Law & Order: Special Victims Unit quotes

Every cop has a weakness, you just gotta know how to exploit it. They treat you like you're an imbecile; if you're not careful, you start to believe them. It's a game for them, they get off on it. They got these huge egos, that's their biggest problem. All you gotta do is let them know who's in charge. Not them, you. They used to call FBI agents “gangsters with badges”, one step away from being the worst criminals in society. Stabler's like that, big time.

Fin

Who's Stabler?

Jarhead detective.

Fin

You know Stabler?

I do, and he knows me too. He's been thinking about me for a long time. They try to hang you with your own words. Catch you in a lie. You're dead when that happens.

Fin

So what do you tell him?

The truth will set you free.

Munch

I was never much into sports. My high school basketball coach said I looked like a retarded gazelle with a spastic disorder. Mr. Daley. Real loving guy.

So, Elliot screams at him for a few hours, and what's the plan after that?

Fin

Don't know. That was the end of the plan.

Night again. Looks like you and me are going to say goodbye pretty soon. Messed with my chair, huh? Screwed with the lights. Cranked up the heat. ... did I miss anything?

Stabler

[hands him a chair foot] Here, fix the chair if you want. The food. Get you to eat or drink so you have to ask to use the john. We try to get you to need something from us - food, sleep, whatever. You didn't need anything. You are your own man. And you know what else? You're smarter. At the end of the day, that's something I'm pretty sure of. You don't know how much it pains me to have say that. And it's weird because, back then, with Dana, I thought I knew it all. It didn't matter that we couldn't find the place where you murdered her. It didn't matter that we couldn't prove how you dumped the body. I knew you were guilty. I thought that was enough, but we both know how that turned out. See, back then I thought you were a pedophile. In their own sick way, pedophiles think they love children. They build a relationship with them. They believe that they have an emotional connection to the child. You know how you get a pedophile to confess? You offer them the opportunity. Some of them just feel so guilty about it, they're dying to tell you. But that's not you, is it, Gordon? I was all wrong. Working at SVU, I've learned the difference between a pedophile and a man who rapes children. You don't care about the kids — you hate the kids. It's not about attraction or power or dominance — it's about annihilation. You defile and destroy her because she has what you'll never have: hope, trust, potential.

[smirks] Is that why I do it?

Stabler

That's part of it. The other part, the part I've been trying to get at all night, is the rage. You're very good at hiding it — it's unbelievable — but I know it's there. I can see it even when you're sitting still, like now. Gordon, you're kidding yourself if you think you're controlling it. It's controlling you. Every lie you tell to cover your inadequacies… every perceived insult you think you're getting… just feeds it.

You're lecturing me about rage? Are you kidding?

Stabler

I'm not.

What do you know about controlling anything?

Stabler

I don't murder people.

Give it time. You say you see something in me. Well, I see something in you, too. You think you control? You can't. You're controlled. By your boss, by your job, by your wife, your kids… What would you be if all those controls went away?

Stabler

[quietly] I'd be you.

Stabler

Did you think I froze? Is that why you fired first?

Benson

[sadly] I fired first 'cause you would've killed him.

Stabler

He deserves to die.

Benson

Maybe he does, but he wanted you to kill him. He wanted you to always remember that you took his life. Not because you had to, but because you were angry.

Sebastian

Here's my card, my name's Sebastian Ballentine.

Stabler

The Sebastian Ballentine?

Sebastian

You've heard of me?

Stabler

No.

I deserve an apology in writing!

Munch

You'll be receiving one in the mail in 6 to 8 weeks.

Stabler

What is it with this virgin compulsion? Afraid you're not gonna measure up to other men?

Sebastian

Oh, no, no, I'm more than adequate in bed. But the expression on a girl's face her first time is ... incomparable.

Stabler

These girls weren't having sex. They were being raped.

Sebastian

Their faces were palettes. Shock, confusion, panic, fear, and always just a soupçon of pain.

Stabler

Why did you come back? If you hadn't, you know, you might have gotten away with it.

Sebastian

I had to see what I'd set into motion. Your expressions were priceless. This place was like a beehive I'd poked with a stick. And also, I like to help.

Stabler

They're gonna try to extradite your sorry ass back to Canada. I'm gonna make sure you stay right here.

Sebastian

I believe you really mean that. I kinda grew on you, didn't I?

Stabler

Romeo and Juliet killed themselves, not their parents.

Benson

You saw how she humiliated Carrie in front of the entire squad. I don't like her.

Well, she has a right to be upset.

Benson

She's upset, because she thinks Carrie's gonna end up just like her-- Pregnant without a man.

Denise Eldridge believes a crime was committed against her daughter.

Benson

Denise Eldridge is a fruitcake.

Stabler

Well, dessert is served. [shows Denise in the squad room]

Olivia, my office! [they both enter his office] Why is Denise Eldridge screaming to One PP that you talked her daughter out of a rape kit?

Benson

Carrie didn't want it.

Now that's exactly what Simone Bryce told Carrie's mother. That's funny how a children's rights attorney just happened to show up at the ER.

My daughter's been violated. Whose side are you on?

Benson

Hers. [leaves]

Benson

You know I'm right.

Stabler

What, that Denise is a fruitcake? Yeah. But she's trying to protect her daughter.

Olivia, what are you gonna do?

Benson

I have to tell the D.A.

Hold on. You know it wasn't murder.

Benson

Why didn't you present that as evidence?

She refused to talk about it. [pauses] You remember what that was like.