Robert Goren quotes from Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Goren

Looks like Webster had a passenger, sat close to him. Wore a purple cashmere sweater.

Eames

Tight-fitting size 2 with a plunging neckline.

Goren

Mm. That I can't tell from this.

Eames

I can tell from the bull he was feeding his wife.

Please. You're going to disturb the children.

Goren

Are they working on that problem on the board?

Yes. This is a special math tutorial.

Goren

Really? These little kids are gonna solve that?

These are profoundly gifted children.

Eames

You'll have to forgive my partner, Dr. Leonard. He's feeling very humble right now.

Eames

I remember this. We had to take it the last year of high school.

Goren

So did we.

Eames

How did you do?

Goren

I had to go to my counselor's office and have a talk with the school shrink.

Goren

How about you?

Eames

Me? I was so well adjusted, they elected me prom queen.

Wallace

In American literature, the descent into madness is usually preceded by obsession. A consuming obsession. Example, anyone?

Wallace

Alright, I'll get you started. Moby Dick. What characterizes Ahab's obsession?

Wallace

Yes. In the back.

Goren

The dogged, unrelenting pursuit of evil.

Wallace

Interesting. Evil. I always fancied it was man's unrelenting pursuit of his own potency.

Wallace

How old were you when you first realized your mommy wasn't like all the other mommies?

Goren

Seven.

Wallace

Were you ashamed?

Goren

And frightened. It's my turn. How old were you when your father first molested you? [Wallace grows quiet] It's the only explanation for your intense hatred of men. The murders in Thailand were an attempt to correct the tragedy of your childhood. To punish your abuser. Absolving yourself of guilt by using a man to kill other men. Not that you think much of women either. Your mother, she was - what? Too scared, too drunk, too self-absorbed to protect you?

Wallace

[shaky] No. No. None of those things ever happened. None of those things are true.

Goren

That's why you can't form connections. That's why you use sex - it's an exercise in self-hatred. It's why when you came back from Thailand, you supported yourself with prostitution, didn't you, Nicole?

Wallace

[voice breaking] I am Elizabeth Hitchens, I am a professor in literature...

Goren

[pounding his fist in the table] No! No. When I met you, you wanted me to know who you truly were; how smart, how funny, how charming you are. You wanted me to know you, Nicole Wallace, a sparkling, little girl who survived horrible abuse with her wits intact.

Gary Burke is dead.

Eames

How do you know that?

PNN. Prison News Network.

Goren

That's the same place we get our news from.

Goren

That's a nice, uh, what you're wearing. I mean, where'd you get that from? From Peru? What do they call that? A serap-- s ... serape. No it's a s... s... s--

...Sweater.

The guy's a prosecutor. He knows losing a case is part of the game.

Eames

There's losing, and then there's losing to your wife.

Goren

And then there's getting your balls handed to you on a platter.

Goren

This type of calligraphy, the elongated character, the sharp brush strokes, is in the Imperial style of early Qing dynasty, 18th century. It evolved from the thin gold calligraphy developed by the Emperor Huizong.

Eames

[to Deakins] He got that off his box of Wheaties this morning.

Eames

You look familiar.

My last gig. I was the plump and happy raisin in a snack food commercial. Am I in trouble?

Eames

You tell us. You checked into a hotel under an assumed name, forged papers were delivered to your room, an associate of yours is suspected of murdering a woman.

Goren

You don't look so plump and happy now, George.

Goren

It never occurred to you that something illegal was afoot?

I'm an actor. I'm constantly broke. It was a couple of nights at the St. Francis. It sounded like fun.

Goren

Fantastic.

Goren

This has to be some kind of situation you have on your hands.

Why do you say that?

Goren

Well, you've loosened your tie, you got a drink on your desk, you got three phone lines blinking, and you're chewing the inside of your cheeks like some kind of frantic chipmunk.

Goren

Are you under a lot of stress?

Eames

The Chinese should be happy to get that back. It's the only one of its kind.

Goren

Annie Ming Littleton (the murder victim) was one of a kind.

Rodgers

Of those, I identified 14 cancer patients who statistically should be alive if they received the right dosage of chemotherapy. 9 families gave me permission to exhume the bodies.

Goren

Only 9. You must have some bedside manner.

Rodgers

There's a reason I work with dead people.

I can't help noticing, Detective, the way you pull together all these different elements. Good stuff.

Goren

It's good stuff.