Three Days of the Condor quotes

View Quote Kathy: I'm scared!
Turner: So am I!
Kathy: Why? You've got the gun!
Turner: Yes! Yeah, and it's not enough. Listen. I work for the CIA. I'm not a spy. I just read books. We read everything that's published in the world, and we-- we feed the plots-- dirty tricks, codes into a computer, and the computer checks against actual CIA plans and operations. I look for leaks, new ideas. We read adventures and novels and journals. I-- I can-Who'd invent a job like that? I-- Listen! People are trying to kill me!
Kathy: Who?
Turner: I don't know, but there's a reason. There is a reason! And I just need some safe, quiet time to pull things together.
Kathy: Here.
Turner: Here.
Kathy: That's only fair.

View Quote Atwood: [delivering money] That includes Condor, of course.
Joubert: Yes. I owe you Condor.
Atwood: Otherwise--
Joubert: Otherwise does not exist.
Atwood: Will Condor take long?
Joubert: Do you want an estimate?
Atwood: There is a time factor.
Joubert: Always with you people. Condor is an amateur. He's lost, unpredictable...perhaps even sentimental. He could fool a professional. Not deliberately, but precisely because he is lost. Doesn't know what to do, unlike Wicks who has always been entirely predictable. The man Condor killed in the alley?
Atwood: Some friend of his.
Joubert: Close friend?
Atwood: I suppose. Why?
Joubert: It interests me. What was his name?
Atwood: I don't know. He was nobody.
Joubert: Right.
Atwood: What about Wicks?
Joubert: You want the firm to question him? They will, you know.
Atwood: We don't want that.
Joubert: Cost you nothing. I was careless with Condor. Wicks will be done for nothing.

View Quote Turner: You're funny. You take pictures of empty streets and trees with no leaves on them.
Kathy: It's winter.
Turner: Not quite winter. They look like November. Not autumn, not winter. In-between. I like them.
Kathy: Thanks.

View Quote Kathy: You're not entitled to personal questions! That gun gives you the right to rough me up; it doesn't give you the right to ask me...
Turner: Wh- wh- Rough you up? Have I roughed you up?
Kathy: Yes! What are you doing in my house?
Turner: Have I? Have I?
Kathy: Going through all my stuff? Force...
Turner: Have I raped you?
Kathy: The night is young.
Turner: You don't believe anything I've said.
Kathy: I believe you're in trouble...danger...but I don't know what kind, and I'm not sure how much of it is made up. Real, but, uh...
Turner: Doesn't make any difference--doesn't matter.
Kathy: Wait a minute. Will you--
Turner: Forget it.
Kathy: I'm trying to understand!

View Quote Kathy: Ow! You're hurting me. Wait a minute. You-- Oh! You bully! Don't tie me up! Come on, please! This is... unfair!
Turner: I know.

View Quote Turner: Listen, I'll be going in the morning.
Kathy: Where? Was it all right?
Turner: All right?
Kathy: Outside-- Was it safe? Wherever you went.
Turner: Oh. I'm not sure.
Kathy: Oh, God. I wish I knew more. About you, yesterday, today…
Turner: I don't remember yesterday. Today it rained.

View Quote Kathy: Sometimes, I— I take a picture that… isn't like me, but I took it, so it is like me. It has to be. I put those pictures away.
Turner: I'd like to see those pictures.
Kathy: We don't know each other that that well.
Turner: Do you know anybody that well?
Kathy: I don't think I want to know you very well. I don't think you're gonna live much longer.
Turner: Well, I may… surprise you. Anyway, you're not telling the truth.
Kathy: What do you mean?
Turner: You'd rather be with somebody who's not going to live much longer, at least somebody who would be on his way.
Kathy: I'm not--
Turner: You take pictures. Beautiful pictures, but of empty streets and trees with no leaves--November. Why haven't you asked me to untie your hands?
Kathy: H-How much doyou want...
Turner: I just...want to stop it. For a few hours. For the rest of the night. And then I'll go.

View Quote Kathy: You didn't sleep well.
Turner: You didn't?
Kathy: No, you didn't. You're up early.
Turner: Oh, I had--I had some thoughts. I've got a plan. I don't know if it'll work or not, but...I'll need your help.
Kathy: Have I ever denied you anything?
Turner: Hey.
Kathy: Well, when things quiet down...you're really a very sweet man to be with. You had bad dreams. Talked in your sleep.
Turner: What did I say?
Kathy: Who's Janice? Well, was she a volunteer or a draftee like me?
Turner: She was...a friend. She's dead.
Kathy: Do I have permission to take a shower?
Turner: You don't have to help, you know?
Kathy: Oh no, I'll help. You can always depend on the ol' spy-****er.
Turner: OK
Kathy: I'm sorry.
Turner: No.
Kathy: No, I didn't mean… I didn't mean to say that. I'm really sorry. I'd like to help you.

View Quote Kathy: What did you do to those people?
Turner: What people? I don't know who they are. I file a report. A guy in Washington reads it. He's supposed to-- He's my section chief. He comes to New York to shoot me.
Kathy: Did you know him?
Turner: No.
Kathy: Did you know the mailman?
Turner: No, but the guy in Washington did.
Kathy: You won't know the next one.
Turner: I'm not waiting for the next one.

View Quote Mr. Wabash: Has he gone double or dirty?
Higgins: I don't know, sir.
Mr. Wabash: You think he's still in New York City?
Higgins: I wouldn't be.

View Quote Turner: This is no goddamned book! Somebody or something is rotten in the Company!
Higgins: You never complained 'til yesterday.
Turner: You didn't start killing my friends 'til yesterday!

View Quote Turner: You wouldn't also happen to be acquainted with a tall gentleman, 6'4", blond hair, strong like a farmer. He's not American, has an accent. Country, toward Germany, maybe Alsace-Lorraine.
Higgins: I want to see that report, Turner.
Turner: No, no..Higgins. C'Mon! ..Do you know him?
Higgins: Professionally, yes.
Turner: Professionally, he kills people.
Higgins: Yes! Yes.
Turner: He works for the company?
Higgins: He did once. He's a contract agent.
Turner: Contract agent.
Higgins: Freelance. Where did you see him?
Turner: Uh-uh.
Higgins: It would help if I knew.
Turner: Who would it help? Who'd hire him now?
Higgins: Anybody.
Turner: Terrific answer.
Higgins: I wouldn't accept it, either.
Turner: What's his name?
Higgins: When I knew him, Joubert.
Turner: Come on, Higgins. Who'd hire him? You don't look up Joubert in the yellow pages.
Higgins: That's right. It'd have to be somebody in the community.
Turner: Community?
Higgins: Intelligence field.
Turner: Community! Jesus, you guys are kind to yourselves. Community.
Higgins: I want to see that report, Turner.
Turner: That report was sent to headquarters and disappeared.
Higgins: Who read it?
Turner: You mean besides Wicks? You tell me. I pick up traces of what I think's an intelligence network the company doesn't know about, and I report it. Now, why is that going to make anybody mad? Unless it was the company's network and you didn't want it blown, even to your own guys. Unless somebody is lying, Higgins. Come on. Why is everybody so shy?
Higgins: I'm not shy. I don't know. That's what worries me. I don't know.
Turner: Ask Wicks.
Higgins: Wicks died. Someone yanked him off the life support system at Guvenor Hospital.
Turner: Get me in, Higgins.
Higgins: What good would that do if you're right, and they are inside? What good would it do to bring you in?
Turner: What am I supposed to do?
Higgins: I'm sorry.
Turner: You're sorry? You're sorry. Oh, I get it. I get it. You expect me to draw fire, like one of those penny arcade bears that parades back and forth, waiting for somebody, somebody good, to take another shot. You'll pick him up before he does it, or just after?

View Quote Kathy: [about Higgins] Do you trust him?
Turner: [shakes his head] Trust.
Kathy: Does he trust you?
Turner: He's in the suspicion business. He can't trust anybody.
Kathy: How could anybody fool them?
Turner: Maybe nobody did.
Kathy: Then--
Turner: Maybe there's another CIA...inside the CIA.

View Quote [Turner and Kathy say their goodbyes at a train station.]
Kathy: You… you have a lot of very fine qualities. But…
Turner: What fine qualities?
Kathy: You have good eyes. Not kind, but… they don't lie, and they don't look away much, and they don't miss anything. I could use eyes like that.
Turner: But you're overdue in Vermont. [pauses] Is he a tough guy?
Kathy: He's pretty tough.
Turner: What will he do?
Kathy: Understand, probably.
Turner: Boy. That is tough.

View Quote Turner: Kathy, I need time.
Kathy: Hmm?
Turner: Eight hours or so, that's all. Till noon, to do what I have to do. Do you understand what I'm saying? Are you going right to Vermont?
Kathy: Yes.
Turner: What I mean is don't call anyone. Don't stop, please. Don't tell anyone about--
Kathy: [crying] Of course!
Turner: Jesus. Jesus. I-- I didn't--
Conductor: All aboard!
Turner: Hey. You take care of yourself.
Kathy: I'll do my best.
Turner: Do your best.