E.R. quotes

[discussing their previous arrest] I don't get how you can roll over like that?

Pratt

That's the way it works sometimes.

Yeah. If you let it.

Pratt

What are you going to do, file a lawsuit?

That's one way to fight it.

Pratt

There is no fighting it.

You know, I don't buy that.

Pratt

Look, we could be perfect, you know, like Gandhi. But as soon as the crap goes down, we'll be the first ones laid out in the street with a gun to our head. Now, where I grew up, you see it every day. And if it happens to you enough, you get the message. You are not equal. You are not a full citizen. You are first, last, and above all, one thing and one thing only: a suspect.

Pratt

So uh, this must be a really scary part for you, huh?

What?

Pratt

Well, all the white folks left. Now it's just you, and couple of niggas with knives.

Luka

Just show up. That's all I've been doing: showing up. Time goes by faster at work. Shift work. Treat and street a few lost souls. You're with them when they're most vulnerable, when they're naked, weak, hurt. You touch them, look at their bodies, see them more closely than their families, their lovers. But it's mechanical, you know, temporary. You fix them up or you watch them die. Either way, it ends and you move on. No next time, no strings, no real connection. Maybe that's why I stay.

Luka

Medicine was exciting, powerful, alive. Today we saved a teenager's sight. I saved a child's life. I didn't feel it. Didn't feel anything.

Luka

There was cartoon I once saw in a magazine. A little man is sitting in a room with two doors. One door says "Do Not Enter" and the other says "Do Not Exit". So he just sits there, holding his hat.

Carter

You know, right?

Abby

Know what?

Carter

That night at the restaurant. I had a ring. You knew that, right?

Abby

I figured if you wanted to talk about it, you would've.

Carter

I didn't go through with it because at that moment it just felt... It didn't feel right. And I don't know why. But I wish I did know why. I think that the fact that I didn't do it, means that there's something that's not working.

Abby

I get it. It's O.K. I gotta go.

Carter

You get it? Well, that's good. Maybe you can explain it to me, 'cause I don't get it. I know that I show up for work and you're acting like a completely changed person and I think that's great. If that's real. The patch, the sponsor...

Abby

Real?!

Carter

For real, for you. Or is this something that's gonna be thrown out the window the next time something bad happens? Cause if you're trying to prove something to me...

Abby

What?

Carter

Like some kind of quick fix.

Abby

I didn't do it for you! I woke up sick of myself, OK? And if you're sick of me and just all of it, I don't blame you!

Carter

I'm not sick of you. How do you hear that?

Abby

Because all I ever do is disappoint you. I feel like all I'm ever going to do is disappoint you...

Carter

Stop.

Abby

I've said this before, I don't know why you're...

Carter

Stop! Stop!!! Stop with this whole routine! This fatalistic, black-cloud, nothing good is ever going to happen to me routine!

Abby

The problem is, it's not a routine.

Carter

Hey! What do I have to say? What do I have to do to get through to you?

Romano

[to Carter] This is my ER now! That stands for one thing: Everyone's Replaceable! Even you.

Romano

Listen, okay Goofus? I'm the doctor, you're not....

You know what? It seems to me that if your intention is to....

Romano

My intention is to serve out my time in this hell hole without having affirmative action imbeciles like you make me regret having ever gone into medicine.

Romano

They're letting any bottom feeder with a check into med school these days?

Carter

Actually, Gallant is one of our best med students.

Romano

Well, that doesn't bode well for the future of emergency medicine. But maybe by the time he gets his license, we'll all be dead.

Elizabeth

Kerry, can I ask you something? Are you as concerned about Robert as I am? Or, more precisely, his mental health- he seems...broken by this assignment-

Kerry

He's a cockroach. He refuses to evolve, and yet he'll survive us all.

Carter

[on Romano] He has no patient reports, severely stunted interpersonal skills, and he's incredibly hostile-

Kerry

Qualities consistent with most surgeons!

Carter

Kerry, the guy doesn't know what he's doing, and he doesn't wanna learn! And, he almost killed a patient today by prescribing an antiquated treatment.

Kerry

But, obviously you stopped him from doing so!

Carter

Yeah, but I can't stay on top of the guy 24:7!

Kerry

Well, we're trying to shift him to a more administrative role-

Carter

What are you gonna do, chain him to his desk?

Kerry

Look, the ER may not be the best fit for Dr. Romano, but it's all the man has! Just... make it work. Or better yet, work around him.

Romano

[to Luka] How do you say "bite my big one" in Croatian?

Romano

[to Abby] If I wanted a nurse's opinion...well, I don't know what I'd do because quite frankly it's never happened.

Romano

[to Pratt] Congratulations, smart-ass. You just bought yourself a month of midnights.

Pratt

Good, I love the nightlife.

Carter

What are you doing?

Romano

What does it look like?

Carter

A lawsuit.