Leonard Brooks quotes from CSI: NY

My past will always follow me. As it should. I do still... I have the urges every day, and I don't want to go back to that place. But... as long as I can't be arrested for my thoughts, I won't.

It's like that moment when you're a kid and you first realize how powerful the ocean is. You step in, and the water's calm, and you hold it in your hand, but it just slips through your fingers. And you think: well, how strong could it actually be? Feeling bold, you wander out into the abyss. And by the time you turn around, everyone you left on shore seems too far away to help. That's when it hits, this wave, this massive current that pulls you in and pushes you down, holds you there, pinned beneath something so strong. It's like... something you can't control. All you can do is hold on and fight, but then the more you fight, the more weary you get and your lungs burn and your throat... throbs, so you... just let it overtake you. You feel this... force, seemingly benign, but it... can consume and destroy you. It's the thing inside me, strong in ways that nobody can see or comprehend. This dark undertow that I'm powerless to stop. I guess the fires were really controlling me.

The guy who died, the fireman, he was a friend of yours? I'm sorry. I'm sorry he died.

Mac

Yeah, you're so sorry you went back to the scene during his funeral. You couldn't even let us have that.

You're right. That was poor timing on my part.

Mac

How'd you light the fires, Leonard? Some kind of time-delay device, huh? How'd you do it?

I'm not gonna conjure fire from thin air, Detective.

Do you smoke?

Mac

No.

Drink? I trust you've never experimented with heroin or crystal meth? Addiction. That's what it is, an addiction. Only there's no chemical in my bloodstream weaving its way through my body. The poison coursing through my veins is psychological. And the antidote can't be found in a bottle of pills.

I don't want to do what I do, Detective. Every day, every hour, I battle with my mind. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. And I've won that battle for the last 15 years.

Mac

Yeah, I'm... I'm confused. You waiting for some kind of applause here? You want me to cry?

I have just as much incentive to figure out who set that fire as you do. Someone clearly wants to frame me, someone who has waited a long time for me to get out, but would prefer that I stay caged up in that cell.

Mac

And you might know who that someone is?

I'm offering my services. As a... arson investigator... if you will.

This. It's the ignition point.

Yeah, great, genius. That was a tough one. Can I lock his ass up now, please?

Did you find anything here? Either inside or next to the hole in the floor?

Mac

One of my investigators found some kind of melted metal.

About the size of a dime?

What was it, Leonard?

Have I not earned your respect enough to not treat me like one of your project thugs?

You don't have even one ounce of my respect.

Which is precisely why I'm not gonna tell you what it was. You'll use it against me.

I employed the technique... once, and that's all I'm gonna give you on that.

That's it? We brought you out here for that?

Yeah. This was very helpful. Perhaps not to you, but it was to me.

Jo

This was all that was left of your property, Leonard. I'm sorry.

Guess when you don't have much, you don't have much to lose.

Thank you for treating me like a human being.

Mac

We don't know any other way.

Mac

(Addressing a young officer) Answer it, just say hello.

Hello? (To Mac) It's for you, Detective.

Mac

(Grabbing the phone) Taylor.

Sorry about the lack of hospitality Detective, I wasn't expecting guests.

Press is wrong about me, you know?

Mac

Don't like being called a monster?

No, that part is accurate. I am a monster, but please tell those reporters my victim was anything but innocent.

Is that what you want, Leonard? To be invisible? Starting fires seems to be in opposition to that want.

No. You never listen. Can't you see? I control fire. No one's looking at me. All eyes are on the flames.