Mickey Gavin quotes from Rescue Me

Mickey

I used to hear voices the first two months I was sober. Sometimes I thought, you know, it was like God; sometimes it was Satan.

Tommy

Two months?

Mickey

Yep. God was tellin' me I was a worthless piece of shit, Satan's tellin' me I'm God's gift.

Tommy

What did God sound like?

Mickey

Tom Hanks.

Tommy

Figures.

Mickey

Satan was a doubleheader: one minute, he's like Jack Nicholson; the next, you know, like Hillary.

Mickey

[on the phone] So, I saw the baby fire in the news.

Tommy

Jesus Christ. The baby fire? They're still callin' it the baby fire, I guess. You know, why don't they call it the '16 appliances plugged into one wall socket fire', how about that, huh?

Mickey

Yeah, I know, Tom. I'm just sayin' what they're sayin.

Tommy

Or how about 'God doesn't really give a shit about poor black kid's fire', how about that name, huh? It's unbelievible to me, it really is. What was God thinkin' here, Mick? What do you think? What did he have in mind?

Mickey

We don't know. Maybe he was showin' his mercy, maybe he was savin' these kids from a fate far worse down the line somewhere. Either way, it's out of our hands.

Tommy

Well, lemme tell 'ya somethin', okay? We carried those goddamn kids out in our goddamn hands because their moron parents plugged in faulty space heaters because they were tryin' to keep warm, 'cause their shit-ass landlords were too cheap to keep the goddamn heat on. God had nothin' to do with it, okay? God doesn't even venture into the equation, okay? But according to your theory, I guess God had Connor run over by a drunk driver, why? So he can spare him the fate, of maybe having cancer of the ass when he was 42 years old? Is that what's goin' on, Mick?

Mickey

Or maybe because of his DNA he becomes a raging alcoholic and gets behind the wheel with a load on and runs over somebody else's innocent kid 15 years from now. Maybe that's what's happenin'. Did you ever think of that, huh? Tom? ... Tom?

Tommy

Yeah. Nobody knows nothin', Mick. Not until it happens.

Mickey

You're wrong. Everything happens for a reason.

Mickey

[seeing the destruction in the apartment] Holy shit. What is this?

Tommy

Janet and I got into a little bit of a thing.

Mickey

You were drinkin', or...?

Tommy

No, no. Jesus, no.

Mickey

Listen, I know your marriage is kinda goin' south but...

Tommy

No, no, no. This isn't the marriage, no, no. She-- She had... That was about the marriage. The table and the kitchen. And then, she split. And then... this fire uh.. you know, broke out in the bedroom, so you know, I tried to go in the main door and that was uh... I couldn't get in there. [motions to the hole in the wall and door] So, I tried going through here, to put it out, but as it turns out once I got through the wall, there... there was no fire.

Mickey

Time for a meetin'.

Tommy

Yeah. Lemme... Lemme just put the axe away.

Mickey

We just want you to know, that everybody is in this room because we love you. And feel like you're slippin' away. And so, you know, if you just take a moment, we've all written down some things and we'd like you to just listen with an open mind... to--

Maggie

Wait, is this like one of those intervention thingys?

Mickey

Yeah.

Maggie

I'll do it.

Tommy

You'll do it?

Maggie

Yeah. I'm tired of this shit. Waking up god knows, with god knows who, havin' done god knows what, feelin' like an atomic bomb went off inside my skull. I'm finished. Box me up and ship me to rehab.

Mickey

Okay!

Sean

I have a stack of notebooks here, I didn't even get to say my piece.

I'm with the kid, I have grievances to air.

Maggie

Oh, blow it out your ass, old man. I am not gonna give you the satisfaction.

Teddy

So, what are you people tryin' to say?

Tommy

You gotta get off the sauce, Teddy. You gotta quit drinkin'.

Teddy

This is comin' from you? Look at this place, look at your life! Does being sober make your life any easier?

Tommy

Not really, but--

Teddy

Well, there you go.

Tommy

Hey, it's a process. It's a one day at a time type of thing. You do one day at a time, then two days, then turn days into weeks, and weeks into months, and gradually, slowly, it goes from being shitty, to being good, to eventually, being uh... great, right?

Mickey

Right, great.

So, what do you say, Teddy, you gonna get some help?

Teddy

Uh, no.

Teddy doesn't wanna go to rehab, but he does wanna get better. Mick, you still gonna take him to meetings?

Mickey

Yeah, sure.

Maggie

I mean, shit, we got enough drunks in this room, to start our own meetings.

Tommy

That's not a bad idea.

Mickey

There's no reason we can't.

Tommy

No, right?

Mickey

Sure.

I'm not a drunk. [Maggie laughs]

Tommy

Yeah, okay. We could do it Monday, Wednesday...

Except I'm not a drunk!

This from a guy who drank a bottle of brandy, and drove his car into his laundromat.

Hey, that was three years ago, and it was snowing.

Tommy

Yeah, it was the weather.

Mickey

Alright, guys, the truth of the matter is, if you don't believe in some higher power, trusting something higher than yourself, you're gonna wind up counting days. You know, believe me, I was a priest, okay? And I find more god in these rooms, even this room than I ever did working for the church, y'know? Y'know, the ability to share your sins with other sinners, that's what's gonna get you through. Even, let's say, two minutes after we walk out of this apartment Tommy goes into the kitchen and opens up a kitchen cabinet and finds a brand spankin' new bottle of Maker's Mark, if he has faith and trust, he won't drink it.

Teddy

Holy shit.

Mickey

What?

Teddy

There's a bottle of Maker's Mark in one of these cabinets? [Elle smacks him] Ow! Goddamn it!