can do.  You can have me -- if you bring me across.

Nick:

She was a victim.

Janette:

So was I.  So were you.  So is every vampire in the beginning, seduced by one thing or another, ignorant of the consequences.

~~~~~
Nick:

I cannot undo it, Serena.  I cannot give back what I took from you.

Vachon:

It was the most erotic thing I've ever experienced.  And yet, it was somehow . . . pure.

Urs:

I asked you to kill me, not to bring me across.  Not to bear for eternity what I couldn't bear for another second.  I asked for death, and you gave me forever.  Forever.

Nick:

I brought her across.

Lacroix:

Life is a fire, Nicholas.  It can be rekindled from the tiniest ember, so long as it is not allowed to become too cold.  This fire is dead.  Oh, well.  Never mind.  It is a subtle art.  Practice will make perfect.  It was your first attempt, after all.

Nick:

Lacroix, help me.  Please.

Lacroix:

I cannot, Nicholas.  I told you -- don't take too much.

[Topics]


Cops

 

Nick:

We're going to need a Chinese player on this.  People down here don't trust the cops.  We don't speak the same language.

~~~~~
Ray Quan:

I'm a trained investigator.  Maybe not by police standards, but at Immigration, I'm considered pretty hot.

~~~~~
Nick:

Well, I'm a cop, Janette.  If I have too many possessions, they think I'm dirty.

Schanke:

Never listen to the stuff.  The job's enough of a reminder what a colorful world we live in.

Schanke:

It's a promotion, Jimbo.
Jim Anderson: It's homicide, Donut.  Why the hell would I want to go back to that?

~~~~~
Jim Anderson: I'm a dyed-in-the-wool vice cop now.  These are my people down here, you know?  Looking after them makes me feel like I'm doing something.

~~~~~
Stonetree: You know, I lost a partner.  Billy Wisdom, back in '78.  Great cop.  Family man.  He was a real influence on me.  Some smartass parolee ambushed us with a shotgun.  I emptied my revolver in the guy, put a hole in him the size of my fist, but that didn't bring Billy back.  Never does.

~~~~~
Nick:

We're all capable of losing our judgment once in a while.  All somebody has to do is press the right buttons.

Schanke:

Well, he really pressed mine.  Problem is, he was right.  I mean, he had me.  And all those things he said?  You wonder how good a cop you really are.

Nick:

Look.  You became a cop -- and a damned good one -- for more reasons than being able to shoot.  You didn't have to draw your gun on that Jefferson case, and you saved more than three lives.  And you didn't have to draw your weapon when you pulled Mary McCaffrey out of that burning car.

Schanke:

You been reading my files?

Nick:

All I'm saying is that Anderson was right.  There's more to being a good cop than picking up dead bodies.  And you're a good cop.

Nick:

You've said it yourself in the past: tired cops get careless.

Barbara Vetter:

You like to think you're your own person, don't you Tracy?  Well, you are not.  And you never will be.  You are your father's person.  That's why you're a cop, Tracy.  He made you what he wanted you to be.  And you never had a choice.

Reese:

You think I'm pushing her.  But if she wants to cut the mustard as a homicide cop, she's going to have to get over this squeamishness.

[Topics]


Coroners/Medical Examiners and Pathology

 

Natalie:

I'm sorry, Nick.  It's been a bad day.  They've cut my budget all to hell.  I've got to lose two of the attendants from my shift, and they've all got families.  Worst of it is, they've got nothing to go to.  Working in a morgue doesn't really qualify you for anything else.

~~~~~
Nick:

It's like riding a bike.  You never forget.

Natalie:

Nick, most of my patients in the last few years have been dead.

Nick:

Well, then, this'll be a nice change.

Natalie:

Ah, Nick, shall we?  I've got places to go, people to dissect.

Janette:

Your friend is an excellent surgeon.

[Topics]


Crime

 

Schanke: You figure that machine-gun attack was civilized?
Natalie:

This stuff makes vampires look like cute little schoolboys.  You know, I see this thing over and over.  I know why it happens, technically --
Nick:

But understanding psychologically is another matter?
Stonetree: You know, I lost a partner.  Billy Wisdom, back in '78.  Great cop.  Family man.  He was a real influence on me.  Some smartass parolee ambushed us with a shotgun.  I emptied my revolver in the guy, put a hole in him the size of my fist, but that didn't bring Billy back.  Never does.
Schanke: Ain't technology wonderful?
Nick: Not when you're a criminal.
  • from “Can't Run, Can't Hide”
Lacroix: C'est la guerre, mon ami.
Nick:

This isn't war.  This is a crime!
Lacroix: Yes.  Yes, it is.  What are you going to do about it?  What will you do to bring these criminals to justice?
DeLabarre:

Such ugly business, this.  In time, the true killer will be unearthed.
Tracy: You can press charges against him. ... All right. Give me a call if you change your mind.

~~~~~
Tracy: No.  It's murder.

[Topics]


Crusades

 

Nick:

What do you see?
Erica:

A fight in the blazing sun.  A castle.  Moorish, I think.
Nick: The Crusades.
Erica: You were wounded.  Nearly killed.
Nick: Yes.
Nick:

My mother and sister have not seen me since I left for the Crusades.  I'm not disappearing again without seeing them one last time.

~~~~~
Fleur: You must tell me everything -- the Crusades, the adventures!

[Topics]


Cures

 

Natalie:

Whatever happens, promise you won't give up.  You'll always keep trying to become human.

Natalie:

These things really make you uncomfortable, don't they?

Nick:

They make me feel weak.  I'm afraid of them

Natalie:

Well, it's the next thing we should work on.

Nick:

If you don't mind, I'd just as soon stick with your garlic pills.

Natalie:

To become mortal, Nick, you're going to have to confront your immortal fears.

~~~~~
Nick:

Well, the garlic pills are definitely an improvement.

~~~~~
Natalie:

You were able to hold it!

Nick:

It burns, but not as badly.  Who knows -- maybe I'm a step closer.

Natalie:

To God or mortality?

Nick:

Maybe both.

Natalie:

Well that's strange.  The wound is still open.

Nick:

It can't be.

Natalie:

I wonder.

Nick:

What?

Natalie:

Well, this must mean your metabolism's changing.  I mean, this thing should have been healed and sealed within minutes, right?

Nick:

Well, usually, bullets go right through me.

Natalie:

An open wound is a definite improvement!  Means you're not healing as fast as you did.  I don't know, but we might be seeing shades of mortality here.  Program must be working.  I mean, look, you can see yourself in the mirror.

Nick:

Only sometimes.

Natalie:

Have you tried that artificial blood I gave you?

Nick:

Oh, you mean the low fat, zero cholesterol, no sodium, absolutely no flavor --

Natalie:

"No flavor."  Well, don't knock it, tiger.  It's obviously working.

Nick:

Wow.

Natalie:

You felt pain!

Nick:

Uh, not much, but --

Natalie:

But some!  I hit a little teeny tiny human nerve end in there!  Hold still.

Nick:

Take it easy.

~~~~~
Natalie:

Well, you are still a medical marvel, but I think we are getting just a little bit closer.

Nick:

Sometimes in our desperation, we'll believe anything.  We'll do anything.

Natalie:

Well, have you stopped drinking blood? . . . What about the medication, the prescription for your skin? Everything that I do, what is it for if you won't work with me? I mean, you say that you will, but you don't.

Natalie:

One way you treat the disease, the other way you treat the symptom.  I'm a treat-the-disease kind of gal, myself.

[Topics]


Faith and Religion

 

Nick:

Well, they do have a point.  After all, why would God reveal His plans through a farmer's daughter?

Joan:

Why did He send His Son to us as a carpenter?

Nick:

And so you will die a martyr.  I'm sure that will please you very much.

Joan:

What would please me very much is to be back in Dom Remy with my family.

Nick:

So you are afraid of dying.  Life isn't so "everlasting" now.  I can give it to you.  A life that never ends.  A power beyond your imagination.

Joan:

Don't.

Nick:

Why throw your life away for the Church -- for some pious old men who lied to you?  How can you do that?

Joan:

If my death is necessary to keep the Church strong, then so be it.  I will live on in the hereafter.

Nick:

How can you be so sure your God will be waiting for you on the other side?

Joan:

Faith.  Pure, simple faith.  Take this to remember me by, to remember that the faith you have lost is always there to regain.

~~~~~
Nick:

I wanted to bring her over, to save her life, but she wouldn't let me.  You know, she had this incredible strength, this courage, utter lack of fear.

Natalie:

Faith.

Nick:

Yeah.  Faith in her own immortality.  The spiritual kind, not the kind I had to offer.

~~~~~
Father Rouchfort:

He can be forgiven.  We all can be forgiven.  Detective, even you can have life everlasting.

Dean: Do you believe in life after death?
Nick: In a strange way, yeah.
Janette:

The things you concern yourself with are just specks in time.  Why do you do it?  Why does it matter?
Nick:

It'll help me find my soul.
Janette:

Your soul is long gone.  You lost it when Lacroix brought you over.
Nick:

What crime could you possibly have committed that torments you so, Ilsa?

Ilsa:

I committed a woman's crime.  Seduction.  I seduced a nobleman.

Nick:

I have known seductresses.  And despite your willingness to expose your naked body to pose here for an artist, I do not see in you -- I do not get from you -- the messages or signals that the seductress sends out with every movement of her mouth, her face, her body.

Ilsa:

You're not a woman.  You don't understand.  Even when I don't wish to, even when I am unaware of what I am doing, my evil -- woman's evil -- is at work. 

Nick:

Yes, I know that is the popular belief.

Ilsa:

Belief?  Fact!  Proven.  Taught.  Preached.  Daily.  Nightly.  Where're you from?  Where've you been?

Natalie:

Thank you.  We're all praying.

Lacroix:

I have no taste for holiness in any of its forms.  It plays havoc with my digestion.

Lacroix:

Which do you suppose is worse, Nicholas, to die, or to be left in a living hell?  A form of life whose only purpose is survival and nothing more.  To exist for the sake of existing.  Such bitter irony -- the mortals sustain us, their art, their laughter, their society, their blood.  Our eternal lives aren't worth much without them, are they?
Nick:

So who is the more powerful in the end, the hunter or the hunted?
Lacroix:

I don't know.  Perhaps there is a power that's greater than both.
Nick:

And the possibility frightens you, doesn't it?
Lacroix:

But what kind of god is it, that can create such perversity, that can make such torture?
Nick:

Sometimes in our desperation, we'll believe anything.  We'll do anything.

Eric Sawchuck:

She was a woman of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

Nick:

Isaiah, chapter fifty-three, verse three.  It's paraphrased.

~~~~~
Lacroix:

This god, and this devil, are a mere human contrivance, and convenience.  They are for the justification of slaughter without the tricky business of accountability.

Sancho:

You are also a non-believer?

Nick:

If there is a God, He has not yet shown Himself to me.

Sancho:

For the sake of your souls, do not abandon your faith!  Though there may be evil within you, there is God also.

~~~~~
Tracy:

So you mind telling me why you're so familiar with biblical quotes?

Nick:

It's always a good idea to know what the other side is up to.

~~~~~
Lacroix:

Why give glory to a devil other than yourself?

~~~~~
Lacroix:

Listen to me, Nicholas!  You must fight this demon.  There is goodness in you -- there is God in you.  Use it!

~~~~~
Vanderwahl:

For the devil to be driven out, one must first believe that God has not abandoned the soul.  Torn as he is by good and evil, Nick does have faith.

Natalie:

You mean what we think we saw? . . .  Well, I'm not going to go on record saying that I saw a ghost, but if someone were to ask me if I'd had some kind of religious experience, I'd have to take the fifth.

[Topics]


Favors

 

Nick:

Janette, I need a favor.
Janette: Darling, I'm warning you, you're using them all up at once.

[Topics]


Family

 

Chung:

And what of her name?  Her past?
Nick:

Her past will be over.  Forgotten.
Chung:

The past.  You never forget that.  . . .  She will never escape the past.  I know, I have never been able to.

~~~~~

Chung:

You are the thing that killed my mother.
Janette:

He does look like your father, doesn't he?
Nick:

How can you be so cruel?
Lacroix:

It was bred into me.
Nick:

No.  No, we're killers, not torturers.
Lacroix:

I was referring to a more insidious kind of "breeding."  You're right; the resemblance is uncanny.  Tell me you love me, father.  Say, I love you, Oedipus.  Say, I'm sorry, Oedipus, and, forgive me, Oedipus, my son, for the treacherous introduction to the world that I gave you.
Nick:

Oedipus killed his father by accident!
Lacroix:

Nobody believes that.  Not anymore.
Schanke:

My old man, God rest his soul, he used to say to me, "the best defense is a good offense."  Guy goes for you, you go right for his throat.
Nick:

Hey, Del! . . . Where's Schanke?
Del:

School concert.  His daughter is singing tonight, so he'll be back later.
Nick:

You family guys stick together, huh?

~~~~~

Del:

It ain't easy bringing up kids, Nick.  You should try it.
Nick:

I want to.  . . .  I do think about it, sometimes.

~~~~~

Janette:

Isn't it refreshing to have a little one about the house?  Almost as if we were a real family.  It's a strange but sweet sensation.  I think I rather like it.

~~~~~

Natalie:

How's the babysitting detail going?

Nick:

I'm enjoying it.  And I'm afraid of it.  Who knows?  If mortality is my future, maybe a family of my own is possible, too.

~~~~~

Lacroix:

Keep him.  What our Janette wants, she must have.  . . .  Do you think that Janette's motives are entirely maternal?  Ask her yourself.  She has plans for the boy.

~~~~~

Nick:

Another time and place, another life, you would be welcome as a son to me.

~~~~~

Schanke:

You are missing out on the best years.  Believe me.  I've got a daughter; I do know.
Nick: My mother and sister have not seen me since I left for the Crusades.  I'm not disappearing again without seeing them one last time.
Janette:  That is all very well and good, Nicolas, but you presume a great deal -- that we are prepared to die, for one thing, which we are not.
Nick: They're my flesh and blood. 
Lacroix:  Not any more! Just get on with it. 
Fleur: Nicolas?  You're back!  Nicolas!  Oh, my dearest brother, thank God you're home!  Can it be you, after all these years? 
Nick: And you, a woman now. I can't believe my eyes.  My little flower has blossomed, my little Fleur. 
Fleur: Lucien, please, take me.  Take me with you.  I cannot live without you.  I thought I was used to the pain of separation; there have been so many from my family -- my father, Nicholas to the Crusades once, and now again.  But I have never felt such overwhelming sorrow.

~~~~~

Mother: Nicolas!  A miracle!  After all this time, I was certain you'd been killed in battle. 
Nick: Mother.

~~~~~

Nick:

When I chose this, the future of our family fell to you.
Nick:

But there's no suicide note!  I mean, she didn't even say goodbye to her family, or tell them that she loved them.  Something about that I can't accept.
Serena:

They say that marriage is not a possibility for you . . . or the burden of a family.
Nick:

Which is not to say I wouldn't like one.
Serena:

But you can't.  You won't.
Nick:

I have . . . other concerns.
Urs:

My father abandoned my family when I was twelve.  But we told ourselves, we wouldn't let it destroy us.  Growing up, I thought I'd forgotten him . . . .  I realized I've spent my life searching for my father in every man I've met.  Someone to approve of me.  To tell me I was a good girl.  And maybe even love me.  And I did whatever it took.

Tracy:

Maybe that's why I always used to run to my dad for advice.  I couldn't make decisions, 'cause he'd never let me learn how.

Natalie:

Nanna, listen to me.  I'm sorry I never came to the hospital.  But I have to tell you the truth.  Do you remember when I was a little girl and you used to take care of me?

Nanna:

Yes, I remember.  I hit you.  I hurt you.  Now I know how wrong I was.  I'm sorry, Natasha.  Can you forgive me?

~~~~~

Natalie:

. . . she apologized to me.  I've been waiting my whole life for her to apologize.

Lacroix:

It seems I have lost a daughter, and regained a son.

Tracy:

Look, Dad, the divorce is your business.  The settlement is your business, okay?  She's not happy about it.  I am not taking sides.

~~~~~

Tracy:

You're lucky you don't have family, Nick.  I mean, I know it must get hard around the holidays, but, take it from me, family's not all it's cracked up to be. . . .  My parents.  Sometimes I can't tell if I'm supposed to be their daughter or their referee.

Lacroix:

The loss of a family member is never easy, especially when you had the power to prevent it.
Nick: It is not what my sister wanted.
Lacroix: Time has dulled your memory, Nicholas. It was not what you wanted. A fact that I will enjoy reminding you of -- often.
Nick: I loved her too much to let you subject her to your hell.
Lacroix: And I loved Fleur so much that I offered her the gift of eternity. What has your love given her?  Au revoir, mon amour.
Nick: She wrote to me after she knew she was dying, asking me to look after her son.
Lacroix: You can't be serious.
Nick: It's something I have to do for her.
Lacroix: So this is how you're going to ease your conscience. Very well, Nicholas: play the charade if you must. But you know how it will end.

~~~~~
Nick: Andre, this is Monseiur Lacroix.
Lacroix: It's a pleasure to meet you, Andre. I knew your mother.
Andre: Really? Mother never spoke of you.
Nick: It's time for bed, Andre.
Andre: Good night, monsieur. Good night, Nicholas.
Nick: Good night.
Lacroix: He has her eyes.
Nick: And her spirit. His tutor says he's doing well.
Lacroix: Seems like a very caring relationship, though I wonder what young Andre would think of you, Nicholas, if he knew your little secret?
Nick: I'm planning on telling him, though I don't think it really matters. You see, Lacroix, it's more important to Andre who I am than what I am.
Lacroix: Are you certain?
Divia:

Daughter, mother, lover: why can't I be all three?  You need someone to love, Lucius, and I need you!

~~~~~
Divia:

One always knows family.

~~~~~
Divia:

Father . . . don't let me die.  Father . . .

[Topics]


Fear

 

Nick:

They make me feel weak.  I'm afraid of them.

Natalie:

Well, it's the next thing we should work on.

Nick:

If you don't mind, I'd just as soon stick with your garlic pills.

Natalie:

To become mortal, Nick, you're going to have to confront your immortal fears.

~~~~~
Nick:

You know, she had this incredible strength, this courage, utter lack of fear.

Natalie:

Faith.

Nick:

Yeah.  Faith in her own immortality.  The spiritual kind, not the kind I had to offer.  Bring the cross closer to me.

Natalie:

Why are you all so afraid of it?

Nick:

Because it's a symbol of the one, true light and we're creatures of the dark.

~~~~~
Nick:

You think I am cursed?  I, who will live forever?
Joan:

Oh, yes, very, because you are afraid of salvation.  You who choose to live forever live in constant fear of death.  I do not.
Chung:

It's not stubbornness.  She's afraid of revenge.  We should all be afraid of revenge.

Nick:

I know what real fear looks like.  She was scared. . . .  She had that cornered look, like she'd gotten in too deep.

Natalie:

How's the babysitting detail going?

Nick:

I'm enjoying it.  And I'm afraid of it.

Natalie:

I finished Dr. Carter.  There's nothing.  She killed herself.  And the world is going to end.  I'm afraid this time, Nick.  Really afraid.

~~~~~
Lacroix:

Perhaps there is a power that's greater than both.
Nick:

And the possibility frightens you, doesn't it?
Lacroix:

But what kind of god is it, that can create such perversity, that can make such torture?

[Topics]


Friendship

 

Father Rouchfort:

Now, let's break a little bread and start over as friends.  How do you feel about bratwurst and sauerkraut?

Natalie:

"Old friend" takes on a whole new meaning with you.

Nick:

You know, Schanke, you've got a dirty mind.  Nat and I are just good friends.
Schanke:

Oh, yeah, right.
Nick:

I didn't think you would understand.

~~~~~
Lacroix:

Hello, Nicholas.  We're going to be friends for a long, long time.
Nick:

Why won't you understand?  Our friendship is over.
Lacroix:

No.  It's forever.  And anyway, it's not your choice.

~~~~~
Nick:

Natalie.  This is Janette.  We're just old friends.
Lacroix:

My poor, miserable friend.  What a shallow existence you must be enduring.

Schanke:

What I said earlier, about the addiction stuff?  Stricken from the record, pal.  You're my partner, and I'll take you any way I can get you.
Janette:

Your friend is an excellent surgeon.
Nick:

When I leave, the only thing I will take with me is the memory of your kind heart.
Brianna:

Where's your mortal friend?
Janette:

Lying down in back.  [pause]  She's not my friend.

Vachon:

What kind of friends do you think I hang around with, anyway?
Tracy:

Hey, I've met them, remember?

Lacroix:

I am your oldest friend.

Tracy:

I'll take you to Screed; you can be with your friend.

[Topics]


Ghosts

 

Erica:

I'm waiting, Nicholas.  Once, you said you'd follow.
Nick:

. . . There are only two ways to escape eternity.  One way is to join the dead.  The other, to join the living.
Erica:

I'll be waiting.
Natalie:

I don't really believe in ghosts.
Nick:

You didn't believe in vampires, either.
Natalie:

Look, I know you're a figment of my imagination, but please don't sneak up on me like that! . . . Nanna, you're been dead for years.  How can you be here?

Nanna:

I don't know.  I saw you last night, so I followed to ask why you don't come see me in the hospital.

~~~~~
Natalie:

Could be hysteria, hypnotic suggestion, maybe even an hallucinogenic agent.  Haven't slept going on two days; that could be it.  Or -- I could just be losing my mind.

Tracy:

You're not crazy.  it's happening to me, too.

Nick:

All right, I saw someone, too.  A woman in the house . . .

~~~~~
Natalie:

Nanna, wait.  You have to tell me, where are you?

Nanna:

I'm sleeping, Natasha. In a beautiful dream.

~~~~~
Alyssa:

You're in grave danger, Nicholas.

Nick:

Please forgive me for what I've done.

Alyssa:

I do.  I forgive you.  I needed to know that you remembered me and what we had together.

Nick:

What we almost had.

Alyssa:

Seeing you again gives me great peace.  You must go now.  Others are coming.  Some among them bear you ill will, souls you dispatched from this world who cannot be appeased.  Go now.  Go quickly.

Nick:

Please -- come with me.

Alyssa:

I cannot.

Nick:

Be with me a while longer.

Alyssa:

I cannot.  But I can help you.  I know what it is you seek, why you came here.  The answer is here, Nicholas.  Come to me and see.

~~~~~
Nick:

She's finished here.  We've made our peace. . . .  Just someone I loved, and lost, a long, long time ago.  Someone who needed to be remembered.

~~~~~
Natalie:

You mean what we think we saw?  I don't know.  You know what bothers me about this is that each of our ghosts told us the same thing -- things we subconsciously wanted to hear. . . .  Well, I'm not going to go on record saying that I saw a ghost, but if someone were to ask me if I'd had some kind of religious experience, I'd have to take the fifth.

[Topics]


Guilt

 

Father Rouchfort:

He can be forgiven.  We all can be forgiven.  Detective, even you can have life everlasting.

Nick:

She heaps all the blame and guilt on herself.

Natalie:

Yeah, well, there are plenty of us who have that problem.

~~~~~

Stonetree:

Then you're guilty of adultery, not murder.  That's grounds for divorce, okay.  But you didn't pull the trigger.  I know you're feeling responsible about Gubbins's death.  But you're not the executioner.  You'll feel guilty about it for the rest of your life; I know that.  But you did not commit murder.

~~~~~

Nick:

C'mon.  You know where your husband's taken Stonetree; I know you do.  You felt inferior, corrupt.  You seduced Gubbins.  And you've done whatever's necessary to protect your husband.  But tonight, something changed.  While you were driving the captain's car, something changed.  That's why you're here.  Tell us right now, Mrs. Fiori, or you'll be responsible for the captain's death.

Lisa Cooper:

Without me, those guys wouldn't've come here.  You almost got killed because of me.  It was all my fault.

Nick:

Stop beating yourself up, Lisa.  It's not your fault that those guys are killers.  And you were here because you were doing the right thing.

Lisa Cooper:

Nick, I stole those comics.  That's why I was running and bumped into that Marty guy.  I started all of it.

Nick:

Marty Angelo died because he was a thief stealing from thieves.  His life killed him, Lisa, not you.  The drunk driver who killed your mom?  His fault, not yours.  You can't go on hurting because of what adults dump on you, Lisa.

Nick:

Aren't we supposed to acknowledge and apologize for any pain we might have caused?
Natalie: Hey, that's okay. No one said that this was going to be easy.
Nick:

My lord, you must know that I am innocent!

DeLabarre:

Of course, Nicholas, of course.  Such ugly business, this.  In time, the true killer will be unearthed.  No doubt it was one of the field hands, one of their own, bent on taking the poor woman.

Nick:

What's to become of me?

DeLabarre:

I've managed to secure your freedom, Nicholas, on condition that you pay your debt and your penance by fighting in the Holy Land.

Nick:

I'm not a murderer.  I must have a chance for a fair trial.

DeLabarre:

Are you blind, man?  You are a foreigner here.  The harper woman was their native daughter.  Stay to protest and they'll have your head.  The Archbishop and I have exercised all our resources in order to secure this reprieve, Nicholas.  I advise you to accept it with our blessing and take your sword to Jerusalem.

Cohen:

There's no need whatsoever to feel guilty about the shooting. You did everything you could, Nick.

Lacroix:

Your mistake will be rectified; your silly guilt will be relieved.  She's doing you a favor.

Nick: Please forgive me for what I've done.
Alyssa: I do.  I forgive you.
Lacroix: Does it not trouble you to have killed your own master?
Divia: Why should it?
Lacroix: Guilt is a poison, and staying past our time is death.

[Topics]


Heaven and Hell

 

Joan:

I will live on in the hereafter.

Nick:

How can you be so sure your God will be waiting for you on the other side?

Dean: Do you believe in life after death?
Nick: In a strange way, yeah.
Lacroix:

The silent scream of endless pain.  A "hellish alchemy" indeed.  Not death, not hell itself: but a precious, precious flower, long withered, and gone.

Lacroix:

Ah, we ancient immortals will linger for some while after you're gone.  I have been delivered from death -- to a more permanent hell.

~~~~~

Lacroix:

Which do you suppose is worse, Nicholas, to die, or to be left in a living hell?  A form of life whose only purpose is survival and nothing more.  To exist for the sake of existing.  Such bitter irony -- the mortals sustain us, their art, their laughter, their society, their blood.  Our eternal lives aren't worth much without them, are they?
Vachon: See you in hell, sailor.
Nick: I loved her too much to subject her to your hell.

[Topics]


Hobbies / Leisure Activities

 

Denise: Your wife was out tonight, wasn't she?
Schanke:

Yeah, she was bowling.

Denise: Yeah, that's right.  Bowling.
Schanke: [on cell phone]  C'mon, pick up, pick up, pick up.  Myra!  Myra, you're in.  [pause]  Well, I knew that; I knew you'd be home.  [pause]  That's funny; you don't even know how to play poker.  [pause]  So what'd you bowl tonight?  160, 180, or your usual spectacular 86?  [pause]  Right, right, of course, but who won?  I mean was it you?  Angela?  I know you're competitive.  [pause]  Yeah, yeah, I'm here, I'm here.  I'm out here in the middle of the night doing overtime for the kids, for you.  You know, world-class shopper that you are, Myra.  I'm sorry.  I didn't mean that.  Listen, honey, is there something -- that I should know?  [pause] [hangs up]  "Sloth."  Well, that's better than what she called me last week.
Stonetree:

Don, you still got that cottage up north?

Schanke: Yeah.
Schanke:

Well, I couldn't sleep, and there wasn't anything else around, so, you know, I figured...  It's actually kind of interesting, you know?  Everything okay?

Emily: Oh, fine.  I'm glad my book helped you pass the time.
Schanke:

. . . and before I can get another word in edgewise, she's saying, "Oh, what about the Gulf of St. Lawrence?" and "The whales can't wait; it'll be another year before mating time."

Schanke:

I just want to go up to the cottage, spend a little bit of time, you know, up at the lake, Father's Day with my wife and kid.

Cohen:

Gentlemen, let me lay it out for you.  No points for extracurricular activities.  You want to fill free time, try golf.

~~~~~

Schanke: Captain, speaking of down-time, Myra and I would like to steal away up to the lake.  The bigmouth are biting, fresh air, R&R . . .
Cohen: Spare me the scenic details, Detective.  Fish with your partner.

~~~~~

Schanke: You know, Nick, you're killing all the romance in my life?  Myra was really hot for that weekend.
Nick: Fishing turns her on?
Schanke: Fishermen, Nick.  And outboard motors.  [imitates motor]  Myra responds heatedly to the call of the wild, if you get my drift.  Fishing triggers the spawning instinct in her.
Nick: Transport has a William Briese in Riverdale.  You thinking what I'm thinking?
Schanke: Only if you're thinking about Myra in hip-waders.

~~~~~

Schanke: Guess I'd better break the bad news to Myra.  There goes our weekend.
Nick: Fish'll keep a few days.
Schanke: Who said anything about fishing?
Schanke: Guess where I am!  Myra contacted me, just like you said she would, by sending me a cab and a plane ticket to guess where?  Honolulu!  She met me at the airport wearing a lei and a grass skirt.  It was fantastic.
Nick: Well, I know you wanted Vegas, Schank, but it sounds like the salt air is doing you some good.
Schanke: Well, I guess listening to the ukuleles is much better than listening to the slot machines, and probably much better for ye old relationship, too.
Nick: Yeah.  It's not something we should take for granted.
Schanke: Listen.  I, uh, convinced some of the guys from the Vegas trip to, uh, come out here instead, so if any of them call the station, I'm in room 232 at the Dolph Inn, poker game starts tomorrow night.  All right?  See you in a week, buddy!  Hit me again, Stu.
Nick: Myra's a saint.
Schanke:

Myra wants to check out some cross-country skis.

Nick:

All I'm saying is I think you should have told me it was Myra's birthday.  I would have bought her something.

Schanke: No, no, no, it's okay.  Besides, I got her what she wanted.
Nick: That dream vacation?
Schanke: Yeah, right, only in her dreams.
Nick: What, then?
Schanke: Pair of rigid twenty-point ice crampons and rope.  Myra wants to take up ice climbing.
Nick: Ice climbing?
Schanke: Exactly.  Did you know that ten yards -- no, no, scratch that, ten meters of rope cost one-hundred-fifty dollars?  Now, Myra will only do it once.  Then she'll be on to the next expensive hobby, and I'll be stuck with one-hundred-fifty dollar clothesline, which I might hang myself with.
Nick: Is that why you're all bent out of shape?  Expensive rope?
Schanke: Nah.  Birthdays.  They just get to me.  It's another year closer to the end.

[Topics]


Holidays and Birthdays

 

Nick:

1957.

Norma Ellis: 1958!
Nick: Oh, yeah.  It was New Year's Day.  You know, I always get mixed up by that.
Schanke:

I just want to go up to the cottage, spend a little bit of time, you know, up at the lake, Father's Day with my wife and kid.  But no.

Nick: We're off Sunday.
Schanke: No, no.  You're off Sunday.  Correction.  Cohen saw my time card, said I was six hours late in the last three months.  She added an extra shift.  I miss enough of my daughter's life as it is, you know, working nights.  Now I have to miss her special chocolate pudding cake.
Nick: I'll cover for you.
Nick:

All I'm saying is I think you should have told me it was Myra's birthday.  I would have bought her something.

~~~~~

Schanke: Birthdays.  They just get to me.  It's another year closer to the end.
Nick: Myra has a birthday, and you worry about dying?

~~~~~

Nick: Would you just wish Myra a happy birthday for me, okay?
Natalie:

Well, it was last year on your birthday.  You and I went out to dinner to celebrate.  Do you remember which birthday that was?

Nick: All right, let me guess.  Um, somewhere between thirty and forty.
Natalie: Oh, you are so far off I cannot begin to tell you.

[Topics]


Holy Symbols

 

Natalie:

These things really make you uncomfortable, don't they?

Nick:

They make me feel weak.  I'm afraid of them

~~~~~
Joan:

Take this to remember me by, to remember that the faith you have lost is always there to regain.

~~~~~

Natalie:

This is amazing looking.  And very, very old.  Where did you get it?

Nick:

It was Joan of Arc's.

Natalie:

Joan of Arc?  The Joan of Arc.  Did she actually give it to you?

Nick:

Yeah.  I wanted to bring her over, to save her life, but she wouldn't let me.  You know, she had this incredible strength, this courage, utter lack of fear.

Natalie:

Faith.

Nick:

Yeah.  Faith in her own immortality.  The spiritual kind, not the kind I had to offer.  Bring the cross closer to me.

Natalie:

Why are you all so afraid of it?

Nick:

Because it's a symbol of the one, true light and we're creatures of the dark.

~~~~~

Joan:

Hold up my cross.  It will give me courage.

~~~~~
Natalie:

You were able to hold it!

Nixk:

It burns, but not as badly.  Who knows -- maybe I'm a step closer.

Natalie:

To God or mortality?

Nick:

Maybe both.

Schanke:

I promise you, I will be right back.  Cross my heart.

Janette: Please don't do that in front of me.
Lacroix:

I have no taste for holiness in any of its forms.  It plays havoc with my digestion.

Divia:

Staked, scorched by the sun.  Then interred, with the symbol of the sun god to imprison him for all time.

~~~~~
Lacroix:

I put her remains in the sarcophagus. The sun god on the lid acted on her in much the same way as the cross does on us.

[Topics]


Humanity

 

Janette:

You know I don't care about what happens to them.  And neither should you.

Nick:

Some people change.

Janette:

Ah, but you're not "people."  You're never going to learn that, are you?

Nick:

She's with mortals.

Janette:

Nicolas, we are surrounded by them.  You of all people should know that, at your work, and your friends.

Nick:

I do it for a reason.

Lacroix:

For all the things that we are, there is a price to be paid.  Love may be tasted, but never savored.  In our darkest moments, we may envy mortality, but we should never aspire to it.  Guilt is a poison, and staying past our time is death.  But it need not be.  If we truly care for a mortal -- truly love one -- then we must go.  Isn't that something that you taught me?  Leaving is the purest form of love.

[Topics]


Hypnotism

 

Tracy: You should keep that hypno-thing in your holster!
Nick:

Vachon once told me she was a resister, but . . . I've seen you work around that.

[Topics]


Life and Death

 

Schanke:

So what's a girl like you doing in a place like this?

Alma:

Life.

~~~~~
Nick:

And so you will die a martyr.  I'm sure that will please you very much.

Joan:

What would please me very much is to be back in Dom Remy with my family.

Nick:

So you are afraid of dying.  Life isn't so "everlasting" now.  I can give it to you.  A life that never ends.  A power beyond your imagination.

Joan:

Don't.

Nick:

Why throw your life away for the Church -- for some pious old men who lied to you?  How can you do that?

Joan:

If my death is necessary to keep the Church strong, then so be it.  I will live on in the hereafter.

~~~~~
Father Rouchfort:

Detective, even you can have life everlasting.

Erica: You were wounded.  Nearly killed.
Nick: Yes.

~~~~~
Erica: Life is so precious, and we are so blessed with our endless years.  We must contribute to it, to add to it, to pay for those lives we've taken away.  There will come a time when this lust I have for life will wane, when the plays I write will no longer amuse me, and when I will no longer shout for joy when I perform.  . . .  And when that happens, I will be a taker, unworthy of life.  Best to go away, lest I become a burden.

~~~~~
Dean:

Do you believe in life after death?

Nick:

In a strange way, yeah.

Dean:

I guess there's something in all of us that wants to live forever, huh?

~~~~~
Nick:

I still find life exciting.  And I think I've got more to give.
Erica:

I always loved the romantic in you.  But the time will come--
Nick:

No.  Not by my own hand.
Erica:

By whose, then?  You don't really think that you can become mortal?  That's no more than a fantasy, Nicholas.
Nick:

Well, I believe it.  . . . There are only two ways to escape eternity.  One way is to join the dead.  The other, to join the living.

~~~~~
Natalie:

I loved it.  I mean, I know it was all about death, but I thought it was very life-affirming at the same time.

Chung:

The memory of my mother's death demands that you pay -- demands that you pay with your death!

Lacroix:

Because he's nothing, Nicholas, that's why he's going to die.  And because we're nothing, Nicholas, that's why he's going to die slowly.

~~~~~
Lacroix:

Nicholas, I hope that someday you will come to realize and appreciate the the greater depths of satisfaction that can be found in killing.  For the pleasure.  For the sheer creativity of doing it.

Stonetree:

You know, I lost a partner.  Billy Wisdom, back in '78.  Great cop.  Family man.  He was a real influence on me.  Some smartass parolee ambushed us with a shotgun.  I emptied my revolver in the guy, put a hole in him the size of my fist, but that didn't bring Billy back.  Never does.

Nick: Guess it's not the first time someone's died in my arms.

~~~~~
Nick: Two people died for what you believe in.  You had no right to sacrifice them -- whatever the cause, whatever the reason.
Rebecca: I couldn't tarnish, bend, fold, spindle or mutilate my image if my life depended on it.
Nick: Does your life depend on it?
Schanke: Snoozing with the tuna, dancing with Mr. D, retirement with extreme prejudice.
Natalie:

So what were you saying about the death penalty?  I'm not sure I heard you right.

Nick:

I said I was against it.

Natalie:

A vampire against the death penalty?  Yeah, that's rich.

Nick:

I'm coming around, aren't I?  Besides, from a mortal's point of view, what makes you so sure death is a penalty?

Natalie:

Oh, no, no, no.  That is the kind of question that gets us into all-night debates.

Lacroix:

We seek the same revelations.  If I could spend the rest of my days on this quest -- with you -- there's nothing more I would ask of life.

~~~~~
Lacroix:

The silent scream of endless pain.  A "hellish alchemy" indeed.  Not death, not hell itself: but a precious, precious flower, long withered, and gone.

Divia:

Do you want to die, or live?  You only have moments to decide.

Lacroix:

To live, Divia, to live!

~~~~~
Lacroix:

Life is the enemy we cannot defeat, only cling to like parasites on the living flesh of the universe.

Lacroix: I don't like being dead.  It's quite annoying, actually.
Schanke: Birthdays.  They just get to me.  It's another year closer to the end.
Nick: Myra has a birthday, and you worry about dying?
Schanke: It's just that sometimes it hits you, Nick.  Death means the end of -- the end of you!  I mean, doesn't that make you think?
Nick: I try not to dwell on it too much.
Schanke: But what is it, anyway?  How can you experience death if there's no more of you to experience it?
Nick: I don't know.  I've never died before.  Would you just wish Myra a happy birthday for me, okay?
Reese:

Things like this never make sense.  We're all going to die, one way or another.  It's inevitable.

Nick: I sincerely hope you're right.

~~~~~
Reese: What are you doing here?  You're supposed to be off.
Nick: Yeah.  I just thought I'd clean out Schanke's desk before the funeral.
Urs:

I don't take death as lightly as you, Javier.

~~~~~
Urs:

Please -- feed and then let me die.  Please.  Please.  Kill me.

~~~~~
Urs:

I asked you to kill me, not to bring me across.  Not to bear for eternity what I couldn't bear for another second.  I asked for death, and you gave me forever.  Forever.

~~~~~
Ellen:

Haven't you ever wanted to die?
Tracy:

No.
Lacroix:

For all the things that we are, there is a price to be paid.  Love may be tasted, but never savored.  In our darkest moments, we may envy mortality, but we should never aspire to it.  Guilt is a poison, and staying past our time is death.  But it need not be.  If we truly care for a mortal -- truly love one -- then we must go.  Isn't that something that you taught me?  Leaving is the purest form of love.

[Topics]


Love

 

Nick: It cannot be.  Fleur is one who has always brought light.  The world needs her mortal love.

~~~~~

Nick: If you're punishing me for bringing you here, you have made your point. You cannot be in love! You have not one shred of humanity left in you.
Lacroix: I would have agreed before we arrived. How do you think this makes me feel? I can't control it. I can't accept it. And yet it is!
Nick: "Let go your mortal bonds." Have you forgotten your own lessons?
Lacroix:

No, of course I haven't forgotten! But -- Fleur is everything that I am not. She is pure, life-giving. My immortality has nothing to do with my feeling -- love.

~~~~~

Fleur: My only wish is to be with the one I love.

~~~~~

Nick: It is the beauty of her innocence that you love, and that you will kill with the first taste of her blood. If you truly love Fleur, Lacroix, you won't destroy that. You will not.

~~~~~

Lacroix: You have probably done me a favor.  But you must realize, Nicholas, that I will demand retribution.  One day, when you have fallen in love, I will take from you what you have taken from me now.  We're agreed?
Nick:

If I ever truly love a mortal . . .

~~~~~
Lacroix:

No.  I will not trade Fleur for that.  Your heart is still untouched.  It has never quickened with such passion; it has never ached with such sorrow.
Nick: Just because it's your portrait doesn't make it any more significant to you. It is as much a part of my life as it is yours.
Janette: You're being very petty.
Nick: And you are tearing my life apart.

~~~~~
Janette:

We have been building, Nicolas -- longer than the Medicis.  Ninety-seven years is longer than any mortal marriage.

~~~~~
Janette:

I couldn't accept the depth of his feeling for me.  I wasn't used to that.

Schanke:

Hey, Myra; hi, honey.  Yeah, I'm fine; everything's fine.  Why wouldn't it be?  I just wanted to call to say, you know, that I love you.

~~~~~
Nick:

But there's no suicide note!  I mean, she didn't even say goodbye to her family, or tell them that she loved them.  Something about that I can't accept.

~~~~~
Nick:

Schank, do me a favor, huh?  Give my love to Myra and Jenny.
Lacroix:

I'm thinking about pain tonight.  About what hurts us the most.  Perhaps a gunshot wound.  A severed limb.  Or maybe -- emotional pain.  Oh, it's the deepest suffering of all.  Pride shattered, broken dream, lost love.  Oh, yes.  The most painful things in the world are those mistakes of the heart, those mistakes we all make in the name of love.

~~~~~
Natalie:

Do you think he loved her?
Schanke:

Oh, and they say women are sensitive.  C'mon!  It was like a neon sign emblazoned across his forehead.  Of course he loved her.  Probably still does.

~~~~~
Natalie:

You loved her.
Nick:

Ah, it doesn't matter.  In her eyes, I betrayed her.
Urs:

My father abandoned my family when I was twelve.  But we told ourselves, we wouldn't let it destroy us.  Growing up, I thought I'd forgotten him . . . .  I realized I've spent my life searching for my father in every man I've met.  Someone to approve of me.  To tell me I was a good girl.  And maybe even love me.  And I did whatever it took.

Nick:

Just someone I loved and lost, a long, long time ago.  Someone who needed to be remembered.

Barbara Vetter: I love you.  Be careful.

~~~~~
Tracy: Mom?  I . . . I --
Barbara Vetter: I love you, too, honey.  Please be careful.  I worry for you.
Tracy: I love you, Mom.
Barbara Vetter: I know, baby.  I know.
Nick: I loved her too much to let you subject her to your hell.
Lacroix: And I loved Fleur so much that I offered her the gift of eternity. What has your love given her?  Au revoir, mon amour.
Divia:

Daughter, mother, lover: why can't I be all three?  You need someone to love, Lucius, and I need you!

~~~~~
Tracy:

I never got to tell you how I felt about you; maybe you knew.  I hope you did. You changed me, opened my eyes, and I'll always . . . always love you for that.

Lacroix:

For all the things that we are, there is a price to be paid.  Love may be tasted, but never savored.  In our darkest moments, we may envy mortality, but we should never aspire to it.  Guilt is a poison, and staying past our time is death.  But it need not be.  If we truly care for a mortal -- truly love one -- then we must go.  Isn't that something that you taught me?  Leaving is the purest form of love.

[Topics]


Media / Press / Reporters

 

Frank Titus: Don't deal in specifics.
Nick: No, only rumors.
Frank Titus: Look, I don't substantiate 'em.  I just spread 'em around.
Nick: And you don't care who gets hurt, I guess.
Frank Titus: Hey: you're in the public eye, you take your lumps.

~~~~~
Natalie: I should talk to the press.
Stonetree: I think you've done enough talking to the press.

~~~~~
Reporter: Mr. Girard, the Dean of Archaeology has been quoted as saying that he will review your tenure.
Nick: Well, I've been tried and convicted and my hearing has barely begun.  It's hardly a surprise that I've been sentenced, as well.
Reporter: Does this mean you'll resign your position as Associate Professor of Archaeology?
Nick: Do I have a choice?

~~~~~
Nick: Tried and convicted by the press.  That's a trial you can never hope to win.

 

[Topics]


Money

 

Stonetree: Those cheap thrills turned out to be pretty expensive.
Nick: Sometimes you get more than you bargained for.
Schanke: I'm out here in the middle of the night doing overtime for the kids, for you.  You know, world-class shopper that you are, Myra.  I'm sorry.  I didn't mean that.
Nick:

By now, the assets should be parked in a bank in Luxembourg.

~~~~~
Nick:

Too many people have died over the centuries for it.  I can't change that.  I can't bring them back.
Janette:

But, Nicolas, many of them were wicked.
Nick:

All the more reason to put the money to good use.
Nick: Ice climbing?
Schanke: Exactly.  Did you know that ten yards -- no, no, scratch that, ten meters of rope cost one-hundred-fifty dollars?  Now, Myra will only do it once.  Then she'll be on to the next expensive hobby, and I'll be stuck with one-hundred-fifty dollar clothesline, which I might hang myself with.
Nick: Is that why you're all bent out of shape?  Expensive rope?

[Topics]


Morals and Ethics

 

Erica: Life is so precious, and we are so blessed with our endless years.  We must contribute to it, to add to it, to pay for those lives we've taken away.  There will come a time when this lust I have for life will wane, when the plays I write will no longer amuse me, and when I will no longer shout for joy when I perform.  . . .  And when that happens, I will be a taker, unworthy of life.  Best to go away, lest I become a burden.
Stonetree: Those cheap thrills turned out to be pretty expensive.
Nick: Sometimes you get more than you bargained for.
Mai Chung:

It would be better if we didn't have to live here. But what better place for him to learn the evils of temptation?

~~~~~
Nick:

I've killed no one in a hundred years.

~~~~~
Janette:

Nick has repented his ways.  He tries to do good.

Lacroix:

Nicholas, I hope that someday you will come to realize and appreciate the the greater depths of satisfaction that can be found in killing.  For the pleasure.  For the sheer creativity of doing it.

Nick:

You sicken me, Lacroix.

Lacroix:

Don't watch.

Nick:

What crime could you possibly have committed that torments you so, Ilsa?

Ilsa:

I committed a woman's crime.  Seduction.  I seduced a nobleman.

Nick:

I have known seductresses.  And despite your willingness to expose your naked body to pose here for an artist, I do not see in you -- I do not get from you -- the messages or signals that the seductress sends out with every movement of her mouth, her face, her body.

Ilsa:

You're not a woman.  You don't understand.  Even when I don't wish to, even when I am unaware of what I am doing, my evil -- woman's evil -- is at work. 

Nick:

Yes, I know that is the popular belief.

Ilsa:

Belief?  Fact!  Proven.  Taught.  Preached.  Daily.  Nightly.  Where're you from?  Where've you been?

Chairman: Mr. Girard, will you kindly explain to this committee why you keep in your refrigerator bottles full of animal blood?
Nick: I choose not to answer that question under the protection of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
Woman: Commie monster!
Janette: I would have killed to set her free and I would do no less for you.
Nick: You must never do that.
Janette: Nicolas. You have been so weakened by this human concept of justice.
Serena:

That's sweet.  You murder me, then you lecture me on ethics.

~~~~~
Nick:

Is it worth a life?

Serena:

He's a murderer.  Violent scum!  The world won't lose anything.

Nick:

That's not for you to decide.

Serena:

Are you telling me you wouldn't sacrifice another human to regain your own mortality?  I know you better than that.

Nick:

We have laws, Serena.

Serena:

Thanks to you, they aren't mine.

Lacroix:

Does it not trouble you to have killed your own master?

Divia:

Why should it?

~~~~~
Divia:

We are free to do as we please, to kill as often as we desire, bathe in mortal flesh and blood.  To do everything that is forbidden.  No one can stop us.

[Topics]


Moving On / Starting Over

 

Janette:

Oh, Nicholas, let's leave.

Nick:

No.  We spend our whole lives running away.  I don't want to do that any more.  I want to fit in.

Natalie:

You could escape.

Nick:

Once again.  That's the story of my life.  Here we go. . . .  If I have to leave now, I'll get in contact with you, somehow.

Natalie:

Whatever happens, promise you won't give up.  You'll always keep trying to become human.

Nick:

You know, it's never pleasant, moving on -- particularly when you have no choice.

Janette:

You really think it's possible, don't you?  To start over.

Nick: Yes.
Janette: I hope you're right.
Nick: You do?
Janette: If that's what you want.
Janette:

He's gone.  Just forget him.  We can get a new one.

Lacroix:

Guilt is a poison, and staying past our time is death.  But it need not be.  If we truly care for a mortal -- truly love one -- then we must go.  Isn't that something that you taught me?  Leaving is the purest form of love.

[Topics]


Music

 

Janette: Nicolas, what has you so enchanted?
Nick: The music.
Lacroix: Perhaps the music. Or perhaps our young companion has chosen his evening's prey?
Janette: Common street players?  Surely 600 years have refined your tastes beyond that.
Lacroix:

They're students at the Conservatory, and very talented, especially the girl.  I should play again, but I'll never compare to them.  Why do you suppose that is, Nicholas?  Is it because they have a soul?
Nick: And you do not.
Lacroix: We do not.
Schanke:

Hey, there's a special on Pucchini on cable!  No, huh?

~~~~~

Nick:

I didn't realize you were an opera buff.  Polka, yes.  But opera?

Schanke:

Igor Stravinsky, Charlie Parker, the Beatles -- the world of music has as many facets as the gem of life, each beautiful in its own way.

[Topics]


Myra Schanke

 

Denise: Your wife was out tonight, wasn't she?
Schanke:

Yeah, she was bowling.

Denise: Yeah, that's right.  Bowling.
Schanke: [on cell phone]  C'mon, pick up, pick up, pick up.  Myra!  Myra, you're in.  [pause]  Well, I knew that; I knew you'd be home.  [pause]  That's funny; you don't even know how to play poker.  [pause]  So what'd you bowl tonight?  160, 180, or your usual spectacular 86?  [pause]  Right, right, of course, but who won?  I mean was it you?  Angela?  I know you're competitive.  [pause]  Yeah, yeah, I'm here, I'm here.  I'm out here in the middle of the night doing overtime for the kids, for you.  You know, world-class shopper that you are, Myra.  I'm sorry.  I didn't mean that.  Listen, honey, is there something -- that I should know?  [pause] [hangs up]  "Sloth."  Well, that's better than what she called me last week.
Jim Anderson: Put your eyes back in your head or I'm going to have to tell Myra.
Schanke: Four years my partner, he never let me get away with anything.
Jim Anderson: You don't know how good you got it with her, Donny.  She's a hell of a woman.

~~~~~

Schanke: I have not had a smoke in two weeks.
Jim Anderson: Not according to your wife.

~~~~~

Stonetree:

Don, you still got that cottage up north?

Schanke: Yeah.
Stonetree: Be a good idea if you sent Myra and Jenny up there, with twenty-four hour a day uniforms, until we catch this guy.

~~~~~

Schanke: You know what I think you need?  I think you need a woman in your life.  Myra, she's made me a happy man.  Sure, my eyes wander from time to time, but whose don't, huh?
Schanke:

Myra, listen, it's me.  I can't remember.  Am I registered to vote?

Schanke:

You should have told me!  I mean, Myra lives for this kind of thing.

Natalie: Oh no!  He's going to sic Myra the matchmaker on me!  I'll end up married to his cousin in Moosejaw!
Schanke:

The first stroll through the contents of a woman's purse is no walk in the park, Nick.  Just be glad it's not Myra's purse.  I still have nightmares about that curling iron with the spikes in it.

Nick: Why do they do it to themselves, Schanke?
Schanke: Well, Myra says we do it to them.  Like I have fun sleeping with the woman who wears sauna pants and curlers.  Like I enjoy sitting in the garage alone eating a triple cheese pizza.  Like I -- hey hey hey hey, [lifts advertisement] this is Brigitta Schneider!  Oh, man, I love this woman.  Too bad it's only a shot of her face, because she has one killer body.  I mean, I worship this woman.
Natalie: That "woman" is fifteen years old.
Schanke:

Myra tells this story about how I'd stay up all night taking showers, like I was obsessed with it or something.

~~~~~

Nick: How does Myra cope with all of it, knowing that you might not come home?
Schanke: Myra's a brick.  [pause]  Well, actually, we never really talk about it.  We . . . accept it.  Yep, you've just got to let it roll off your back like water off a duck.
Schanke:

I spent the morning sitting on a tactical nuclear weapon, and when I get back to the station, Myra's on the blower saying, "Donnie, you could have called a little bit earlier."  And I said, "Myra, you won't believe what just happened," and before I can get another word in edgewise, she's saying, "Oh, what about the Gulf of St, Lawrence?" and "The whales can't wait; it'll be another year before mating time."

Schanke:

I just want to go up to the cottage, spend a little bit of time, you know, up at the lake, Father's Day with my wife and kid.  But no. . . . Cohen saw my time card, said I was six hours late in the last three months.  She added an extra shift.  I miss enough of my daughter's life as it is, you know, working nights.  Now I have to miss her special chocolate pudding cake.

Nick: We're off Sunday.
Schanke: No, no.  You're off Sunday.  Correction.  Cohen saw my time card, said I was six hours late in the last three months.  She added an extra shift.  I miss enough of my daughter's life as it is, you know, working nights.  Now I have to miss her special chocolate pudding cake.
Nick: I'll cover for you.
Schanke: Captain, speaking of down-time, Myra and I would like to steal away up to the lake.  The bigmouth are biting, fresh air, R&R . . .
Cohen: Spare me the scenic details, Detective.  Fish with your partner.

~~~~~

Schanke: You know, Nick, you're killing all the romance in my life?  Myra was really hot for that weekend.
Nick: Fishing turns her on?
Schanke: Fishermen, Nick.  And outboard motors.  [imitates motor]  Myra responds heatedly to the call of the wild, if you get my drift.  Fishing triggers the spawning instinct in her.
Nick: Transport has a William Briese in Riverdale.  You thinking what I'm thinking?
Schanke: Only if you're thinking about Myra in hip-waders.

~~~~~

Schanke: Guess I'd better break the bad news to Myra.  There goes our weekend.
Nick: Fish'll keep a few days.
Schanke: Who said anything about fishing?
Schanke:

Hey, I better give Myra a jingle.  She should be through washing the cars by now.
Nick: Poor Myra.
Natalie: Schank's no prince, but at least he cares.

~~~~~
Schanke: Guess where I am!  Myra contacted me, just like you said she would, by sending me a cab and a plane ticket to guess where?  Honolulu!  She met me at the airport wearing a lei and a grass skirt.  It was fantastic.
Nick: Well, I know you wanted Vegas, Schank, but it sounds like the salt air is doing you some good.
Schanke: Well, I guess listening to the ukuleles is much better than listening to the slot machines, and probably much better for ye old relationship, too.
Nick: Yeah.  It's not something we should take for granted.
Schanke: Listen.  I, uh, convinced some of the guys from the Vegas trip to, uh, come out here instead, so if any of them call the station, I'm in room 232 at the Dolph Inn, poker game starts tomorrow night.  All right?  See you in a week, buddy!  Hit me again, Stu.
Nick: Myra's a saint.
Nick:

Give my love to Myra and Jenny.
Schanke:

Myra wants to check out some cross-country skis.
Nick:

Myra.
Reese: I sent someone over to the house when we got word.
Nick: I have to go see her as well. What am I gonna tell her?

~~~~~
Natalie: How are Myra and Jenny?
Nick: Holding up. They're strong.

 

[Topics]


Nick's Code and Quest

 

Erica:

You don't really think that you can become mortal?  That's no more than a fantasy, Nicholas.
Nick:

Well, I believe it.  . . . There are only two ways to escape eternity.  One way is to join the dead.  The other, to join the living.
Natalie:

Whatever happens, promise you won't give up.  You'll always keep trying to become human.

~~~~~
Nick:

I've killed no one in a hundred years.

~~~~~
Janette:

Nick has repented his ways.  He tries to do good.

~~~~~
Janette:

Your life would be so much easier if you came over and joined us again.

Nick:

I refuse to do that.

Nick:

Instead you choose to cower before an old man -- a man you could snap like a twig.

Nick:

For me, it's a better life.

Janette:

You really think it's possible, don't you?  To start over.

Nick: Yes.
Janette: I hope you're right.
Nick: You do?
Janette: If that's what you want.  I would have killed to set her free and I would do no less for you.
Nick: You must never do that.
Janette: Nicolas. You have been so weakened by this human concept of justice.
Feliks:

A compromise arrangement you would do well to emulate, rather than this mad pursuit of yours to become human.

Nick:

She's with mortals.

Janette:

Nicolas, we are surrounded by them.  You of all people should know that, at your work, and your friends.

Nick:

I do it for a reason.

Janette:

Maybe she does, too.  Maybe she is also looking for answers.  You said she [Serena] shared your soul.  Why not your quest?

~~~~~
Serena:

To have a child and live a life in the sun, to grow old and die like I'm supposed to: isn't that worth taking the chance that maybe it is true?

Nick:

Is it worth a life?

Serena:

He's a murderer.  Violent scum!  The world won't lose anything.

Nick:

That's not for you to decide.

Serena:

Are you telling me you wouldn't sacrifice another human to regain your own mortality?

~~~~~
Lacroix:

It drips with irony, doesn't it?  That your mistake, your victim, can achieve the mortality that you have sought for so long, and in a way you have no chance of repeating?  I mean, nature's so unkind.  So . . . sexist.

[Topics]


Nightwatch with the Nightcrawler

 

Schanke: Why do you listen to that creep?
Nick: It's an acquired taste.
Schanke:

It's your favorite all-night bogeyman.  Stabbed in the heart.  No witnesses, no signs of a weapon: I guess you could say he crawled under one too many skins.  Oh, I forgot!  You were one of his biggest fans, weren't you?  Maybe you can say a few creepy words at the funeral?  . . .  Personally, I think the man got what he deserved.  Next to him, Howard Stern sounds like Regis Philbin.

Lacroix:

Until tomorrow, I remain a friend to all.  And as always, when you have a friend in the Nightcrawler, who needs enemies?

Tracy: Sorry, Nick.  That guy gets under my skin.

[Topics]


Pain

 

Lacroix: That hurt!
Nick:

Wow.

Natalie:

You felt pain!

Nick:

Uh, not much, but --

Natalie:

But some!  I hit a little teeny tiny human nerve end in there!  Hold still.

Nick:

Take it easy.

Nick:

Aren't we supposed to acknowledge and apologize for any pain we might have caused?
Natalie: Hey, that's okay. No one said that this was going to be easy.
Lacroix:

I'm thinking about pain tonight.  About what hurts us the most.  Perhaps a gunshot wound.  A severed limb.  Or maybe -- emotional pain.  It's the deepest suffering of all.  Pride shattered, broken dream, lost love.  Ah, yes.  The most painful things in the world are those mistakes of the heart . . . .

[Topics]


Partners

 

Jim Anderson: Put your eyes back in your head or I'm going to have to tell Myra.
Schanke: Four years my partner, he never let me get away with anything.
Jim Anderson: You don't know how good you got it with her, Donny.  She's a hell of a woman.

~~~~~
Stonetree: You know, I lost a partner. Billy Wisdom, back in '78. Great cop. Family man. He was a real influence on me. Some smartass parolee ambushed us with a shotgun. I emptied my revolver in the guy, put a hole in him the size of my fist, but that didn't bring Billy back. Never does.

~~~~~
Schanke: Thanks for backing me up with the captain.  I appreciate it.
Nick: Well, that's what partners are for.
Schanke: Yeah.  Yeah, that's what partners are for.
Tracy: Nick seems like a really good guy.  He's a really good partner.  He respects me.  He's even risked his life for me.  Look, I think I may be stepping over the line here, but....
Reese: Where's Vetter?  You know, I really wish you two would stay in sync.  ...  I'm going to have to sit those two down and show them what the word "partner" means.

[Topics]


The Raven

 

Janette:

Never, ever come back to this club, Mr. Schanke. Believe me, I'm doing you a favor.

~~~~~
Schanke:

He always makes me wait outside this place, never lets me go in.  So the other night, I went in there looking for him -- and you would not believe this place, Father.  I mean -- you could just use your imagination.  So I went back last night alone.
Schanke:

I knew this place was full of whackos.

~~~~~
Janette:

We cater to the occasional fetishist.

[Topics]


Revenge

 

Chung:

It's not stubbornness.  She's afraid of revenge.  We should all be afraid of revenge.

~~~~~
Chung:

The memory of my mother's death demands that you pay -- demands that you pay with your death!

Stonetree: You know, I lost a partner.  Billy Wisdom, back in '78.  Great cop.  Family man.  He was a real influence on me.  Some smartass parolee ambushed us with a shotgun.  I emptied my revolver in the guy, put a hole in him the size of my fist, but that didn't bring Billy back.  Never does.
Lacroix:

One day, when you have fallen in love, I will take from you what you have taken from me now.

Lacroix: I don't like being dead.  It's quite annoying, actually.  But I will have my revenge.  My killer will pay.
Divia: You will pay for his sins.

[Topics]


Schanke-isms

 

Schanke:

I don't know.  I found it sleep-affirming.  I hear the word "play," immediately I think "football."  Call me a boor.

Natalie and Nick:

Boor.

Schanke:

She is hot.  She was born with a pair of oven mitts and a tube of tanning oil.

~~~~~
Schanke:

If I do not get eight hours, I'm not worth a wad of buffalo chips.

Nick:

That explains so much.

~~~~~
Schanke:

Why do you have so many remotes here?

Schanke:

Don't worry, sir.  We'll find your family — without the booga-booga stuff.

Schanke:

I usually work uptown.  I only come down here to feed the furnace.  Y'know what I'm saying?

~~~~~
Schanke:

"Barbarian."  What are you talking about?  This is a two-hundred dollar suit I'm wearing here.

~~~~~
Stonetree:

What's the red again?

Schanke:

Red means possibles!  Jeez, how many times--

Stonetree:

Good career move.  And the green?

Schanke:

Definite negatives.

Schanke:

Slice of heath-crunch pie says I'm right.

~~~~~
Schanke:

Blisters on my corneas, for one thing.

~~~~~
Schanke:

After much time and trouble, and a little bit of luck of the Schanke . . .

Nick:

I didn't realize you were an opera buff.  Polka, yes.  But opera?

Schanke:

Igor Stravinsky, Charlie Parker, the Beatles -- the world of music has as many facets as the gem of life, each beautiful in its own way.

Schanke:

We do not need no stinkin' dishes.  No dishes.  Pizza time!  Come on, kids; let's wolf it.

Nick:

Garlic.

Schanke:

This guy has got the weirdest tastes of any cop I've ever known.  He doesn't like donuts; he doesn't like burgers . . .

Schanke: At least he died clean.

~~~~~
Schanke: You know what they say -- the bathroom is the most dangerous room in the house.
Natalie: Sherlock Holmes.
Schanke: Right.
Natalie: This was definitely not an accident.
Schanke: Unless the TV spontaneously levitated into the tub.

~~~~~
Schanke: He's got my vote.  We need somebody tough in office.
Natalie: Oh, come on.  He's as phony as his hair-weave, Schank.
Schanke: That's a weave?
Schanke: It's tuck-in time at pillow-ranch.  G'night, gentlemen.
Schanke:

It's a dark and lonely jungle out there, with lots of wild animals masquerading as human beings.  Just ask Nick.  When you're out there on the streets alone, you're definitely up the river without an outboard.  You're working without a net.  You're bungee jumping without a cord.  It's like, well, it's like -- what's it like, Nick?

Nick:

It's like being alone in an alien world.

Schanke:

You really think so?

~~~~~
Schanke:

Hold on to your diapers, folks.  We're going into the free-fire zone.

Schanke:

So much paperwork, you'd think I was buying a house.  I must have given seven depositions -- seven different depositions.  They barbecued me.

~~~~~
Schanke: Snoozing with the tuna, dancing with Mr. D, retirement with extreme prejudice.
Schanke:

Oh, be still my bleeding ventricles!

Schanke:

Bet you can't get these lenses replaced overnight.

~~~~~
Schancke:

This is part of God's grand plan?  To smash humanity into millions of itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny little pieces, after all the progress we've made?

Nick:

What progress?

Schanke:

The Cold War's over?  Fiber-optic technology?  Airbags?

Nick:

Nice try, Schank.

~~~~~
Schanke:

No one's going to tell me that humanity, that's evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, survived wars, pestilence, disease -- game shows -- is going to be smashed into meaningless obscurity because some space trash took a wrong turn at Pluto.  There must be a mistake.  This is a joke, right?  This is a joke?

~~~~~
Schanke:

What, until the end?  Oh, I don't know.  Buy a donut franchise, learn Esperanto, wallpaper my rec-room with thousand-dollar bills.

Schanke:

You guys are chasing rainbows, and I'm splitting from Oz.  You're on your own.  It's, uh -- it's been strange.

Schanke:

Welcome to the wonderful world of hardhats.  You know the true meaning of "hat hair" when you take one of these things off.

~~~~~
Schanke:

She's a real looker, Nick.  I mean, this woman has an ooh-la-la accent that just will not quit.

~~~~~
Schanke:

I will tell you this woman does not subscribe to House and Garden.  This place feels like a crypt.

[Topics]


Sex

Nick:

What crime could you possibly have committed that torments you so, Ilsa?

Ilsa:

I committed a woman's crime.  Seduction.  I seduced a nobleman.

Nick:

I have known seductresses.  And despite your willingness to expose your naked body to pose here for an artist, I do not see in you -- I do not get from you -- the messages or signals that the seductress sends out with every movement of her mouth, her face, her body.

Ilsa:

You're not a woman.  You don't understand.  Even when I don't wish to, even when I am unaware of what I am doing, my evil -- woman's evil -- is at work. 

Nick:

Yes, I know that is the popular belief.

Ilsa:

Belief?  Fact!  Proven.  Taught.  Preached.  Daily.  Nightly.  Where're you from?  Where've you been?

~~~~~
Master Painter:

She puts up strenuous resistance, I'll tell you that, the little vixen.  Oh, but it's worth the effort, I warrant!

~~~~~
Nick:

Did you not put up a fight?  Did you not resist, strenuously, dear Ilsa?

Ilsa:

Yes, I did, with all my might!  But --

Nick:

My dear lady, that is not the behavior of a seductress.  You did not seduce him.  Oh, no.  You were raped by him.

Schanke: You know, Nick, you're killing all the romance in my life?  Myra was really hot for that weekend.
Nick: Fishing turns her on?
Schanke: Fishermen, Nick.  And outboard motors.  [imitates motor]  Myra responds heatedly to the call of the wild, if you get my drift.  Fishing triggers the spawning instinct in her.
Nick: Transport has a William Briese in Riverdale.  You thinking what I'm thinking?
Schanke: Only if you're thinking about Myra in hip-waders.

~~~~~

Schanke: Guess I'd better break the bad news to Myra.  There goes our weekend.
Nick: Fish'll keep a few days.
Schanke: Who said anything about fishing?
Janette: It's the end of the savings account and safe sex.
Nick:

There's a reason that she's with him, Janette.

Janette:

Yes.  And assuming he's still alive, it isn't sex.

Nick:

Are you certain?

Janette:

About as certain as one can be.

~~~~~
Nick:

Is it possible for her to mate with a mortal?

Lacroix:

That all depends upon what she's after.  . . .  In fact, there are legends . . . of special mortal men whose seed can make a female vampire conceive.  It has to be done at the peak of the full moon on the thirty-first of the month. . . .

Nick:

Then you believe?

Lacroix:

Of course not.

Nick:

The baby?

Lacroix:

Mortal.

Nick:

And the man?

Lacroix:

Well, he dies, of course.  It goes without saying.

[Topics]


Suicide

 

Erica:

I'm waiting, Nicholas.  Once, you said you'd follow.
Nick:

I don't know.  I still find life exciting.  And I think I've got more to give.
Erica:

I always loved the romantic in you.  But the time will come--
Nick:

No.  Not by my own hand.
Erica:

By whose, then?  You don't really think that you can become mortal?  That's no more than a fantasy, Nicholas.
Nick:

Well, I believe it.  . . . There are only two ways to escape eternity.  One way is to join the dead.  The other, to join the living.
Erica:

I'll be waiting.
Nick:

Ilsa!  Ilsa, I found --   Of course.  Why would you trust me?  I'm a man.
Master Painter:

They call it "lady killer."  It's the most popular with the ladies because it's the cheapest.  I suppose now I'll have to pay to get her buried.
Nick:

But there's no suicide note!  I mean, she didn't even say goodbye to her family, or tell them that she loved them.  Something about that I can't accept.

~~~~~
Natalie:

I finished Dr. Carter.  There's nothing.  She killed herself.  And the world is going to end.  I'm afraid this time, Nick. Really afraid.

~~~~~
Natalie:

With all the suicides coming in, I can't help but feel that maybe Dr. Carter had the right idea.
Schanke:

Wait wait wait!  You're not thinking about, ah--
Natalie:

Sure I was.
Urs:

Please -- feed and then let me die.  Please.  Please.  Kill me.

~~~~~
Urs:

I asked you to kill me, not to bring me across.  Not to bear for eternity what I couldn't bear for another second.  I asked for death, and you gave me forever.  Forever.

~~~~~
Ellen:

Haven't you ever wanted to die?
Tracy:

No.

[Topics]


Time

 

Nick: Don't mind me, Nat.  My mind just wandered.
Natalie: How far?  How long ago?
Bernice: I've always hated saying goodbye to summer.  Fall's only here about two weeks, and then it's winter.  It seems so sudden.
Nick: Well, that's the eternal complaint, huh?  Although winter can be a beautiful season as well.

[Topics]


Truth

 

Nick: You have to decide whether you want to be zealous or thorough.

[Topics]


Vampirism (Physical)

 

Nick: If you hadn't given me the transfusion . . .
Natalie: You would have starved to death.
Nick:

Word to the wise.  Immortality is no excuse not to floss.

~~~~~
Janette:

Just taste it.  You can't deny what you are.  You need it.

~~~~~
Alma:

Take slow, easy breaths.  We don't want your blood to boil.  Spoils the taste.
Chung:

I know what you are.  I know the legend of the Cup Ju Kung Ci.  You are a drinker of blood, one who lives forever.  But I have a  spell that will end all that.

Natalie:

You're awake.  Finally!

Nick:

Just barely.  How's the picnic?

Natalie:

Great.  There's only one thing missing, though: you.

Nick:

Well, I think it would spoil the fun if I started to smolder between the hot dog and the ice cream courses.

Natalie:

Oh, hey, it's almost sunset.  You could come over now.

Nick:

You know, I have to really stop getting shot.  Sometime someone is going to notice for good.

Natalie:

Have you tried ducking?

Nick:

Okay, I'll try.

Natalie:

Well that's strange.  The wound is still open.

Nick:

It can't be.

Natalie:

I wonder.

Nick:

What?

Natalie:

Well, this must mean your metabolism's changing.  I mean, this thing should have been healed and sealed within minutes, right?

Nick:

Well, usually, bullets go right through me.

Natalie:

An open wound is a definite improvement!  Means you're not healing as fast as you did.  I don't know, but we might be seeing shades of mortality here.  Program must be working.  I mean, look, you can see yourself in the mirror.

Nick:

Only sometimes.

Natalie:

Have you tried that artificial blood I gave you?

Nick:

Oh, you mean the low fat, zero cholesterol, no sodium, absolutely no flavor --

Natalie:

"No flavor."  Well, don't knock it, tiger.  It's obviously working.

Nick:

Wow.

Natalie:

You felt pain!

Nick:

Uh, not much, but --

Natalie:

But some!  I hit a little teeny tiny human nerve end in there!  Hold still.

Nick:

Take it easy.

~~~~~
Natalie:

Well, you are still a medical marvel, but I think we are getting just a little bit closer.

~~~~~
Nick:

I'm blind!  I'm blind!

Lacroix:

You never could hide your thoughts from me, Nicholas.  I'm afraid I was a poor teacher in that area.  Or maybe -- yes, we skipped those lessons, didn't we?

The Baroness:

It's not my library, or my parties?  Or the smell of the blood of my guests?

Nick:

What if I was to to tell you I miss you?

Janette: I wouldn't believe you.  No, Nicolas, you're more mortal now than ever.  I can see it in your eyes and I barely felt you when you came in.
Natalie:

Why did you go back out into the sun at the power station?  Did you just think to yourself, 'Oh, today would be a good day to spontaneously combust'?

Lacroix:

I have no taste for holiness in any of its forms.  It plays havoc with my digestion.

Janette:

And why do you always worry about them?  What about us?  . . .  Have you considered what will happen when the mortals are gone?  How will we feed?  You're used to depriving yourself, but do you really look forward to slow death by starvation?

~~~~~
Lacroix:

You young ones are fortunate.  Most of you will eventually starve and die.  I will grieve on that day, for my Nicholas, my Janette.

Nick:

And what will happen to you?

Lacroix:

Ah, we ancient immortals will linger for some while after you're gone.  I have been delivered from death -- to a more permanent hell.

Nick:

There's a reason that she's with him, Janette.

Janette:

Yes.  And assuming he's still alive, it isn't sex.

Nick:

Are you certain?

Janette:

About as certain as one can be.

~~~~~
Nick:

Is it possible for her to mate with a mortal?

Lacroix:

That all depends upon what she's after.  . . .  In fact, there are legends . . . of special mortal men whose seed can make a female vampire conceive.  It has to be done at the peak of the full moon on the thirty-first of the month. . . .

Nick:

Then you believe?

Lacroix:

Of course not.

Nick:

The baby?

Lacroix:

Mortal.

Nick:

And the man?

Lacroix:

Well, he dies, of course.  It goes without saying.

~~~~~
Serena:

The baby is the bonus, Nicolas.  If I can get pregnant, I will become mortal.  You didn't know?  It's part of the legend.  If you think about it, there's no other way for the seed to grow.

Nick:

But that could be all it is: a legend.

Vachon:

It was the most erotic thing I've ever experienced.  And yet, it was somehow . . . pure.

Nick: . . . a lower form of vampire . . . feed off vermin, mostly.
Tracy: What if it is a vampire? How do I explain something like that?  People will think I was nuts.  Nick, especially.  He is such a skeptic.
Vachon: Know him that well, do you?
Tracy: Well enough.
Vachon: My advice?  Don't try to explain it.  If it is a vampire, and you find that out for sure, you'll probably be dead before you can tell anyone.
Vachon: Urs doesn't know her own strength.

~~~~~
Vachon: We do not live to kill.  We kill to live.
Tracy: You should keep that hypno-thing in your holster!
Vachon:

Screed told me about something.  He said that he'd heard of a group of doctors that travel back and forth between here and Rio, and some of them have connections to us -- you know, our community. . . . Anyway, they have a thing going.  Millions of dollars involved.  They prey on people's desperation. . . .  So, they accelerate the process of procurement.  That's what Screed told me.  For a fee -- an astronomical fee, of course -- they find you what you need and, uh, you know, take care of the particulars. . . . Hey, I don't have anything to do with this. I'm just repeating what Screed told me.
Screed: First kill, any kill.
Nick:

You have to understand that every drop of blood has your whole life in it.  It's not just our food; it's the way we feel life.  Imagine if you could know someone's soul by sharing their blood.  Everything you know, everything you are, transformed into touch and taste.
Divia:

Staked, scorched by the sun.  Then interred, with the symbol of the sun god to imprison him for all time.

~~~~~
Lacroix:

I put her remains in the sarcophagus. The sun god on the lid acted on her in much the same way as the cross does on us.

~~~~~
Vachon:

Men, women, children -- especially children. I see them killing and being killed.  I can't stand the pleasure . . . . I see her vision, her memories.

~~~~~
Divia:

One always knows family.

~~~~~
Lacroix:

Perhaps the evil that permeated the tomb sustained her. I don't know. Does it really matter?

~~~~~
Nick:

Vachon once told me she was a resister, but . . . I've seen you work around that.

[Topics]


Vampirism (Spiritual)

 

Nick:

You think I am cursed?  I, who will live forever?
Joan:

Oh, yes, very, because you are afraid of salvation.  You who choose to live forever live in constant fear of death.  I do not.  I will pray for you, Nicholas.  I will pray for us both.
Lacroix:

I should play again, but I'll never compare to them.  Why do you suppose that is, Nicholas?  Is it because they have a soul?
Nick: And you do not.
Lacroix: We do not.
Lacroix:

What are you doing, Nicholas?  You can't become human.  Your desires are in your soul.  They're immutable.  . . .  You are what I am.

~~~~~
Nick:

He killed from lust, not hunger.  He killed just to kill.
Lacroix:

My poor, miserable friend.  What a shallow existence you must be enduring.  Nicholas, I hope that someday you will come to realize and appreciate the the greater depths of satisfaction that can be found in killing.  For the pleasure.  For the sheer creativity of doing it.

Nick:

You sicken me, Lacroix.

Lacroix:

Don't watch.

Lacroix: My goodness, Nicholas, in such a hurry to leave your paramour. And such a willing one at that. I'd say she was something of a find: the beautiful daughter of a wealthy wine merchant. What's this all about? You can tell me . . . can't you?
Nick: You know what this is all about.
Lacroix: Let me think. Hmm. You have found a ravenous beauty. A mortal, who makes love to you, and wants you to possess her totally, who will happily die in your arms, drained. I'm afraid I don't see the problem.
Nick: I must have her.
Lacroix: Ahhh. But if you go on this way, possess her as a vampire must, then you will have to kill her -- or bring her across -- and either way, you will no longer possess her.
Nick: Yes.
Lacroix: I do sympathize. You may not believe that, but I do. [beat] It is our nature to possess, to drain away the lives of others into our bodies And that is the logical consequence, isn't it?
Nick: What do you mean?
Lacroix: Of possession, my dear, hungry Nicholas. For a vampire or a mortal to possess another totally is to destroy them. They cease to exist.
Nick: Then we possess nothing.
Lacroix: Until we kill again. And creatures such as you and I always kill again.
Lacroix: My immortality has nothing to do with my feelings.  Love!
Lacroix:

Which do you suppose is worse, Nicholas, to die, or to be left in a living hell?  A form of life whose only purpose is survival and nothing more.  To exist for the sake of existing.  Such bitter irony -- the mortals sustain us, their art, their laughter, their society, their blood.  Our eternal lives aren't worth much without them, are they?
Nick:

So who is the more powerful in the end, the hunter or the hunted?
Lacroix:

I don't know.  Perhaps there is a power that's greater than both.
Nick:

And the possibility frightens you, doesn't it?
Lacroix:

But what kind of god is it, that can create such perversity, that can make such torture?
The Guide: You may come to us, Nicholas.
Nick: Who are you?  What is this place? 
The Guide: Come to us and you will know.  Choose to return to the evil that awaits you, and you will be lost. 
Lacroix: Turn away from the light, Nicholas.  It is not your salvation.  It is only for the weak, the defeated.  Come back to me, Nicholas. 
Nick: He has offered me a thousand lifetimes, everything I desire and covet.  Can you do the same?  Why should I go with you, when I can live?
The Guide: You must choose.
Nick: What can you offer me?
The Guide: The choice.
Vachon: We do not live to kill.  We kill to live.
Nick:

You have to understand that every drop of blood has your whole life in it.  It's not just our food; it's the way we feel life.  Imagine if you could know someone's soul by sharing their blood. Everything you know, everything you are, transformed into touch and taste.

 [Topics]

 

War

 

Vachon:

You know me: love a good fight.  At least, that's how I used to be.  Sometimes, fighting for a losing cause, no matter how right it is, can frustrate you, wear you down.
Tracy:

So whose side were you on?
Vachon: Whoever was losing.
  • from “Can't Run, Can't Hide”
Lacroix: C'est la guerre, mon ami.
Nick:

This isn't war.  This is a crime!
Lacroix: Yes.  Yes, it is.  What are you going to do about it?  What will you do to bring these criminals to justice?

 [Topics]

 

Forever Knight was created by James Parriot and Barney Cohen, is owned by the Sony Corporation, and airs periodically on the SciFi Channel.  No infringement is intended by this compilation.  These quotations may come from any of the numerous aired versions of the series, or from final (shooting) scripts, depending on to what I have access.  Please do not archive, post or otherwise distribute this piece with additions, modifications or deletions of any sort, or without my direct permission as compiler.  If you wish permission, please ask: email me.

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