Richard Webber quotes from Grey's Anatomy

Webber

[voice over] The waiting can kill you. You make a decision and then the world has to turn. The consequences unfold, out of your hands. There's only one thing that seems clear, in those quiet moments while you wait, whatever you chose was wrong.

Webber

[voice over] We just wanna survive the storm. We pray,"Please God, just get me to the other side". We never imagine what it'll be like when we get there. What if, when the storm passes, nothing's left? I always said I could handle anything. I was wrong. I was wrong about a lot of things. But I was right about one thing, I was right about this.

Richard

I lied to you before... About what happened that day at the carousel. I remember what she said. I remember what I said. I remember everything. It was a Thursday afternoon. We had made a pact. She would leave Thatcher, and I would leave Adele. Your mother had just received her first Harper Avery nomination. She was so excited. And I was... jealous. Not like healthy competition. A hateful, hopeless jealousy, too far ahead to catch up to. Her success illuminated everything I hadn't yet accomplished. The night before, as I worked up the nerve to tell Adele, I thought of your mother. I thought of what she could do at such a young age. I thought of what she would do. And I thought: "I will spend my life feeling like this, my entire life." So I ruined it.

Webber

[to Bailey]You want someone to run a four-minute mile, you don't chase them. You don't give them something to run from. You give them someone to run to.

Webber

Was this a mistake, or was it hubris? Did he do his job, or did he overstep? Bailey, I know it's hard being his wife and his boss, but you're the Chief now. This is your call. It's your job. Do your job.

Webber

[voice over] Most people believe that who they are today is pretty much who they will still be in the future. Our minds trick us into thinking our entire history, every choice, every change and chance, has led to this specific moment what we call "Now".

Webber

Leave me alone. I've been sitting home for a week, watching Oprah give away things on TV. Oprah, Derek! You clear me now or I'll hurt you.

Derek

If you want me to clear you so soon maybe you should've thought of that before you gave chief to Burke and invited Satan to Seattle.

Webber

Satan?

Addison

Good morning. Richard, like the hat.

Derek

Satan speaks.

Addison

Actually I prefer to be called ruler of all that is evil. [Richard laughs] But I will answer to Satan.

Bailey

I'm pregnant, you blind moron.

Webber

You're what?

Bailey

My heart rate is 110, I'm burning three thousand calories a day, my legs are swollen, I got indigestion and gas. Did you know that carrying a boy in your uterus means you burn ten percent more calories than if you had a girl? Guess what I'm carrying. I tried for seven damn years and a month before my fellowship notifications the stick turns blue. Men... from the very beginning they just suck the life right out of you. I'm not leaving. I'm pregnant.

Webber

We need an additional 40 nurses to relieve the overtime that they're striking about. That's 2 million dollars a year we don't have.

Derek

Have you checked under the couch? I always find spare change under the cushions.

Bailey

What are you people doing out here?

Webber

Are you alright? Can I get you anything?

Bailey

A boy the size of a 10 lb. bowling ball is working its way out of my body. Can you get me something for that? Can you get me a new vagina?

Webber

Uh, well.

Bailey

I didn't think so.

Webber

Punching out people on my surgical floor! My head of neurosurgery punching out people on my surgical floor!

Addison

Put the ice pack on your hand.

Derek

My hand is fine!

Webber

Put the damn ice on your two million dollar a year hand! Now, would someone tell me what the hell happened?

Addison

That was Mark.

Webber

Who's Mark?

Addison

He and Derek used to work together back in New York. And, um, they, we, were all close friends. Until Derek found us in bed together.

Webber

Did you put your weight behind it?

Derek

Yes sir.

Webber

Well, all right then.

Addison

I know what you're going to say Richard, but if you knew the day that I had.

Webber

Everybody in this hospital has those days, Addison and no one makes a scene in front of their peers. Get it together. Addison...

Addison

I can't compete. He's not having an affair. He's not trying to hurt me. He's just...huh. [laughs] The only people who don't know that Derek loves Meredith are Derek and Meredith. How do I compete with that?

Meredith

Human beings need a lot of things to feel alive.

George

Family...

Cristina

Love...

Izzie

Sex.

Derek

But we only need one thing...

Burke

To actually be alive.

Cristina

We need a beating heart.

Addison

When our heart is threatened...

Alex

We respond in one of two ways.

George

We either run...

Derek

Or...

Izzie

We attack.

Webber

There's a scientific term for this:

Alex

Fight...

Addison

Or flight.

Bailey

It's instinct...

Meredith

We can't control it.

Izzie

Or can we?

Webber

[one on one meeting with Cristina] I know your type. You're a surgical junkie.

Cristina

Yes, sir.

Webber

I'm just saying, it's not going to be easy for you to be away from the OR that long.

Cristina

No, sir.

Webber

And if you want to get back to the OR, you're gonna tell me what I need to know, aren't you?

Cristina

You're right, it's not easy for me to be away from the OR. And it's not easy for me to sit in front of you, or any other authority figure for that matter, and not be able to give you the exact answer you want to hear. I'm the one with the answers. I've always been the one with the answers. But right now sir, I don't have any.

Webber

Dr. Yang.

Cristina

How do you keep your edge sir? Because I've watch you and you've been doing this a long time and you're clean, you're focused, you are the job, nothing gets to you. And the thing is sir, I was like that, until I got here. Until I actually started doing this job and now everything is, is fuzzy...

Webber

That's beside the point.

Cristina

No see sir, this is the point. Because I can't tell you what happened in that room, I can't tell you. And before I could have, no guilt, no loyalties, no problem. Before, before I wouldn't have even been in that room. I wouldn't have gotten involved. I would have never frozen in surgery. And I would have told him what I thought he should do. I had an edge, sir. I had an edge and I've lost it, and I need it. I need it back. [tearing up] So, if you could just tell me, how you keep yours and how not to be affected, I know I could be a great surgeon. So if you could just give me the answers, I would really appreciate it.

Webber

You're excused Dr. Yang.

Cristina

But...

Webber

You're excused.

Cristina

I'll tell you, I'll tell you who cut the LVAD wires, sir, if you'll please...

Webber

No you won't, I don't want to know. Not from you. Yeah, I have the answers, but I can't tell them to you. I'm not going to be responsible for you becoming less human.

Bailey

You didn't think of maybe telling me this morning that you were planning to step down instead of sending me on this wild goose chase?

Webber

Dr. Bailey. You need those clowns to sign off on your proposal because one of them may be Chief of Surgery in a month. It's hard to imagine, for me more than anyone, but since you're not ready for the job, one of them's gonna have to do it for the next few years.

Bailey

Me?

Webber

It's you in the chair eventually. That's who you are. But you're gonna have to get a new chair because you're short. You have short legs. But someday you are going to be Chief of Surgery. I wasn't sending you on a wild goose chase. I was trying to get you in a habit of doing things without me.