Deadwood quotes

Seth

Charlie Utter thinks it has to come to blood.

Al

Charlie Utter's likely right.

Seth

And if it has to, that we should strike first.

Al

Believe me, even now in the forest the blade would be between my teeth; me and you making our way stealthily forward. And as to us and him, if blood's what it finally comes to, 100 years from now the forest is what they'll find here. Dewy morning's lost its appeal for me. I prefer to wake indoors. Dan! You don't travel tonight! Need of canned peaches, Johnny. Let's collect the camp elders. Be baffled among friends, huh?

Johnny Burns

[Dan comes out to the bar groggy and starts drinking Johnny's coffee] You go on ahead and drink that, it's about my third damn cup. I'm Jangle-nerved already. Let me go on and get shaky-handed, pop my foot on the floor like I'm a-listen' to banjo music!

Steve

[Speaking of blacks] Puttin' a dead one's kidneys up his nose... however the fuck else they summon up their demons. Beat thigh bones on tin pans... shake, rattlin', and hop the fuck around!

Samuel Fields

Ain't meanin' to be here long, ain't looking to drink. All's I'm here for, Steve, is to talk to this here gentleman.

Steve

Go ahead and do somersaults or peel bananas with each other for all I give a fuck. Whole place has gone to shit anyhow.

George Hearst

The nigger I appointed to dine with does not appear.

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.

Blazanov

Fuck confidentiality of communication.

Al Swearengen

Why not fuck a woman instead?

Blazanov

Hope to, eventually.

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.

Al Swearengen

[to Doc] Jesus Christ! The fucking gimp finds something useful to do in the fucking brace you made her. Do you think you could treat "Being Johnny" -- always struggling to fashion a fuckin' thought? Every fucking night, I, that could cut a throat and sleep the sleep of the just, spend six fucking wakings trying to fill a piss-pot with my dribble and wondering when I got to be so old. [throws swatches down to Doc] Pick a fucking swatch for a spit rag, use the others for masks, and go about your fucking business. I ain't learning a new doc's quirks!

A.W. Merrick

[Reading a letter written by Sheriff Bullock] "It becomes my painful duty to inform you that Pasco Carwen was killed earlier this week. His body was found in the road. It was not mutilated in any way. His death seems to have been instantaneous as he was stabbed through the heart. Pasco's funeral occurred today and was attended by coworkers and friends who all shared the same high opinion of him. Everything was done by kind hands that was possible under the circumstances, and a Christian burial was given him. I was not personally acquainted with Mr. Carwen, save for one encounter where he demonstrated grief and deep compassion at the passing of a friend. I knew him by reputation as an earnest worker and a diligent believer in right and wrong. His memory I am sure will always be with those who knew and loved him, among whose number I imagine you as first. A letter from you, which I found in his tent, causes me to convey this sad intelligence to you." [Pause] What shall I do with this, Mr. Bullock?

Al Swearengen

What the fuck is your paper for? You publish that letter, as witness!

Blazanov

[Reading a telegram for Hearst about an order for 25 "bricks"] Do you believe, Mr. Swearengen, Mr. Hearst orders more bricks?

Al Swearengen

No. What do you believe?

Blazanov

I believe he orders more humans --

A.W. Merrick

Reinforcements.

Blazanov

[Angrily thumps the table] To do harm! [Gestures to Merrick] As we saw on our walk! Leave to die in a country strange to them, men apart from their families, working to give them support! Fuck confidentiality of communications!

Al Swearengen

Why not fuck a woman instead?

Blazanov

I hope so, eventually.

George Hearst

I'm to take you for majestically neutral?

I'd make the less exalted claim, as a journalist, of keeping my opinions to myself.

George Hearst

You are less majestically neutral than cloaking your cowardice in principle?

I can only answer perhaps, Mr. Hearst, events have not yet disclosed to me all that I am.

I'll not have vile affections, or uncleaness, on these premises. Find my specific meaning at Romans 1:24-6.

Calamity Jane

[drawing over Shaughnessy's biblical quote placard] Fuck yourself, with a fist-punch up your ass, today at the present moment! [punches Shaughnessy in the gut]

Samuel Fields

Cause I'm a nigger, Doc, that don't care what stands or falls.

Doc Cochran

Hostetler was too.

Samuel Fields

Hostetler was taller than me.