Charlie Eppes quotes from Numb3rs

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt

You know that it's considered unsolvable?

Charlie Eppes

Well, certainly people who have failed to solve it think that.

Charlie Eppes

How do you forgive yourself if you're wrong?

Don Eppes

You don't. We can't be wrong.

Charlie Eppes

Larry, have a minute?

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt

Yes. Because we all have exactly the same number of minutes at all times, do we not?

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt

Let me ask one thing. When we met just now, was I coming or going in to the library?

Charlie Eppes

Larry, you were coming out.

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt

[sighs] My memory is a memory. All right. [starts back inside]

Charlie Eppes

[yells] Larry, you were coming out.

Charlie Eppes

I once had a girl in my combinatorics seminar tell me that I was disorganized and I talked too fast.

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt

That's an accurate observation, actually.

Excuse me, what are you doing?

Charlie Eppes

A simple experiment. It's a pendulum.

Sir, you and the pendulum need to leave.

Charlie Eppes

Okay ... it drew an ellipse.

Now.

You're here to talk your brother in the door, and in case you haven't realized it, I don't have time to waste.

Charlie Eppes

Look, I think you'd be better off letting him do his job, because he's actually pretty good at it.

Charlie Eppes

What do you think we should do now?

Don Eppes

The same thing when I was in school and I didn't know the answer – fake it.

Charlie Eppes

I'm sorry, but does that ever work? Just coming out and being so ... obvious?

Amita Ramanujan

Well, if it's the right guy, sure.

Alan Eppes

Is that Amita sitting in the car out front?

Charlie Eppes

Yeah. We just stopped by for a minute, so I can check this text on encryption and codebreaking.

Alan Eppes

And you left Amita waiting in the car? No ... no. This is not the way we treat people, Charlie. You bring her inside, you at least offer her something to drink. You know, like an adult.

Charlie Eppes

We just stopped by for a second.

Alan Eppes

You came in 15 minutes ago, Charlie.

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt

I'm avoiding Laurel Wilson.

Amita Ramanujan

The professor of philosophy of science?

Charlie Eppes

She's the lady you go hiking with?

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt

For years we've enjoyed this ... I don't know ... delightful wilderness-based friendship, entirely platonic. But last night, she and I just veered ... we veered off into the carnal.

Amita Ramanujan

I'm taking it didn't go well.

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt

Actually, it was incredible. It was primal. I mean, in the animal, not the numerical, sense. But what I'm saying, this was a perfect event, and, as such, untwinnable.

Amita Ramanujan

So, because the sex was great, the odds are against it ever being great again.

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt

The replication defies the laws of probability.

Amita Ramanujan

[dryly] So, why try?

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt

[missing the sarcasm] Yes, yes. That's why I'm here. I mean, it's the perfect refuge.

Charlie Eppes

What do you mean, "the perfect refuge"?

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt

Well, the math department must be the least libidinous place on campus.

Don Eppes

I want you to know I don't take for granted what you do.

Charlie Eppes

I never thought you did.

Don Eppes

What'd you do, you opened it? What is with you, man? Even when we were kids, you were always going through my stuff.

Charlie Eppes

You always had cool stuff.

Charlie Eppes

It's like the evidence proves him right and wrong at the same time.

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt

Oh yeah, the old paradox of Schrödinger's cat.

Alan Eppes

Is that that Persian that keeps hiding out in our garage?

Charlie Eppes

Uh-uh, it's an intellectual exercise.

Alan Eppes

I knew that.

Charlie Eppes

You know, I've been running some numbers from your minor league days. I wanted to see which ones were the best pitches for you to go after.

Don Eppes

Charlie, I don't like to think about it too much, all right?

Charlie Eppes

Why not? If you can analyze your performance, you can improve it, Don.

Don Eppes

Some things are about how it feels.