M quotes from GoldenEye (1995)

Seems your hunch was right, 007. It's too bad the Evil Queen of Numbers wouldn't let you play it– [Bond coughs to indicate M is right behind them: Tanner winces as they both turn to face her]

M

You were saying?

No, I was just, just–

M

Good. Because if I want sarcasm, Mr. Tanner, I'll talk to my children, thank you very much.

M

The Prime Minister's talked to Moscow; they said it was an accident during a routine training exercise.

Bond

Governments change. The lies stay the same.

M

We've pulled the files on anyone who might have had access or authority at Severnaya. The top name on the list is an old friend of yours, I understand.

Bond

Ourumov. They made him a general.

M

He sees himself as the next iron man of Russia, which is why our political analysts ruled him out. He doesn't fit the profile of a traitor.

Bond

Are these the same analysts who said that GoldenEye couldn't exist, who said the helicopter posed no immediate threat and wasn't worth following?

M

You don't like me, Bond. You don't like my methods. You think I'm an accountant, a bean counter more interested in my numbers than your instincts.

Bond

The thought had occurred to me.

M

Good. Because I think you're a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War, whose boyish charms, though wasted on me, obviously appealed to that young woman I sent out to evaluate you.

Bond

Point taken.

M

Not quite, 007. If you think for one moment I don't have the balls to send a man out to die, your instincts are dead wrong. I've no compunction about sending you to your death. But I won't do it on a whim. Even with your cavalier attitude towards life. I want you to find GoldenEye, find who took it, what they plan to do with it, and stop it. And if you should come across Ourumov, guilty or not, I don't want you running off on some kind of vendetta. Avenging Alec Trevelyan will not bring him back.

Bond

You didn't get him killed.

M

Neither did you. Don't make it personal.

Bond

Never. [turns to leave]

M

Bond. [Bond stops and turns to her] Come back alive.