Law & Order: Special Victims Unit quotes

Benson

[about Haley] Okay, look, she is 16 years old. Best-case scenario is, she met a guy and she lost track of time. Worst case... let's not go there.

Benson

I can assure you that we are doing everything in our power.

Not good enough. I... I want you to promise us that you'll find her.

We wanna be realistic. We ask you to hope for the best, but prepare...

No, I'm not preparing for anything, all right? Haley needs me. She needs me to keep believing that she's alive. I'm the one keeping her alive. The only one.

I love her. How is that wrong?

Fin

She's 16, dude.

She has an old soul.

Fin

Tell that to the judge.

Yeah, tell it to her old man, too.

Chris could never understand.

Because most people don't understand child rape.

You don't have to be so crude.

What would you call it?

Fugue for two voices. A soprano and a tenor fitting together perfectly.

Fin

That line actually works?

James is my real father. It makes perfect sense.

Benson

What?

I've always felt this connection. We both love music and art. We're alike. I played the Hammerklavier when I was 12. I knew my father couldn't be a garbage man. I just knew it.

[about a victim who's a prostitute] I've been here, what, seven years? I still don't get it.

Sonny

World's oldest profession, my friend.

I understand why there are hookers, Carisi. I just don't get why we give a damn. They... they know the risks.

Sonny

Maybe they don't have a choice.

Everybody's got a choice. Besides, there are plenty of women out there who need our help, and more importantly, want it.

I get paid to pretend I enjoy my work. You get paid to pretend you think yours is important.

You know, every morning, I get up, look myself in the mirror. You know what I see? Not a damn thing. I'm invisible. Nothing, but after you people started with me, when I looked in the mirror, I began to see a piece of someone looking back at me. You know, it felt good. But now, after being humiliated like that in court, that little piece of pride, or self-worth, or whatever it is you gave me is gone, and it's never coming back.

So you're saying you were once a woman?

No. I was always a man.

But your birth certificate says "female". Am I right?

Objection. Relevance.

I'm just trying to establish that Sergeant Preston has been less than honest.

Your Honor?

My point is how can we trust a single word this witness says because he's been lying to the Army for years!

Actually, it's in my medical forms, sir.

Yeah, but your friends, your foxhole buddies, they don't know the real you, do they?

I am the real me. My gender identity isn't relevant to what I do. Just as whatever's in your pants isn't relevant to what you do.

I almost dyed my hair purple in college.

Sonny

Oh, yeah? What were you gonna do? Audition to be the sixth member of the Spice Girls?

I would be an excellent backup vocalist.

Betty Bluestone. It was a case I had about five years ago. Her husband, Mitch, used her face like a leg of lamb in a "Rocky" movie. I filed charges, and Betty fell apart on the stand.

Benson

Case dismissed?

So the happy couple goes home, and he blows her brains out on the bathroom tile. I did my job, and in the end, all I did for Betty was delay the inevitable.

Benson

So you decided to take matters into your own hands.

So I started volunteering at a women's shelter, and it grew from there.

Sonny

How many women have you disappeared?

Hundreds. It's not just me. You wouldn't believe how deep and far this network goes.

Benson

Alex, this is cruel. These women, their... their families, their friends think that they've been murdered.

No, no, every case is different. In Jules' case, death was the only way Nick Hunter was ever gonna let her leave.

It is a fiction, Olivia. This entire tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth is a load of crap that we tell people so that they think the criminal justice system gives a damn about them. Who did what, who did what to whom.

Benson

What happened to you?

I opened my eyes. I opened them wide, and I saw that for twelve years, I was a cog in a holier-than-thou wheel, and the wheel just keeps spinning and tossing off bodies as it goes. Some remain standing, some fall. Nobody cares. Nobody gives a damn as long as the wheel keeps turning.

Benson

And we keep going. It's what we do.

Any luck connecting Nick Hunter to the accident?

Benson

At the time of the collision, uh, Nick Hunter was at a cafe on the Upper West Side with a co-worker.

His next mistress.

Benson

Yeah. It's all on the restaurant video, so we're checking phone records, e-mails, financials, but I'm not hopeful. This guy might actually get away with it.

And receive a lovely parting gift of $50 million. Well, the good news, the civil courts aren't what you'd call quick, and the city's attorneys know how to delay. Still sucks. I know.

Benson

Every second that this guy's not in prison...

Yeah, well, tomorrow, you and I will get up, brush our teeth, comb our hair, and go after another bad guy.

Benson

Makes you want to oversleep.

[about Esther] I can tell she's smart by the biblical connections she's making.

Benson

But it's like it was drilled into her.

Oh, yeah, this goes way past the Sunday school indoctrination my mom made me sit through. This is a form of control. It's a way to discourage analytical thinking.

Benson

Or a place to turn if she's lost or in pain.

Or scare you into thinking you're gonna burn in hell if you- you wear a skirt above your knee. I mean, somebody's doing this to keep her in line and she's still protecting them.

Fin

You're takin' this kinda personal, Amanda.

If I don't, then what am I doing here?

Benson

I know that this is hard.

Hard? Just imagine how hard those kids' lives were. And then to have to sit there and listen to that... that zealot use God to justify it!

Benson

I get it, Amanda, but I need you to get your head on straight.

Okay.

Benson

Okay?

I'm fine.

Benson

Do you think you can do that?

Yes.

Benson

Because when this case is finally over...

It is over.

Benson

I wish that were true. Preliminary ballistics came back on the siege of the Labott house.

That was fast.

Benson

You fired the bullet that killed Esther Labott. [horrified, Rollins starts crying] You know the drill. You'll talk to the preliminary investigators, you'll talk to IAB. And I'm confident you'll be back on the job in a few days. [Rollins keeps crying, inconsolable] I'm sorry.