George Hearst quotes from Deadwood

Hearst

Accepting your premise, Mr. Swearengen, I'll not name how you would benefit from the action I wish you to take, saying only instead it's my will. To which I will have you bend.

Hearst

This place displeases me. I'm taking measures to bring it down.

George Hearst

The nigger I appointed to dine with does not appear.

Hearst

I hate these places, Odell, because the truth that I know, the promise that I bring, the necessities I'm prepared to accept make me outcast. Isn't that foolish? Isn't that foolishness? An old man disabused long ago of certain yearnings and hopes as to how he would be held by his fellows, and yet I weep.

Hearst

You will not mistake the newspaper man: he looks like a... big turtle.

George Hearst

Elections cannot inconvenience me. They ratify my will or I neuter them.

Hearst

I oughtn't to work in these places. I was not born to crush my own kind.

Hearst

[noticing a stuffed buck's head on the wall] Your kill, sir?

Swearengen

Who?

Hearst

The animal.

Swearengen

Oh fuck no, I'm a fucking terrible shot. Work better closer in.

Hearst

[slaps the wall of his room in the Grand Central Hotel] These walls are coming down.

Wolcott

They'll be your walls soon.

Hearst

Ever since I was a child in Missouri I've been down ever hole I could find.

Wolcott

Boy-the-earth-talks-to.

Hearst

Yeah, I've told you, that's what the Indians call me.

Wolcott

Yes.

Hearst

It talks to you too, Francis, I know. Our time together, your hearing has stayed keen. But this gambler Tolliver, who was our agent for buying the claims has spoken to me about you. He says that you've killed women. Prostitutes. That he has disposed of the bodies for you.

Wolcott

[stunned, fumbles putting out his cigar]

Hearst

WELL!?

Wolcott

When I was in Campeche, you wrote a letter on my behalf.

Hearst

To the Jefe de Policia.

Wolcott

"I am aware of Mr. Wolcott's difficulty. You will find me personally grateful for any adjustments you may make in his case." What did you think that was about?

Hearst

I didn't think about it. You were my agent in Mexico! You had many responsibilities. You asked me for the letter and I wrote it!

Wolcott

As when the earth talks to you particularly, you never ask its reasons.

Hearst

I don't need to know why I'm lucky!

Wolcott

What if the earth talks to us to get us to arrange its amusements?

Hearst

That sounds like goddamned nonsense to me.

Wolcott

Suppose to you it whispers, "You are king over me. I exist to flesh your will."

Hearst

Nonsense.

Wolcott

And to me... "There is no sin." It happened in Mexico and now it's happened here.

Hearst

We must end our connection, you understand that, Francis. Make a severance you think is fair. You know I won't quibble. Does some spirit overtake you? Is that what you mean by the "talk"?

Wolcott

No.

Hearst

It tells me where the color is. That's all it tells me. My God.

Al Swearengen

Bloodletting on my premises that I ain't approved I take as a fucking affront. It puts me off my feed.

Hearst

How do we know when you are off your feed?

Al Swearengen

You'll start to see me tearing things down. Speeches tonight are canceled. Unless the insult's cured by tomorrow, there'll be further tearing down. Fuck the fucking elections, and fuck the agreement with Yankton. Let the camp return to its former repute: unstable and unsafe for commerce.

Hearst

I'm a great believer in those.

Al Swearengen

Oh, stability, Sir, and commerce? I can fucking imagine. Think of all they've helped you accomplish.

Hearst

To labor without pleasure makes us our destiny's slaves.

Swearengen

To work for crumbs or to keep from the lash says maybe a slave's what you are.

Whatever's toward what he wants. Not a flying fuck if it's true or how fucking soaked in blood.

Alma

That talk serves no purpose.

What talk to a murderer does?

Hearst

I'd not be insulted in my own rooms, Mr. Ellsworth.

Where shall we go for me to do it?

Hearst

[to Tolliver] The Sheriff recently put me on notice. He is vigilant of my possible "transgressions."

You sound drunk to me.

Hearst

Whom are you addressing?

You. You sound drunk.

Hearst

Do I? [Bullock nods] Hm. When I say "Go fuck yourself," Sheriff, will you put that down to drunkenness or a high estimate of your athleticism?

[growing angry] Did you just tell me, "Fuck myself?"

Hearst

I think I did. And to shut up, or I will quiet you myself.

You're under arrest.

Hearst

[defiantly] Fuck you. And shut up, or I will shut you up for good.

For threatening a Peace Officer, I'm taking you into custody.

Hearst

Don't be stupid, Bullock...

Don't YOU be fucking stupid!

Fuck...you!

George Hearst

I knocked holes in these walls. Confinement gives me the fidgets.

Set yourself up comfortable.

George Hearst

Let me confide as well, Odell, that when people only say to me with other words what I have just said to them, I quickly grow impatient.

George Hearst

Gold is every man's opportunity. Why do I make that argument? Because every defect in a man and in others a way of taking him. Our agreement that gold has value gives us power to rise above.

Fond as you are of my mother, without that gold I showed you, I don't expect we'd be out here talking.

George Hearst

That is correct. And for your effrontery at our meal a moment ago, I'd have seen you shot or hanged without second thought. The value I gave the gold restrained me, you see? your utility in connection to it. And because of my gold those at the other tables deferred to my restraint. Gold confers power. Power comes to any man who has the color.