Wilson Fisk quotes from Daredevil

Fisk

A woman that can be bought isn't worth having.

Fisk

I'm not very good at this, out, being in public. But I felt the need to speak up for this city that I love with all my heart. No one should have to live in fear. In fear of madmen who have no regard for who they injure. In fear of the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, who has inflicted untold pain and suffering. This masked terrorist and psychopaths of his kind, we must show them we will not bow down to their campaign of coercion and intimidation. We must stand up to them. As this man, my dearest friend, Leland Owlsley, a pillar in the financial community, stood up when he was recently assaulted. But this assault was for no other reason than to send me a message. A message warning me to stop. To give up my dream that I have for this city. A dream of a better place. A place for its citizens to feel safe. To feel pride. I tried to do this quietly, not wanting to draw attention. The last thing I wanted was for anyone close to me to become a target from those who do not share my dream. For those who will have this city stay exactly as it is, mired in poverty and crime. But I know now it was foolish to make that decision. That I can no longer do it alone. That I cannot keep living in the shadows afraid of the light. None of us can. None of us should be forced to. We must do this together. We must resist those who would have us live in fear. My name is Wilson Fisk. And together, we can make this city a better place.

Fisk

I don't know how to pray. My father was not a religious man. My mother wanted to be -- I think, needed to be -- but she never quite found it within herself. I'd seen it in movies, watched it on television. I read it in books when I was a child. After I was sent away, I tried to mimic the words. The sentiment. But it was false. It was an imitation of faith. No... I can't pray for you. All I can do is make you a promise. One that not even God, if there is such a thing, can prevent me from keeping. The people that did this to you... They will suffer, Vanessa.

Fisk

It's a difficult thing, isn't it? Taking a life. Feeling the weight and responsibility of all the years the person you've murdered has lived—moments that they've cherished, the dreams that they've struggled towards—gone, because of you. I want you to know something. Something important that I've learned: that it gets easier the more you do it.

Fisk

[defeated; laughs at Daredevil] You really think... this will change anything? You think one man in a silly little costume will make a difference…? [Daredevil knocks him down]

Fisk

You have a gift, Mr. Castle. I assumed that the stories I read in the paper about your attacks on the criminal world were apocryphal. How could one man be capable of such... violence? But then I saw it, with my own two eyes. And when one comes across someone with such talent -- with such a gift, well... You don't let that go to waste.

Fisk

The physician says that your condition is grave, that your lungs are filling with liquid. In a few hours, you're likely to suffocate in your own blood. But you won't suffer alone. I'll be here. Because you were right. In prison, there's only room for one kingpin.

Fisk

I've spent much of my life alone. And for many years, I pretended that this was the source of my strength. I told myself I had free will. And in that time, I achieved a great deal. But I was not fulfilled. I was longing for a connection that I could imagine but I could not achieve. Searching and not finding. Until Vanessa. Until I discovered love. I thought I would explode with the sense of power and freedom that she brought me. That the world lay at my feet. But then that passed when I discovered the great lie at the heart of love. That what I took for true freedom was precisely the reverse. You can build a prison of stone and steel, but you merely present the prisoner with a challenge. Any truly determined man will find a way out. But love... Love is the perfect prison. Inescapable. So you see, Agent Nadeem... I am always in prison, wherever I go. And if these things help me protect Vanessa, then they are nothing to me. I will do whatever I must.

Fisk

You can take him, grab his gun. come for me! I'm caged up, unarmed! But you won't. You can't kill me. You can't even kill yourself...

Fisk

I know that most of you will find this difficult to accept. That's only because you've been manipulated. Poisoned into believing the news media's fake story, that I am evil. That I am a criminal! Quite the opposite is true. Because I challenged the system. Because I told the truth and I tried to make this city a better place, the people in power decided to tear me down. To tear me down with false allegations. They sent someone to frame me -- Daredevil! The killer who's now showing his true colors. Who's tried to murder people in newspaper offices and churches, attacking our sacred institutions. Believe me, Daredevil is our true public enemy!

Vanessa Marianna

There's an old children's joke. You hold up a white piece of paper and you ask, "What's this?" A rabbit in a snowstorm. You interested or just looking?

Wilson Fisk

Interested.

Vanessa

People always ask me how can we charge so much for what amounts to gradations of white. I tell them it's not about the artist's name or the skill required, not even about the art itself. All that matters is "How does it make you feel?"

Fisk

It makes me feel alone.

Vanessa

How are you enjoying "Rabbit in a Snowstorm"?

Fisk

You remember.

Vanessa

Of course. It's one of my favorite pieces.

Fisk

I hung it in my bedroom. It's the last thing I see every night.

Vanessa

That's either very romantic or very sad.

Fisk

I like to tell myself it's the former.

Vanessa

The city's really changing.

Fisk

Not fast enough.

Vanessa

I don't know. Be a shame to see all the character scrubbed away.

Fisk

You didn't grow up here, did you?

Vanessa

[laughs] What gave it away?

Fisk

When I was a kid, I used to dream what it would be like to, to live somewhere far away from Hell's Kitchen. Somewhere beautiful.

Vanessa

What made you stay?

Fisk

I didn't. When I was 12 years old, my mother, she sent me to stay with relatives. Had a farm, middle of nowhere. Those were good years.

Vanessa

But you came back.

Fisk

Yes. Time and distance, they afford a certain clarity. I realized that this city was a part of me, that it was in my blood. And I would do anything to make it a better place for people like you.

Owlsley

Where are the Smiley Twins? Sleeping off another kidnapping?

Fisk

The Ranskahovs are no longer a part of this organization.

Owlsley

Since when?

Fisk

Since I removed Anatoly's head with my car door.

Vanessa

So why does a man like you feel alone?

Fisk

Nature of my business, I suppose.

Vanessa

And what kind of business is that?

Fisk

Rebuilding this city. I want to carve something beautiful out of its ugliness…set free its potential.

Vanessa

You sound like an artist.

Fisk

I'm just a man with a dream.

Vanessa

What do you think an artist is? [indicating his cufflinks] Are those the only ones you have? You were wearing them last time.

Fisk

They were my father's. I wear them every day to remember him.

Vanessa

Did he pass?

Fisk

When I was a boy. May I ask you something now?

Vanessa

I'd say you've earned it.

Fisk

What kind of gun is that you have in your purse?

Vanessa

It's a .22.

Fisk

Did you think you would need that tonight?

Vanessa

We've been sitting here talking for hours and you're going to insult me like I have no idea what you really do?

Fisk

What I said about what I want for this city is the truth. But money and influence is not enough to usher change on such a scale. Sometimes it requires force.

Vanessa

I know you're a dangerous man. That's why I brought a gun to a dinner date.

Fisk

Would you like to leave?

Vanessa

No. I'd like a reason to stay.

Fisk

I've done things that I'm not proud of, Vanessa. I've hurt people and I'm going to hurt more. It's impossible to avoid for what I'm trying to do. But I take no pleasure in it, in cruelty. But this city isn't a caterpillar. It doesn't spin a cocoon and wake up a butterfly. A city crumbles and fades. It needs to die before it can be reborn.

Vanessa

So I don't need the gun?

Fisk

No. By my side is the safest place that you could ever be.