Tim Bayliss quotes from Homicide: Life on the Street

Bayliss

You guys think I'm a jerk, don't you? You think that I'm this naive rookie? Listen, if you wanna talk about me behind my back, that's fine. You go right ahead. But when I ask you to cop to it, please don't give me some lame story, alright?

Bayliss

[to Pembleton] Where the hell was God when this woman needed Him? Why doesn't Mr. God protect people like Katharine Goodrich or Adena Watson?

Bayliss

Do you know what it is like, Frank, to work with Lewis? The man is a demon from another dimension!

Bayliss

I love it here, I just love it here. I love it here! Criminology, that's my specialty. Tim Bayliss, Homicide...

Bayliss

Wow, death is so weird. It's like, you just squeeze the trigger and kill a person with so little effort. What's that like, to be so empty of compassion, to take a life in your hands and just pop, pop, pop? No fear of hell, no fear of lethal injection. No fear at all.

Bayliss

I'll have Nettles shipped to the Grand Jury and arrange necessary warrants. We have him on possession and stolen property. He confesses to murder. He thinks because he didn't kill anybody, he'll be on lesser charges. Which proves, once again, that crime makes you stupid.

Bayliss

I can't stop seeing her face. Adena Watson's face in the rain. Wounds on her body. She was so tiny. I try not to care, but if I do that, if I actually stop caring, then I stop being who I am. No job's worth that.

Bayliss

Don't you see, Frank? The killer beat me. He beat me. Dooley, Tucker, whoever he is, he beat me. It was my first case Frank, my first case. I hadn't even started to be a Homicide Detective yet, and he beat me. I put everything I had into that case and it wasn't enough. I let myself care about this case and if he walks out of here, it'll all have been for nothing. It's all over.

Bayliss

The law works any way we want it to.

Bayliss

You and me, Frank. We've got all the luck. A dead child. Murdered little girl. Call Pembleton or Bayliss, they've got lots of experience.

Bayliss

Well, now I've seen it all. Frank Pembleton, public defender?

Bayliss

Now, you want to call that first bullet self-defense, fine. First one's on the house. Second bullet, you want to say that that was shot in fear, that's great, that's no problem because, you know, we're going to give her a two bullet handicap. But the third shot, Frank, the one where he's down on the floor, and he's of no threat to anyone at all, Frank, come on...

Bayliss

Where do I put my hate?

Bayliss

Homicide, sweet Homicide.

Bayliss

Give me Homicide or give me death.