Joubert quotes from Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Joubert

Would you move from the window, please?

Pardon me? ...I won't scream.

Joubert

I know.

Atwood

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.

Turner

What does Operations care about a bunch of goddamn books? A book in Dutch. A book out of Venezuela. Mystery stories in Arabic.

Atwood

Wait!

Turner

What the hell is so important about…

Turner

Oil fields. Oil. That's it, isn't it? This whole damn thing was about oil! Wasn't it? Wasn't it?

Atwood

Yes, it was.

Joubert

Don't turn for a moment. Put your thumb in front of the hammer. Release it slowly. Set down the gun on the desk. And don't move. Back up. You were quite good, Condor, until this. This move was predictable.
[Joubert shoots Atwood]

Turner

Why?

Joubert

I don't interest myself in "why". I think more often in terms of "when", sometimes "where"… always "how much". I suspect he was about to become an embarrassment. As you are.

Turner

So you're not finished.

Joubert

Pardon? Oh, no. I have no arrangement with the company concerning you. They didn't know you'd be here. I knew you'd be here.

Turner

But didn't you send the mailman?

Joubert

That was a business arrangement with Atwood, but you see.

Turner

I'd like to go back to New York.

Joubert

You have not much future there. It will happen this way. You may be walking. Maybe the first sunny day of the spring. And a car will slow beside you, and a door will open, and someone you know, maybe even trust, will get out of the car. And he will smile, a becoming smile. But he will leave open the door of the car and offer to give you a lift.

Turner

You seem to understand it all so well. What would you suggest?

Joubert

Personally, I prefer Europe.

Turner

Europe?

Joubert

Yes. Well, the fact is, what I do is not a bad occupation. Someone is always willing to pay.

Turner

I would find it… tiring.

Joubert

Oh, no — it's quite restful. It's… almost peaceful. No need to believe in either side, or any side. There is no cause. There's only yourself. The belief is in your own precision.

Turner

I was born in the United States, Joubert. I miss it when I'm away too long.

Joubert

A pity.

Turner

I don't think so.
...

Joubert

For that day.