Luther Season 1 quotes

From outer space.

DCDCSU Cornish

You do know the man is nitroglycerin?

With respect, sir, a comprehensive investigation under your edict cleared him of any wrongdoing.

DCDCSU Cornish

Not least because the only other witness is in a coma, measuring three on the Glasgow scale.

And Mia Dalton's in school today, and not in the ground.

DCDCSU Cornish

Rose, if you bet too heavily on Luther, then you stand or fall with him and with you goes this unit, and my credibility as its architect. Haven't you worked too hard for too long to take that big a risk on such a wild card?

I don't consider him a risk.

DCDCSU Cornish

Then what is he?

An investment.

DCDCSU Cornish

And if Henry Madsen wakes up, gives his account of what happened that night? Will Luther drag us all down? Let's hope not.

View quote →

So where's the gun? It's got to be somewhere. Everything's somewhere.

I don't know.

Say that again. That was special.

[chuckles] I don't know where the gun is.

View quote →

Are you trying to beguile me?

[chuckles] No, I wouldn't be so foolish. But I will tell you this, Alice. You can revel in your brilliance for as long as you like, but people slip up. Happens time and time again.

Well that's just faulty logic postulated on imperfect data collection. What if you only catch people who make mistakes? That would skew the figures, wouldn't it?

Yes, it would. But criminals aren't as smart as they think they are.

Oh, that must get monotonous for someone as brilliant as you.

View quote →

You'd degrade the law you serve just to protect some woman who cast you aside like offal?

[puts his wedding ring back on] In a second.

And you think I'm the monster. Love is supposed to dignify us, exalt us. How can it be love, John, if all it does is make you lonely and corrupt? [Luther turns and walks away] Answer the question! Don't turn your back on me!

View quote →

I'm coming for you.

Not if I come for you first.

View quote →

[Luther walks from the crime scene into a cluster of reporters to get to his car]

Morning, Corinne.

CDCorinne Day

Any suspects, John? Off the record. [Luther keeps walking past her without comment] You got my number.

Yeah, memorized: 666.

CDCorinne Day

Direct line.

View quote →

[answering his mobile] Stop stalking me, Alice, you're yesterday's news.

Yes, I heard about the dead policeman. I was worried about you, John.

About what, that someone else might get me?

I know how hard men like you take the death of fellow officers. Must be like losing family.

I'm not discussing cases with you.

Not even interesting ones?

This isn't interesting, all right? These are good cops, doing good jobs, being gunned on the streets like—

Like what? That's something we all do, isn't it, in the end? Judge who's worth more than whom? Hitler or Gandhi? The very young, the very old?

Though, to be fair, most of us don't do it to the extent that you do.

But it does mean the difference between us is one of degree, not category. Ask Henry Madsen.

All right, you win, okay? You're too clever for me, Alice.

Flattery to appease a malignant narcissist. That's a frivolous tactic.

View quote →

I've been wondering, why do you think he does it?

ZLZoe Luther

Why does who do what?

John, his job. It takes such a toll. Why does he put himself through it?

ZLZoe Luther

I don't see how this is relevant.

Well, it is. Right this second, you might actually be helping him. What do you think compels him to do it?

ZLZoe Luther

He believes one life is all we have, life and love. Whoever takes life steals everything.

And do you agree?

ZLZoe Luther

I don't know. I think if he'd read a different book by a different writer at just the right time in his life he'd have been a different man. He'd have been happier as a priest than—

Than what?

ZLZoe Luther

Than what he is.

View quote →

I did this because I don't like you and because I wanted to toy with John. Ah, it's a bit like pulling legs off flies.

MNMark North

Why are you here now?

Because I'm sorry.

MNMark North

No, you're not.

No, no, I'm not. I was just trying to empathise. I'm here because this has gone just far enough, and what I need you to do now is pick up that phone and withdraw the complaint.

MNMark North

And if I refuse? What if somebody actually stood up to you and refused?

Hmm, well, then, I'd have to leave… and then one night I'd have to come back.

View quote →

How do I know you're not playing a double game? One stone, multiple birds, trying to make me speak carelessly in order to entrap me.

That would be illegal. Plus I really need to catch this man.

More than you want to catch me?

At the moment, yeah. I'm running out of time.

Because if I thought you were about to lose interest in me, I'd be inconsolable.

I just need a way in, to know what it's like to be him, to not feel anything.

I feel things.

Not mercy.

Not sentiment. I can't empathise for this man's state of being any more than you can, because, disregarding a single, ah, alleged act, carried out for different, alleged, reasons, he and I might just as well be from different species.

[sigh] See, I disagree. Murder's murder.

But it isn't, is it? Not even to you. This man Burgess, he's just a naughty child showing off. You already know his flaw — his compulsion to dominate, to be in control — and you already know how to exploit that.

How?

Oh, come on. Change the state of play.

Yeah, well, I tried that with you and it failed.

Only just.

View quote →

LBLucien Burgess

It's a kink, a sex thing. Many many women fantasize about being tied up, strangled, raped, eaten.

You think so?

LBLucien Burgess

Oh, yeah. The more depraved the killer, the more women fawn on him. It's called 'hybristophilia'.

'Sexual arousal from thoughts of violence.'

LBLucien Burgess

It's his willingness to murder that attracts her. His murder becomes hers.

View quote →

Three guesses why Zoe's gentleman caller was here.

To confess he's a dick?

View quote →

RHRichard Henley

[about Lucien Burgess] I wanted to kill him. I knew it would cost me, but I didn't care. To this day, uh, the biggest regret of my life is not killing the— Any idea what it's like to feel like that?

Yes, I do. I know exactly what that feels like.

View quote →

Graham knows we're onto him, all right? And he'll try and kill as many as he can before we catch him, and if I have to terrify his wife to stop that happening, I can live with that.

Oh, thus spake John Luther, gentleman of the parish.

She knows what her husband is.

Yeah, but maybe not what he's done. There is a difference.

View quote →

Do you want to know the real tragedy about marriage?

No, thanks.